Seriously that how the new format works then?

Well, except that responsibility for upkeep is actually still [iour[/i responsibility, so they won't need to pull any fast ones to escape the rap for that one!

At my most cynical I would say its their nuclear bomb solution to micromanaging clubs. On the other hand a well run and funded club with an academy that produces SL quality players should not have a problem getting promoted.

I guess that's a qualified maybe, but like education in all walks of life, the academies in RL work on the same GIGO principle that applies everywhere. Oxbridge may well be famed for the quality of its graduates but it has the highest quality intake to form them from, and whilst we're still to find out how relegation affects the quality of young rugby players entering the academy, I think we can be pretty certain it won't be improved. Nor will being in Div 2 help in securing the the best players from our academy into contracts at the Bulls when they reach 19.

I won't say it's impossible, but for all the reasons gone into previously, it will be damned hard and, after the initial season, when hopefully we'll still have quite few SL hardened players on board, it will become more and more unlikely, imo.