Simmering relegation battle again proves to be most compelling element of the Premiership
It may not be the most enjoyable experience for the fans of the clubs currently engaging in it, but for the second year in a row, the relegation battle at the bottom of the Gallagher Premiership is proving to be a salivating spectacle.
Even though Saracens currently sit in 12th with minus seven points and are a sizable 18 points off of safety, few are countenancing their possible relegation. Their form, strength of squad and past seasons’ points totals all suggest that they will find themselves clear of the danger come the end of the season.
That leaves what looks to be shaping up as a three-horse race to avoid the drop at the bottom, although there is still plenty of time for further teams to be added to that mix, as the Premiership clubs, outside of Saracens, Exeter Chiefs and Northampton Saints, struggle for consistent wins in what has become a fascinatingly competitive tournament.
As stands, the three teams in the mix are Leicester Tigers, Wasps and London Irish. Tigers have just 11 points after eight rounds of rugby, and that’s only due to the bonus point win over Bristol Bears this past weekend, whilst both Wasps and London Irish lost at home to the high-flying pair of Northampton and Exeter respectively.
If Leicester can use that win over Bristol as a catalyst for improved fortunes, or perhaps it was the draw that was earned at Twickenham the week previous that was the real turning point, then the relegation battle could well surpass the title race as the most exciting facet of this season.
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Watch: Michael Fatialofa remains in specialist hospital following injury
The back row is beginning to fire as Jordan Taufua settles in, something which will only be compounded when the club can get Hanro Liebenberg in there alongside him, and Telusa Veainu is beginning to show flashes of the pre-injury form that had him labelled as one of the most compelling watches in the competition.
Perhaps the key element to that win, however, was the form of the club’s contingent of England internationals. Jonny May, Ellis Genge, Ben Youngs, George Ford and Dan Cole all looked effective and up for the fight, and that quintet make up such a vital core of the Leicester squad that Geordan Murphy will need all five of them to be firing for the remainder of the season if he is to safely navigate Tigers away from the bottom.
It would be a shame to see such an iconic club as Leicester relegated, though the same was said of Harlequins and Northampton not too long ago, and both of those sides came back better after an eye-opening stint in the Greene King IPA Championship. If Leicester continue to play like they did against Bristol, that is very unlikely to be the case come May.
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Then there’s Wasps, who for all money looked as though they might give themselves some welcome breathing room on Sunday, only for a late Taqele Naiyaravoro try to sink them at the Ricoh Arena. With Northampton having been reduced to 13 men in the dying minutes and Wasps enjoying the lead on the scoreboard, it was representative of their season.
Having lost a number of key players in the summer, the club has struggled to replicate their performances on the pitch with those of the players that were signed to fill the void. The return of Jimmy Gopperth certainly promises hope and his class was evident on Sunday, even as the Coventry-based outfit fell to their sixth defeat of the young Premiership season.
The club have a real battle on their hands for the remainder of this campaign, as their high turnover in playing personnel in recent seasons certainly seems to have hindered them. The last time Wasps were threatened with relegation, they turned to young talents such as Elliot Daly, Christian Wade and Billy Vunipola for salvation, so it will be interesting to see how much the likes of Tom Willis, Alfie Barbeary and Will Porter are used, as the club seeks to form a new core of homegrown senior players.
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Finally, we come to Irish. After an extremely bright start to the season, the Exiles’ fortunes have diminished of late and the defeat to Exeter is their third-straight loss in the competition. One of the preseason favourites for the drop, Irish now truly find themselves in the scrap for survival.
The 36-11 win over Leicester in November is beginning to feel a long time ago for Irish fans and Tigers currently sit just two points behind the London side. Having reportedly discarded the EQP quota this season in order to field as strong a squad as possible and push for survival, there will be concern at the diminishing return in results that they have been able to produce over the last two months.
It was always going to be a challenge for Irish to stay up, despite the heavy investment they made in the playing squad over the summer, and the sooner they can get Waisake Naholo and Ben Loader back together and in the starting XV, the better off they’ll be. Just as Vereniki Goneva and Sinoti Sinoti previously did for Newcastle Falcons, and Josh Adams and Bryce Heem provided for Worcester Warriors, the presence of two clinical wingers can do wonders for turning around an ailing team’s performances.
There is a significant ’10-pointer’ coming up in February, as Leicester, shorn of their England internationals, host Wasps at Welford Road. Two rounds later, Irish also host Wasps, as the Guinness Six Nations period is shaping up to be very influential in ultimately deciding who faces the drop at the season’s end.
That all said, Worcester’s 62-5 humbling at the hands of Saracens this weekend will do them no good at all and it would not be surprising to see the West Midlands club sucked into the contest. Saracens away is arguably the toughest fixture they will face all season, although that was a defeat, not only on the scoreboard but also in the contrast of ability on the pitch, that was monumentally stark.
Quins and Bath are coming off of a couple of rounds of below par performances and results and now look possibilities to slide back, though prior to Round 7 they had been beginning to put together some momentum and points.
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From there on up, teams begin to look a lot safer. Bristol Bears will not suffer through the international call-ups in the Six Nations that a number of other teams will and the same is true of Gloucester and Sale Sharks. Exeter and Northampton aren’t in the conversation, as their domestic fortunes continue to prosper in the absence of Saracens in the upper echelons of the table.
