By Chris Gleadell
October 6 2006

It is hard to know where to start when describing Saturdays EDF game against Worcester . As a unit we just did not function and Paul Grayson’s post match comment that the performance was ‘varying degrees of poor’ just about summed it up. For once I almost agreed with those who trooped out early unable to take anymore of the kind of display we thought we had seen the back of at the end of the Solomon’s era. The final nail in the coffin for most was when we failed to gain advantage at a scrum on the Worcester line when we were two men up in the pack after a couple of Wuss players had been dispatched to the sin bin. Despite the inept performance so far the game was still there for the taking at that point but alas we could not even get that right on the day.

The team has a week to put things right but despite the performance qualification for the EDF semis still hangs in the balance albeit with us having to rely on other results.

A win down in Newport on Saturday, something that will need a 1000% improvement on last weeks showing, and Tigers being victorious over Worcester could mean a winner takes all game against Leicester the first week in December at the Gardens.

It does leave the coaching team with a dilemma though as we would then have to rely on the then winless Dragons overturning Worcester so do they gamble on this scenario or instead rest players for the trip to Wales with two very big Guinness Premiership and Heineken Cup games coming up in the following weeks. It’s a tough one but given other English clubs apathy towards the competition and a general disinterest all round in the EDF by the English it might be worth that gamble as a backdoor to Europe next season.

THE GLOBAL SEASON

At last some sense (in my view anyway) coming from the RFU. It seems that finally the likes of RFU chairman Martyn Thomas are coming out in favour of the IRB’s prospective plan for a global season at the very top levels of the game. It would be good if everyone worldwide were singing from the same hymn sheet so to speak with carved in stone international windows within a yearly plan instead of the current system where tour games are out of kilter to the respective countries seasons. There have been concerns raised already that we don’t want to play summer rugby in the north but this need not be the case if both hemispheres adjust their current seasons slightly.

I have always been against the playing of competions in blocks but the prospect does look mouthwatering when you could have the Six and Tri Nations played at the same time dovetailed alongside part of the relative domestic competitions such as the Guinness Premiership, the Magners League, the Top14 in France and the Currie Cup and AirNZ Cup in South Africa and New Zealand respectively. Then how about the Heineken Cup and Super14 running concurrently with maybe a World Club Championship for the two victors. Then at season end the international tours leaving the clubs to play off things such as the EDF trophy without their international stars?

Of course some games and tournaments may have to be tailored or conferenced to suit the model but so be it.

Talk is of a 12 week mandatory rest period but the radical thing to do would be to break the season into two 20 week blocks having two six week breaks when the weather is at its worst or hottest in both hemispheres. Maybe six weeks starting January 1st and six July 1st leaving a 40 week season in which, given current concerns about player burnout, no player not just the elite should play no more than the suggested 36 games per calendar year. Who knows it might just work.

More of a concern were comments also made by Mr Thomas that the RFU may be about to change their stance on the promotion and relegation issue. Of course in plain English that means ringfencing. The latest rumour doing the rounds in that the GP and Div1 will be closed off meaning some kind of promotion/relegation will still exist but still at one fell swoop it cuts off many other RFU member clubs chance to move into the elite.

One solution is that maybe a re-election system such as the Football League had for many years could be adopted. If a club is languishing at the foot of Div1 (or GP2 as it would probably become) for successive seasons then the other member clubs could vote a replacement in from the league below leaving a window open for the ambitious clubs below. Of course there is the danger of a closed shop scenario but properly administered it could answer both sides of the argument.

AND FINALLY…

Two points raised after last weeks column. With player burnout being the current catchphrase for changing all manner of things in the game is it just me or does anyone else find with just five games played this season some people are stretching the point a bit. Of course players welfare should be paramount but a look at the Saints injury list alone sees the likes of Wally, Bruce and Clarkey who all had lengthy summer breaks being variously described in the media as suffering from ‘burnout’. Perhaps it all too easy a label and those in power should be looking at HOW these injuries occur rather than the blanket WHY.

And finally, I was pulled up by a reader of our site this week about my support for the number of foreigners playing in the GP. It was suggested we look over Offa’s Dyke to see how it should be done. Yes its true Wales probably do have a higher percentage of Welshman playing in their Magner’s League sides and that’s all well and good but with just four teams, and allowing for their smattering of overseas players, that only leaves around 80 Welsh players making the match day squads. Compare that to the 160 Englishman playing at the top level in the GP each week then the argument doesn’t really hold and goes to show that what is good for one country is not always good for the rest.