Clive Woodward predicts his Premiership semi-final winners and explains why Steve Borthwick has ‘a great deal of debt to pay’
Ellis Genge celebrates a Gallagher Premiership try for Bristol last month versus Bath
Clive Woodward has given his verdict on the health of the club game in England heading into this weekend’s Premiership semi-finals – and explained why the June 14 decider at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham will be contested by Bath and Leicester.
The league’s 2024/25 regular season ended last Saturday with a top four of Bath (1), Leicester (2), Sale (3) and Bristol (4). Ahead of the upcoming semi-finals next Friday night at The Rec and the following afternoon at Welford Road, ex-England boss Woodward has weighed in with his predictions.
He also shared his belief that national team boss Steve Borthwick owes a debt of gratitude to club coaches Johann van Graan, Michael Cheika, Alex Sanderson and Pat Lam for the calibre of attacking rugby their teams have produced in the league across the season.
Writing in his latest Sportsmail column, Woodward said about the four semi-final coaches: “They have all been exceptional for English rugby because of the way they have got their teams playing. The Premiership has been superb to watch this season.
“There have been tries galore. As national head coach, Steve Borthwick has a great deal of debt to pay to the Premiership for the quality of coaching at that level. It was the same for me when I was England coach. I owed a lot to the clubs, especially Leicester and Wasps, for producing such high-quality players that enabled England to have success at international level.
“Borthwick has every right to be excited…”
“It’s the same now. Borthwick has every right to be excited by the talent and style of rugby on show. Van Graan, Cheika and Lam are all foreign coaches, but they are helping England with the work they are doing and that is great. Attack is the way forward, but I don’t really buy into the idea that the Premiership isn’t preparing England’s best young players for international rugby.
“It’s not a coincidence that the product on show in our country’s top league has been good for the last year or so and at the same time, the performances of Borthwick’s England side have also started to improve.
“It’s also no coincidence that the three Premiership teams who have the best balance between attack and defence finished in the top three spots.”
Moving onto his weekend predictions later in his column, Woodward added: “I’m predicting home wins in both play-off matches, but only just. They will be incredibly tight games.
“Bristol can punch anyone out with their attacking game. It’s that good, it can be enough to beat anyone on their day… but Bath will go fairly direct.
“They will know if they get sucked into an end-to-end attacking slugfest, they could well lose. If it’s a tighter, more controlled game there is only one winner.”
Switching to the Leicester-Sale fixture, Woodward plumped for Tigers to progress but gave kudos to the threat posed by Sharks boss Sanderson.
“As the only English coach in the top four, Sanderson has taken Sale to another level,” he praised.
“Sanderson was a player for me on an England A tour, so I remember him from a long time ago. I liked his attitude back then. He was a straight shooter. You see that now with his coaching. He says things as they are.”
