For many, though, it is too little too late with the furore over Sweeney’s pay – £742,000 basic salary plus a bonus of £348,000 in a year when the RFU reported an operating loss of almost £40m – still rippling through the cash-strapped community game.
Recently the Whole Game Union, the organisation supporting around 250 dissident clubs that have forced the RFU to convene a special general meeting next month, sent out a survey asking for feedback.
The community game’s feedback for the Bills, Sweeney and Beaumont, makes for painful reading as RFU hits the road in week of Calcutta Cup.
In return the grassroots clubs keep rugby’s flame alight in places where RFU executives seldom tread.
There is rather more chance of reading stern-faced stories about Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the Glazers or Manchester City’s latest legal dispute than, say, the muddy winter joys of grassroots rugby union.
