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Why Itoje wouldn't oppose moving Premiership final from Twickenham
Saracens talisman Maro Itoje would have no problem with the Gallagher Premiership final being played away from Twickenham if it helped to turn the final into a must-watch event for non-rugby supporters in England and beyond. Ahead of this weekend’s 2022 final featuring Sarries versus Leicester, it emerged that the league is currently only contracted to stage its showpiece at the home of English rugby until 2024.
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New Premiership Rugby CEO Simon Massie-Taylor, who was appointed to the role last October, revealed at the start of this week that while Twickenham has staged every final since playoffs were introduced in 2003 to decide the champions, renegotiations on that arrangement were set to start this summer as the existing deal expires in two years’ time.
Massie-Taylor has also suggested that the Premiership could mirror the French Top 14 model where the semi-finals are staged at a neutral venue over the course of a weekend to enhance rugby’s appeal and take the game outside its traditional strongholds. For instance, this weekend’s French last-four matches are being held in Nice at a football stadium.
Itoje has become a recognisable face outside of rugby and his interest was piqued at the Saracens media briefing ahead of the 2021/22 final when it was put to him that there were talks afoot about possibly moving the showpiece decider in years to come away from English rugby HQ and staging it elsewhere to broaden its attraction.
“That’s interesting,” said Itoje, the 27-year-old veteran of four previous Twickenham Premiership finals as a player on the winning side with Saracens. “The traditionalist in me might say that Twickenham is the home of English rugby but if there are ways in which was can make it a bigger spectacle for the fans and make it a more enjoyable viewing experience I’d be all for it.
“I guess if you compare it to other major sporting events, the Champions League final or the Grand Prix, like in Monaco recently or Miami, that is an event people don’t want to miss. I am sure Twickenham will be sold out and there will be loads of people there but they will predominantly be rugby fans.
“The difference between that and some of the other events I have spoken about is that it is an event ordinary people, ordinary sports fans or just people in general just don’t want to miss. They want to be there, they want to feel the atmosphere and feel the experience so that is the challenge for these big events in rugby.
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“Of course, the rugby fans will always be there and will always be important. We can’t do anything without the rugby fans so they always need to be heard but we want to make it a spectacle so that the ordinary person doesn’t want to miss it because it’s the Premiership final, it should be the biggest event in town.”
Plenty of tickets are still available for the upcoming 2022 showpiece at the 82,000 capacity at Twickenham. The last pre-lockdown Premiership final took place in 2019 with 75,329 fans attending to see Saracens defeat Exeter in a thriller. 2020’s decider between winners Exeter and Wasps was held behind closed doors while attendance at last June 2021 final featuring champions Harlequins and Exeter was restricted to 10,000 due to pandemic restrictions in force at the time.
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.
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