The imminent prospect of a closed franchise Premiership is the subject de jour, although I would say that we have effectively had a version of it for a long while now, with Prem Rugby finding various spurious reasons for not allowing promotion and relegation.

Their ‘keep the beggars down’ mentality has done them no credit.
Especially as a good proportion of Prem clubs either emerged from the Championship or benefited from a lengthy period getting down and dirty with the great unwashed.
By way of a thank you, Prem Rugby, aided and abetted by the RFU, has made life impossible for the Champion...