You always get surprises in first week - but O’Connor was a shock
“For Leicester to sack coach Matt O’Connor after the first game of the season is pretty shocking”
Talk it up as much as you like but, to me, last week seemed to be just the usual start to the Premiership seasons, a few shocks and surprises but with another 21 games to go, I am pretty sure normal service will be resumed over the next few weeks.
To some, the promoted Bears roaring to success in their first game back in the top flight came as a bit of a surprise, but it was the same as London Irish achieved last season in their first game against Quins at Twickenham, and, in fact, was the third time a promoted club have won their first fixture in the last four seasons.
Bristol beating Bath was almost always on the cards with Bath underachieving for the last ten years with no major trophy wins since their 2008 European Challenge Cup triumph against Worcester.
Unlike many of those before who sought the excuse of play-offs for not having a team ready and able to compete in the premiership, Bristol have had the advantage of knowing that winning the Championship guaranteed promotion and seem to have prepared properly.
Buying a group of experienced players and with Pat Lam as head coach almost guaranteed they would win the Championship and promotion, but last week’s win will make surviving in the Premiership harder as now no club will underestimate them.
It is a sad fact but it seems the only way to get to the Premiership and survive these days is to invest a lot of money in foreign players and internationals, past or present, in the hope that their collective experience of playing at the top of the game will be enough to help survive in the Premiership long enough to create some local cheaper talent.
For many of the Premiership clubs, the ideal of local lads providing the majority of their playing squad is now a long and distant memory. Yet, it was often those players that made the clubs what they are today.
The great Bath side of the late 80s early 90s consisted mainly of players from the south west if not the Bath and Bristol area which gave the team and its supporters a feeling of familiarity.
The same was true of virtually every club at all levels no matter where they were in the country. Except perhaps for the London clubs like Wasps, Quins, London Irish, London Scottish, London Welsh, Richmond etc., as London attracted people from all over for work.
The end of the rugby club family can have no better illustration than the shock result last week at Exeter and Leicester’s reaction.
Losing away to Exeter is not a big shock as they are one of the best teams in the Premiership but the 34 point margin probably was. Even so, for Leicester to sack coach Matt O’Connor with immediate effect after the first game of the season is pretty shocking.
O’Connor’s departure was expected at the end of last season with Leicester failing to reach the play-offs but when he survived to start this season it appeared he would be given the chance to turn the club around.
It’s not as if Leicester were the only shock defeat, along with Bath’s loss to Bristol and Sale losing 51-23 at the Stoop. However, it looks as if Steve Diamond and Todd Blackadder have survived, and Bath and Sale have taken a longer term view – at least for the moment.
One aspect of the Premiership scouring the world for players was highlighted by Christian Wade when he spoke out about the talent missed by the game because of a lack opportunity within some communities.
His message was mainly about local black state school kids but in reality it is all state school kids that lack the opportunity to sign for a club academy, despite a number of initiatives that try to encourage schools to take up the sport.
This is not a new phenomenon, even back in the amateur days only young players from certain schools were picked for county and international trials and promoted to the senior clubs.
When I was an U15 player for Surrey there were two teams, one call the ‘in term side’ for state schools, the other the ‘out of term’ containing all the boys from the public schools who were not allowed to play for the county during term time. As most of the selectors were from those schools a majority of those players took part in all the trials for higher honours. The ‘in term team’ never got to the trials unless they were exceptional players.
As rugby is now a business, there are a number of public schools and colleges who promote themselves to parents who want their child to be a professional rugby player, based on either their ability to get a place in a Premiership academy or their links with Premiership clubs.
In fact if the state school players do make the county teams, some of them will be offered scholarships to the public school so as to promote those school credentials as a ‘professional rugby player’ producing venue.
The All Schools programme championed by Jason Leonard while president of the Union was an attempt to encourage more schools to take up rugby and give inner city kids the chance to play the game, but until the system of elite school selection is dismantled many of those talented young players will continue to be missed by the professional game and their talents lost to the game.