Premiership’s new season start pushed to December
Premiership Rugby’s decision to return to play on Aug 15 with a view to completing its season means that it is inevitable that the start of the 2020-21 season will not be before December and possibly not until the new year.
The Daily Telegraph understands several clubs in both the Premiership and Championship are making plans accordingly, with a much delayed start date for next season in mind.
By default, as a result of Covid-19 disruption, the game will replicate what might happen in future years as and when there is agreement on a new global season, which would mean professional rugby in the northern hemisphere being played in the summer months. The knock-on effect in the short term means that the 2021 Premiership final is unlikely to take place before July with a concomitant impact on the Lions tour to South Africa.
Discussions are ongoing as to whether that eight-match trip might yet be pushed back to the autumn international window of October-november. What is an emergency template for the calendar could become the norm. The 2020-21 campaign is set to be a forerunner.
There are many caveats to Premiership Rugby’s green-light statement, notably any spike in the infection rates that could invoke further restrictions.
“It is great news we are aiming to get back, but there are still a huge amount of challenges facing us all, primarily the safety of all our staff, as well of our supporters,” said Peter Tom, the Leicester Tigers chairman. “We would hope at some point to be able to open the gates at Welford Road and we are confident we could host a crowd of 10,000-11,000 and be able to apply appropriate social distancing measures.”
Leicester, with Steve Borthwick now at the helm, report back for training on June 15, as do Northampton and Bath. Harlequins, Exeter and Wasps begin next week while Saracens are looking to reintegrate their players through individual programmes.
The Championship was mothballed once the country was in lockdown, with Newcastle promoted and Saracens relegated by dint of their points’ deduction for salary cap breaches.
The decision to defer the start of the 2020-21 Championship until the turn of the year means there is no competition clash for Saracens, who are also through to the knockout stages of the Champions Cup. European Professional Club Rugby has been strident in ensuring that the integrity of its tournament is protected. The quarter-finals have been earmarked for Sept 12-13, with Exeter Chiefs due to take on Northampton and Saracens to travel to Dublin to play Leinster.
Any quibbles over the fact that Saracens might have been a Championship club by that date and therefore technically ineligible have been assuaged by the decision to complete the season.
The fixture list for rescheduled Premiership games has yet to be finalised.
Rugby union is not a summer sport. Never has been and nor should it ever become so, even though the Rugby Football Union has indicated that such a switch “can work” as part of a radical overhaul of the global calendar.
Rugby league, by contrast, has been a summer sport since 1996 and my view is that the 13-a-side code does not have the same profile or presence it used to have when Wigan were in their pomp and the Kangaroos were even given the occasional beating by the Poms.
League had no option but to take Rupert Murdoch’s Sky Sports shilling and switch seasons. It was either that or wither on the vine. Union has plenty of reasons to resist any uprooting from its natural habitat and replanting in the heat and indolence of high summer – even if this year’s exceptional circumstances mean the
Premiership season has to restart in August.
Think of June, July or August and the mind can conjure a dozen things to do rather than attend a Premiership match. And, pray, what might you do on a dank, dreary, gloom-laden December afternoon when it gets light at 9.30 in the morning and dark about half an hour later? Christmas shopping? Give me a break.
There is little alternative entertainment in the depths of winter, but live sport is the beacon on a bleak horizon, a warming, huddling experience. That is, if we are ever again allowed to be in the embrace of other humans, even if it is for mutual hurling of abuse at the opposition. Bonding with fellow fans on a filthy day is one of life’s great pleasures.
The argument that only the beasts of burden up front relish winter conditions – those claggy, cloying surfaces on which you have to fight forward inch by inch as if it were trench warfare – is also hokum. When was the last time you saw a mudheap in the professional game? What might have been true 15 years ago no longer is. Pitches are invariably snookertable smooth.
Running rugby is not the be-all and end-all of the sport, as Super Rugby has proven down the years. Yes, it can thrill and seduce, be easy on the eye, inculcate fabulous attacking skills and generate high ball-in-play time.
But all of these elements are perfectly possible as things stand. England 38, Scotland 38 anyone? That was a year ago in mid-march, not quite brass-monkey time of year, but not far off.
Of course there is another side to the debate. Rugby’s calendar is more complex and interdependent than in other leading sports. It is not easy to put the jigsaw together. The RFU has to be mindful of others. Any sport is only as strong as its weakest link.
The game in the southern hemisphere is in the economic knacker’s yard. This is a bail-out project. The great push towards an aligned global calendar is a rescue mission, but let us not gloss over the fact that broadcasters will have the Olympics, Wimbledon, Test cricket and Open golf higher up their agendas.
There is a strong lobby for summer rugby. Fair enough. But let us not pretend that it is not without risk.
Think of June, July or August and the mind can conjure a dozen things to do rather than attend a match