The Oddest Season

As we reach ‘the business end” of the Championship season, we can look back on a series of events that mark the 20-21 season as one that not one person ever hopes to see again.

The first event as covid-19 really got going, we had the possibility of the 20-21 seasonal Championship that was at various times forecast to be a full season, or abandoned altogether, with other possibilities between those extremes.  Perhaps the one that looked like gaining support was for two mini-leagues, six clubs in each, playing home and away in various formats, with an end-of-season play-off for promotion.

 Then, one Championship club, London Scottish, dropped out of the season altogether.  Their last first XV game seems therefore to have been played on April Fools’ Day 2020.  Thumping their opponents, Leeds Carnegie, they could not anticipate the financial situation of the club would then enforce a playing sabbatical that would last for the best part of 18 months.

Then, at last, a plan.  Not satisfactory to anybody, but the least unsatisfactory to everybody.  The eleven clubs able to play would play each other club once, half the season’s games at home, half away.  An end-of season, two-leg play-off between the top two sides would decide the promotion issue.  There was little likelihood of any live spectator support at any game, and for a while it even seemed that we would have no opportunity even to see match highlights anywhere on a screen, let alone a live stream.  At least that last bleak prospect was averted when Championship sponsors Greene King drove the negotiations that led to live streaming of every game, a result that actually meant that most Championship games actually got better coverage than would have been available in a normal season. 

With the season’s structure agreed, Sarries would perhaps not have wanted to meet Cornish Pirates at the Mennaye Field for their first taste of this must-win season.  With several senior players away on loan and the entire contingent of internationals reduced to one - Vincent Koch – Sarries needed all the remaining squad members to step up.  Instead, several key members of this reduced squad stepped out, not up.  Their breach of contract with Barbarians RFC ahead of the Twickenham game had led to that game’s cancellation and their being handed disciplinary action in the form of playing suspension.  Not surprisingly, Pirates were more than willing to take advantage of the much-weakened side that Mark McCall was able to send to the Pirates’ lair.  

 Following that really appalling start to a season that should have attracted the utmost commitment from every player, Sarries had started off by creating with no external help, a situation that demanded a win, with try bonus point, from each of the nine remaining games.  

 Any idea that Sarries would play a ‘championship side’ and only wheel out one or two of the international names was now not even a serious topic of discussion:  A single loss could actually destroy Saracens as a rugby club, failing to get to the play-offs and risking the arrival of ring-fencing the Premiership for the foreseeable future.

 Week two saw that process begin, with no real apprehension, as a spirited Jersey side were our first regular season visitors to the newly-named Stonex Stadium.  Week three was our rest weekend, giving time for the fully-loaded squad to reintegrate after various absences.

Week four, and out third game, was not impressive.  Richmond, a semi-professional side, should never have troubled Sarries, whether at home, away or on the moon.  A win is a win. But to win 3-32 and be unconvincing as they won, was not what we needed.  

 Week five produced the first 50 point win, against old friends Bedford.  Blues always offer an entertaining game, and I have good memories of several pre-season games in years past.  Sarries could, should and did win well on home ground.

 Then came the sterner test against the other promotion hopefuls, Doncaster Knights.  The score-line, 15-50, suggested that Sarries were now thoroughly in tune with what the Championship demands, and were adapting to those demands.  Doncaster were physical, straightforward and never let up, but keeping up with the greater firepower that they faced led to very clear signs of fatigue as Sarries gradually turned the screws.  

 Meanwhile, Ealing Trailfinders were in control of all they saw.  Every match won with a score over 50 points, and each game therefore an inevitable 5-pointer.  At least Sarries had a game in hand.  The stage was well-set for the game of the season, in week seven, as ETF visited the Stonex for the first time in a regular season game.  It was clear that ETF had taken heart from favourable results in the wash-out Trailfinders challenge, and equally clear that this was seen by all as the season’s top-of-table decider, on bragging rights at least.  Fully-loaded, Sarries demonstrated that the recent winners of multiple major trophies still pack real fire-power, despite all set-backs, and although the score was ‘only’ 48-20, the thinking man would have taken much heart from the thought that whilst ETF played as well as anyone could have asked, we knew that Sarries could have achieved more, especially if they learned to listen to the referee.

 The next three games saw large margins of victory against weaker sides, 0-56 at Nottingham, 69-12 against Ampthill and 0-73 against a gallant but wholly out-classed Coventry.  The huge points difference margin enjoyed by ETF had been whittled down by these three games, and if Sarries could win by two clear points, with a try bonus point, against ninth placed Hartpury, Sarries would finish top.  What could possibly go wrong?

 Covid testing went wrong, of course.  Several of the Hartpury squad and staff tested positive and the club withdrew from the game.  We now learned that the RFU would meet as a ‘pools panel’ to decide upon the outcome of the game.  In an unbelievable failure of nerve, they decided that the game would be voided, with no points awarded to either side.  They defended the decision as being taken to ‘protect the integrity of the competition’.  Bizarrely, the door was suddenly open for ETF to win the Championship and promotion, should the play-offs not be played as a result of a covid breach.  The much-protected integrity of the competition was scarcely helped by the emergence of this real possibility.

 So there it rests for the moment.  We began with a game that Sarries lost, partly through their own fault, partly through lack of appreciation of the strength of forward play in the Championship.  We progressed through the season getting stronger and stronger, and ended, as a result of covid testing, without the vital ninth win.  The players must be aware that a moment of dropped guard against covid infection could bring the club crashing down.  

 ETF seem sensibly to have chosen that the first leg play-off game be played at their ground.  They would not expect to win at Stonex, but might win at home.  A covid-test cancellation of the return game would then give the RFU the chance to have a second dip into the ‘integrity of the competition’ bag and pull out another no-result decision, giving the promotion spot to ETF.  Just because I’m paranoid does not mean they’re not following me.