Q: When we go up [God willing], who will be coming down to replace us? 

DR: Personally I think it’s between one of two teams, it’s between Newcastle and Bristol. But saying that Leeds are making a damned good job of it at the moment! But I still think Leeds have got enough quality players to get them out of it so I think it will be Bristol or Newcastle. 

ME: Bristol. I’ve said that right from the beginning, I saw nothing in the first two wins they got to make me change their mind. I thought at the beginning that they’d be a long way off, but I think they’ll still be ten points short of the next team. The only thing that makes me hesitate with that is that sometime when you qualify for the Heineken Cup, which is a very tough competition, you often don’t get any opportunity to rest any of your players. I don’t think it’s a coincidence, and this is just another little straw in the wind, it’s not the reason it’s just a fact, the year Bristol went down they were in the Heineken Cup, they beat Montferrand away and they nearly qualified for the quarter finals, and they went down on goal difference on the last Saturday. We were in the Heineken Cup last year. The year Bath struggled and only survived on points difference they were in the Heineken Cup. And sometimes when you’re not one of the very, very strong clubs it can put you at a disadvantage in the Premiership. So I just wonder whether Leeds being in the Heineken Cup this year after their success in the Powergen will be a problem, but I look at their team and they’ve got some very good players, some experienced and some terrific youngsters as well – it’s so much stronger than Bristol’s.

ME: A little noticed quirk of the English Premiership is that you often get a Heineken Cup team, who’d had a good year the year before, get into Europe, if you haven’t got the biggest squad the Cup puts you under a lot of pressure because you can’t rest players. With all due respect if you’re in the Parker Pen, at least in the early rounds, you can sometimes rest players who may have taken a bit of a knock – it’s much harder to do that in the Heineken Cup, it’s so high profile. 

DR: You always have to remember that the League is your bread and butter, so you can’t throw everything into Europe you’re chasing something that doesn’t give you your week-in-week-out survival. We made that mistake one year up at Leicester and we nearly came unstuck and you can’t do that. If you have any player who is anywhere near injured you just don’t play them in Europe. The European Cup is a luxury and it’s a great thing to win but you’ve got to get it right week-in-week-out in the League.

ME: It will e interesting to see how Gloucester do this year, they’re not in the Heineken, I think they’ll have a better year. Although they were devastated when they didn’t qualify sometimes that can be good.

Q: What is your attitude to the Powergen Trophy, will you put in a second team?

DR: We want to win it, it’s as simple as that.

In the next instalment Dean Richards and Mark Evans give their views on relegation and promotion...

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