Guiness Premiership / Ralph Ellis / 17 December 2008 / Leave a comment

Ralph Ellis looks how the rugby Premiership never really lived up to it's footballing cousin in terms of glamour and money and how Bristol are a good case study for the financial problems are now rife in top tier English rugby.

When they decided to name Rugby's top club competition the "Premiership" they probably made a mistake. The idea was to jump on football's bandwagon and give what was then the newly professionalised sport an instant shot of glamour. Unfortunately all they seemed to achieve was to convince club owners that the new full time players ought to be paid the same as top level footballers.

That's why ever since Rugby Union turned pro there's been a succession of top clubs who have gone through financial hoops, and none more than Bristol. They lost ownership of their stadium to Bristol Rovers through going bust once, dropped out of the top flight by nearly going bust again, and are now on the road to repeating the trick a third time. This morning's Daily Mirror confirms a story that's been going the rounds for some time that Richard Hill's team are not guaranteed to complete their fixtures.

England legend Mark Regan is leading a local campaign to find up to £2million in new investment with a very real threat of a 15 point deduction for going into administration. He's promising: "We understand we are in a dogfight but we're Bristol, we're known as fighters."

Their problem is that fight will need to include shedding some players. One of their biggest stars Andrew Blowers announced last night he's moving back to New Zealand five months earlier than planned, and although the club insist that's for personal rather than financial reasons there's no doubt a lack of cash would not have encouraged him to stay.

Amazingly you can still get [1.67] for Bristol to finish rock bottom of the Guinness Premiership which looks a very sound investment. They may be only three points behind Newcastle ([2.34]) at the moment but the financial chill will make the second half of their season increasingly tough.

Mind you money issues are dominating the whole of the sport. The very nature of Rugby means clubs need to carry huge squads and on crowds which are often not much above football's League One levels, they are still paying salaries that belong in the bottom half of the Barclays Premier League. Reality has to happen at some time.

The process is starting - that's why Danny Cipriani is learning today that London Wasps aren't willing to meet his demands for £350,000 a year for a new contract. The embryo England superstar is one of nine players who are out of contract at the end of this season and according to the Mail's excellent Peter Jackson they have been given "take it or leave it" offers for new deals which they must make a decision on today. New chairman Steve Hayes has decided to get tough.

That might be wise stewardship in the long term for a club that shares Wycombe's stadium, but it won't help harmony in the short term. A side still missing Lawrence Dallaglio's influence on the field are going to find themselves in all sorts of backroom rows. It's why they are now as long as [11.0] to repeat last season's Grand Final win, with Leicester [4.2], Gloucester [5.0] and Bath [5.6] considered more realistic contenders.

Currently second placed, professionally run Gloucester are [3.4] favourites to be regular season winners again - but don't discount the value in Harlequins who are just three points behind but [11.0] in the betting and growing by the day both on and off the pitch. They expect a crowd of 50,000 when they play Leicester on December 27. Now that does give them the right to pay proper salaries - and in the long term money always talks.

Five things you might not know about Bristol Rugby

1.Formed in 1888 from a merger of two parks teams, the first matches were played at Gloucestershire's county cricket ground.

2.Their first ever match was against Cardiff - who also supplied the opposition for the inaugural game at current home The Memorial Stadium in 1921

3.Their best ever season was in 1972 when they scored more than 1,000 points

4.Bristol Rovers, who had lost their Eastville stadium, moved into the Memorial Ground as tenants in 1996 - but two years later when the rugby club went bust a clause in the tenancy agreement allowed them to buy the stadium for just £10,000

5.David Prowse, the actor who played Darth Vadar in Star Wars, is their most famous celebrity supporter. May the force be with them now!