Quote: The Eagle "No money in the game. No trickle down to the amateur game, and developing areas. These are the places that the talent pool comes from and the RFL have cut corners for years.
Compare with football or even ru and how the game is run at grass roots is miles away'"
Our club (RU) received an RFU grant to build a 4G pitch and new floodlights over the summer. It's fantastic. The president of the RFU came down on Sunday for the official opening.
This is a club in SW 1 (tier 6). It's a place you want to go and play and train. The RFU has really gotten its act together in the last 10-15 years in supporting junior clubs. And they are right to do so. Two of the junior clubs I played for produced players in England's starting 15 in the world cup final. The structure and rules of the junior game have also changed in the last few years to bring kids along and develop at a pace that doesn't miss out on kids who don't grow as fast as others. It's also designed to keep people in the game full stop. Players are what junior clubs need, at all levels.
But it's not always been easy, there used to be very little money in Union at the lower levels (and still it's not exactly flooded with money). Our club relies on volunteers, club membership subscriptions and local sponsors. Pretty much everyone does a job for free.