Wasps
MATCH PREVIEW: WASPS v LEEDS
Allez!
By Dobbin
October 29 2009
On May 8 next year, after 22 regular season games, six pool-based play-off games, a semi-final and a final, we will finally know which team (providing it can cross the infrastructure hurdles that will inevitably be thrown in its way) will be promoted from the Championship - formerly National Division 1 - into the Guinness Premiership for the 2010/11 season. More to the point, that is the earliest date at which the promoted club itself will know its fate.
Is this a good thing for either the club concerned or the Guinness Premiership? Previous winners of National Division 1, though by no means all, have confirmed their promotion well before the end of the season. It is hard to argue against the proposition that the ability to start planning a Premiership campaign in February or March, rather than May, gives a club a huge boost in terms of finance and recruitment – and given the struggles of many promoted teams, it would seem that any boost is vital in the bid to stave off relegation next time around. It is a hard enough job to survive your first season in the Premiership - now, however, the promoted club is to have less than four months to prepare itself, while the existing Guinness Premiership clubs will have sewn up the bulk of their squads weeks or maybe months beforehand.
Given these circumstances, it is hard to see how the team promoted next year can possibly survive. There isn't a Harlequins or a Northampton, a big club temporarily relegated to the second flight, that you know has the punching power to make a return to the top table stick. With all due respect to Bristol, whose history compares favourably with many of the clubs in the Premiership, history is no longer a factor in top flight survival. It all comes down to money, to the bottom line.
When even the best prepared promotion candidates struggle in the Guinness Premiership, where on earth is the sense in introducing a system whereby the eighth placed team at the end of the regular Championship season could potentially win promotion? What good will straining that club's finances do, when their chances of survival are so low? How can the powers that be justify introducing a play-off system when there is no disfiguring of the league season by international demands in the way that there is in the Premiership? Looking from the outside in, the new structure of the Championship seems a mad-cap scheme of no benefit to either the Championship itself or to the future competitiveness of the Premiership – one can only conclude that the RFU must have had something to do with it.
Leeds know the pitfalls of the promotion/relegation merry-go-round better than most. Since 2000 they have been promoted three times, relegated twice, and would have been relegated in 2001/2 had not the squalid rejection of Rotherham's claims meant there was no movement between the leagues that year. As if to illustrate the points made above, the extra season that this afforded Leeds to consolidate their position meant that they remained in the Premiership for the next four years. However, the last four campaigns have seen them alternating promotion and relegation with dizzying – and depressing - predictability.
What is the point of all this? When the team promoted one year becomes the hot favourite for relegation the next, when the same few clubs are making the annual pilgrimage from one league to the other (and in the odd year when a Quins or a Northampton goes down, they bounce straight back up, rich enough to secure the comfort of mid-table safety the next time around), when it becomes almost impossible to make the transition from second flight to top flight in a single season, what is the point of all this except to make life hard for the administrators of these clubs? Fair play? Corinthian ideals?
I can see the attraction of ring-fencing the Premiership. When there are realistically only thirteen or fourteen clubs capable of competing at the top level, it seems crazy to inflict annual financial meltdown on one of that number. Clubs that start off weakly can grow and thrive, given time – as Leeds have shown. But one season is not enough. A quick look at the players who have come through the Leeds system makes you realise that, but for their relegations, they could have a seriously competitive squad by now. Rob Webber, Danny Care, Tom Palmer, David Doherty, Tom Biggs and Jordan Crane were all at Leeds before moving on, mostly as a result of demotion from the Premiership. It seems a waste that such a club has to assemble a new squad practically every time it starts a Premiership season. And although Wasps have been beneficiaries from the annual cherry picking that follows one club's demise, it hardly seems right. If fair play dictates that promotion and relegation are sacrosanct, what happens to such ideals when the surviving GP clubs are picking over the bones of their fallen colleague at season's end?
