The Chiefs’ director of rugby is in bullish mood but stern tests await as the 2017-18 Premiership season kicks off on FridayOn the eve of a new Premiership season, here is a little quiz question: how many different clubs have topped the English table and/or won the title in the past 14 years? The answer* is at the bottom of the page: suffice to say it is higher than you think. Predictable is seldom a word applied to the world’s tightest league and 2017-18 will be no different.Partly it is a reflection of the ever‑shifting tectonic plates shaping rugby’s economics; nothing is guaranteed to last for ever, as the southern hemisphere’s leading nations are discovering. In these islands last season, two relatively...
Saracens are again the team to beat, champions Exeter must not rest on their laurels, Leicester look strong once more, but club v country rows will growHe is far too laidback to acknowledge it but Jamie George provides the ideal case study to best explain the tangled web that is the domestic season – a campaign that kicks off on Friday with its unique blend of annual optimism and unseemly self-interest. The 26-year-old Saracens and British & Irish Lions hooker started all three Tests in New Zealand in a series the All Blacks were expected to waltz through, only for Warren Gatland’s troops to come away with a draw against the odds. More on those odds later, for they are...
Exeter’s Premiership victory has won plaudits as has Saracens’ in the Champions Cup but British & Irish Lions players need careful management next seasonExeter Chiefs. Saracens are back-to-back European champions but neither they nor Wasps could topple the Chiefs when it mattered domestically. While the Lions could yet ambush this category they will do well to equal the ceaseless positivity and collective spirit of English rugby’s new market leaders. Robert Kitson Related: Alex Goode try seals Champions Cup final victory for Saracens over Clermont Related: Scarlets score six tries to sweep aside Munster and win Pro12 title Related: Wasps go to Premiership final as Josh Bassett’s late try floors Leicester Related: World Rugby ‘disappointed’ with Northampton over George North injury...
The most gripping Premiership final proved a more accurate reflection of English rugby than any Twickenham internationalThe Premiership has known some staggering finales but never such a roller-coaster of emotions. Chiefs looked to have taken control when they led 14-3 after just 28 minutes; for Wasps to respond with 17 unanswered points was remarkable. Exeter’s storming response, with Wasps’ having to repel a 34-phase attack at a crucial juncture of the second half, also summed up both sides’ unbelievable resolve and collective spirit. Extra-time, with both sides on their last legs, was almost too tense to watch even before Gareth Steenson’s clinching penalty. A place-kicking contest would have been horrendous. Related: Exeter and Wasps serve up final thriller to show...
Some have doubted the Premiership’s need for play-offs but Gareth Steenson’s last-gasp winning kick was a fittingly dramatic end to justify their existenceWhat a final, they kept saying, and they were right, but these finals always are. Folk have of late noted that we will not need play-offs any more, when they stretch the domestic season to 10 months, smoothing out those crinkly weekends which overlap with the international game.Yes we will. This is addictive. To be at Twickenham in high May is to see English club rugby at its best, and there is no reason to think it will be any different in high June. This time, as apparently every time, two superb, attack-minded teams cut each other up...