Interesting thread and one I think everyone probably has a view on! In my opinion you're never going to have full participation in cups again, barring a miracle influx of players, not like the 'old' days anyway. Most leagues these days can't have a full season without a walkover never mind in the cups. Unfortunately rugby union in this country has been driven straight towards a cliff edge by the brilliant minds at the RFU for too long, we're now seeing the effects.
- The younger generation have far more opportunities and options to do other things on a weekend rather than sports, which evidently they do.
- Rugby also has to compete with all the other big sports along with the endless extra activities people do on weekends now.
- Younger generation have much less money compared to previous generations and in turn aren't willing to/or can't afford to sacrifice losing their jobs/being off sick with an injury, not to mention committing to that for a full season.
- RFU most importantly with their heads in the sand thinking every thing will be fine.
- How many premiership clubs have gone bust in the past 5 years? If they can't run the top league which they spend most of their attention and money on, how on earth can they develop the lower leagues? Spoiler; they can't.
- The one that I really think has affected Union though is the game itself and how it's changed from a free flowing spectacle to a stop start snooze fest from the lowest division games to professional games on TV. You may as well be going to watch a referee performing with a side order of rugby due to the purely ridiculous amount of laws, interpretations and rules that are put on to the ref to enforce (DO NOT ENVY THEM). I watched a game of union the other day where the ball hardly moved from the same spot for 20 minutes, when all is said and done the game just isn't as entertaining anymore for a lot of prospective viewers/fans. Why would anyone who is just passing or potentially interested want to watch a game that stops and starts every 2 minutes?!
Long and short of it, enjoy whatever rugby you can while it's available and what will be will be, there's no sign of society changing any time soon and certainly no sign of the RFU getting any better at their jobs.