Cleaning up the breakdown can be key as Gallagher Premiership campaign resumes

Exeter odds-on for title but pick-and-go strategy could be ruined by clampdown

Johnny Gray joins Exeter Chiefs’ second row following his move from Glasgow Warriors. Picture: Rogan/JMP/Shutterstock

When rugby union went open almost exactly 25 years ago, the doubt among the amateur detractors was whether the sport could wash its own face, financially, and might descend into an internecine, unfriendly mess.

Throw in the unique coronavirus problems of 2020, of washing hands every five minutes and financial woes no one saw coming, and the restart of the Premiership today – Harlequins v Sale –behind closed doors after a five-month interruption, has a backdrop more messed up and unpredictable than anything envisaged by the old duffers in blazers.

The terms of reference have changed, as in every other sport and in daily life. There are nine rounds of regular-season Premiership matches to be played before the semi-finals and final in October, and there have been six rounds of virus testing every Monday since the start of July, from which 20 players have returned positive results.

Steve Diamond, the head coach at second-placed Sale Sharks, said this week that one player testing positive would affect no other player, because of the way the club’s training has been conducted. The Premiership states only that: “Players or club staff who have tested positive and their close contacts will now isolate and be assessed…” The names of those affected are confidential, but we know the testing is now twice a week before matches, and with three sets of midweek fixtures squeezed in, that means a quick turnaround of swabs as well as a stress test of squad depth.

The possible punishment of a 20-0 loss if a team forfeits a match due to Covid-19 shows the compressed nature of the whole venture. “Integrity of the competition” was a reason given by the league’s chief executive Darren Childs to play all the remaining matches of the 2019-20 season at a time when clubs would normally be gearing up for 2020-21. The truth is the payment for fulfilling the TV broadcast contract with BT Sport is crucial to some severely cash-strapped clubs. BT want to keep the contract when it is up in 2021, too, and their head of sport Simon Green said they do not mind summer rugby, either, if it separates the club game from internationals. Make no mistake – there are momentous decisions being discussed in the video-conference corridors of power.

And now… the rugby. After a record hiatus for the Premiership of 159 days, is the league table still a good form guide or completely out of date? Sale and Bristol have made swanky new signings near the top. In mid-table Gloucester cleared out all their coaches. At the bottom, relegation is a non-issue unless a salary-cap breach suddenly arises (never say never, in this league).

There will be shockwaves if the leaders and still the bookmakers’ odds-on title favourites Exeter lose at home to Leicester on Saturday. But it does feel a long time since the reverse fixture in December 2019 when Exeter won at a canter at Welford Road.

In the meantime, the Tigers have put erstwhile England forwards coach Steve Borthwick in charge, while the Chiefs have ditched their axe-wielding, headdress-wearing mascot, but not their name or logo, and now we’ll see if their rugby leitmotif of pick-and-go battering will be ruined by the Premiership-wide clampdown on “driving not diving” – i.e. players risking a glut of penalties at the breakdown if they fly beyond the ball or enter from the side or seal off. Their second row has been augmented by the acquisition of Scotland lock Jonny Gray from Glasgow Warriors.

No laws have been changed, other than a one-minute water break midway through each half (so, a game of four quarters?), but the much-referenced Super Rugby in New Zealand has focused attention on a fresh attitude by referees to clean up the breakdown and keep teams onside.

Alex Goode of Saracens reports teams have struggled with the breakdown in training, but there is talk also of a will to entertain as players bound free from the shackles. “Guys will be keen to throw the ball around and there’ll probably be a few mistakes,” said Wasps’ Brad Shields, whose surname might invite a pun if this stuff wasn’t so serious.

Across the Premiership, players have been obliged to talk pay cuts and lost jobs, and illness and self-isolation, and ways to support Black Lives Matter, when all they want to do, to quote the old Sheryl Crow song, is have some fun. Here’s hoping we reach the resumption of the Six Nations in late October with only tries and smiles, and maybe a restoration of crowds, and 
no new interruptions.

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