Although this is a Southern Hemisphere website, I thought a few contributors might be interested in a brief analysis of the Guinness Premiership teams ahead of the new season.
Bath
Last season Bath played some excellent, loose rugby the genesis of which lay in a heavy duty pack and the siege gun boot of Barkley. Steve Meehan delivered big results (the first silverware in a decade) with comparatively frugal resources. However, Butch James has now been consistently playing rugby for an age, and Barkley and Borthwick have left for new pastures.
There is still uncertainty over the Rec and Bath does not have a high percentage kicker following the departure of Barkley. Hape is certainly not a like for like replacement, either. This should prove a trickier season, especially given the recruitment of other clubs. But Meehan is a clever strategist and Bath should continue to punch above their weight.
Mid-table finish, realistically aiming for top 6.
Bristol
No Heineken Cup distractions this year, and no EPS members. But then no real impetus in terms of player recruitment either.
It should be a difficult season, but there is a lot to improve, specifically defensively and in the lineout. Talismans Perry and Ward-Smith are fit, which is a huge plus.
A lot depends on how Adrian Jarvis fulfills the playmaker role as Bristol reverted to conservatism last season.
They could be a surprise team, but are likely to finish 10th or 11th.
Gloucester
Having capitulated yet again in the knock-out stages, Dean Ryan is surely drinking at the last chance saloon. Gloucester’s season will depend on how they cope with their missing England players.
Barkley is an excellent acquisition and will help Gloucester win those tight games.
Other than that, it is business as usual. The promising youngsters will be a year older and potentially this could be a big year for the Cherry and Whites.
Regular season winners.
Harlequins
A big turnaround midway through last season. Evans, Taione and Tiesi look like inspired signings.
Despite a comparatively lightweight pack, I think Harlequins will get better and better. Evan’s boot will be able to solve any territorial problems, too.
Easter, Skinner and Strettle are not in the EPS, so there should be continuity throughout the season also. The only problem could be the draining Heineken Cup.
Despite that I think Quins will finish above Jones’ expensively assembled Saracens and position 4th or 5th.
Leicester
If Meyer attempts to play the same brand of rugby that he utilised at the Bulls, Leicester will be left behind.
Leicester has a stodgy, one dimensional squad that has been hit hard – 12 players – by the EPS and they have lost some key squad members.
No more driving maul ploys, too. They should still finish in the top four though.
London Irish
The loss of Brian Smith is key. It is up to Toby Booth to now handle the big seat. The ELVs should suit the Irish lineout, especially with the kicking of Geraghty, Hewat and Catt, and the running of Armitage, Ojo and Tagicakibau.
A good squad who will not have the Heineken Cup to contend with, this could be their breakthrough season in the league.
Potentially 4th or 5th.
London Wasps
Dallaglio and Waters gone, Cipriani injured until October. Only two new players – old stagers Betsen and Mark Robinson – and countless EPS members.
This could be a transitional season for Wasps, especially with McGeechan having to contend with his Lions work on the side. Wasps are traditionally slow starters and if that occurs this season I can’t see them having the gumption to track back the required points over a long season.
Wasps are the masters of overachieving, but not this year.
6th or 7th. Possibly even 8th.
Newcastle
Relegated. What a waste of time from Hayman. Sad to see him up there really. Tu’ipulotu is another player who should be at a better club. Steve Bates is massively out of his depth and he has not made any attempts to improve their woeful pack. Lost too many key players, poor replacements, poor scrum, and no cutting edge in the backline.
Awful.
Lost and out of place in the depths of North England.
Northampton.
Big spending, superb stadium and a bright young thing at coach, Jim Mallinder.
A step up from Division 1, and bringing in a host of new players brings separate problems.
However, not much is expected from Northampton so they could pull off a few surprises. They still have no top gun kicker and I cannot see them achieving anything of note.
I would expect a typical Northampton campaign: disjointed, callow midfield, poor kicker and lacking fitness. Chris Ashton will not find tries so easy to come by this season.
Fighting it out with Bristol for 10th or 11th. 9th at a push.
Sale
Massive underachievers last year. Released some mediocre players (Mayor, Day, Bonner Evans, Vilk) and signed some far better players (Tait, Peel, Ormsby, Abraham). Good squad depth, multiple kicking options, an excellent scrum, adventurous, intelligent backs and a powerful back row unit.
