'This is the year to win the league... I'd have Saracens as favourites to win next year'
Danny Care has one pressing reason for Harlequins to seal the deal and become Gallagher Premiership champions this Saturday – he is afraid that Saracens will arrive back in next season’s top-flight as the favourites to reclaim the title. Saracens had been crowned champions four times in five seasons before it was decided in January 2020 that they would be automatically relegated to the Championship for the 2020/21 season.
The year without the London powerhouse resulted in Bristol topping the table at the end of the regular season with Exeter, Sale and Harlequins joining them in the playoffs. With Quins going through in the fourth and last position before going on to defeat Bristol in last weekend’s semi-final, Care is fully aware that the competition will be even more intense next season to qualify for the last-four with Saracens back on the scene following the completion of their tier-two season with easy wins over Ealing in the two-legged final.
Asked about the imminent renewal of the feisty Harlequins-Saracens rivalry next season, Care said: “I saw Saracens’ two training run-throughs the last couple of weeks. It was never in doubt was it that they were going to come straight back. I knew they would come straight back and I’d have them as favourites to win the Premiership next year.
“I honestly would because the players that they have got, probably what they have gone through in the past year has brought them even closer together as a squad, their coaches have stayed fairly similar.
“They lost Alex Sanderson to Sale but more guys that have worked there for a long time are coming through. They have still got some of the very best players in the world. I’m glad they weren’t in the league this year because the semi-finals would have been a lot harder to get into. They are going to be top of the tree next year and fighting for this Premiership. That is something I’m not afraid to say. This is the year to win the league because they are not in it.”
TEAM NEWS:
Midfield giant is back for Quins but the Chiefs have given their potential Lions No15 another dose of tough love#EXEvHAR #GallagherPremFinal
https://t.co/WMDmc4eUSU— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) June 25, 2021
Few if any people would have predicted at the turn of the year that Harlequins would qualify for the Premiership final as a poor run of form culminated in the January departure of Paul Gustard as head of rugby. A December European pool defeat was the nadir, according to Care who is described by Harlequins as a social glue-type player. “If anyone was at that Racing game at home when we came off the pitch, that was one where we were seriously questioning what we were doing. I certainly was questioning whether I am a good rugby player or not.
“That was a really tough day. To lose the way we did wasn’t us. The turnaround has been amazing and it’s all been about a mindset about us going back to what we believe in and that there is a real belief throughout the whole club, everybody is fighting for the same goal and we have got to the big dance Saturday.”
They will hope that their renewed firepower will be too much for Exeter, especially on the back of last weekend’s incredible comeback at Bristol from a 28-point deficit. “Before the semi-final, the coaches and Billy Millard to put together a little bit of a compilation of feel-good videos of you doing good stuff, but the main thing he showed was the scoreline of the last six, seven games, the teams we played against and how many points we scored.
“That hit home to us that we have scored an astronomical amount of points for whatever reason. We have massively changed the way we train, we’re not in as many days. You are going to get buy-in from lads if you offer them fewer days but when we train we train really intensely and we have fun.
“What we have done in training is gone back to the basics, getting players comfortable with the ball in hand – and especially our forwards – and that is correlated on the pitch. Definitely, what we have worked hard at in training is bearing fruit on the weekends and I just hope that when people now watch Quins they see the smiles back on our faces which is all we want to do.”
How England 'Funbus' Leonard amusingly frightened Wallabies legend Michael Lynagh 16 years ago following an incident at Richmond mini rugby training…#EXEvHAR #GallagherPremFinalhttps://t.co/XrLhdbMAsj
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) June 24, 2021
Comments on RugbyPass
We’re building a bridge but can't agree where the river is.
2 Go to commentsfirst no arms shoulder or helmet tackle into his rib cage is going to be so very painful even to watch. go back to RU mate.
2 Go to commentsBulls by 5. Plus another 50.
3 Go to commentsJohan Goosen avatar. Cute. Surely someone at RP knows how to do a google image search?
3 Go to commentsCan’t these games play a little earlier? Asking for a friend.
3 Go to commentsIt’s impressive that we can see huge stadiums with attendance in the 40 000 to 50 000 region. It shows how popular this competition is becoming. What is even more impressive is the massive growth in broadcast viewership. The URC is one of the two best leagues in the World, the other being the Top14.
