Lewis Moody calls for Premiership ring-fencing in bid to bring ‘stability’ to English rugby

Leicester Tigers legend Lewis Moody believes ring-fencing the Gallagher Premiership is the way to go to prevent rugby clubs from being ruined by over-reaching beyond their means.

It was previously revealed that Premiership representatives held a meeting with the Rugby Football Union last month at Twickenham to outline proposals to axe promotion and relegation.

The league would have been expanded to 13 clubs next season as a result if the plans had gone ahead but England’s top clubs are now said to be resigned to abandoning the idea.

But Rugby World Cup winner and ex-Leicester player Moody insists ring-fencing the top flight for a defined period of time would prevent rugby from following the example set in football.

“I would love to see the Premiership ring-fenced, I think just to give stability underneath,” said Moody, speaking at a Land Rover event at Farleigh House in Bath, where three youngsters were chosen to fly to Japan and be Land Rover mascots during Rugby World Cup 2019.

“There are lots of clubs pushing, lots of big money backers coming into the Championship and National 1, which is all well and good until they pull out and those clubs descend again.

“I would like to see it ring-fenced for a defined period of time and then reopened to allow those clubs to decide what it is they want to achieve.

“Do they want to build and infrastructure that will allow them to push for Premiership status? If so then allow them all five years to get to that point.

“For those that don’t want that, just to have a better understanding of where they want to be and the amount of money they want to contribute to that situation.

“Then below it, because it all drip feeds down, in my head it just allows for some stability as otherwise you see all this money pumped in and then clubs descend when it comes out.

“It’s like many football clubs, they are spending more money than they’ve got, they end up in debt, players are changing all over the shop and no one wants to see all that.

“I would like to see some ring-fencing, I know there is a huge debate about it, but I think if it was a defined period of time then I think that would be a good thing.”

Moody’s former club Leicester currently sit tenth in the Premiership table, with only five points separating them from Newcastle Falcons at the bottom with five games to go.

But despite facing tough tests against Exeter Chiefs and Newcastle in the coming weeks, Moody is confident Leicester have enough star-power to avoid relegation from the top flight.

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“It’s just about the team delivering, going out there and putting the performance in for all those guys, which is easier said than done sadly.

“You can go out and have the best training session of your life, but for whatever reason you just can’t get it back on to the pitch and when you get into a habit of losing it gets hard to break that.

“You don’t want to have to rely on any one player but having people like Manu [Tuilagi] back in the squad will make a difference, he is like no other player in the Premiership.

“Leicester will stay up, there is no doubt in my mind about that, and I am genuinely excited for them under Murphy, I think he could do great things with that team.

“He just needs to have more time to add the players that he wants to build them again and to play as we saw when he first came in the freedom that created for them was brilliant

“It’s always a tough time when there’s three teams, four teams, five teams, six teams that could potentially end up in that drop zone.”

Moody is a Land Rover ambassador. To be in with a chance to be a Land Rover mascot at RWC2019 visit www.premiershiprugby.com/landrovercompetition