The only question mark is over the coaching of Saint-Andre, specifically his insistence of playing MacAlister at 13. Far too much kicking last season. Sale needs to perform like a team this year, and not a collection of very good players.
Potential winners, but 2nd or 3rd.
Saracens
Eddie Jones, poor signings (Owen and Borthwick), retirement of Hill and the choice of Farrell as joint captain. It’s not good for the Fez heads.
Van Heerden won’t arrive for a while and Jones has already set his stall out by choosing Chris Jack at blindside flanker for the first game of the season.
Very inconsistent last year and I am firmly convinced that a man like Jones will not be able to avoid agitating such a large squad over such a long season.
Certainly bottom half.
Worcester
My pick as surprise package of the season.
Excellent lineout and scrum, good running backs and an excellent stadium. Therefore, no off-pitch worries.
Ruddock now has a season behind him and Worcester will want to build on last season’s promise.
Miles Benjamin, in tandem with Rico Gear, will most likely improve upon his exploits last year.
The only problem is a lack of fly-half and midfield creativity.
Nonetheless, Latham’s left boot should thrive under the ELVs, especially with Worcester having such a strong lineout. Ably led by Pat Sanderson.
Likely to finish 7th.
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Spiro said | September 7th 2008 @ 2:29pm | Report comment
It’ll be interesting to see how all this goes. It is always difficult to predict outcomes at the beginning of a season, what with injuries and England players having to miss matches on national duties. There is also the complication of how the teams and coaches adjust to the modified ELVs they are playing. The ELVs force teams to think quickly about their options, play what is before their eyes more than set-in-concrete game plans.
This will be a test for the coaches as much as the players.
Coach Jim Mallinder will be worth noting. He was a solid, thoughtful fullback and apparently is becoming an excellent coach. English rugby needs an English coach, you would think, who understands the England game the way Clive Woodward did. Perhaps Mallinder is the man?
mtngry said | September 7th 2008 @ 4:09pm | Report comment
Cheers for this… I don’t suppose you could do the Celtic League as well?
sheek said | September 7th 2008 @ 4:28pm | Report comment
Benjamin,
Thanks for this, well composed. It helps us southerners fast-track our understanding of NH rugby. For many years, a select group of us have relied on Dublin Dave on a private forum to give us the NH perspective on things. You are welcome here.
Harry said | September 7th 2008 @ 6:50pm | Report comment
Thanks for this Benjamin, a good read. Having lived and played rugby there for 8 years am always interested (and appreciative) of this, what a shame we don’t get highlights, or indeed any games, on Foxtel. Bath, Leicester, Wasps and Harlequins were the gun sides in those days and good to see all doing well – didn’t Harlequins almost go bust like Richmond a few years back?
They had that rugby program on the BBC on a Sunday evening which showed the club games in Enlgand and Wales. The Welsh league was a lower standard but always entertaining viewing as the boyo’s ripped into each other, and generally played an attractive 15 man game. One of the downsides of professionalism that you don’t have many of the strong individual Welsh sides – Neath, Wansea – any more, just Llanelli.
Harry said | September 7th 2008 @ 6:53pm | Report comment
I’m told that some of these teams have changed their traditional style eg. Gloucester were always tough forwards, (Mike Teague) ball up the jumper and a kicking 5/8th, but now days they throw it about – is this right and you views please on how teams style changes.
Benjamin said | September 7th 2008 @ 10:06pm | Report comment
Spiro, Dean Ryan is a very good coach who despite his personal playing style has developed a young, exciting brand of rugby at Gloucester. The same applies to Dean Richards at Quins, however the great irony there is that both teams have struggled to win those close, up-your-jumper games, the sort of games that both coaches thrived in as players. The previous Premiership season was the first ever that the majority of coaches looked to play young Englishmen first and foremost, so this season should be even better, albeit a decade too late. Toby Booth at Irish is also a very forward thinking coach. Mallinder is highly regarded because of his work with the English age groups, but not much is expected of Northampton this season so he’s in a good position to try and really develop something exciting. Mallinder was touted for the backs role under Johnson but , quite rightly I think, he decided to learn his trade a bit more before plunging into the deep end.
Mtngry, I’ll have a go at a Celtic League brief in a few hours.
Thanks Sheek, I thought somebody might be interested, so at least it was worthwhile.