7 Go to commentsChristie is not Sottish, like the majority of the Scotland team.
2 Go to commentsHold the phone, decline over-rated. Is it a one game, dead cat bounce or the real thing? Has the Penney dropped? Stay tuned.
45 Go to commentsTotally deserved win for the Crusaders Far smarter than the Chiefs who seem to be avoiding the basics when it matters Hotham showed them what was missing and Hannah seems a real find - a tad light but that can be fixed over time
8 Go to commentsGreat insight into the performance culture with Sarries and I predict Christie will be a fixture in the Scotland team now for some time to come. However, he is slightly missing his own point around Scotland “being soft” when he cites physicality examples in defence of that slight. The issue is much closer to the example he referenced around feeling off before a game but being told “it doesn’t matter, you can still play well” by Farrell. Until Scotland can get their psyche in that square, they will carry on folding under extreme pressure…
2 Go to comments> We are having to adapt, evolve and innovate more than when we were in Super Rugby where there was only really one style that everybody had to play to gain the most success. Have = able to? Interesting what that one style might be? I thought SA sides still had bad tours now, or at least bad schedule, months away? Those extra few hours flights have to be a killer though, no surprise to see their sides doing so badly at the start of the season each year. I wouldn’t enjoy that unfairness as a supporter.
7 Go to commentsThe problem for NZ, and Aus, is they ripped up the SR model and lost a massive chunk of revenue that hasn’t been replaced. Don’t forget SA clubs went North because they were left with no choice, Argy unceremoniously binned and Japan cast adrift. Now SR wasn’t perfect, far from it, but they’ve jumped into something without an effective plan, so far, to replace what they’ve lost. The biggest revenue potential now lies in Japan but it won’t be easy or quick to unlock, they are incredibly insular in culture as a nation. In the meantime, there is a serious time bomb sitting under SH rugby and if it happens then the current financial challenges will look like a picnic. IF the Boks follow their provincial teams and head north then it’s revenue meltdown. Not guaranteed to happen but the status quo is a very odd hybrid, with the Boks pointing one way and the clubs pointing the other way. And for as long as that remains then the threat is real.
45 Go to commentsI think Etene has had some good tuition, likely while at the Warriors to be a professional that helped his rugby jump, but he was certainly thrown in the deep end way too early. Should have arguably 20 less SR caps, and therefor a way better record that he does at his age, but his development would have been fast tracked by the need to satiate his signing away from league. Again, credit to him and others that he has done it so well. Easy to fall over under that pressure in the big leagues like that but he kept at it when I myself wasn’t sure he was good enough.
1 Go to commentsAwesome story. I wonder what a bigger American (SA) scene might have mean for Brex.
1 Go to comments“Johnny McNicholl and the Crusaders” save a Penney. Who has been in camp this week and showed them how to play?
8 Go to commentsSo, reports of the Crusaders’ demise / terminal decline are perhaps just - slightly - premature/exaggerated…? 🤔 Will we see a deep-dive into that by the estimable Rugbypass scribes, and maybe one or two mea culpas? Thought not.
8 Go to comments1. The Chiefs are rudderless without DMac, which enhances his AB chances 2. Chiefs pack are powderpuffs. The hard men arent there anymore 3. They had their golden title chance last yr and wont threaten this yr. Gone in second round of playoffs.
8 Go to commentsHonestly, why did you have to publish such a foolish article the day they play us? 😂
45 Go to comments> They are not standalone entities. They are linked to an amateur association which holds the FFR licence that allows the professional side to compete in the league. That’s a great rule. This looks like the chicken or egg professional scenario. How long is it going to be before the club can break even (if that is even a thing in French rugby)? If the locals aren’t into well it would be good to se them drop to amateur level (is it that far?). Hope they can reset from this level and be more practical, there will be a time when they can rebuild (if France has there setup right).
1 Go to commentsWhat about changing the ball? To something heavier and more pointed that bounces unpredictably. Not this almost round football used these days.
35 Go to comments