Loose Pass: England’s weekend of destiny as ‘off a cliff’ scenario a scary thought for Steve Borthwick plus ‘no middle ground’ at Shape of the Game conference
It's a massive weekend for England in the Six Nations.
This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with promotion and relegation, England’s weekend of destiny and philosophical poles…
Will ring-fencing work?
It has been a practical, with one or two exceptions, reality for years now. The top tier of English rugby, barely open to many beyond the original baker’s dozen of signatories and a couple of guests whose wallets couldn’t cope with the opening round, is now all but completely shut.
Promotion and relegation is gone. Where before you could play your way in, then have to prove at the post-match function that you could afford it too, you may now only put forward your case a couple of years in advance. Merit-based achievement alone is a thing of the past.
Which is not something this publication ever wanted to see. Yet nor did it ever want to see Worcester, Wasps, London Irish, Welsh and Scottish, Richmond, West Hartlepool go either bust completely or into administration either. The fact remains that in an era when almost every single club in England’s top flight is losing seven-digit sums of money every season, getting into the Prem is a perilous ambition. Ring-fencing might be seen as the top-flight clubs protecting themselves, but there is just as cogent an argument for it being a case of protecting over-ambitious upwardly-mobile clubs from themselves.
It leaves the French Top 14 and Pro D2 as the only ‘purely’ merit-based rugby pyramid in the world, but as has long since been established, that most of the French teams play in municipal stadia means the expense sheet is vastly skewed in their favour over English teams. Nor is French soccer such a drain on resources generally in France, in the way English soccer is in England.
It’s a shame the game is not strong enough underneath for playing merit to remain the only factor. But playing merit alone has not been enough even for top-flight clubs to survive when half-way up the top-flight table. And there are strong whiffs of common sense making their way through English rugby governance post-match dining halls.
An entire concept, including detailed franchise resource infrastructure, a functional women’s team, a functional youth set-up and a sustainable stadium base and community outreach needs to be proposed. The franchise needs to function well for a year in the Champ first. No longer can some millionaire out for a bit of sporting success buy up a team, absorb a load of losses, then slip out through the back door when the cash runs out, just before it all comes crashing down.
But there is a snag. Applying these rigorous criteria is all very well to expansion franchises. Will they be applied to the existing ones? Or will the benefactors currently writing the blank cheques around the Prem still be allowed to do so?
It’s a laudable step forward in terms of governance of the professional game. But it’ll only work if everybody is forced to pull their socks up, not just the new boys in the class.
Borthwick missing a general
Steve Borthwick has swept clean a good part of the England team that underwhelmed against Scotland and then singularly failed to respond against Ireland.
Tommy Freeman is the only survivor in the backs from the Twickenham collapse, and even then in a different position. Some changes, such as Alex Mitchell and Ollie Lawrence, are forced. But many are not. Wholesale changes are a huge call under pressure; if they go wrong as well, Borthwick is facing a horrible end to the tournament. Losing to Italy would be bad enough; backed up with a trip to Paris on – potentially – Grand Slam night and needing a win to guarantee not being in last place… that’s not just off the rails, it is off a cliff.
England team: Fin Smith one of NINE personnel changes as Steve Borthwick wields axe for Italian job
There were multiple calls for Elliot Daly to be in the squad this week, for both the experience and flexibility he brings. Certainly he is more of a viable alternative than hammering the round peg of Marcus Smith into the square holes away from fly-half. In moving Freeman into the centre, you’re once again taking someone away from his more natural position and it’s not immediately clear why.
Fin Smith gets a recall, yet he’ll be short on fitness and rhythm compared to his opponents. Seb Atkinson is a fine player, but he is coming into a pressure situation against what is fast becoming one of the world’s best centre pairings. Tom Roebuck has a point to prove, but it’s naïve to think Italy will not target him as Scotland did.
Where are England’s generals outside the scrum? It’s as talented a generation as England has had for years, but the Daly, or even dare we say, Farrell figure is missing there.
Why all the shouting?
There’s that one that goes around some conversations at the moment, the opinion that the entire world seems to be polarising itself in a sort of Trump and anti-Trump polar fashion. You align on one side or the other. No middle ground. No mercy. No reasoned debate. Just shouting and wagon-circling.
Rugby seems no different at times. At the one pole, New Zealand and Australia and some others, all looking for rule changes to ensure the ball stays alive more. At the other pole, South Africa and (apparently) France and Ireland, who want scrums, set-pieces, and other unique facets retained and not depowered just for the sake of Ball In Play Time (BIPT – you know something’s important when it gets its own acronym).
Eddie Jones thinks the whole debate is a waste of time as there are too many people involved to make a decision anyway.
If any one good thing came out of the Shape of the Game conference in London this week, it was the decision to shelve any law trials after the current ones are either adopted or not in June, and focus on promoting the game as it is. In all its facets. However you want to play it or perceive it.
From Bath to Christchurch last Saturday, there was brilliant rugby everywhere. As a wise old fella at the Rec said to me after we had chatted about the Crusaders-Chiefs game at half-time in the Bath-Gloucester game: “We’ve been entertained non-stop since half eight today. How on earth could you possibly want to change any of this?”
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