Harry, rugby in Wales is certainly less passionate than it used to be, the regions aren’t massively popular because they don’t integrate communities but rugby is the national sport, it’s a catch 22 – fans don’t approve of the imitation provincialism but they still want to watch a game. Voting with their feet isn’t plausible. The Gwent Dragons aka Newport have been shockingly treated. It’s a shame. The club is considered a feeder club which is quite sad frankly.
Harlequins are fine now Harry. They were relegated which did them the world of good in hindsight, and now they have an excellent academy and a good coaching structure. Gloucester are indeed a very loose, 15 man team – which ironically has been to their detriment in the pressure games but what Dean Ryan has been aiming for is very noble.
Colin N said | September 7th 2008 @ 11:03pm | Report comment
Jim Mallinder is an excellent coach as he has proved with Sale, playing an excellent type of rugby with very few resources in compariason to that of Saint-Andre, who has had lots more resources but has not got the backs working in tandom regularly enough. I believe this is a crunch season for Saint-Andre as Sale arguably have the most talented squad in the competition yet we certainly under-achieved last season, iand n the main grinding out results.
As for the contenders, I think with the signing’s of Peel and Tait, Sale will be up there, with the usual teams such as Gloucester and Leicester. I’m not sure about Wasps, as they will have a lot of of players in the elite squad and judging by their performance against LI yesterday they may find it difficult this season. Harlequins may also sneek into the top four with some intellegent signings such as Evans and with young players like Care and Robshaw being a year older, they may challenge.
I expect the mid-field scrap to be between London Irsih, Saracens, Bath, Worcester, with Northanpton probably coming in ninth. Obviously the relegation battle this year is likely to be between Bristol and Newcastle, the teams with the lowest budgets unfortunately.
Benjamin said | September 8th 2008 @ 12:22am | Report comment
Some interesting points from the first weekend of play…
in the absence of short arms kicking to touch has increased the significance of the lineout. The numbers rule means that some teams are employing the hooker and scrum half as third unit lifters on defence in order to challenge for the ball. However the problem with that is that if the attacking team wins posession and taps down there is room to snipe without the scrum half or hooker sweeping. These potential mismatches were exploited by Irish against Wasps. Eddie Jones tried to consolidate the lineout by playing Chris Jack at blindside. The result was a mixed bag. Jack set up De Kock’s try but often loitered on the wing.
The 5 metre defence rule at scrums was positively approached by all, Harlequins especially. When Wasps had an attacking scrum London Irish put their winger and fly half into the flank position and placed their 6 as blindside winger and their 7 as first 5/8 defence. That was certainly effective. A flipside to that is that teams may employ their backrow as first receivers – that way the ball runner is not isolated and he can target the opposing fly half, much like Henry used to do with Collins against France and Betsen.
In most games the breakdown was a mess and there seemed to be quite a bit of ‘off the feet’ play, which was juvenile at best. There has certainly been an increase in whistling up by the ref.
Just out of interest… I noted in the Top 14 that to offset the quick tape many French teams were being outrageously cynical. Holding on to the ball, lying across the ball holder etc.. anything to allow the defence to realign.
All in all a curate’s egg. Some good, some bad.
True Tah said | September 8th 2008 @ 8:00am | Report comment
Very thoughtful of you Benjamin,
will be looking forward to seeing how the GP goes, sadly we get very scant coverage of it down under.
How does GP compare to Magners League?
Benjamin said | September 8th 2008 @ 8:15am | Report comment
Why thank you Tah. I aim to please.
The GP is longer (two extra teams) and there are play offs (which are only being introduced to the Magners next season) thus those who give players to England are not necessarily hindered over the long term. The GP is more intense due to the prospect of relegation and therefore there are bigger crowds also. The Magners League is a glorified training experience for the big teams, as much as it pays me to say it. Leinster, Munster and the Ospreys use it as a development tool for Europe, in fact it is fair to say that Munster is geared to win the HC far more than it is for producing Irish players for the national team. That means there aren’t any real rivalries. Provincialism in Ireland, Scotland and Wales has put paid to that, whereas the GP has historic rivalries and lengthy competition. Tipoki and Tito play in the Magners and McAlister and Jack play in the GP – I think that best illustrates the difference. I’m a fan of both but it is fair to say that the Magners League is a rather flawed prospect.