It is a long old road to the Premiership grand final but it is the last 80 minutes of the season that shape everything. This is the 20th edition since the playoffs were introduced in 2002-03 and it remains striking how many past winners have had to endure bleakly dispiriting days before graduating to the English domestic game’s highest prize.
Between 2005 and 2013 Leicester were in the final every year but lost three of their first four and could not always instantly adjust to the more urgent rhythms of sudden-death rugby. Remember, too, Saracens being beaten in extra time by Northampton in 2014 only to win four of the next five domestic crowns? It is the setbacks en route that define teams as much as the cool sensation of sprayed podium champagne.
