Sir Ian McGeechan and Peter Keen to lead English rugby review

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/19247750

Legendary Lions coach Sir Ian McGeechan will lead a review into how to improve English rugby union.

McGeechan will team up with former UK Sport performance director Peter Keen to assess England's long-term strategy for success.

RFU chief executive Ian Ritchie said: "Across the organisation we're continually looking at how we can do things better.

"I'm delighted we've got two outstanding individuals involved."

McGeechan is a five-time British and Irish Lions coach and also coached Wasps to Heineken Cup and Premiership titles.

Keen was head of UK Sport when Great Britain won 19 golds at the Beijing Olympics.

"This is a very positive move," Ritchie added. "[McGeechan and Keen will look at] the best performance pathways, support mechanisms and programmes which ultimately result in better England teams.

"We have one of the greatest rugby brains of modern times allied with one of the most respected performance experts Great Britain has produced and that experience of best practice at the very top of elite sport can only benefit us.

"I know they're both very excited about their involvement and I'm looking forward to working with them closely."



So what do you think will come of it?
Proposals for a global season?
Dropping the LV=cup
Better funding Championship?
Reducing/increasing the Prem?
Ring fencing the Prem?
Increased English player wellfare?
Central contracts?
Raising salary cap?
Limiting number of NEQ per team?

Kingshu wrote:So what do you think will come of it?
Proposals for a global season? Hopefully, but not that easy to do
Dropping the LV=cup Hope not, at least without the replacement of something similar. Ideally it would be a competition that filled the international window and so the more important league games aren't affected. Great tournament for blooding younger players with 1st teamers. I wish more of it was televised
Better funding Championship? If the RFU want a fully professional second tier they need to do something
Reducing/increasing the Prem? The PRL want and increase. The RFU want a reduction. Probably stay as we are
Ring fencing the Prem? Hopefully not. I'd rather introduce a 2 season 'season' where the lowest combined after two years goes down, reducing the problems with one off shocking injury season like Wasps this year. This could mean a team is relegated very early in the 2nd season of course. Maybe have is so if you finish in the top 6 in the second year you are safe from relegation. But relegation isn't really much of an issue unless a team really loses focus, it's the HEC qualification that puts pressure on teams 'not to lose'
Increased English player wellfare? The current EPS agreement already limits playing time to similar levels of the Irish (about 32 games a season I think) and they're considered wrapped in cotton wool by a lot. But there are a lot of players who are first teamers that aren't EPS players. A general limit to the number of games played in a season would be good for player welfare but teams would need bigger squads to compete, what if someone is injured and his replacement has reached quota?, salaries would have to reduce possible driving more players to Japan or France
Central contracts? Not a chance
Raising salary cap? I doubt it. Wouldn't happen any way because most of the clubs only just make it or don't even. Saints are currently under the cap for this year
Limiting number of NEQ per team? Can't really happen. The only way to do it is based on funding. The RFU are already doing that and the number of NEQ playing the premiership has been decreasing since this was implemented. Really not an issue, except for lots of NEQ players in one position. Even that isn't an issue at the moment and I'm not sure what the RFU could ever do about that

Just my views on it.