Rugby Chat

Its a controversial topic and the old forum had plenty of debate on it - quite a few clubs use loan arrangements to thieir benefit but with varying levels of success/different models.

Personally I'm in favour of it but with limitations. Using it to develop selected talented young players who arent getting game time at their parents clubs is a benefit to English rugby as a whole imo, as without an A league a lot of those players end up just stagnating and not getting gametime. Some fans think it should be banned outright bar injuries and I can't agree with that - its detrimental to youth development in this country, and nearly every other professional sport has them in some manner. Look at football - loans are widely used to develop young players throughout the football pyramid, and thats a pyramid that is predominantely professional and doesnt have the vast differences between professional -> semi-pro -> amatuer that rugby has even in its 2nd and 3rd divisions. But football does it with limitations - limit on the amount in a match day squad, limited amounts allowed in a season and they dont sign on dual registrations and buzz back and forth between their parent club and the loaning club.

In the Championship I think the club that does it best is Bedford - a strong core group of Bedford players supplemented by a handful of top talent from Saints who are with Bedford for the majority of the season. Benefits Saints, benefits Bedford, gives valuable gametime to some great young players who may go on to represent the national side at some point.

Club that probably did it worse was my own - London Scottish - when we were on a mission to give every single Quins academy player under the sun a game at some point, including guys brought in just to get gametime and never be seen again (A.White, L.Lynach, T.Green etc), and kids who'd rock up and look like it was their first ever professional game and were rabbits in the headlights. Have talked to the parent of a LS player a few times on teh touchline, he relayed how bad it was for the dressing room- play well one week, dropped for a Quins player the next. The 23 changed every week, consistency was awful - players would turn up, give a half hearted run around and then dissapear. Ultimately we were deservingly relegated. Id also argue most of hte players that turned up replicated the Quins 1st XV - aka they werent very good bar a small handful.

Overall - Id say its a good thing, but the rules should be tightened to be more like football on limiting the numbers considerably imo

Storty wrote: Fri Sep 25, 2026 7:28 pm I agree with you Dawson, a sprinkling of prem youngsters is a good balance.

Interesting point on the finances. My understanding is Nat 1 clubs pay their players. Not sure how much, a few hundred a game?

I wonder if Dings have to pay Bristol loan fees/cover some wages as if not it's another advantage as they can bulk up their squad with 6 players they don't have to pay.