What next for London Welsh ?

After another humiliating defeat by London Irish on Saturday meaning almost certain relegation,and with a a shake up of the Premiership looming on the horizon, where does that leave London Welsh ?

With the season all but over barring a miracle of biblical proportions, where will London Welsh find themselves within the hierarchy of professional rugby?

After recent announcements in the press regarding an expansion of the Premier League followed by a possible locking of the relegation trap door, where will London Welsh find themselves in the next couple of years ?

With regards to the expanded ring fenced Premiership I don't think it's any secret as to who PRL and the RFU want in their expanded cartel and whilst Bristol and Worcester may on paper have the credentials on and off the pitch, just how are they going to justify the parchuting in of a team such as Yorkshire Carnegie, who this season have even fallen so short in the Championship. Whilst it could also be said that even Bristol and Worcester have yet to prove themselves capable of escaping the clutches of that league, despite all three of those clubs still benfitting from PRL funding in excess of that awarded to London Welsh.

By their own admission Yorkshire Carnegie have been coached by The RFU in regards to their planned endeavours to return to the top flight and sitting on a £5m nest egg from the sale of their P shares to Exeter , will they be further coached on how best to spend that money, to fullfil whatever criterea PRL and the RFU lay down as condition to entry to the revised top flight.

Many will say that London Welsh are just moaning due to their lack of success on the pitch this season, but what many fail to realise is that in the background the club have themselves advocated an expanded Premier League with an automatic promotion from The Championship, on merit, and the scrapping of the play-offs, but more importantly a better funded championship and a level playing field for the promoted side, once promoted.

Unfortunately London Welsh don't conform to the PRL and the RFU's vision of a top flight professional rugby club, who appear to have lost sight of the right of a club to create it's own identity and run itself how it sees fit, rather than being assimilated into the single organism they would like the Premier League to be, whereby a group of clones all work together for the benefit of the host.

They use the rational that a better Premier League will contribute to a better team England and whilst there is nothing wrong with that on a basic level this aim is not bourne out of the vanity for the qudos of being the best, but driven by commercial interests and the desire for greater revenue. It appears that they have long since lost sight of the fact that rugby is a competitive sport based upon the field of play and that greater reward should be given for that success, rather than who turns up in the best fancy dress.

It begs the question as to how many other clubs just took their unfair criteria as gospel, until London Welsh came along and challenged them, and based upon that just rolled over and gave up on their ambition.

Many are of the opinion that London Welsh should also just do that and put up with their lot, but we have on board some who are more shrewd than that and who haven't shied away from challenging the establishment, and if the recent press is anything to go by there appears to be a growning number of supporters to this way of thinking.

However the question remains, will PRL and the RFU just use the renewal of their agreement as a way of restructuring their criteria in a much safer legal manner, thus sidestepping the issues brought up by London Welsh and in effect locking them out.

How do you think these proposals will affect rugby as a whole, but more importantly London Welsh as a club ?