Why Premiership intensity counts for little in Europe
SARACENS are the only English bannermen still standing at the end of the European Cup’s fourth round. The rest of the Premiership contingent are limping from the field, turning their sights to survival on the home front as an intensifying relegation battle looms.
This brings with it the threat of a big-name club, including former two-time European champions Leicester, facing the drop. The disarray in the English club game on the pitch is reflected in Premiership clubs becoming the also-rans of the European Cup, with Leicester among them.
For an unprecedented second year in succession it is possible that Saracens will be the only English club to make the quarterfinals, although, as transpired last season, there are no guarantees they will make further progress after that.
The English champions are unbeaten at the top of Pool 3, and hunting a home quarter-final. They have the pedigree to go all the way and lift the trophy for the third time in four years; however, they face formidable opposition.
Foremost among them are reigning champions Leinster – who can put out a virtual all-international Ireland side – as well as a multinational powerhouse in Racing 92, last year’s beaten finalists. A resurgent Toulouse, as well as Munster and Ulster outfits with players battling for places in Joe Schmidt’s Ireland squad, are also in the picture, as are the musclemen of Montpellier.
This is in stark contrast to the decline in the competitiveness of the English clubs, Saracens apart. The weakness of their challenge over the last two seasons is an indictment of the overall quality, preparation, consistency and staying power among the Premiership clubs engaged in Europe’s elite competition.
Last season Harlequins, Northampton and Leicester finished bottom of their pools with only one win from six matches. Wasps, Exeter and Bath gave a better account of themselves to finish mid-table, but it was still not good enough for them to qualify against more hardened, smarter opponents.
This season it is a similar picture with Leicester, Wasps and Bath already on skid row – and Exeter, Gloucester and Newcastle needing something special in the last two rounds to have a chance of last eight qualification.
The demise of Leicester, Wasps, who are also two-time European champions (2004 and 2007), and Bath – who were the first English winners of the trophy in 1998 – are the most graphic examples of how the rot has set-in.
Leicester are still without equal as England’s leading European Cup campaigners, and that reputation is not just based on winning back-to-back titles in their 2001 and 2002 glory years. They have also been losing finalists on three occasions – in the inaugural English participation in 1997 when they were outplayed by Brive, in the allEnglish final against Wasps in 2007, and in a narrow defeat by Leinster in 2009.
Outside that, even during their steady decline since 2009, the Tigers have managed to make the last eight four times, including a semi-final in 2016.
However, Leicester’s 34-11 pool drubbing at Welford Road by Racing last weekend was a far cry from that 19-16 semi-final defeat by the Parisians two and a half years ago at the City Ground in Nottingham.
Having already conceded 39 tries in the Premiership, the Tigers sieve-like defence saw Racing pour through the gaps, forcing them to concede another four tries and a bonus point. Whatever technical reasons new head coach Geordan Murphy and the Leicester backroom come up with, it is time for this Leicester squad to admit it is as much a failure of attitude as it is of organisation.
The traditional Tigers default mode of a cussed, belligerent refusal to come second in contact – let alone on the scoreboard – has gone. It would be going too far to accuse some players within the Leicester ranks of not trying, but there were far too many going through the motions by ball-watching rather than ball-winning against Racing.
It was the French side who had a monopoly on urgency, and Leicester who were mentally disengaged. Matt Toomua, usually a strong, tenacious tackler, was left stranded by Teddy Iribaren’s nifty footwork for the first of the visitors’ tries, and Graham Kitchener could not plug the gap in time to stop the Racing scrum-half scoring.
After Simon Zebo sliced inside Adam Thompstone to send Juan Imhoff in for the first of his two
“The demise of Leicester, Wasps, and Bath are the most graphic examples of how the rot has set-in”
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The message to a Leicester pack that relies too heavily on Genge, and has few alternative weapons, and to a misfiring backline, is that the occasional sparkler is not a substitute for a properly planned fireworks display that you put on for your fans every weekend – not one weekend in every three or four.
An issue that is looming large for not just Tigers, but also for Wasps and Bath – and most other Premiership clubs – is that the revolving door transfer market encouraged by agents is making team-building an increasingly fraught business.
Genge, for instance, has said he will see out the remaining year on his Leicester contract, but has an interest in moving back to Bristol, his home town. It is noteworthy that when it comes to the local boy element that used to provide the backbone of Leicester packs, it has dwindled to the extent that Dan Cole was the only home-grown forward on the pitch against Racing.
Elsewhere in a Leicester side
“Wasps could become the only Premiership club where players have to introduce themselves to each other”
assembled from far and wide, Toomua is heading back to Australia at the end of the season to put himself in World Cup contention. Meanwhile, a host of players who came through the Leicester ranks have made successful moves to other Premership clubs, with Alex Lewington (Saracens), Ed Slater and Fraser Balmain ( both Gloucester), Calum Green (Newcastle), and Harry Thacker (Bristol) among them.
Another factor is that the Leicester scouting and academy system that has served the club so well by developing local talent has been undermined by a willingness to go to the transfer market instead.
Even Wasps, a side with a tradition of welcoming itinerants, are starting to feel the corrosive impact of having a squad that is constantly changing. The decision by Dai Young to import 13 new players this season has seen them bomb in Europe, including a 52-3 rout at the hands of Leinster before being beaten in both legs of their double-header against Toulouse.
They are side who, like Leicester, have failed to sort out defence, the most fundamental building block in the game. The confusion has shown in the failure of big-money imports like Lima Sopoaga, Kieran Brookes, and to a lesser extent Brad Shields, struggling to get to grips with how Wasps want to defend.
Brookes is also part of a Wasps front five contingent that is continually been caught napping around the breakdown, allowing’s opponents easy breaks through the middle and around the fringes. It is also notable that their 13man intake included only two promoted from the Wasps academy – one of whom, tight-head Will Stuart, has arguably been their biggest success. The wisdom of jettisoning players of the calibre of Danny Cipriani and James Haskell, who had come through the academy as youngsters to become part of the fabric of the club, has to be questionable, especially with the continuity they could have offered during a time of transition. The success of Cipriani at Gloucester, and the decision since by Christian Wade to try his luck at NFL, leaves Elliot Daly and Joe Launchbury in a minority of players who have come through the club’s ranks. If the rumours linking Daly with a move to Saracens have substance then Wasps could become the only club in the Premiership where players have to introduce themselves to each other in the changing room before a match. Bath’s home and away tussle with Leinster highlighted the difficulty which every English side outside Saracens – and in domestic competition, Exeter – have in putting together strong consecutive performances.
After Bath had battled Leinster to a near standstill at the Rec, Todd Blackadder said that if they performed like that every week they would be a force to be reckoned with. What he did not explain was why he was forced into playing a 35-year-old utility back like James Wilson at fly-half in one of Bath’s biggest games of the season.
Injuries to Freddie Burns and James Priestland notwithstanding, a club with Bath’s financial clout should not found themselves so exposed in such a key position, and the chance of a narrow win went up in smoke as Wilson’s misjudged long pass was picked off by Jordan Larmour for a 17-10 Leinster victory.
The following week in Dublin the intensity Bath were able to summon at home evaporated, and they were battered 42-15 by a Leinster side that, even on a bad day, are relentlessly competitive.
With the exception of Saracens there is nothing relentless about the other clubs in the English league, and it is why the likes of Bath, Wasps, and Leicester are no longer competitive in Europe.