If all this makes it sound as though Leeds are certainties for the drop this time around, well, all I can say is that nothing is certain in sport. You can bet that Andy Key, Neil Back and the rest of the personnel up at Headingley will be doing everything in their power to defy the pull of history, and send another Harlequins or Northampton down in their place. Despite the meagre returns from their first six games this season (a single draw against Newcastle in the first round), Leeds have shown signs of competitiveness. Last week, indeed, they claimed a bonus point against league leaders Saracens at Vicarage Road (and but for a disallowed try, could have done even better). Old, experienced heads in the form of Andy Gomarsall, Seru Rabeni and Henry Paul are no doubt helping to bridge the gap between National League 1 and the Premiership, enabling the team to find its feet earlier than would otherwise be the case. And of course, they are guided by one of the most experienced, competitive, single-minded individuals ever to grace rugby: Neil Back. The only odd thing will be to see him prowling around in colours other than Leicester's.
For Wasps, this match is a potential booby-trap. After the clinical performance against Gloucester last week, the temptation to view Leeds as part of the wind-down into the Anglo-Welsh farce might be strong. In order to counteract this, the squad need only look back to the same fixture in 2002. Those of us who were there can remember a match in which Wasps seemed to be cruising to victory, having got to a 26-5 lead early in the second half. That, however, was when things started to go wrong. At the time, the focus of crowd rancour was one Robin Goodliffe, the Yorkshire referee who proceeded to award a string of penalties against Wasps, enabling Braam van Straaten to kick Leeds back into the game. In retrospect, perhaps more of our frustration should have been directed at a team who seemed to switch off as soon as they'd attained a twenty point lead. In any case, Leeds came back and by the end of the match Wasps were hanging on for grim death, dreading the next sharp peep from Goodliffe's Acme Thunderer. Another few minutes, as Warren Gatland remarked after the game, and Leeds would have won. In the event, the game ended in a draw, 26 all.
Win this weekend, and Wasps' visit to Saracens in three weeks' time could be a top of the table clash. But first we have to win this weekend. That draw in 2002 was Leeds' only positive result against Wasps in the Premiership, the latter having won the eleven other contests between the clubs. And while we wish Leeds well for the season, privately hoping that they can upset the odds and survive in the Premiership, building their squad on the sort of firm foundations that organisers seem increasingly determined to make it difficult to come by, we also hope that they don't start the job on Saturday. Sorry, Backy.
Allez Wasps!
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Good work Dobbin. Long may you continue.
[news.bbc.co.uk]
Good one as always Dobbin
Underestimate Leeds at your peril.
Hanksie and the boys will not be.
The alternative would be an American system with divisions where you expand the number of teams as in the MLS or a team could apply to join the higher division without the risk of immediate relegation and the financial instability that comes with it, not to mention the loss of players to poaching clubs as you say.
However, were the Premiership to be extended to 14 or even 16 teams, I'm not sure the players or clubs would appreciate the extra games, we have heard enough criticism that they are already playing too many games.
regarding the religation, there are only two clubs outside of the GP that can gain promotion due to the ground criteria, and they are the only ones with any chance of financially surviving the GP. The comment about leeds getting less funding, so far we have missed out on a little under 5million that all over GP teams apart from Wust HAVE received.
Either way, thanks for the report, and good look (after this weekend) we need all the help we can get just now.
)
To make it even harder and so force the issue even further, don't forget the parachute payment into the Championship and the corresponding withdrawal of even funding to the promoted side.
All that will happen until the Premiership is expanded and the drawbridge raised is that two or three teams will continue to bounce back and forth, resulting in financial ruin for them and ultimate closure.
Who is the current policy serving? The only beneficiaries I can see are those Premiership clubs safe in the knowledge that they have the financial backing to avoid the relegation battle each season. They increase revenues while the rest of us die. It's time to cease this promotion and relegation farce and accept that there is not enough funding under the current system to keep the amateur spirits alive.
Expand the GP to 14 or 16 teams, drop the pointless Anglo-Welsh Cup and let's enjoy our rugby.
Suffering on the Leeds and Yorkshire roller-coaster since 2001
Quote:John F
Interesting points regarding relegation/promotion!
The alternative would be an American system with divisions where you expand the number of teams as in the MLS or a team could apply to join the higher division without the risk of immediate relegation and the financial instability that comes with it, not to mention the loss of players to poaching clubs as you say.
