Premiership’s two-week break doesn’t make a lot of sense
FOLLOWING the French government’s decision to prevent the next two rounds of European Rugby competition taking place, decisions on how to fill that void left in the calendar have been made.
In France, the next two rounds of the Top 14 have been brought forward and the same decision has been made in the Celtic leagues.
This is clearly sensible. Players need to play and certainly some match fitness will be required for those taking part in what hopefully be a Six Nations tournament (whether that competition actually happens is still in some doubt, but it seems unlikely that the various Unions will forego the lucrative TV money available).
From a hard-headed commercial viewpoint, supporters getting into the habit of actually watching games, even if remotely, cannot be ignored.
Having lost the habitual effect of people turning up at grounds, it is clearly a good idea to at least have them used to tuning in and watching rugby.
Neither should the effect on the morale of people actually being able to watch elite sport be completely discounted. So, all very sensible decisions by those leagues.
Meanwhile, the English Premiership has decided to cancel fixtures during those two weeks!
The reason given – player welfare – appears to have been badly thought out and, frankly, cited on the basis that no one can possibly criticise “player welfare” as a reason.
The issue is that it simply doesn’t stack up! If France hadn’t pushed the button the European games would have happened, so the clubs were pretty relaxed about player welfare at that point.
Last season, the Premiership was happy to see players endure midweek matches with the huge risks that entails.
This season, the players themselves, thanks to Covid, have had more rest weekends than ever before, and actually not playing and then being thrown into high level competition could be more dangerous than actually maintaining match fitness.
The reality is that the Premiership was unable to agree to the simple change, which apparently required unanimity, on the basis of cynicism of the clubs whose plan involved scoring points during the International period while others were denuded of their internationals. Let’s face it, the Tigers squad shows signs of being stronger and better balanced this season, but would you rather take on the Tigers with George Ford, Ben Youngs and Ellis Genge or without them?
The answer is clear.