Premiership is wearing players out – Blackadder
THE “tribal” nature of the Premiership is leaving players too tired to compete in Europe, Todd Blackadder reckons.
After Bath and Wasps played out a dead-rubber Champions Cup game at the Rec on Saturday having both been knocked out with two games left, the Bath director of rugby pointed the blame at the attritional nature of the Premiership. He also talked about the “pressure” that relegation causes for coaches and players, as rumours circulate that the top English league could be ring-fenced as early as this year.
After his side’s 18-16 victory over Wasps, Blackadder said: “I just think with the way the Premiership is, it’s just so tribal isn’t it? We smash the hell out of each other and then we are almost too tired to get out there and have a crack when it comes to the Champions Cup.
“You can see from where teams are in the table that they are under a lot of pressure, and there is not a lot of points between being in the top four and being relegated at the moment, so you just have to say that priority goes to survival, doesn’t it?”
Blackadder added that the ability of Irish teams to rest players gives them an advantage over English sides, after Bath were beaten by Leinster with an aggregate score of 59-25 over two games in December.
He said: “If you look, as an example, at the teams that we played this year, the Leinster players played against the All Blacks, had two weeks off, played against us and had another two weeks off.
“Whereas we have had a massive Premiership block, three massive games where we are losing five or six players a week, and then you go into the Champions Cup and it’s like the boys are just tired. You have to say that the last five or six weeks have been huge for our players, the difference is with other teams is they just have different policies.”
Rumours abound that the Premiership is set to shut up shop to Championship teams and ring-fence the league, bringing one more team up to create a 13-team tournament.
Blackadder said that with the league as tight as it is this year, currently just 12 points separating 12th place and fifth place, relegation is a real possibility for most teams.
He added: “There is a pressure that comes with relegation, there is a pressure on directors to make sure the performance is right and the pressure then goes onto the players.
“So you’re always thinking in the back of your mind that you’ve got to be top four, you’ve got to be top six, and you don’t want to be relegated, so it just creates different stresses.”
Gloucester’s West Country derby at home to Bath will take place on Saturday, April 13.
The dates and kick-off times for rounds 18 and 19 of the Premiership have been confirmed with those matches chosen for television coverage confirmed. Both of Gloucester’s games will be shown on BT Sport with a trip to Northampton on Sunday, April 7 before Bath visit Kingsholm six days later in a 3pm kickoff. There are four live matches shown in round 18, starting at Sale Sharks’ AJ Bell Stadium on Friday night, April 5, where Harlequins are the visitors.
Bath take on Bristol Bears in ‘The Clash’ at Twickenham in the first part of a double-header on Saturday, April 6 followed by Exeter Chiefs making the trip to Welford Road with Gloucester’s visit to Franklin’s Gardens the next day.
The live rugby kicks off the following weekend Round 19 with Leicester Tigers’ trip to Kingston Park to take on Newcastle Falcons, with the BT Sport cameras then moving to Kingsholm for another red-letter day in the rugby calendar: Gloucester Rugby v Bath Rugby. The third live match in Round 19 is from Sandy Park on Sunday, April 14 when Wasps arrive in Devon to take on Exeter Chiefs.