However, were the Premiership to be extended to 14 or even 16 teams, I'm not sure the players or clubs would appreciate the extra games, we have heard enough criticism that they are already playing too many games.
if the Anglo-Welsh league was done away with then the same number of fixtures would take place
Quote:It also seems unfair that the team that need extra finance receive the lowest sum from the RFU/premiership rugby.
Yep. And that seems strange in the light of the revenue smoothing that applies to the EPS payments. All clubs are equal, but some are more equal than others.
If you do it at the expense of the AW, then those clubs who lose players as a consequence of the EPS, are going to be disadvantaged even further, with respect to the GP.
The RFU ain't gonna ditch their autumn cash cows!!!!!!
If the bottom team then had a play off at home to the Championship winner it would at least test if the team seeking promotion were better than the one they hope to replace.
Currently Leeds look candidates for relegation and Exeter for promotion, but are Exeter better than Leeds?
Using this system would provide a realistic measure to ensure that really weak teams are relegated and replaced by stronger teams, further raising standards. It will also give aspiring teams an opportunity to build for promotion to the Premiership with a more realistic chance of staying there.
Suffering on the Leeds and Yorkshire roller-coaster since 2001
Sounds like Wasps didn't enjoy their acquaintance with the lower reaches of the Prem last year. Ain't that a suprise?
Maybe the author should enquire of DWS where he spent his formative years.
And if it wasn't for play-offs, where would Wasps be most years? One rule for you....?
Perhaps the only reason the Championship exists is to remind the habitues of the GP what happens when you fail to put your game face on each week.
What a load of condescending bull! Allez, Leeds!
And no, we didn't like our league status prior to the new year, but that is owing to something called pride in the team we support and its history.
It's not really about Wasps - it's about promotion/relegation and what purpose it serves. Of course, in an ideal world the transition between Championship and Premiership would be seamless, and you wouldn't have the same old clubs bouncing between the two. I merely ask, since it is the same old clubs, what purpose it serves. I don't want to see clubs overextending themselves for a fleeting chance at the big time, and then suffering financial woes as a consequence (see Manchester, Orrell). Do you?
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009:11:01:18:17:36 by dom.
What is unforgivable is the sneering tone adopted - Paxman on steroids or what? "Only the self-elected "big" teams should be in the GP". From recollection, the year Quins took the drop, there were five sides in the running pretty late on. And there can't be many of the holy 12 who haven't flirted with the basement in the years since the Prem was established.
There seems to be little said by the other 11 only in those years when there is one consistently poor performer. "We're all right, Jack." Face it, it keeps you on your toes. At least this way, you can't lose your franchise....
Both Quins and Saints showed a whole load more humility when they spent a season beating us all in ND1 and racking up 4 figure point totals - and they had to live with the financial reprecussions. Lording it over the "peasants" when you are not even in the firing line is just too much to stomach.
The Championship is a new format brought in during the first recession of the pro era. It may not be ideal and is certainly not helped by the recent insolvency of Brum/Solihull. It remains to be seen if Bristol can overcome the challenge and go back up on the bounce. (Didn't stop one of their stalwarts complaining that they "hadn't been consulted" on the new structure!) Given that it so obviously isn't going to affect you, why the need to slam it in such a supercillious manner?
On current form, Exeter will be the first "new" club in the GP for however many years. Why shouldn't they have a run at it by their own volition, rather than on the paternalistic whim of the present near-cartel?
Saying that I can "see the arguments" for ring-fencing doesn't mean I'm in favour of it, it just means that I can see there are some pros. I'm glad that Leeds are becoming competitive this season - and I want next year's promoted club to be competitive too. I just don't see the new structure helping whichever club is promoted to do that. The structure, right - attacking the structure isn't attacking the clubs or sneering at their ambition.
You seem to to be affronted that a GP club fan should have the temerity to speak about the Championship at all. Funnily enough, reading the Exeter board, the fans on there who have read the article seem to have read what it says, rather than what they perceive the attitude of the GP towards the Chamionship must be. Suggest you try to do the same.
