Baxter: Clubs will take Cup more seriously
THE Premiership will shut down next season during the two international windows, meaning more clubs are likely to take the Premiership Cup seriously.
Gloucester won the cup earlier this month having identified at the start of the campaign that making the knock-out stage would provide at least one competitive fixture when the league went into hibernation for the Six Nations.
The shape of next season is still being discussed but it will be different from the current campaign which started with the World Cup.
The Premiership Cup’s group matches were played in the opening five weeks of the campaign, but next season there will be an 11-week league break for the autumn international campaign and then the Six Nations.
Plans being considered include having a rest week at the start of each break period and playing three Premiership Cup matches in November. The group stage would conclude in February with the semi-finals and final to follow.
“What we need to see is fixture lists out nice and early so we can get everything arranged,” said Rob Baxter, Exeter’s director of rugby. “This is what we have signed up to with 10 clubs, the best players involved in the Premiership as often as possible and the Premiership Cup operating in the fallow periods.
“Next season will start with the Premiership with the cup played in the autumn and Six Nations blocks. It will have a better flow than the current one and I think more teams may take the cup seriously next season because fixtures at this point of the year are very important.
“We have always taken the cup seriously because of the competitive rugby you can get into young players. This season was different because we wanted to establish a side and we built our senior team through it. We had to because I had never put out a team with so many changes from the previous year.”
Bristol’s opening Premiership Cup fixture this season was at Exeter, the defending champions. Director of rugby Pat Lam put out a young side which shipped 11 tries in a 75-0 defeat.
“We will rethink our strategy,” said Lam. “This season was different because of the World Cup, but there will be a better balance next year with matches played in the two international blocks and it will help you manage the squad.”
Championship clubs were included in this season’s cup, but it has yet to be decided whether they will be invited again because of the increased fixture list disruption.
“There is talk about having them involved again which I would welcome,” said Lam. “The likes of Ealing, Coventry and Doncaster were fired up for it and they came at you. They played some really good rugby and having them in the cup is good for the English game.”
Gloucester played Leicester in this year’s final at a packed out Kingsholm and clinched their first trophy for nine years having struggled to make an impact in the Premiership.
“There are only three trophies you can win at the start of the season and it is always good to get one,” said Gloucester’s director of rugby, George Skivington.
“We used the whole squad in the group stage and it gave us a good focus at the end because we had two competitive games in the break period. It was hard fought throughout but it is a competition where one team can pick a development side and another go full bore, as we found out in the semi-final against Worcester a couple of years ago.”
There have been suggestions that the Anglo-Welsh Cup could be revived. As much as the hard-up Welsh regions would be keen, it would depend on the United Rugby Championship’s fixture list with the league operating this year on the two rest weekends in the Six Nations.
“There is also the issue of having time to arrange very good friendlies,” said Baxter. “We had a few thousand turn up recently for a game against Exeter University.
“We would love to stage that on a Saturday during the Six Nations and if we were able to market it early, we would get a big crowd. That is why it is important the fixtures are published as soon as possible.”