Borthwick shows he has the edge
What did you make of the Premiership final? I thought it was enthralling, and epitomised everything that’s great about English club rugby, but not everyone seemed to see it that way. On the Wasps supporters’ forum there was a thread entitled ‘Things to do… while the Premiership final is on’ – if you wanted to sum up club rugby’s tribalism in one pithy sentence, that would be a decent candidate!
The final was contested by the two best teams in the league – the table doesn’t lie – but they are also two teams that have fallen foul of the salary cap regulations: Saracens in a major way, and Tigers to a lesser extent, albeit one that still cost them a fine of over £300k. For neutrals that seemed to be factor, but Sarries’ greater misdemeanours swayed many to support Tigers.
Rugby fans are an unforgiving bunch, and despite paying a heavy penalty I suspect the haters will keep on hating Saracens for some time to come.
Prem Rugby runs a marketing campaign throughout the season to sell tickets for the final, and many fans had bought tickets in the hope their team might make it to Twickenham – fans are already being asked to register their interest for next year! I’m sure that some neutrals would have preferred a Quins v Saints final, one where there was less kicking, and where there were plenty of tries. That said, remember that in the semi-final, Quins were outscored by Saracens, five tries to three.
I worry about what this Aussie-like obsession with running rugby is doing to the game, and there were plenty of references on the forums to boring kick chases, and then the one that really gets my goat, describing it as a match for the purists! I’m not sure what that means, but when did purist become a derogatory term?
I love English rugby with its strong focus on the set-piece, and the fact that it is still a game for all shapes and sizes. When I see a scoreline where both teams have scored 30+ points my immediate reaction isn’t to think it’s great that so many tries were scored, but rather to wonder what the defence coaches have been up to! I sometimes hear that the maul is boring, but to me, when it’s done well it’s a thing of spectacular beauty – but then, if I was ever selecting player of the match, it would almost always be a forward, and generally a prop!
Elite sport is about winning, first and foremost, and Tigers and Sarries earned their place in the final by winning more games than any of their rivals, which says that their style of play was more effective than that of the other 11 teams in the league. If people want to see a final contested by two teams that throw it about more, then that can’t be imposed, it needs to be earned, and that’s down to the coaches of the other 11 who simply need to find a style of play that’s more effective.
That’s what sport is all about, the constant evolution of tactics. The final was contested by teams that both have excellent coaching set-ups, but on the day, Steve Borthwick came up with a style of play designed to neutralise that of Mark McCall’s boys, and it worked brilliantly. That’s what it’s all about, even if you have to be a purist to appreciate it!
“The final was between the two best teams”
P redictably, I came in for some stick over my views on the presence of South African franchises in the URC, and for my comment that I don’t understand the desire of the northern hemisphere nations to bail out South African rugby.
Watching ITV’s fly-onthe-wall documentary about last year’s Lions’ tour, Two Sides, it was clear just how close to the edge South African rugby was during the pandemic. Its embattled chief executive, Jurie Roux, made clear that without the tour going ahead there was a real danger of the SARU going bankrupt: “At one point we had the players and management on the phone and I told them if the tour doesn’t go ahead, we’re done. SA Rugby will make a loss and the unions would make a loss, and if that happens, your salaries don’t get paid.”
On one level it’s commendable the rugby family has come together to try to ensure the survival of a great rugby nation seemingly incapable of standing on its own feet, but it doesn’t mean I have to like the way they’ve gone about it.