Let’s hope this new-look Cup has meaning
SO the Premiership Cup is to remuster in yet another guise this autumn as a joint competition with the Championship sides which I would greet with cautious optimism, the keyword possibly being ‘cautious’.
The format will be 24 teams, four pools of six with five straight weeks of rugby during the World Cup, followed by semi-finals on February 9-11 and a grand final over the weekend of March 15-17, exact dates to be confirmed nearer the time.
The Premiership teams badly need some footfall and cash flow during the World Cup and that probably seems the main driver here although you would hope that Premiership Rugby has also finally seen that it must embrace the Championship, not fend it off. That approach has failed and, as argued for years in this column, the French model of making ProD2 part of the umbrella Top 14 organisation is clearly the way forward. We live in hope.
It’s the Premiership clubs who can make or break this competition. Will they for example get all heavy and demand dual registered players be stood down against them which would seem like a chronic case of wanting their cake and eating it too.
And at what level will they pitch their selections? It’s a very fine line but the success of the tournament depends on it. Some teams will be considerably less affected by World Cup call ups than others and could pick very strong sides indeed and of course they will want enough frontline talent on view to attract a gate.
For what it’s worth, and I appreciate I’m probably in the minority, I’ve quite enjoyed the recent Premiership Cups with a large dose of promising younger and often underemployed squad players in the early rounds, augmented by more experienced players as you get towards the business end.
The Premiership clubs should feel free to field Gun XVs in the games that matter. If an Ealing or Jersey progressed to one of the semi-finals or needed to win their final pool game to qualify they would of course expect their Premiership opponents to be at full strength. That is the sporting challenge they are currently denied and should crave and it is also the way to boost gates. In other games you like to think the Premiership clubs will mix and match judiciously.
It all depends on an almost unspoken gentleman’s agreement, this is meant to be a mutually beneficial tournament, the Premiership and Championship combining to showcase the game during a period of high visibility. Has rugby still got the soul and sensitivity to make it work. We will find out.