After being made redundant by Wasps, the England flanker could be a catalyst for RFU to take back control of playersViewed through the narrow prism of current events, one name leaps off England’s squad list for the autumn series. A penny for poor Jack Willis’s thoughts as he seeks to balance playing at the highest level with being made redundant at Wasps. Suddenly, he is also that rarest of unicorns: an English international primarily employed by his national union, not his club.Forget about central contracts being a future possibility because in effect they are already here. If the Rugby Football Union really wanted to be bold it would jump in and offer Willis – and possibly one or two of...
The sport’s days of reckoning are here, and everyone from the RFU to reckless club owners is responsible for the painWe could start with the sheer catastrophic waste of it all. All those years, all those hundreds of millions of pounds squandered. All the fudged decisions and fingers-crossed accounting. The oceans of bullshit, the overflowing reservoirs of self-interest. And yet that’s still not the most upsetting element. Worse is the numbing pain for everyone associated with two disintegrating clubs and the human cost of English rugby’s days of reckoning.There will be some looking at the travails of Wasps and Worcester and giving a resigned shrug. Of course they were spending beyond their means. Of course that couldn’t go on indefinitely....
Financial woes and player welfare concerns abound but rugby union remains a compelling spectacle when everything clicksEvery now and again on social media a video clip will emerge of a lonely surfer trying to catch a skyscraper-high wave off the coast of Portugal. Time it right and the long ride down is truly epic. Get it slightly wrong and the consequences of that misjudgment do not bear thinking about.In many ways the 2022-23 Premiership season feels broadly similar. Increasingly there are jagged financial rocks everywhere and the game’s physicality continues to make it unsuitable for the faint of heart. Continue reading...
There is a sick feeling in the stomach and English rugby will need to identify genuine applicants to assist the clubs in crisisWe should be casting our eyes over the runners and riders, perusing the comings and goings, drawing up our projected finishing orders, semi-finalists, winners. We should be arguing with alacrity over all of the above, dismissing each other’s opinions as worthless. Have you ever actually played the game? You don’t know what you’re talking about. All the usual brickbats any self-respecting sport rings out with at this time of year.Instead, we approach the new season of English rugby, 25 years after the Premiership was minted, with a sick feeling in the stomach. We cannot even predict with any...
Chiefs join Leicester, Wasps and Saracens as double winners but none of these were in the second tier a decade previouslyNo scorching May heat or packed stands, just damp autumn leaves on a windblown concourse and a soaking, empty colosseum. On the face of it this was as far removed from grand theatre as a small flapping tent on a sodden campsite but Exeter are increasingly a team for all seasons and stages, whatever the opposition or the weather throw at them.It was properly Hitchcock shower-scene wet by the end but, when it absolutely counted, the Chiefs’ grip on a cherished double proved impossible to shake. They are in excellent company with only Leicester (twice), Wasps and Saracens (twice) having...