Saracens will start life in new-look Championship on 6 March
Saracens will have to navigate a playoff final if they are to bounce straight back into the Premiership after a remodelled format was announced for this season’s Championship. Saracens will begin their promotion bid on 6 March after the Rugby Football Union finally confirmed plans for a truncated second tier.
The new format involves the 12 clubs being split into two conferences and each team playing each other home and away before the two conference winners meet in a two-leg final. Each side will play 10 matches with sufficient wriggle room to extend the season into June in the event of postponements. It is unclear who would be promoted, if anyone, if the league has to be abandoned.
The RFU had hoped to begin the season on 16 January but the tightening restrictions across the country has meant the start date has been pushed back so Saracens’ England players including the national captain, Owen Farrell, face two months without any competitive matches before the Six Nations starts.
Eddie Jones has repeatedly played down concerns that Farrell, the Vunipola brothers, Maro Itoje and Elliot
Daly would be rusty because of the anticipated lack of game time following Saracens’ relegation, pointing to the benefits that come with a prolonged period of rest. In the case of Billy Vunipola, however, Jones has also stressed how the No 8 – who played every minute of England’s five autumn matches – needs a run of games to reach peak fitness.
Saracens will be red-hot favourites to win the new-look Championship, but the return of a play-off final brings added jeopardy. The Championship was last settled by a play-off in 2017, after which the team who finished top of the table were automatically promoted, but before that, Bristol memorably came unstuck in the final, despite being favourites, on more than one occasion.
Saracens are in a different pool to Ealing Trailfinders, who have finished second in the Championship for the past three seasons.
Saracens, who are in the same conference as Jersey Reds and Cornish Pirates, and Ealing have begun pre-season training, but a number of the less wealthy clubs have not, instead continuing to take advantage of the government’s furlough scheme. The cost of Covid testing, which will be mandatory when the Championship returns, had been seen as prohibitive to beginning the season, but the expectation is that it will be covered by the £9m available to clubs in the second tier as part of the government’s winter sport package.
It is understood, however, that some clubs are still seeking clarity as to how they will receive that money and whether it will be in the form of loan or grant, which may affect whether they can afford a weekly testing programme. Logistical challenges, such as moving between tiers and travelling to and from places such as Jersey, remain.
An RFU statement read: “As a result of Championship clubs having little or no income for the last nine months the majority do not have the financial ability to meet the costs of Covid testing required under the elite sport framework. The clubs have chosen not to return to play under adapted laws and the March start date allows time for clubs to gain clarity from Sport England regarding the Sport Winter Survival Package before starting pre-season training.”