English club to join URC?
SPOTLIGHT: An English club has put their hand up to join the United Rugby Championship in the near future.
Ealing Trailfinders are in advanced talks with the URC about joining the competition if the Welsh Rugby Union are successful in cutting a region ahead of the 2027-2028 campaign.
Ealing, who have won all 25 of their Champ Rugby games this season, have dominated English Rugby’s second tier since 2022 and are odds-on favourites to lift their fourth title in five years.
And despite not finishing outside the top two for the last decade, it is well documented that the door to the PREM has remained closed because their Vallis Way base doesn’t meet the RFU’s minimum standards criteria.
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Despite hosting the London Broncos game in Rugby League’s Super League in the not-too-distant past, the RFU said that it didn’t meet the requirements around ground capacity and assurances over safety compliance.
And even though the minimum standards were tweaked in 2024 to allow clubs to reach the required capacity of 10,000 over the course of four seasons, Ealing still haven’t been able to comply.
However, that is not a barrier as far as URC bosses are concerned.
The cost of a so-called P-share to join the PREM, estimated at between £12m (US$16.3m) and £20m (US$27.2m), is also seen as prohibitive to Ealing joining the top flight.
It is not the first time that a move to the URC has been mooted. Three years ago, they held talks about merging with the Ospreys, who, along with the Scarlets, are the two clubs most in danger of being axed at the end of next season.
Even though the merger failed to materialise, the progressive competition comprising clubs from Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Italy and South Africa has maintained an interest in expanding into London following the success of one-off games in the capital.
It was only a week ago that talk of London Irish reforming and joining either the URC or the PREM again reared its head.
Irish’s investors now include Kyle Jordan, the son of the late F1 legend Eddie, who was part of a consortium that bought the club in 2023.
While there’s a push in South Africa for the Cheetahs, who lost their place in the URC five years ago, to be reinstated, others would like to see the Georgian outfit Black Lion admitted.
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