Borthwick passes audition
Leicester’s dramatic final triumph clarified a few things from England’s perspective. If this was Steve Borthwick’s big audition to take over from Eddie Jones as the national head coach after next year’s World Cup he passed the test convincingly. Shrewd selection, attention to detail, an unselfish attitude, a keen eye for a smart backroom appointment and the ability to stay calm while all around him are losing it – any prospect of the Rugby Football Union hiring anyone else to succeed Jones is fast receding.
Assuming they can be prised away from the Tigers, the odds must also be shortening on Kevin Sinfield and Aled Walters being approached as well. It would be no surprise, either, to see Conor O’Shea take on a more public-facing director of rugby role to help reduce Borthwick’s media load. The latter may have presided over one of the great English turnarounds but celebratory post-match body-popping à la Scott Robertson is not, as yet, his speciality.
Power of the pack
The gripping game on Saturday underlined the continuing emergence of some impressive young English players. In addition to the input of 30-somethings such as Freddie Burns and Richard Wigglesworth, there were also highly promising final contributions from Freddie Steward and Ollie Chessum, both of whom should be touring Australia with England this summer. For all that, Jones and his watching assistants will have noted the impact made by Argentina’s Julián Montoya and the South African bruise brothers, Jasper Wiese and Hanro Liebenberg.
Their modus operandi was not dissimilar to that of the European winners, La Rochelle (whose massive pack included, as it happens, Liebenberg’s brother Wiaan), and South Africa also dominated the United Rugby Championship final, won by the Stormers and their fast-emerging No 8, Evan Roos. Amid all the talk of pace and the greater emphasis on attack in the Premiership, this season’s ultimate trophy winners all packed a heavy punch.
Head contact inconsistency
World Rugby is about to announce fresh player welfare initiatives but consistency surrounding head‑contact incidents remains as elusive as ever. At the start of the season the slightest head‑high challenge was liable to yield a red card. By the playoffs the predominant colour was yellow. That did not feel entirely coincidental – holding back from a tackle in a big game is still clearly viewed as a bigger “crime” from a team’s perspective than fractionally misjudging it. And interpretations in the southern hemisphere still seem to differ markedly from those in the north.
It makes the July Test window very interesting, particularly when the effects of selective host broadcaster images, too much slow-motion footage and sharp‑eyed fans on social media are factored in. At least concussed players will now need to stand down for longer before returning. Making rugby safer cannot just be a slogan to be dusted down whenever it happens to be convenient.
Relegation sorely missed
Some things just feel wrong, however much you dress them up. The absence of relegation from this year’s Premiership falls squarely into that category. For all the little pluses – more opportunity for young English players, less safety-first play – the lack of jeopardy at the bottom of the table removed one of the competition’s major features and replaced it with a shrug of the shoulders. Offering a safety net to protect mediocrity is hardly a great strapline to stick on promotional posters – and the knock-on effect for Championship aspiration is equally bad for English rugby’s longer term.
Imagine if underperforming Bath, having finished bottom, had been required to play a winner-takes-all relegation playoff against the Championship winners Ealing Trailfinders in west London. It would have generated huge interest, offered hope to ambitious sides everywhere and re-established the principle of merit-based reward over financial self-interest. Happily, from 2023‑24, that is the plan.
Young minds win out
Almost as noticeable is the sea change in the age profile of coaches in the Premiership. With the estimable Chris Boyd and Dean Richards moving on, there are Borthwick, Alex Sanderson, George Skivington and Lee Blackett all in their late 30s or early 40s. They are more attuned to the personalities of the modern player and their collegiate styles are making for happier dressing rooms.
At 45 Ronan O’Gara is slightly older but his long-haul coaching journey has also shown the value of venturing outside one’s own club comfort zone. O’Gara and Borthwick have been the leading European club coaches of the year: both have gone abroad to study their craft and returned the better for it. Ditto players such as Zach Mercer, whose Montpellier side have just reached the Top 14 final. Travel can still broaden the rugby mind.
Time to rein in fan costs
For anyone attempting to catch a train at a packed Twickenham station on Saturday night there was plenty of time to ponder a few stark off-field realities. Will the day ever dawn when patrons travelling to the home of English rugby can do so without getting stuck at Clapham Junction? And has domestic rugby generally hit a financial cul de sac?
The Gallagher Premiership final remains a good, well-staged day out but the 2021-22 season will go down as the moment when, financially, the pips began to squeak. The few thousand empty seats at the final were not just a symptom of the cost of living squeeze. The truth is that ticket and drink prices have soared beyond the means of many fans anyway: £7 for a pre-poured Twickenham pint, anyone? The last thing rugby union needs is a reputation as the sole preserve of the moneyed classes.
