Standing as a paying spectator on the East Terrace at Sandy Park on Sunday, clutching a huge pork bap and a pint of Otter, several things sprang to mind. One is that watching rugby live still delivers benefits even free-to-air television cannot match: the cheerful pre-match anticipation, the roars of uncanned emotion, the communion of shared experience. Skilful TV directors can show you all sorts but they cannot entirely replicate how it feels.
Every media type should also keep in mind that those who drive hundreds of miles every season to support their team each week are not easily fooled. Down in our corner of the stadium there were absolutely no complaints from Northampton supporters after their side’s 21-10 loss to Exeter Chiefs, hard on the heels of their savage European exit in Clermont Auvergne. They did not need a Gogglebox pundit to tell them their team looked flat and fretful, lacking the aura of menace they exude on their better days.
Given there were two highly experienced England internationals in their front row, and Samu Manoa, Tom Wood, Luther Burrell and George Pisi also involved, two other swift conclusions presented themselves. The first is that the Saints scrum will need to rediscover its mojo if they are to retain their title. The second is that the Premiership – and the Pro12 come to that – is not just about big-name players flexing their considerable muscles. The best players involved at a breezy Sandy Park did not boast a single cap between them.
Dave Ewers, Tomas Francis, Ben Moon, Phil Dollman … anyone who tries to dismiss them as honest club journeymen should watch the highlights of Sunday’s game. If, as we are now being told, Sam Burgess will soon become a candidate for England’s back row, where does that leave the bullocking, relentless Ewers? On this evidence, too, England are missing a big trick if they simply wave off the Yorkshire-born Francis to Wales, for whom he is qualified via a grandmother. The mountainous young tighthead is only going to get better.
But what if this was not just a one-off illustration of the Premiership’s strength in depth but a glimpse of a re-emerging trend?
It seems to be growing harder for international players – particularly those starting Test matches regularly – to sustain their optimum form throughout an entire domestic season, unless they have a handily-timed injury break. Think back to last season: Saracens were ultimately undone in the Premiership final by players such as Alex Waller and Stephen Myler, who had not been dividing their lives into club and country slices. This year Harlequins boast several key England squad members but their influence – when they have been available – has been less striking than in times past. They currently sit becalmed in eighth place in the league table.
This does not mean Northampton are automatically finished this time – Courtney Lawes and Salesi Ma’afu clearly make a sizeable difference to their tight five, while George North may or may not be fit to return next month. But Exeter, Jack Nowell aside, have remained tightly bound all season and the benefits were obvious at the weekend. For players such as Moon and Dollman, the next few weeks also offer unprecedented opportunities. These are not men counting down the days until they can enjoy a whistle-stop break prior to a prolonged pre-World Cup training camp.
It should now be enough to propel Exeter into the play-offs for the first time, at the expense of Leicester, who may well need to win all three of their remaining games to avoid missing out on a top-four finish for the first time since 2004. That season the Tigers finished fifth; the previous year, 2002-03, they trailed in sixth. Perhaps not coincidentally, that was the same era in which the England team, containing any number of Leicester legends, became the best side in the world.
The current England side has yet to reach such lofty heights, but the mental and physical effort required to ensure individuals retain their squad places might just be catching up with one or two. They should be fine again by late summer but, in the short-term, less illustrious sides like the Chiefs will be sniffing a possible opportunity. Already they have beaten the Saints home and away in the league this season and, as Rob Baxter said afterwards, “we do not look like a side who are ebbing away.”
Viewed from the touchline at Sandy Park, close enough to hear the crunch of unfashionable bone on bone, the message was clear enough: this season’s title race is not over yet.
Woodward a long shot to be next France coach
A poll in the French newspaper Midi Olympique suggests a Gallic preference for Guy Novès, Fabien Galthié or Raphaël Ibañez as the new national coach to succeed Philippe Saint-André. One per cent of respondents, however, reckon Sir Clive Woodward is the man to take Les Bleus forward. Nigel Farage probably has more chance of becoming the French president but what a fabulously entertaining sporting marriage it would be.
One to watch
Mention Saint-Étienne to English sports fans and they will think football, specifically David Beckham getting sent off and Michel Owen’s wonder goal during the 1998 World Cup encounter with Argentina. Saracens will need every drop of inspiration they can muster in Saturday’s European Cup semi-final, but already they have beaten Clermont once this season and their French opponents surprisingly lost to Oyonnax at the weekend. Stop Clermont on the gainline and Sarries will at least be in with a chance of making a second consecutive final.
.jpg?w=600)