It would be a shame if in the seasons to come this element of the Premiership were removed from the league, with renewed calls for ringfencing following the investment by CVC Capital Partners. For all the travails faced by the Guinness PRO14, the desire to remove relegation from the Premiership, thus eradicating one of the few things that truly separates the two competitions, seems an odd move.
There’s no getting away from how dull the second half of the Super Rugby season can become, either, especially in the bottom half of the log where teams are scrapping it out for nothing more than pride.
As stands, the relegation battle is putting bums on seats in stadiums and gluing eyes to BT Sport, as fans of the competition are once again treated to a delightfully difficult to call contest at the bottom of the table, with real consequences and challenges for the team that ultimately loses it.
This is what makes the Premiership and the Top 14 the enviable competitions that they are.
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Comments on RugbyPass
Bar the injuries, it’s pretty much their top team …
2 Go to commentsDon’t disagree with much of this but it appears you forgot Rodda and Beale, who started at the Force on the weekend.
9 Go to commentsExcept for the injured Zach Gallagher this would be Saders best forward pack for the season. Blackadder needs to stay at 7, for all of Christies tackling he is not dominant and offers very little else. McNicholfullback is maybe a good option, Fihaki not really upto it, there was a reason Burke played there last year. Maybe Havilli to 2nd five McLeod to wing. Need a strong winger on 1 side to compliment Reece
1 Go to commentsTo me TJ is clearly the best 9 in the competition right now but he's also a proven player off the bench, there's few playmaking players who can come off the bench as calm and settled as he is, Beauden can, TJ can and I doubt any of the scrumhalves in contention can, if they want to experiment with new 9s I want him on the bench ready to step in if they crumble under the pressure. The Boks put their best front row on the bench, I'd like to see us take a similar approach, the Hurricanes have been doing similar things with players like Kirifi.
35 Go to commentsROG has better chance to win a WC if he starts training and make himself eligible as a player. He won’t make the Ireland squad but I reckon he may get close with Namibia (needs to improve his Afrikaans) or Portugal. Both sides had 1000:1 odds to win the RWC in 2023 which is an improvement on ROG’s odds of winning a RWC as a coach. Unlike Top 14 teams, national teams can’t go shopping and buy the best players - you work with the available talent pool and turn them into world beaters.
2 Go to commentsthat backline nope that backline is terrible why would you have sevu Reece when he’s not even top 5 wingers in the comp why have Blackadder when there’s better players no Scott barret isn’t an automatic the guy is more of a liability than anything why have him there when you have samipeni who’s far far better
35 Go to commentsAh, good to find you Nick. Agree with everything about Cale. So much to like about his game
49 Go to commentsNot too bad. Questions at 6, lock and HB for me. The ABs will be a lot stronger once Jordan and Roigard return. Also, work needs to be made to secure Frizzell back for next season and maybe also Mo’unga; they’re just wasting time playing in japan
35 Go to commentsOn the title, i wonder for many of those people it is a case something like a belief in working smarter, not harder?
1 Go to commentsForget Sotutu. One of those whose top level is Super Rugby. Id take a punt on Wallace Sititi Finau ahead of Glass body Blackadder.
35 Go to commentsI’m a pensioner so I've been around a bit. My opinion of SBW is he is an elite athlete and a great New Zealander and roll model. He has been to the top and knows what he's talking about. To all the negative comments regarding SBW the typical New Zealand way, cut that tall poppy down.
17 Go to commentsI'm not listening to a guy moralise over others when this is the guy who walked out mid season on Canterbury RLFC when he had a contract with them, what a hypocrite. All the Kiwis sticking up for this unprincipled individual because they can't accept justified criticism, he has zero credibility or integrity. Those praising him are a joke.
17 Go to commentsI’d put Finau at 6 instead of Blackadder but that’s the only change I’d make. Can’t wait to see who Razor picks.
35 Go to commentsTamati Williams, Codie Taylor, and Same Cane? Not sure about Hoskins Sotutu at test level. Wasn’t that impressive last season. Need a balance between experience and talent/youth.
35 Go to commentsInteresting insight. Fantastic athlete, and a genuine human being.
17 Go to commentsThey played at night in Suva last weekend and it’s an afternoon game forecast for 19 degrees in Canberra this weekend. Heat change is a non issue.
2 Go to commentsWishing Rosie a speedy recovery
1 Go to commentsObscene that SA haven’t been knocking
1 Go to commentsChances of Blackadder being injured seem too high to give him serious consideration. ABs loosie combination finally looked good with 2 committed to tackling and clearing rucks in the centre and Ardie roaming. Hoskins/Ardie together would force one of them into where they don’t excel and don’t get to use their talent, or require a change in tactics. If we continue to evolve last years systems I would take Papali’i and Finau at 6 and 7 (conceding that Blackadder will be injured) and Ardie at 8.
35 Go to commentsArdie’s preferred position 7? Where do they get these writers from? I've no idea where he's playing in Japan, but the previous two seasons he wore the 7 jersey exactly twice.
18 Go to comments