By Mally (on 06/06/02)
June 6 2002

This weekend 8th placed Bristol play 3rd placed Gloucester for the Zurich Championship title. Is this the ZP's crowning glory, the perfect end to the domestic season or merely an end of season money spinner? The Zurich Championship attempts to emulate the popularity of Rugby League's Super League Grand Final. In RL the winners of the Super League are not regarded as true champions unless they also win the Grand Final. However rugby union's Zurich Championship is not regarded in the same light but is seen by many as merely "an attempt to inject new life into the season". (Austin Healey - Lions, Tigers & Roses, 2001)

Is seeding the answer?

Unlike the Zurich Championship the structure of the Super League play-offs favour the winners of the league. The team which wins the Super League itself does not have to play as many games in the play-offs as those finishing lower down the table. Therefore at the end of a long season the league winners stand a better chance of reaching the Super League Grand Final than their rivals do, having more opportunity to rest their players and less risk of players picking up injuries.

Level Playing Field

In contrast to the Super League play-offs, the RU top dogs only get the advantage of a home draw, to get to the final they need to win the same number of matches as the 8th placed team. The teams' varying amounts of success over the season are effectively ignored, and a more level playing field is created.

It could be argued that this is a good thing, opening the competition up to any of the top 8, however the current play-off structure devalues the Premiership. This weekend's winners get to call themselves Zurich Champions, a great reward for winning just 3 games. Surely the most consistent team, the winners of the Premiership should have that right? A prophetic Martin Johnson, certainly thought so last year, he wrote:

"I think it is a little harsh to win the league by a distance, ...only to perhaps have one one-off game and get beaten by a team that had kept itself fresh for three weeks, knowing that 8th is good enough to qualify. Seeding would help to solve this." (Agony & Ecstasy, published 2001)

European Competition Conflict

In Rugby League the Grand Final serves as the season finale, it is last game of the season and gives fans a chance for a real party, it truly is RL's crowning glory, as it has no real competitor. No Heineken Cup, no European Shield concluding at the same time. The only RL event which comes close to matching it is the so-called "World" Club Championship, where the Grand Final winners play the winners of the Australian play-offs, and that happens much later on in the year.

Although the premiership is over by the time the ZC starts, European competition is not. This year both Sale and Leicester had one eye on their European finals, and would have been unwilling to risk injury to essential players.

The timing of the ZC is not ideal, after all what would you put first - European glory or a domestic competition?

Longer Season

The Zurich Championship adds to an already long season. More games mean the likelihood of more injuries & player burn-out. Jonny Wilkinson's ankle injury in the ZC quarter finals has ruled him out for 6-8 weeks. This isn't so important this year, as he and other elite England players were not scheduled to go on the tour to Argentina, but what happens next year when we've a World Cup later in the year?

The Northampton Saints boss Wayne Smith, a supporter of the Zurich Championship, this week expressed his concern over the length of season (see TeamTalk). Smith was not as concerned with the number of games currently played but rather the timescale, players ending up together for virtually the whole year with little time away from rugby as the domestic season gets dragged on into June.

The current conflict between Clive Woodward and the clubs, over the 32 game limit for senior England players & training time will no doubt intensify next season in the run up to the World Cup. Already this year Rob Andrew caused yet more controversy by playing Wilkinson in the Falcon's quarter final match, whether or not Wilko had played 30 games as Andrew believed or 32 as some claim turned out to be irrelevent as Falcons crashed out of the competition to Gloucester. However can you imagine Martin Johnson or Neil Back not playing in a Championship Final, due to this rule, if Leicester's Heineken Cup qualification depended on them winning it?

Tournament Popularity

Or perhaps more accurately - tournament apathy. If you're not a Bristol or Gloucester fan then just how excited are you by the Zurich Championship? Stuart Barnes perhaps hit the nail on the head on the Sky Sports website:

"The tournament has not gripped the media as it has Bristol, but maybe that is a reflection that not just players & coaches have endured a long season"

Has the media correctly judged the fans apathy towards the ZC, are we all, fans and media alike, worn out? Unlikely, if the postings on the various message boards are anything to go by, then this is not the case, the vast majority of fans can not wait for the next season to start. So why aren't we all looking forward to the final?

It's probably fair to say that this year's competition may have been overshadowed to some extent by that minor football competition which is on at the moment, but even that does not adequately explain the apparent general lack of enthusiasm for the Zurich Championship.

Obviously the fans of the teams involved are looking forward to a Twickenham final, but the real test is whether the neutrals will bother to watch.

A true season finale

A well organised better planned Zurich Championship could provide a proper finale for the domestic season. Giving Leicester the Premiership trophy back in April can not really be seen as the season finale.

Even Martin Johnson, despite his reservations on the competition's structure, believes that the Zurich Championship "is a good way to end the season" as it means the season builds towards something. This year the end of the season was something of a damp squid, with even the relegation battle becoming irrelevant.

Rugby Union needs a big popular end of season event to maintain not only media interest, but also that of the "occasional fan", who comes to the "important" matches, those fans who can not attend games every week. The hard core rugby fans will turn up rain or shine, regardless of what, if indeed anything, is at stake. However if rugby is to grow then it needs to "catch" these occasional fans. A big spectacular end of season competiton, with a Twickenham final is one way of doing so.

Last October, Old Trafford was packed with RL fans from a wide variety of clubs all enjoying the party atmosphere (well apart from the Wigan fans) watching Bradford Bulls' incredibly convincing victory, so try telling Henry Paul that an end of season championship doesn't mean anything!

Looking to the future

The Zurich Championship is a recent invention, it certainly still has a few problems which the Powers That Be need to sort out if it is to become the end of season finale which domestic rugby union deserves.

Hopefully we'll see some entertaining rugby this weekend, you never know come Monday we may all be saying that the Zurich Championship is a valuable addition to the rugby calendar - if nothing else it provides welcome respite from the football!