Great to see Tigers on world stage – but not at expense of Premiership
LEICESTER Tigers can be proud of their representation in the Southern Hemisphere’s international tournament, the Rugby Championship.
Julian Montoya captains the Argentinians and is joined by club colleague Matias Moroni in the Pumas camp, with both likely to start all the games for which they are available.
Meanwhile, world champions South Africa have Tigers’ new signing Marco van Staden and one of the stars of last season, Jasper Wiese, in their squad.
Worryingly for Tigers, van Staden was injured in the last moments of their opening 32-12 victory over Argentina, hopefully not seriously.
Meanwhile, Wiese was by some distance the player of the match – not a bad advert for the Tigers’ coaching and fitness work.
The club took Wiese on as a player from South African rugby when he was probably at best a fringe Springbok candidate.
However, there are downsides. The Rugby Championship, at the moment, is scheduled to finish on October 2 which takes us deep into the Premiership season. Making the unreasonable assumption that the players will be immediately available on their return that means the London Irish away fixture on Saturday, October 9 would be their first match back after missing three Premiership rounds against Exeter, Gloucester and Saracens.
Of course, the assumption of such a rapid return is utterly unrealistic and unfair on the players who will need to decompress after intense international action, as well as the need to reintegrate into the club sides’ style and calls.
More likely, therefore, would be a return against Northampton at
Franklin’s Gardens on October 30.
Missing in all six fixtures would be a quarter of the Premiership season.
No one doubts the value and quality of these signings, but it does provide a problem for Steve Borthwick to solve in terms of squad management and making sure he has appropriate cover for planned absences – and that’s not even starting on the unexpected injuries that occur, and may be more likely in the international arena.
Meanwhile, the New Zealand and Australian approach to Covid-19 adds a wild card factor.
With Championship fixtures scheduled for both countries, the cautious (although undeniably successful) approach to the pandemic means that instant lockdowns and suspension of travel corridors is more likely than not.
What impact that will have on the fixtures remains to be seen.
Hopefully common sense will prevail and cancellations, rather than postponements will be the order of the day.
No one wants to deny players international recognition, but the Championship dragging on further into the English season would have a serious impact on the club game.