After the Rugby Football Union revealed this month that it was open to the possibility of ring-fencing the Premiership, the London Irish director of rugby, Nick Kennedy, has called for promotion and relegation to be scrapped, claiming it would be to England’s long-term benefit.

Irish are bottom of the Premiership and face a do-or-die trip to the 11th-placed Worcester, who are six points above them, on Friday night. Kennedy’s side have won once in their past 14 matches and have lost all nine in a row in the league since the opening day of the season.

Considering defeat by Worcester would leave Irish staring into the abyss, Kennedy’s views are perhaps unsurprising, but he also believes ring-fencing would accelerate the development of young English players. Irish won the under-18 academy title two seasons ago but, whereas in the past homegrown players such as Jonathan Joseph, Marland Yarde, Delon Armitage and Alex Corbisiero have gone on to win senior international honours while still at the club, the more recent crop have not been in a position to make similar strides.

Furthermore, all eight of Irish’s starting pack against Worcester are the wrong side of 30 but, asked if players such as Theo Brophy Clews, 20, or the 21-year-old Johnny Williams – both of whom have represented England Under-20s – would be further along in their development without the spectre of relegation, Kennedy was unequivocal.

“Yes. I think all Premiership clubs would give more EQP [England qualified players] a chance,” he said. “You can afford to take more risks and sometimes playing 18-year-olds is a risk. I played a couple last week against Stade [Français]. They were doing A-levels six months ago and they were outstanding. But at that age they are going to make more mistakes than their seasoned pros. That’s the nature of the beast.

“Four years ago, I did BT Sport up at Northampton and it is on video me saying that I like relegation. I can’t hide behind that because someone will dig that out. However, since my job has changed, I don’t like it and I would like ring-fencing to come in, I would like to play more youngsters and I would like to play a more exciting brand of rugby. I know Premiership Rugby are talking to all [the clubs] and the owners are probably more important than the directors of rugby.”

Ring-fencing the top flight, potentially with Bristol added to make 13 teams, is a proposal under discussion in recent months, and while entry to the Premiership is unlikely to be cut off completely it would be for a few seasons at a time to allow teams such as London Irish the opportunity to readjust.

The prospect has not gone down well with Championship clubs who have promotion aspirations. At present the team relegated from the Premiership is at a huge advantage to bounce straight back but, according to Kennedy, ill-prepared when they do so. “We enjoyed our season in the Championship. It allowed us to rebuild,” he said. “But as you can see from our first run of results it has not prepared us for the Premiership.”

In their last Premiership game, Irish were heavily beaten at Gloucester after David Paice’s red card on the stroke of half-time, but before that they collected losing bonus points against Bath and Wasps. Injuries have been a common theme across the board this season but Kennedy has been among the most unfortunateon Friday – to an ankle injury on Wednesday.

“A lot of Premiership clubs have had injuries, we’ve had 19 at one stage, but we’ve had really big ones.” he said. “Everyone sees the league table and we don’t have any players who bury their heads in the sand, they are passionate, caring players who will do everything they can to try and make the club climb the league. Everyone knows the score, it’s a case of this week making sure we nail our detail.”