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25th October 2013
12:05pm BST

Premiership Rugby's top man, Mark McCafferty
I just don’t think the support base for rugby is at that level. Saracens, for example, have been losing money for years. It's fine when a guy comes in and pumps money in but what if he loses interest/business gets in trouble/gets divorced whatever, and then he may no longer have the resources to plug the shortfall every season and therefore be forced to pull out of the club.
If these sorts of guys get put in charge of this new competition, the one with the biggest revenue, then the fear is they may get out if the going gets tough. At least with the unions you know they are in it for the long haul. It’s safer.
When the game first went pro, I remember the likes of Richmond and Bristol throwing out big contracts and the thought back then was that it was a Premier League 2.0 sort of thing. But the crowds weren’t there to support it, and they still aren’t.
Test games do bring in big money, but the club level doesn’t, in Ireland or England. There were empty seats at Thomond Park for the Heineken cup game against Gloucester last week and if a team is not really winning, support will drop off. Leinster have a great thing going right now, packed even for Rabo games at the RDS, but the hardcore is still relatively small in the sport. The fans I call the 50/50 fans, who go because it is an occasion, or a good night out, some may in time become hardcore but the rest are generally the first to fall away if the wins dry up.
How the funds are divvied up is the big headache, but I just don’t see how the ERC can keep all parties happy at this stage.
On a happier note, Ulster’s performance in France last week has to be recognised. It was awesome. I predicted they would do it at the JOE Rugby Roadshow last week, unlike Mal O’Kelly, who gave them no chance.
It was a real statement of intent, and it wasn’t the only one either. It’s all good news coming out of there. Three-year deal for Henry, three-year deal for Marshall, three-year deal for Pienaar; these are a few of their most important players, all now fully committed to the cause.
It shows ambition, beyond this year, and they have loads of young lads just heading for their prime. For the younger players, sometimes they need a game like that Montpellier win to make them realise ‘shit, we really have something going here’.
I didn’t fancy Montpellier to win the Heineken this year but it is still a tough place to go. The key to playing well in France is to really stand up to them in the first 20 minutes. They try to bury you then and if you can survive that onslaught, you have a shot.
I don’t subscribe to the ‘you have to lose one to win one theory’ but Ulster have been close before, they have the pain of those near misses in their bones, and that helps push you on. The blend of hungry young lads with experienced senior pros, plus strength in depth means they look really well set up to do big things this season. I just hope that the same European adventures are there for Irish sides the season after next.Explore more on these topics:

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