A review of the state of the game as at Sept 1st.

By Alan Carter
September 1 2005

This is a personal take on the state of English Rugby and how Saracens might do this season. I suspect it forms the first of a series of articles about the structure of English Rugby this season.

Perhaps the biggest upset last season was the relegation of Harlequins to ND1, when mostly everybody expected Worcester to drop down as the new boys. So what if anything does this prove? I expect the first thing it proves is that money talks, but more so that getting the package right in terms of players and coaches can work miracles.

So why did Harlequins go down, and why are they favourites to come straight back up? I think Harlequins suffered from a number of problems, the first was that Mark Evans tried to combine the jobs as CEO and coach. Fundamentally, it was such a combination that led to the downfall of Francois Pienaar with respect to Saracens. Whilst we tried to buy ourselves out of trouble (by getting in top names that supposedly could draw in the crowds and win us games); Harlequins, last season, failed to buy enough players of the right calibre to keep themselves up. Hopefully, both teams have learnt from their mistakes of previous seasons and can only improve.

We finally appear to have a settled squad and a coaching staff that can do the job, and Nigel Wray has given up on recruiting big-name players on the assumption that they can coach. Harlequins have managed to hold onto most of their premiership players from last season and recruited Dean Richards into the role of coach, this should be enough to give them an overwhelming edge in returning to the premiership this season.

Harlequins have also kept hold of their fan base and their sponsorship deals, and, to boot, they have kept their season ticket prices at a level that you would expect to pay to see premiership games - but what allows them do this? The simple fact is that Harlequins is possibly the best known Rugby Club in the world, and hence the best known brand name. They have moved into Rugby League with the London Broncos being re-branded as the Harlequins RL team, whilst this may be of little importance to us RU fans, it does mean that the Stoop will be used all year round, the Harlequins brand will now become part of RL folk law, opening up other avenues of income for Harlequins.

One of the biggest versions of Rugby, open to both genders, old and young alike, is Touch Rugby and the game as played in this country is derived from RL. I know that there are RU derivatives of Touch Rugby, but for those of us that play Touch Rugby, it does provide an appreciation and understanding of RL, even if not a love for that game.

I expect Harlequins to make a return to the GP premership for next season, but whilst they sit in NL1, it will heighten the level of interest in NL1, hopefully also at the grounds where Quins play their away games. The one thing that having the spotlight on Quins is likely to do, is clearly to show the huge gap that exists between the top team and the bottom team in NL1; and I, for one, think that, if there needs to be ring-fencing in RU, then that is where it should occur. Last season Bristol were so far quantifiably above the second place team, and I expect Quins to be the same this season.

Back to us, so why do we feel that this season, is our season? Some of it comes from the way we performed at the tail end of last season, but more importantly we feel that, for the first time in a number of years, we have the coaching staff and players to do the job needed. Possibly, and more importantly, the players and the coaching staff are working in tandem with each other, rather than in opposition to each other, as appeared to be the case under ‘Buck’ Shelford.

Hopefully this is our season, and the team, the coaching staff, and we supporters can rise to the occasion.