Jon Sharp fears Championship clubs are being ‘sold down the river’ by lack of RFU support and funding
Here is a statistic that, for many, still resonates down the years. When England made history by beating the All Blacks on Kiwi soil for the first time in 1973, no fewer than five of their starting XV played their club rugby for Coventry. Four of that quintet – David Duckham, Peter Rossborough, Peter Preece and Geoff Evans – were born and schooled locally. Their club, widely regarded as the strongest around, were the knockout champions of England in both 1973 and 1974.
Almost half a century later this traditionally fertile hotbed of English rugby is engaged in a very different kind of struggle. The club’s executive chairman, Jon Sharp, does not mince his words. “At the moment we’ve got a crippled league,” he says bluntly, deeply unhappy at the lack of official support – and central funding – for upwardly mobile Championship clubs. “They’re sitting back, letting us wither on the vine and saying: ‘There you go, Plan A is working.’ Are we being sold down the river? Yes, that’s the right phrase.”
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