THE FUTURE of Malvern RFC could be ‘severely affected’ following England’s disastrous Rugby World Cup campaign, fears the club’s president.
David Robins said the club is likely to lose hundreds of pounds in bar takings after England missed out on reaching the finale stages.
The club fear less than half of the number fans expected will turn up at its Spring Lane ground to watch its big screen games over the next two weekends.
Robins also expressed concerns over the future of the grassroots game after the hosts were dumped out of the sport’s biggest competition earlier this month.
Former head coach Robins, who has been the club’s honorary president for more than five years, said England not participating in the final stages of the tournament will have a knock-on affect on clubs such as Malvern.
He has called on the Rugby Football Union (RFU) bosses to support the grassroots game by giving it significant investment.
“The first affect it will have on local clubs like us is our revenue stream will be severely affected,” he said.
“Without England in the knockout stages, there won’t be so much interest in attending the big screen showings of games at the club, which has an immediate detrimental effect on our bar takings.
“We would normally expect over 150 people, and we will now be lucky to get half that number.
“The RFU has ceased to put meaningful sums into the grass roots game, preferring instead to pour it into the elite end. Having failed to make an impact at their own World Cup, I can see them diverting even more over the next four years at the expense of the lower levels of the game.
“Also the loss of an expected legacy from an England success will do nothing to redress the steady loss of players over several years that has been experienced by rugby clubs throughout the nation.
“Consequently, the millions of pounds the RFU has pumped into the professional game will no doubt continue once again to the detriment of the grassroots clubs.”
However, the RFU said they would continue to provide ‘significant investment’ into the grassroots game and there are no plans to change that.
A spokesman added: “Grassroots investment has grown continuously in the last four years, increasing by 50 per cent overall and will continue to grow further as we deliver our ambition of investing over £1.3billion across the game by 2016/17.”
