The Strictly Come Dancing sequins and heels may be absent but in every other respect club rugby union is poised to strut its stuff. Rarely has a season offered such opportunity for those bold enough to reach out and seize it: a World Cup is on the horizon and a can-do attitude could yet transform the careers of players who put their best foot forward.
What the English Premiership, now backed by the American insurance broker Gallagher, lacks in terms of healthy annual profits will not bother the warriors strapping on their body armour. By common consent the league is more cut-throat than ever, with no certainties beyond the fact Saracens and Exeter will again be near the top of the pile. Those embracing this liberating sense of possibility stand a better chance of success than those clinging to past glories.
Because, as the Sale director of rugby, Steve Diamond, pithily observed this week, this is shaping up to be a campaign unlike any of its predecessors. “I think it’s different to how it’s ever been. There are two teams head and shoulders above the rest – Saracens and Exeter – and then there is a pack of 10. I don’t think we can say who’s going to struggle with the same clarity we’ve always had.” Spot-on.
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Many are nominating Worcester as the favourites for the drop, even though they won at Sandy Park and had too much for Gloucester, Newcastle and Harlequins in the second half of last season. If anyone should be nervous it is surely Quins, beaten in their concluding five games of 2017-18 and just starting out under new management. Having rejected the high-class services of Ben Ryan and Shaun Edwards, the club’s hierarchy will be praying Paul Gustard proves a wise choice as John Kingston’s successor.
In that regard the first three weeks will be hugely instructive, not least Bristol’s sparkly opener under lights against Bath at Ashton Gate on Friday. In their last Premiership incarnation two seasons ago Bristol did not register a victory until Boxing Day. This time the newly styled and beefed-up Bears have no intention of being prematurely stuffed, with their inspirational coach, Pat Lam, aiming for the top six. In that event, there will be some seriously displeased club owners in the table’s bottom half.
Along with Bath, already without the injured Anthony Watson and Jonathan Joseph, even Wasps and Leicester have a battle on their hands to guarantee European qualification. Like it or not Wasps will miss Danny Cipriani’s wrists of gold, and Jimmy Gopperth’s season-ruining knee injury is extremely untimely. Leicester find themselves in even less familiar territory, having failed to reach the play-offs last season for the first time since 2004. A fit and firing Manu Tuilagi would help but the big man’s career now has an element of Waiting for Godot attached.
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Gloucester, on the other hand, are a side with the fresh artillery to surprise a few. Jaco Kriel and Franco Mostert will stiffen their pack, as will their fellow South Africans Franco Marais, Gerbrandt Grobler and Ruan Dreyer. Biltong sales in the Cotswolds could shortly soar and so, too, will Cipriani’s stock if he succeeds in putting his recent cameo role in Bergerac behind him.
No one, similarly, will relish going to Newcastle, European rugby’s new mecca as the venue for May’s Heineken Champions Cup final. This season, more than ever, away wins will be at a premium and Sale will be equally awkward opponents when Faf de Klerk and Chris Ashton return. They are still hunting for a couple more high-profile forwards, although Diamond will not sign anyone seeking an easy life. “I read about players saying we should only play 20 games. Well, give us 50 % of your wages back, then. We’re trying to run a game that continually loses money but your salesman and star assets are saying they don’t want to play? They’re all eyeing up what they do in Ireland – which is a good system – but the player pool is a lot bigger here.”
The long-serving Diamond also believes disciplinary uncertainty has never been so rife as rugby’s intensity increases ever upwards. “The concussions are real enough and we’re all in agreement that we have to get tackles away from the head,” he says. “But what constitutes foul play is anybody’s guess. If Chris Ashton’s [against Castres] is a red card I don’t know where we’re going. Is the game going to become virtual touch rugby?”
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Newcomers to the world’s most unpredictable league such as Northampton’s Chris Boyd will find it a relentless experience, with last season’s pacesetters still out in front. The received wisdom that Exeter need to find a tactical plan B fails to reflect the certainty that Rob Baxter and his coaches will locate one. Stand by, too, for the sight of Matt Kvesic reminding everyone what an influential player he can be.
Which leaves Saracens, title winners last season despite a string of injuries. In a league that could yet see a resurgence in specialist breakdown predators – Kvesic, Kriel, Tom Curry, Sam Underhill, Thomas Young, Lewis Ludlow, Heinrich Brüssow – keep an eye on young Ben Earl who, alongside a fit-again Michael Rhodes and Billy Vunipola, has the ability to propel Saracens to further silverware. The 2019 World Cup, for the moment, can wait.