Strength in depth is England trump card
With the RWC warm-up matches completed, what have we learned? Nothing has happened to change my view that of the northern nations England still have the best chance of becoming world champions, and that’s predominantly down to strength in depth.
Every one of the home nations has at least one world-class star who can make the difference between winning and losing, but their problem is that often they lack a topclass back-up.
Should any of those ‘galacticos’ pick up an injury, or fall foul of a refereeing decision, then the impact of their loss will be huge. It’s a numbers game, pure and simple: England and France have a bigger pool of professional players from which they can pick, and while Ireland, Scotland and Wales have talented players, they just have fewer of them.
That was illustrated perfectly in last Saturday’s international between Wales and Ireland, which had fear written all over it.
Warren Gatland and Joe Schmidt seemingly agreed to field greatly-weakened sides, with one eye on Japan, and it showed: yes it was a Test match, and at times quite exciting, but let’s be honest, the quality was lacking. The players
who really mattered to those two coaches were watching from the stands, and not being risked in what was little more than a money-spinner.
During the week, Wasps’ director of rugby, Dai Young, questioned why RWC squads are limited to just 31 players, and he has a point. The team that wins the Webb Ellis Cup will have played seven Tests in six weeks.
The Six Nations, which involves five matches, takes place over seven weekends, and whenever it is suggested the programme be cut back, the usual suspects are up in arms, citing player welfare!
It’s self-evident that squads of 35 or more should be allowed – the muppets that scheduled the tournament must have thought it was soccer and not rugby that was being played, with just four days between some matches!
The result is that players’ bodies will be put under unnecessary strain, and the team with the greatest depth of resources will be favoured.
With a schedule like that, the countries that can field two XVs which aren’t too far apart in terms of quality will have a huge advantage, which is why I believe England, and possibly France if they get their act together, will carry the major hopes of the north.
In last week’s TRP, Nick Cain made a stout case for keeping promotion and relegation. In principle it’s hard to disagree with anything he wrote, but there is an elephant in the room: Exeter and Bristol apart, none of the Championship clubs have remotely looked like making a go of the bigtime.
Exeter are the ultimate special case, as they plotted their ascendancy with enormous skill, but which is very tough to copy. Bristol did it differently. With the backing of a billionaire, they simply smashed their way to the top.
However, that’s not how it usually works out: more often than not the club that
has gone down immediately pops back up the next season, and on the rare occasions that doesn’t happen, a Championship side has a go and pays a heavy price, as London Welsh and Leeds Carnegie found to their cost.
I just don’t get the criticism of parachute payments. A club in the Premiership have to spend at a certain level, and if they get relegated then, at a stroke, their gate receipts will drop, but a large element of their costs will continue – without compensation they could be in deep financial trouble.
Nick suggests the Championship clubs should set about dismantling the Premiership ‘cartel’. Good luck with that! For it to be credible, Championship clubs would have to be beating on the door, and that simply isn’t happening, nor is it likely to happen in the near future.
All the talk of needing a league structure based on a meritocracy is for the birds – it sounds good on paper, but that’s not the way it’s working out.
Nick praised the Championship sides for coming out fighting, but where’s the evidence that any of them are doing anything other than simply talking a good game? I’ll remain convinced that we should ring-fence until I see a Championship side other than the previously relegated one, which has any chance of properly competing at Premiership level.