SA are powering Sale but is that good for England?
Am I the only one who is heartily sick of the Moaning Minnies droning on about the perceived deficiencies of this compressed end to the 2019-2020 Premiership season?
These people need to cast their mind back to the first week in March when the shutters came down and there was no prospect of any live games for the foreseeable future.
That was a miserable time for everyone, and things got so bad that we even got enthusiastic about Super Rugby AU and Aotearoa when they restarted in June!
Now we’ve got proper English club rugby back, and not just a couple of televised games at the weekend, but every single midweek and weekend match being shown – there’s never been a better time to be a stay-at-home rugby fan!
Once this season is done and dusted, after a short break it will start all over again. Hopefully Premiership Rugby are already on the case and are giving serious thought to how and when games will be shown.
We’ve quickly got used to watching midweek rugby, so why not find a way to make this a regular feature, and market it heavily – two games at the weekend, and one on a Wednesday could do wonRWC. ders for the league’s profile.
These unusual circumstances will have been a godsend for Premiership coaches. With the threat of relegation gone courtesy of Saracens’ misdemeanours, the pressure is off, and the Academy and squad players are getting their chances. New coaches like Steve Borthwick, George Skivington and Lee Blackett would, under normal circumstances, be under pressure to ensure their team doesn’t get dragged into the relegation zone, and opportunities to experiment would be thin.
Worcester’s DoR Alan Solomons, a target for the critics after fielding a young side against Exeter and seeing them duly hammered, says the compressed schedule has been invaluable, with players who might otherwise have been on loan in the Championship, or even in National League One or Two, turning out in the Premiership.
Similarly, when Skivington and Borthwick arrived at their new clubs they would have been well aware of the abilities of their established players, but with precious few opportunities at ‘A’ level, their younger lads would have been an unknown quantity. But now they know exactly what they’ve got at their disposal.
An added bonus is that those younger players are predominantly English, and as we move forward surely that’s going to become increasingly important?
For years our league has relied on foreign imports from the SANZAAR nations. If you’ve gained a cap for the All Blacks or the NZ Maori, and you realise that’s the peak of your career, cross the globe for a bumper pay-day in the north.
Currently, with South African rugby in chaos, despite having just won the RWC, we’re seeing an influx of their players. They’ve powered Sale to the top four, and it was South African talent that started the Saracens success story – but they’ll be off in time for the next It’s great to see them, but is it the right thing for the English game?
The arguments put forward in favour of foreign imports are several: that we need them in order to be competitive with the wealthy French clubs and Irish provinces, that more fans will come to games if there are big-name southern hemisphere players, and that young English players will benefit from playing with the best.
I don’t accept any of those: competing financially with the French is a mug’s game, especially in the current environment, and I have my doubts that the Irish will be quite as wealthy as they were before! How many extra bums on seats do you need to fund a £1m marquee player, and while the expensive imports might be good for the young English players to watch, the reality is that they’re preventing them from getting game time!
If I want to see the best southern hemisphere players I’ll watch Test matches, but surely what we all really want is to see the Premiership, already the best league in world rugby, become even better, and for it to be financially sustainable. The best way to do that is to have it populated with predominantly England-qualified players. If, at the same time, the clubs can all break even, or even better turn a profit, that would be fantastic for the English game.