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'Real shame': 3 Prem coaches on cancelled promotion and bye-weeks

By Liam Heagney
(Photo by David Rogers/The RFU Collection via Getty Images)

This past week radically changed the outlook of the upcoming 2022/23 Gallagher Premiership season. The RFU decided that neither Doncaster Knights nor Ealing Trailfinders had the necessary facilities to be promoted from the Championship at the end of this season if they are crowned champions and with no one coming up, the top flight in England next term is set to again have bye-weeks – two weeks in the season where each of the 13 clubs currently involved doesn’t have games to play.

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Bye-weeks were an invention that came into play for the first this year when it was decided due to the pandemic not to relegate the bottom club in the twelve-team 2020/21 Premiership. With Worcester getting off the hook and retaining their top-tier status, the number of participants instead increased to 13 with Championship title winners Saracens promoted.

The numerical imbalance has resulted in a skewed league table that won’t balance itself out until the end of the campaign in terms of the number of games each team has played. What have the Premiership clubs made of having bye-weeks this term and what are their thoughts on the prospect of doing it all again next season now that promotion has been cancelled for the title-challenging Knights and the Trailfinders?

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Jack Nowell, Ryan & Max on England Camp, Six Nations and Post Match Beers & Feeds | RugbyPass Offload | Episode 23

Jack Nowell joins us this week to give us an insight into England camp pre and post the Guinness Six Nations game against Wales. He tells Max and Ryan what’s changed in camp since he was last involved and how the squad is prepping for their next game against Ireland. We also hear about the best post-match feeds around the rugby world, how some of the England squad recently got trapped in a lift and just how much the guys enjoy a post-match beer in the dressing room.

RugbyPass canvassed the thoughts of three Premiership directors of rugby, two of whom have recent experiences of coaching their clubs in the Championship and winning the second-tier title to get back into the top flight:

ALEX SANDERSON – SALE SHARKS
“I’d love there to be another team who can come up and compete if there was. It’s more jobs, innit. I love a week off, don’t get me wrong. I could do with a week off and my brother is going skiing and I’d love to be out there with him, so the bye-weeks work for us. It gives us that natural break in the season and again if there were 14 we have got a better chance of getting Sale FC into the Championship which would work in our favour as well moving forward, to have a feeder Championship team.”

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Sale’s attendance of just 4,691 for last weekend’s Premiership game at home to London Irish has been mentioned in the debate over Doncaster and Ealing getting excluded for not having a facility that caters for 10,001. Is it a valid criticism of the Sharks, that their attendances at times are so low and comparable to the Championship’s leading clubs?

“Fair (criticism) but that is what we are trying to build here, we’re trying to build something that is sustainable, a sustainable business that has got a good buzz around it and in equal measure, you can refer to the atmosphere at the Leicester game, packed out and we had flames, DJs and stuff. We’re not there yet, we know that. Maybe that is a better question to pose to Sid Sutton, our CEO. That is his job. I have got to win, he has got to fill the seats.”

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PAT LAM – BRISTOL BEARS
“It’s disappointing. We were all looking forward to a team coming up and making it 14 but it’s like everything, you understand that things are in place, that rules are in place and you don’t make the criteria. As far as that goes that is disappointing. It is a great competition going on at the moment and it would be good to have another one up here because it’s what makes this game great.

“You hear many stories of who has come up, including Bristol themselves after going down, but ultimately, like anything, any sport, any part of life, once there is criteria you have to meet that first. I know a few guys who want to buy houses and stuff but they have to meet criteria with their mortgage brokers, with the banks to get the mortgage. It’s unfortunate but it is understandable.

“We had Covid, had to play midweek games. Is it ideal (now having bye-weeks)? You can go ‘poor us’ or you can say ‘this is what we face, let’s go’. It’s like people say you are going to miss your internationals. Well, we know Six Nations is on, we know November internationals and know when the World Cup is coming up so you plan. With bye-weeks, we know and you make the most of it and then you have 14 teams, great, whatever it is. It all comes back to mindset and preparation.”

MARK McCALL – SARACENS
“I am just off the training field now, that is news to me (about Doncaster and Ealing). I didn’t know that that decision had been taken and I don’t want to jump in and say something, but what I have always felt is that if a club has the resources and the ambition and deserves to get into the Premiership that should never be stopped. The case of Exeter back in the day ten years ago just shows you what is capable. I don’t know the reasons why. It’s probably facility-based and that is a real shame to hear that.

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“We have two slightly different bye-weeks. The first one came in week two, which wasn’t the greatest thing for us but we used it as a training week. This time around I think we had played seven or eight games in a row and it came at quite a good time for us just to give players a bit of downtime. Obviously, our squad has been stretched with international call ups and injuries and we have asked a lot of the players who have played over the last four weeks, so to be able to give them a bit of a rest last week wasn’t the worst thing in the world.”

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J
Jon 55 minutes ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 3 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

15 Go to comments
A
Adrian 5 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

15 Go to comments
T
Trevor 8 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

21 Go to comments
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