Regional rugby right for the North of England?

I think that most English rugby fans are against the concept of combining clubs into a smaller number of regional side. Having Tigers and Saints or Bath and Gloucester merge is generally not wanted or needed. However in the north of England we currently have 3 reasonably strong in the North of England, Sale (North West), Leeds (North East) and Newcastle (Far North).

Sale have been talking about becoming the club for the NW, Newcastle have always had links in the area and Cumbia and now Leeds are going to be moving three of their home games around next season.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/18105796

These clubs are already kind of acting as regional sides (in terms of academy and some of the fans). Should it become more official? Should the RFU provide some funding? (would that ever get agreed by the PRL?). Some Sale fans have indicated their displeasure at changing the name (removing the Sale). Would this work? Do the regions (as in the areas covered) want it? I know there are a few Newcastle fans on here. Currently the dual registration thing kind of works like this anyway so does anything need doing?

The falcons have huge links with with the whole region...recruiting from South Tyneside, Boro, the Scottish Borders, and Cumbria (two serious prospects at the moment mark Wilson and Robinson are from Kendal)

So in a sence we ARE a regional team...and that scope is highlighted in our strong academy results.

But i dont want to change the name. Its based in Newcastle and so its called the Newcastle Falcons...please leave it at that....

I suggested this on the no teams north of the trent post.

If the teams became regional ie the three you mentioned the RFU could set up a league system under it so that akin to Ireland where the top players in munster are feed intot he regional team.

If the PRL didn't like it the RFU could just take away 3 HC spots. Also the teams exist so if they gained promotion the PRL can't stop them coming up.

Below the championship what is the english setup

on changing the team names I think that if people feel that their club's palyers next step up is the falcons they won't care what its called. A region is how it is run not what it is called.

If Kendal knew that their top players would be in the Prem for newcastle the prem team would be them.

It's similar with Sale and Leeds. Look at their academies and the players are from all over. Sale were thinking of changing the name but fans have balked at it. Geordie, do thing anything more needs to be done or are they doing enough (Falcons in particular in your case).

I have often been to watch Sale play as do many others from North Wales.

To be honest...the problem with the falcons has been a string of poor / bad managers.

Now this has finally changed...people will see how strong the Falcons can be.

Dont forget our pulling power is strong, nice area, great city with everything you need, a great coast ten mins out, amazing northumberland twenty mins away...and a huge sporting city.

We've attracted players like Tuigamala, Gary Armtstrong, Doddie Weir, Matt Burke, Johnny Wilkinson (should loyalty), Carl Hayman...

We just needed some good management, and now we have that in place.

Brendan wrote:I suggested this on the no teams north of the trent post.

If the teams became regional ie the three you mentioned the RFU could set up a league system under it so that akin to Ireland where the top players in munster are feed intot he regional team.

If the PRL didn't like it the RFU could just take away 3 HC spots. Also the teams exist so if they gained promotion the PRL can't stop them coming up.

Below the championship what is the english setup

The league pyramid goes right down. If the Premiership is Level 1, it goes down to level 12/13 in Sussex (not sure about anywhere else).

But the top 5 levels are:

Premiership
Championship
National One
National 2 North/South
National 3 London & SE/South West/Midlands/North

And then splits further.