SRU in talks to buy a stake in Newcastle Falcons

[Mellsblue]

According to The Times, the SRU are in talks with Newcastle about buying a minority stake - 20% seems to be the number.

The SRU refused to comment beyond saying that they are always looking for opportunities for its players. I didn’t realise this but it seems that they have a stake in Stade Nicois in the French third tier.

The Newcastle owner has said “What we are talking about is a marriage and we haven’t even gone on a first date yet.”

The article points out the issues facing the SRU:
15 EQP per match day squad
RFU funding of academies
RFU bribes for EPS players

And the pros for SRU investment:
Newcastle lose £2mil a year on average - £2.6mil last year
The threshold for RFU veto is 10%
Any investment oop north is worth thinking about.

[twitchy]

Give them gary graham back as a peace offering.

[Which Tyler]

This after they stiffed LScottish by puling out at the last minute; and got rejected for doing the same to Worcester (not sdure if PRL or RFU rejected them)...
Newcastle may be closer; but it'll have all the exact same problems as Worcester, and even more problems than LScottish.

[fivepointer]

I can see the attractions for both sides here.
SRU get a foothold in an English club, access to their academy and opportunity to place SQPs in the squad. Falcons already have several Scottish players in their squad.
For Newcastle they get a nice investment and option of drawing in players from a broader base.
15 EQPs still leaves 8 non EQP in a matchday squad.
This one just might have some legs.

[Digby]

In advance I don't like the idea, but maybe with more details coming out it'd look a decent enough plan. I would be concerned about where this line of thinking ends up, so I suspect I'd not like the notion even were if fleshed out somewhat.

[Raggs]

Some eqp can be sqp too.

[Rich]

If the SRU are allowed to buy a premiership team, the RFU should buy Glasgow Warriors and fill it with England Qualified academy players.