Major issue with PREM bubbling back to surface - Andy Goode

Certain PREM clubs really need to step up in the final five rounds after last weekend exposed a lack of jeopardy and even competitiveness in the league.

Of course, one bad week doesn’t make it a poor product and that can happen in any competition but it did bring some issues to the forefront of people’s minds that have been bubbling along in the background for a while now and may require action.

Semi-finals at neutral venues, abandoning the play-off model, increasing the number of teams in the league, expanded end-of-season play-offs and more have all been suggested and the powers that be will have to do something if there are many more weekends like the last one.

Sale’s capitulation at home to Saracens may well be a one-off and purely a result of them having nothing at all to play for so hopefully Alex Sanderson gets the response he’s expecting against Harlequins but it was about as embarrassing as it gets.

The almost as heavy defeats for Gloucester, Newcastle and Quins were much more predictable though and a clear sign of some of the problems the PREM is going to have to address if it is to be successful in this new franchise era.

Promotion and relegation hasn’t been on the agenda for five years but it’s been permanently scrapped now and let’s make no bones about it, these teams wouldn’t be getting so soundly beaten so regularly if it was in place.

The rights and wrongs of that decision have been debated at length for years so there’s no point going over old ground but the threat of relegation sharpens the mind and the absence of it does exactly the opposite.

There are positives that come with pulling up the drawbridge and the new investment into Newcastle, Exeter and even Sir James Dyson’s acquisition of a 50 per cent ownership stake in Bath show that the increased stability is appealing to the money men.

However, the likes of Sale, Gloucester and Quins need some of that cash to flow their way if it isn’t going to end up being a two-tier league for the next few years.

It’ll be fascinating to see what happens with the Red Bulls next season and there’s no denying they’ve made some eye-catching signings but it takes more than that to turn around the fortunes of a club that has won just three of their last 53 Prem games since March 2023.

Gallagher Premiership

P

W

L

D

PF

PA

PD

BP T

BP-7

BP

Total

1

Northampton

13

11

1

1

57

2

Bath

13

11

2

0

56

3

Leicester

13

10

3

0

51

4

Bristol

14

10

4

0

48

5

Exeter Chiefs

13

8

4

1

47

6

Saracens

13

6

7

0

38

7

Sale

13

3

10

0

22

8

Gloucester

13

2

11

0

16

9

Harlequins

13

3

10

0

15

10

Newcastle

14

1

13

0

7

The coaching upheaval at a few clubs during the campaign hasn’t helped one bit and isn’t something we’re used to seeing in rugby but it’s a sign of the times and is something that we may well see more of in the seasons to come.

We’re in the third season of it being a 10-team league and it’s clear that is far from ideal with an increase to 12 teams targeted by 2030 and further expansion possible if ambitious clubs meet criteria on and off the field.

That seems unlikely at present but is probably the most important part of the jigsaw to get right and in the meantime some solutions already in place across the Channel might just help increase the levels of jeopardy.

Neutral venues for semi-finals would help in that regard as a staggering 37 of 43 play-offs since 2003 in the Prem have been won by the home side but I think taking it one step further and following the Top 14 in having six teams in the play-offs also makes sense.

It does mean over half the league would make it to the play-offs but I don’t think that would really detract from the regular season if you compare it to what we’re seeing at the moment.

It works outstandingly in the football league as well, again with the caveat that there are a lot more teams in those leagues to begin with, and the idea of the top two getting a bye through to the semi-finals and facing the winner of third vs sixth and fourth vs fifth just feels like it’d offer a real solution in the short term.

It doesn’t have to be forever and you could always revert to the existing play-off system further down the line but for now it’d keep things a bit more interesting.

It used to be the case that second played third for the right to face the tabletoppers in the final so there’s no reason that you couldn’t expand it to six teams and reassess the situation when the picture looks a bit different down the track.

Too many teams qualify for the Champions Cup, which doesn’t help in terms of giving those out of play-off contention something else to play for, but that isn’t something to look at as it lies at the door of EPCR.

The fragmented nature of a regular season that has just 18 rounds but is played over the course of nine months is another major problem, as Saracens pointed out this week while posting losses of £9 million for last season.

It’s another one that’s out of the league’s control though as it’s down to the age-old conundrum of the global rugby calendar, which is shifting very slightly and very gradually but is up to some other major stakeholders to solve.

Looking at the remaining fixtures, we’re unlikely to see that many quite such one-sided scorelines in the same round again this season but it’s still a weekend that should have made Prem rugby executives sit up and take note.

There’s no one silver bullet that is going to fix all the issues and it’s going to take time for more teams to raise their levels but the bottom four simply have to show their teeth and have more fight.

There was still a third of the season left when they were all taking 50 last weekend and it’ll probably be a different story in the final five rounds but the expansion of the play-offs to six teams might just be the move that boosts jeopardy again.