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That was the Aviva Premiership season that was
The 2016/17 Premiership season is over, bar the playoff shouting. James Harrington runs the rule over the 12 clubs’ campaigns.
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Yes, there are three matches left before Saracens* are crowned Premiership champions again, but now the regular campaign is over, it’s time to issue those end-of-season report cards, in table-finishing order…
Wasps
Five seasons ago, Wasps avoided relegation by the skin of a Tom Varndell tackle, and bankruptcy by the width of a crisp new £5 note. Now, they finish the regular season at the head of the table, beat the defending champions at their relatively new home in front of more than 30,000 fans – and they are even starting to add some defensive devil to their attacking dare. This is the new Wasps, nothing like the old Wasps.
Exeter Chiefs
The RFU will be watching Exeter coach Rob Baxter, with one eye on the England job which is due to become vacant after the 2019 World Cup. Finishing the season with eight maximum-point wins and nine try bonus points in their last nine outings tells you what they’re all about. Only the rugby gods know how good they could be when everything clicks and they have a full complement of players to choose from.
Saracens
From the outside looking in, self-belief is often mistaken for arrogance – and the fact that Saracens rested plenty of first-choice players, including five Lions, for their final round trip to Wasps smacks of the latter. But the fact is they don’t care where they play, and that is all because they have boatloads of the former. They have Clermont in the Champions Cup final in Edinburgh next week, and Exeter at Sandy Park in the Premiership semi-final the week after. It will be a stupidly brave punter who bets against them winning both matches, then going on to lift the domestic title at Twickenham against either Wasps or Leicester. But, most likely, Wasps.
Leicester Tigers
Amid backroom carnage, Leicester still managed to make the Premiership play-offs for the 13th straight season. And that needs to be recognised. But they’re are not the perennial champions-elect anymore. And they should recognise that. New head coach Matt O’Connor arrived in April after the Tigers dumped their second head coach of the season. But his work really starts at the end of the season.
Bath
Yes, Bath are in next season’s Champions Cup. And, yes, they can point out that injuries have played merry hell with their season – but all is not entirely well at the Rec, and Todd Blackadder will have his hands full working to ensure that the quo’s status is much improved next season.
Harlequins
A mixed bag from Quins, who could hit the heights of their match against Wasps and the plumb the depths of their performance against Exeter in a matter of weeks – but there’s plenty of promise from the London side. And the signs are promising of more to come, as they return to the Champions Cup after a season away. But they’ll have to do it without either of the Nick Es – Evans and Easter – who called time on their careers during this campaign.
Northampton Saints
The cruellest of positions for the Saints, after the cruellest of final weekend matches. Seventh means no automatic Champions Cup place, but the possibility of a shot at a playoff, if Top 14 side Stade Francais beat Gloucester in Friday’s Challenge Cup final. In truth, it’s about the best Northampton deserve after a season in which their attempts at flattering to deceive flattered to deceive.
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Newcastle Falcons
When eighth out of 12 is a sign of progress, you know things haven’t been great at Kingston Park. Eighth is the Falcons’ best finish since 2006, and the first time they have finished outside the bottom two since they returned to the Premiership following a year-long Championship hiatus in 2012/13. But, in getting to eighth, they played some seriously good rugby. And their signings for next season suggest more serious rugby is on the cards. This may be just the start of something.
Gloucester
The Cherry-and-Whites now are where Saracens were in 2009. With the prospect of added Challenge Cup gilt to hide the problems. But they were the first visiting team to win at La Rochelle since, well, forever, and that man Johan Ackermann is on his way. Beating Stade Francais in Friday’s Challenge Cup final in Edinburgh will give Gloucester an unlikely route into next season’s Champions Cup. Whether that would actually be the right place for the club right now remains to be seen.
Sale Sharks
The Champions Cup was a competition too far for Sale this season, as they struggled for large portions of the campaign on not one but two fronts. For a brief period, they even risked being sucked into the relegation dogfight. It’s to their credit that they duked their way out of it, but Steve Diamond will expect better next season.
Worcester Warriors
No lack of effort this season from the grandly named Warriors, certainly not after Gary Gold arrived in January. And they could – on occasion – be inspired. But such moments were nowhere near enough to hide the fact that they were generally struggling up front. Gold will have to work hard over the summer break to build a functioning pack around prop Nick Schonert and old-timer Donncha O’Callaghan that will be worthy of the Warriors name.
Bristol
Megarich owner Steve Lansdown admitted recently that the other clubs in the Premiership were ‘miles ahead’ of Bristol this year. He’s right. He has also said he should have acted earlier. That would have made no difference. It’s not entirely their fault, but they struggled to reach the standards necessary for this class of rugby. A short spell in a newly playoff-free Championship to allow those big-name signings to bed should mean they’re better prepared the season after next when they, inevitably, return.
*probably
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Comments on RugbyPass
Je suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
25 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
25 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
25 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
25 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
11 Go to comments