The future was toasted at the Twickenham launch of the Premiership season, a contest that grows each year, but the past held the way forward for the director of rugby of promoted Bristol, Andy Robinson, who has never been one to follow the flow slavishly .
The head of the Championship winners’ coaching team is traditionally given a seat at the top table at the Premiership launch, when he is expected, among other platitudes, to say 11th place would mark a successful season. Robinson ignored the script, not because his club is owned by one of the richest men in Britain, Steve Lansdown, but because he expects his players to show the bloody-mindedness and grit he was renowned for during his career with Bath, and to aim higher.
The season starts next month and few of Bristol’s signings so far would amount to a tent signing, never mind a marquee, with the No8 Jordan Crane, a summer recruit from Leicester, namechecked by Robinson. “He knows all about a winning culture,” said Robinson, whose side clambered back into the Premiership at the seventh attempt after years of play-off final heartache.
“It is not about surviving this season but looking up the table. We will be scrapping for everything and we know if we do not perform, we will take a hiding. The players must enjoy the occasion after such a long wait, not get caught in the headlights. We may not be able to compete with other clubs when it comes to international players but we have a number of exciting players who have come through our academy and have the chance to make a name for themselves.”
It has been a long road back for Bristol since they were relegated in 2009, emerging from financial ruin to remodel themselves after Lansdown’s involvement, checking out of the Memorial Stadium and into Ashton Gate, which this season has a 27,000 capacity. “There is a desire for rugby in Bristol and we hope for crowds of 15,000-20,000,” said Robinson, who has signed a new three-year contract with the club he joined in 2013. “We want to create a clubhouse feel after a game, something I remember from my playing career, where players and supporters can mix and discuss the match. Rugby has been built on speaking to people after the final whistle.”
While Bristol are pointing up, Saracens dare not look down from the heights of last season and the league and European Champions Cup double. Such was their ascendancy they lost only once when they had their contingent of England players available and their director of rugby, Mark McCall, believes the success is more of a beginning than the culmination of a project started seven years ago.
“It is not about trying to follow what we achieved last season,” he said. “When this project started, Saracens was not a club known for its consistency. We had a revolving door policy, players and coaches coming and going, but when people leave the club now it is generally due to retirement. We know the underlying factors behind our success and we need to stay true to ourselves.
“It will be tougher for us this season because of the new agreement between the clubs and England: player availability will be an issue for us and we will have to cope with seven or eight being away during the international windows and for two compulsory rest weekends. Our best players may be available for only half the programme and that is unique in world sport.”
Saracens, who are likely to be without their fly-half Owen Farrell for the opening weeks of the season with a back problem, have kept signings to a minimum, although they include the South Africa flanker Schalk Burger, one of several A-listers to arrive in the Premiership this season as the salary cap increases and clubs are allowed a second marquee player. Willie le Roux, Kurtley Beale, JP Pietersen, Louis Picamoles, Matt Toomua and Taulupe Faletau are among others while Bath’s new director of rugby is Todd Blackadder, who has arrived from the Crusaders in New Zealand.
“I have fitted right in because Bath’s style is similar to what I am used to and there is no massive contrast,” said Blackadder, who has made the England fly-half George Ford the club’s captain a few months after the player reportedly considered leaving after his father Mike, Blackadder’s predecessor, was sacked.
“George is a really talented player and an incredibly nice young man,” Blackadder said. “He has drive and is a real student of the game. He is committed and by giving him the leadership role, it shows his standing in the squad. He is a great team man and, having established himself in the England team, he will be in the frame for the Lions without any doubt. He is right up there with [New Zealand’s] Beauden Barrett and I see similarities with Dan Carter.”
The Lions’ tour to New Zealand will give the season an added piquancy and Wasps’ director of rugby, Dai Young, believes his new club captain, Joe Launchbury, will have a notable campaign. “He is an England captain in the making and has all the qualities you want in a leader,” Young said. “He is very respectful of everybody, whether that is the cleaner or chief executive. He is humble, hard-working and a world-class player. He is not someone who talks a hell of a lot but neither was Martin Johnson. He thrives on responsibility and what is frightening is that there is a lot more to come from him.”
