Saturday may not be the real thing but the phoney war in the Championship will be put on hold when, at least according to those who read bank balances, the only two sides with a realistic chance of promotion and surviving in the Premiership go head to head at Sixways.
After their only other meeting, when Bristol edged Worcester in a last-gasp ending to the first day of the season, the clubs who are separated by 70 miles of the M5 have been watching each other’s progress.
Since that 23-19 result in September, each has lost just once in the league – Bristol to Cornish Pirates, something of a bogey team, and Worcester to Jersey, who managed the island gale better. Bristol are top with 99 points but, with Worcester just three points behind, Saturday’s final game of the regular season will dictate routes to the final home-and-away shoot-off.
That the whole exercise may be rendered redundant if the Premiership gets its way and promotion and relegation are suspended in favour of a 14-club top division does not matter. Bristol need to show a return for the investment of their billionaire owner, Steve Lansdown, while Worcester must repay their mere multimillionaire, Cyril Duckworth, for his continuing investment.
If anything Worcester sound the keener to strike the first psychological blow. Their director of rugby, Dean Ryan, says his side will be “fully loaded” while Sean Holley, who has worked alongside the director of rugby, Andy Robinson, for the last two seasons, admits that other issues – “caveats”, he calls them – are in play at Bristol.
First and foremost Bristol want to avoid the banana skins that have dogged their steps since they exited the Premiership six years ago after underestimating another near neighbour, Exeter. Last year it was London Welsh who tripped up Bristol and Holley says they do not intend to make the same mistake of going into the last four games with their better players in the sick bay.
Then it was the loss of the former Wales captain Ryan Jones that undermined the side which is why, despite its psychological importance, Holley says this game will be used to bring some “fresh meat” into Bristol ranks, with the likely return of four forwards in Max Crumpton, Chris Brooker, Mark Sorenson and Marco Mama.
“That’s where we got caught out last year. Our depth of squad was not as good as it is now,” says Holley, instantly dismissing suggestions that Rotherham, currently fourth in the table and therefore on course to meet whoever finish champions, are a team Bristol prefer not to meet in the semi-finals.
“We’ve beaten Scottish four times and Rotherham twice, so I don’t think it should worry us too much,” he says.
“We have prepared to win, obviously not wanting to show too much. But it’s all about balancing selection this week to give guys the incentive that they are still in with a shot of playing in the play-offs. They’re hungry, the guys coming in this week, which gives you the chance to protect and rest one or two others.”
With a fine sense of timing, Holley this week signed an extension to his contract, which not only aids the feelgood factor so evident at the club but also keeps the former Ospreys coach from the hands that were beckoning him back across the Bristol Channel.
He stayed, he says, because “I believe in what’s going on here, the group of players we’ve got and hopefully can add to. Really it was a no-brainer.”
Just looking around Ashton Gate, which Bristol Rugby share with Lansdown’s other major sporting interest, Bristol City, it is easy to understand why. Training in the foreground are half a dozen Wales Test players, led by Ryan Jones, Dwayne Peel and Gavin Henson, plus a couple of Samoan Test performers, while all around workmen are converting the stadium to one that will hold 27,000.
And then there is the added pressure that the footballers City have already shown the way, gaining promotion from League One this season for an owner who took inspiration for his multiple investment from a visit to the Camp Nou and Barcelona’s museum housing silverware in a multitude of sports.
