By ADAM ELLIS
Cornish Pirates wing Alex O'Meara believes you only have tolook at Newcastle Falcons strong start to life back in the Premiership for talk of ring-fencing to be renounced.
The former England Students back awaits his sixth season with the Cornwall club that challenged Falcons and usual contenders Ealing Trailfinders in the second-tier last season, as they won 11 of their 15 matches.
But after the RFU called a halt to the campaign and subsequently cancelled the fixtures that remained, Championship clubs have been left to stew in limbo and watch as talk of ring-fencing returns to its heightened levels of speculation.
O'Meara, 27, pointed to the immediate success of Dean Richard's Newcastle, plus former teammates Kyle Moyle, Christian Judge and the dual-registered Sam Simmonds as reasons behind the Championship being integral to PRL's product.
“I love the Championship, it serves a massive purpose to English rugby,” O'Meara told TRP. “It speaks volumes for the league if you look at Newcastle's return to the Premiership. I know they were unbeaten but last year they only just scraped by in a couple of matches – they just about beat us at the Mennaye.
“If you ask people what the Championship is for it is always going to get a hundred different answers, but I believe it serves a purpose and pushes teams. Newcastle are second in the Premiership after taking the title last year.
“People will point out that they were a Premiership team beforehand but look at them now after their time playing the likes of Cornish Pirates, Bedford Blues and Doncaster. Every team that goes up seems to be taking strides in the Premiership, you can look at Bristol Bears as well.
“With the pandemic, you can see why they want to ring-fence. For players in the Championship, all we can say is that the league serves a great purpose and there is so much talent around that can make the step up. ‘Moyler' (Kyle Moyle) and Judge haven't looked out of place at Gloucester and Bath.”
As the scorer of 51 tries during his time in Penzance and a former Ireland U20s representative, O'Meara extended his contract at last season's third-place finishers but says the goal remains to play in the Premiership.
“I signed the extension during the first lockdown and I have bought a house down here now, so it has become my life,” O'Meara added.
“Moyler joined Pirates around the same time that I did. We did a lot together and I feel like we pushed each other on as a duo who play the same position. He has gone on to show exactly what he can do and all of us here know what he is capable of.
“There are no surprises to us players to see what he is doing after being at Pirates.
“You look at Christian Judge and where he is now. We see that day in, day out working to compete for promotion in this league and to play at the top level.”
