Rugby Union: England continue to take Courage: 7m pounds sponsorship

THE sponsors' money pouring into rugby union became a flood yesterday when Courage renewed its backing for England's club championship with a pounds 7m, four-year deal - the biggest in rugby anywhere in the world. Small wonder the game's amateur practitioners have increasingly itchy palms.

Given the profile enjoyed by football as the national sport, the deal between the Rugby Football Union and its favourite brewer compares favourably with the pounds 12m over four years the Football Association is receiving from Bass for the Premier League. Indeed, given that business remains in recession, it is an extraordinary figure.

English rugby's improving fortunes - one might say fortune - have been reflected in Courage's expanding contribution. The deal which secured the sponsorship of the league when it was inaugurated in 1987 was pounds 1.6m over three years, followed in 1990 with a three-year renewal at pounds 2.4m - both of which seemed good deals at the time.

'The commercial value of our game and the league structure has leapt forward from six years ago,' Dudley Wood, the RFU secretary, said. The union's financial expectation explains the protractedness of the talks. Courage had first refusal but, even after the time limit had been extended, initially could not settle with the RFU and in the end there were three or four other firms competing for the contract, which did not necessarily go to the highest bidder.

This time Courage will augment its pounds 7m investment with a marketing and support package amounting to pounds 3m. The deal covers all 95 divisions and 1,187 clubs in the Courage Clubs' Championship, which explains the disparity with the pounds 2.1m plus pounds 1m marketing support Heineken is investing in the Welsh league with its 48 clubs, though these too seemed enormous figures when they were revealed.

Heineken also put pounds 15,000 into the Welsh players' trust fund, but the RFU prefers to leave the players to get on with their own self-promotion and would certainly not dirty its hands in such a way.

The Courage contract does, however, give the company increased exposure and involvement at grounds and it would dearly like increased television coverage commensurate with next season's 50 per cent increase in league fixtures to accommodate home-and-away.

This is dependent on the new home unions' television contract, negotiations for which will shortly commence. 'Every sponsor is looking for enhanced TV coverage,' Mike Reynolds, Courage's public-affairs director, said.

'We would like to see some live league rugby on TV but there is no contractual requirement in our arrangement with the Rugby Union.'