Getting out for some fresh air
Saturday 5th November: Anglo-Welsh Cup Round 1: Harlequins v Exeter Chiefs at the Stoop, kick-off 5.30pm: result – Harlequins 29 – Exeter Chiefs 15.
By way of introduction for the benefit of those who may have little or no interest in rugby union or – hard as this may be for the rest of us to believe – the mighty Quins, the structure of rugby played by Aviva Premiership clubs goes in something like this order of priority in the minds of those who play for, or support teams in, them:
(1)
The Aviva Premiership, i.e. the premier-level league competition;
(2)
The European Cup tournaments, i.e. (i) the European Rugby Champions Cup, for the best of the Six Nations’ elite clubs or provinces; and (ii) the European Rugby Challenge Cup, basically for those ‘lesser’ elite clubs or provinces in the Six Nations’ who, on their league results the previous season fail to get into (i) above;
(3)
The Anglo-Welsh Cup, played (obviously) by elite clubs in England and Wales;
(4)
The Aviva Premiership ‘A’ League, a second level competition which the English Premiership clubs use to give ‘top class’ game time to their first team players and others coming back from injury, those being selected for the match-day 23s but currently not getting much on-pitch game time and, lastly, any Academy kids whom they feel may be up to an early exposure at the very top level.
Here’s the conundrum for the average Premiership club supporter/fan:
Club managements and players habitually pay lip service – and sometimes more than that – to the value and importance of the Anglo-Welsh and ‘A’ League tournaments, but in reality they’re treated as Mickey Mouse competitions: contractual obligations which have to be carried out, essentially for the PR benefit of Aviva Premiership itself and to give the TV companies some more rugby to broadcast … but … er … that’s about it.
Well, not quite. The majority of Premiership clubs tend to begin both by putting out hotch-potch teams in both and then seeing what happens. If by chance they open their campaigns by winning – or at least not losing – then they gradually take them more seriously (after all, the prospect of silverware, of any kind, is worth having if you can get it).
On the other hand, if their teams effectively make an early exit from contention for either competition, they shrug their shoulders and take the ‘look on the bright side’ attitude that … at the very least … their precious, chronically over-played, squads will now have less opportunity to get even more exhausted and/or injured just as the business end of the season appears upon the horizon.
Which brings me to last night’s Anglo-Welsh clash between Quins and Exeter Chiefs, eventually won 29-15 by the former.
I estimate it attracted no more than between 7,000 and 8,000 to the Stoop – partly, I’d guess, because the kick-off was sufficiently late that it was affected by weekend ‘family time’ considerations and the fact that it was being broadcast live by BT Sport.
To be fair to the clubs, both coaching teams had fielded pretty ‘serious’ teams that featured first team squadders, academy kids and one or two recent signings short of an outing.
Inevitably, because of the ‘ad hoc’ nature of the sides, the first half was distinctly average fare – plenty of missed passes, misunderstandings and cock-ups – ending with Quins 11-5 ahead but not much between them.
Happily, the second stanza saw a heightening of intensity and some pretty frenetic play as the game broken up and defensive gaps began to appear. Tries were notched at either end and Quins won largely because of Nick Evans’ game management and deft handling skills in guiding some of the youngsters around him through the mayhem.
For Quins the ever-elusive Charlie Walker scored one try himself and made another for newbie Aaron Morris. For me, Luc Jones, our young Welsh scrum half, showed considerable promise.
All in all, an outing of which I expected not very much and ended being pleasantly surprised.
