The Guinness Premiership’s Remarkable Revival

The sun is out, attendances are up and the tries are coming thick and fast. The Guinness Premiership is looking better and stronger than ever and this year’s play-off’s involving Leicester, Northampton, Saracens and Bath have the potential to be the most exciting to date!

However, only a few months ago it was a completely different story and England’s top flight had almost ground to a standstill. The willingness of referees to penalise the attacking side was matched only by the resolve of teams to not get penalised in their own half. Unfortunately for players and spectators alike, frequently the result was a turgid kicking contest which threatened to suck the enjoyment out of rugby, and tries had unmistakably from being a necessity to a luxury.

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“Aerial Ping-Pong”

In the first fifteen rounds of matches, there were a staggering 35 matches in which one of the two teams playing failed to score a try and in 11 of those neither side was able to score a try. A possible response to this is that often the most exciting games of rugby are the low-scoring, try-less matches which involve such tiny margins and this is certainly true. However, spectators can only be expected to endure a certain amount of aerial ping-pong before they lose patience. Indeed, the standard of play reached such a low at certain points that some of the Premiership’s top sides were booed by their own supporters. English fans only had to flick their televisions on to the Super 14, to see exactly what they were missing out on. This year’s tournament has been a festival of running rugby, highlighted by a stunning match between the Chiefs and the Lions in which a staggering 18 tries were scored.

The lack of tries from the Premiership clubs was echoed by their performances in Europe. The impotency of English Clubs’ attacks were exposed by European defences and the result was a very poor showing by the English clubs in Europe this year. The Heineken Cup, usually strongly competed by English clubs, had only one quarter-finalist from the Premiership and the English club’s domination of the Challenge Cup slipped with no English club in the final this year.

The lack of continuity in attack shown by Premiership clubs is also likely to have significantly contributed to England scoring less tries than Wales, France and Ireland during this year’s RBS Six Nations. Players such as Matthew Tait and Delon Armitage who have proven to be very effective in attack in the past, suddenly looked slightly unsure of themselves. The fact that the players had spent the season in a glorified version of ‘Kick and Chase’ meant that the spark had almost completly disappeared. It took the introduction of Ben Foden and Chris Ashton, who have been given licence to counter-attack all season at Northampton, to finally give England that much needed spark to the England back-line.

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“Time For Change”

By late February, things were getting fairly desperate. Rounds fifteen and sixteen of the Premiership averaged just 2.5 tries a match and players and spectators were beginning to get frustrated. Bath and Northampton were amongst the clubs that adopted a more open-approach but it remained apparent that there was still little incentive to play attacking rugby.

Over the years, the organisers of the Guinness Premiership have been on the receiving end of a large amount of criticism for interfering too much with the way that rugby was managed and refereed in the Premiership. Despite this, the organisers decided that they needed to intervene. Premier rugby chief executive Mark McCafferty recently said, “There was a determination that we couldn’t let things go on as they were”.

Journalists up and down the country were writing articles calling for a drastic change in the way the game was refereed and in some cases even changing rugby’s point system. However, Premier rugby did not panic and had “a very positive meeting with all directors of rugby and had a working session with all our referees to ensure that space is created at the breakdown and that tacklers release the tackled player and role away immediately within the existing laws”.  

The results have been fairly remarkable and the Guinness Premiership has returned to its rightful position amongst the best national leagues in the Northern Hemisphere, if not the World. The number of tries per round has reason greatly and fans have been treated to some thrilling games of rugby.  

Premier Rugby should get a huge amount of credit for the changes we have witnessed, as should the referees who have made every effort to try and let the game flow. However, the clubs should also be praised for being prepared to capitalise on the new breakdown interpretation and play a more expansive and entertaining game.

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“Incredible Turnaround”

No side epitomizes the turnaround better than Saracens, who currently prepare for their semi-final clash with Northampton on Sunday. Saracens started the season with an outstanding ten-match unbeaten run. With a game plan built on defence and a good kick-chase Saracens were able to win matches by squeezing the life out of the opposition. It proved to be highly effective, but not particularly pretty to watch, with only 16 tries being scored in 16 games. Only the odd glimpse of attacking flair was shown by the outstanding pair of Schalk Brits and Alex Goode. However, by January teams had recognised that Saracens were a one-dimensional side and were able to counteract the kick-chase by leaving the full-back and wingers deep inside their own-half, ready to launch their own counter-attack. London Irish, the first side to beat Saracens in the Guinness Premiership did exactly that, and the other clubs soon followed.

A number of losses followed, and Saracens no longer looked the dominant side that they did at the beginning of the season, and their slip in the league positions reflected this. On the 14th March, Saracens lost their LV Cup semi-final with Northampton and their season looked like it might completely unravel. A lot has been made of the club’s trip to Brighton in the week following the Northampton game, but having recently spoke to the players, they were keen to stress to me that it was not in Brighton’s clubs, but in a two-hour club meeting where the side’s fortunes were turned around. Brendon Venter, sat down with the other coaches and players and a frank discussion about recent performances was had. It became apparent that a new game-plan was needed and it was decided that Saracens would begin to put much more width on the ball and look to attack from all areas of the pitch.

Since then, Saracens have scored a stunning 23 tries in 6 games, only one of which was at Vicarage Road. The have arguably looked like the most dangerous side in the league, and recent wins away at Leicester and Northampton have only served to underline their title credentials. Glen Jackson, playing in his last season before concentrating on his refereeing career, is stepping right-up to the game-line and is regularly prepared to run the ball from his own twenty-two, which is reflected in Saracens having three of the five tries nominated for the Guinness Premiership Try of the Season.

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“Stunning Climax”

The rugby played towards the end of this year’s Guinness Premiership has been some of the highest quality and most entertaining rugby that has been seen since the dawn of the professional era in this country, and the tournament looks set for a stunning climax in the coming weeks. So as I take my seat in Franklin’s Garden on Sunday, for the first of this years semi-final, I will be silently thanking all those who have turned this season around, and I would urge you to do the same.  

The Rugby Commentator

 

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Article Coming Soon: The Play-Offs Preview – An In-depth preview of both of this year’s Guinness Premiership Semi-finals.