Let us celebrate an all-out battle for survival
Some take issue with big clubs fearing the drop, but that is the key to a competitive league
Leicester to be relegated? Bath to be relegated? Unthinkable? No it is not. Nor should it be considered a terrible thing, unless, of course, you happen to sport either of those famous colours. In many ways, it is exactly what Premier Rugby ought to want, a league so finely balanced, so competitive to its core, that giants such as Leicester and Bath can feel the chill wind of relegation whistling round their chops at the turn of the year.
Only four points separate the bottom seven clubs, a single win without even an added bonus point currently the difference between salvation and ignominy. It is a situation that purists should savour, all the more so with Saracens and Exeter away over the horizon at the top end of the table.
However, it has emerged once again that there are those in the club ranks who find issue with the concept of promotion and relegation as if it were a blight on the sporting landscape. It is anything but, as a glance at the Gallagher Premiership pecking order shows.
It is not just Leicester and Bath who are in the seeming doldrums. They are the headline items for the simple reason that they ruled the roost from the 1980s through to the early years of the millennium, lords of the domestic manor.
It would be as if Manchester United were to be relegated. But there are others in the mix, notably former recent champions in Northampton, a club who had to deal with relegation only 11 years ago, and Harlequins two years prior to that. Newcastle, bottom of the pile by a point, have been in this position before and know all about rolling up sleeves for the five-month scrap ahead.
If there were any further indication needed of the value of this year’s Premiership it is that the Falcons are unbeaten in the Champions Cup, with the notable notches of Toulon and Montpellier on their belt – good enough for Europe, one of the rear-gunners on the English scene.
Let us praise the fact that things are so tight, so unforgiving. Arguments for ring-fencing the Premiership revolve around two factors, namely that the financial uncertainty it breeds stymies proper investment in the sport, especially in terms of upgrading facilities, and also that the fear of relegation deters teams from blooding young English talent in favour of signing wizened southern-hemisphere veterans who are more used to performing under duress. Well, Premier Rugby has managed to make its own way over the past couple of decades towards the point where outside agencies such as CVC Capital Partners are sufficiently persuaded of its worth to consider pumping in some £250million for a share of the action.
Of course, the league has only been able to get to this position through benefactors such as Nigel Wray at Saracens or, latterly, Bruce Craig at Bath. It is their largesse that has helped make it happen, and that should be duly recognised. But that is the way of English sport. Football has traded and thrived on such terms for decades. It is a private enterprise and if someone wants the thrill, as well as heartache, of belonging to the club, it is going to cost money.
It is hard to argue that facilities at Premier Rugby grounds are below par, that investment in the future is on hold. To my mind, professional club rugby has always had the sort of status of midchampionship football. The stadiums could be better, and for what it is worth, both Leicester and Bath have impressive plans for expansion, but there is not a club among the elite who are not mindful of their responsibilities to their fans, from Sandy Park in Exeter to Kingston Park in the North East.
The old line about clubs raiding for battle-hardened sluggers to get them out of the mire no longer holds true. Clubs are much more savvy and forward-looking these days, all too aware of the false economics of that sort of knee-jerk desperation game. Rob Andrew did manage to make it work many moons ago, when drafting a host of South Africans, led by 1995 World Cup-winning lock Mark Andrews, but those days are gone. Clubs trust young players to stand up and deliver, as 19-year-old Worcester back-rower Ted Hill has done this season right through to an unheralded England cap, or former Cardiff Met University student, 21-year-old Alex Dombrandt, did for Harlequins in victory over Exeter on Friday.
The Curry brothers at Sale, Joe Cokanasiga and Zach Mercer at Bath, Saracens lock Nick Isiekwe – the list goes on. Young players tend to be unfettered by expectation or convention, unburdened by far-reaching things such as relegation. They simply get on with it.
As should we, and engage with all that lies ahead, that nerveshredding tussle to avoid the drop. Of course it is easy for the romantic neutral to indulge the vicarious pleasure of seeing clubs strive for precious points with respite for some, prolonged pain for others. But that, surely, is the whole point of a meritocratic league, the absolute vindication of a salary cap where, in theory, everyone gets a chance to tilt for glory.
Of course there are differences in resources at each club, ways to make ends meet and plunge in the market, but as Bristol have shown, once you get a promoted club with proper, progressive backing, it means that there are no guarantees. Bristol have thrown the rest of the league into something of a tizz.
We should be celebrating that fact, not bemoaning it.