English Premiership in a strange place at the moment

This morning I read with interest Tom Hollingworth’s excellent review of his weekend of sports-watching and venture with some nervousness a comment or two upon the Premiership rugby match between Bath and Saracens yesterday which I also happened to watch on television.

Many rugby union fans hold to the view that the Premiership league season currently remains in a strange state with a number of outcomes seemingly upside-down in terms of what one might expect given the general pecking order in the hierarchy.

The truth is that with the plethora of summer internationals, the British Lions tour to South Africa and a necessarily scatter-gun approach towards pre-season (the original protocols agreed regarding rest periods for those who continued playing during the summer whilst their non-involved counterparts were on the proverbial beaches enjoying rest and/or recuperation now being routinely bent and/or ignored) nobody who follows English professional rugby is paying much attention to the results so far.

Hitherto most clubs have been giving their B teams, academy players and returners-from-long-term-injuries as much game-time as they can before the “real” season starts in about three weeks’ time, i.e. when the “big boys” begin playing regularly.

Of course, some players and clubs have more to prove than others.

The suspension of relegation from the Premiership at the end of this season has meant that even the weakest teams in the land – e.g. Bath and Worcester – have no real worries bar perhaps the disappointment and frustration of their owners and fans at their on-field performances.

For a club like Bath – which for several seasons over so many years since the late 1980s at times has dominated English domestic rugby and then both the Premiership and English successes in Europe – to be on the wrong end of yesterday’s 17-71 home drubbing by Saracens (their fourth defeat in four Premiership matches this season) was an abject disgrace.

It was no surprise that BT rugby pundit Ben Kay was at a loss to find adequate or indeed any words of consolation for a team that somehow managed to ship 45 unanswered points in the first half of yesterday’s game.

The spectacle was simply embarrassing and that there was a “you could hear a pin drop” silence in the normally buoyant and raucous Bath stands told it all.

One thing for sure, however.

The widespread belief in the media and also among many fans that happily at last England coach Eddie Jones is going to throw caution to the winds and bring in a raft of new youngsters to kick-off the slow but now increasingly needed build-up to the 2023 Rugby World Cup when he announces his autumn internationals squad this week may well prove to be well wide of the mark.

Both Saracens’ crushing victory over Bath yesterday and indeed Sale’s determined out-slugging of Harlequins on Friday evening demonstrated with bells on – if we ever needed reminding – that there are more ways than one to win a match of rugby.

Rusters should not be surprised if yet again Mr Jones does little more than tinker at the edges.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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