Sunak, Littler and plenty of hard graft in clubs’ extended break of hard graft in clubs’ extended break
‘Who has got it right, who has got it wrong? We will find out’
When the Gallagher Premiership clubs reached the end of January, they were running on fumes. A mammoth sequence started before the World Cup and comprised 22 games on consecutive weekends, taking us to the Six Nations. The extended break would have been welcome.
Now, the Premiership is poised to resume after an unfamiliar, eightweek pause. One senior club source described this next stage as “a short, intense block that is going to fly by in what will feel like minutes”. Telegraph Sport has discovered how clubs have managed the hiatus.
Holidays and conditioning weeks
“Who’s got it right, who’s got it wrong?” Pat Lam, the Bristol Bears director of rugby, pondered this week. “We’ll find out.”
There is always a sense of trepidation at the end of a summer, because nobody can quite be sure how pre-season training will translate to the pitch. The same is true of this break.
Rest and recuperation was clearly crucial, but teams have split up the pause in different ways. Some opted for a 10-day holiday before bringing their squads back for an extended “pre-season”. Others broke things up with two separate weeks off at different points across the two months. Skiing remained off limits to players, but more than one coach, including Northampton’s Phil Dowson, hit the slopes.
Gloucester’s George Skivington copped criticism for taking a coaching role with England A, given the Kingsholm club’s league struggles, but a 23-13 win over Leicester Tigers in the Premiership Cup final, landing a first trophy in nine years, will have quietened the critics.
A lack of Six Nations call-ups will have helped Skivington with conti
nuity. Gloucester and Newcastle Falcons contributed only two players each to training squads during the tournament.
At the other end of the spectrum, Northampton Saints and Harlequins had nine players each on international duty, with Bath on a whopping 12. Exeter Chiefs had eight players representing four different countries. You might have read about that in chief executive Tony Rowe’s punchy open letter warning critics not to write off the two-time champions.
Dedicated conditioning weeks, characterised by hard graft, have been a necessary evil; not least because regular training weeks between September and January had tapered off in intensity. Harlequins jetted off to Browns Sports Resort in Vilamoura. “We thought it’d be fun, but it was actually f-----hard,” Stephan Lewies, the club captain, admitted.
Coaches have been able to delve into data analysis and interrogate tactics to a degree that is impossible during a normal campaign. To keep things fresh and to maintain a buzz, clubs have mixed it up. Bristol welcomed Ospreys for a joint session and Harlequins travelled to Cardiff for a similar venture. Chiefs enjoyed a darts night at the Exeter leg of the Premier League, watching Luke Littler and associates.
“We tweaked the week accordingly,” Ali Hepher said with a laugh. “The priority was the social.”
A special visit
Covid loans have been a concern for clubs and Premiership Rugby has endeavoured to engage the Government in an attempt to alter repayment plans. There had been little breakthrough until March 13 when Richard Graham, the MP for Gloucester, stood up in the House of Commons to brand the current repayment plans as “crippling” and to ask Rishi Sunak to find a solution. The very next day, the Prime Minister was at Kingsholm, which hopefully bodes well for progress.
Tune-up matches
A two-month hole in fixture lists will have concerned commercial and executive departments around the country. The organisation of friendly matches was handy for cash flow as well as for priming players.
Fans were clearly keen. Jerry Flannery’s final match as Harlequins defence coach, before joining the Springboks, was a meeting with
Munster that attracted 9,500 spectators. Harlequins and Munster share a sponsor in DHL, which aided logistics.
But there are risks attached to these games. Bath fielded a strong team in a 35-7 thrashing of Leinster last Friday but Tom de Glanville was injured and now requires surgery on a broken foot and will miss 10 weeks or so.
Internationals’ return
Billy Millard, the Harlequins director of rugby, said that internationals such as Danny Care and Marcus Smith had lifted their peers upon returning from Six Nations duty. Millard themes sections of the season to present a narrative to his players. He has not needed to be too imaginative for this forthcoming block, which involves pivotal league encounters against Saracens and Bath before a last-16 Champions Cup tie against Glasgow Warriors. It has been labelled, simply, as “defining”.