Many long weeks for the English game have passed since the Guinness Premiership held rugby's centre stage. It chugged away in November, a subplot to the autumn series of international matches, and then stopped altogether while European competitions took over in December.
It returns tomorrow at full bore and you can read that either way. Tension may well dictate the style of play in the lower third. The star-free three rounds of November yielded for the four clubs now at the bottom just two wins — one each for Wasps and Bristol — and a draw for Northampton.
Tales of economic woe at Bristol, who are struggling to pay the wages, and Newcastle, who have just sold Kingston Park to the University of Northumbria, don't exactly do much for any exhortation to play their way out of trouble. Both strugglers have tough away assignments tomorrow, Bristol at Worcester, Newcastle at Leicester.
Northampton are down at the wrong end of the table after a one-point loss at Bristol, a 28-28 draw with Bath at home and a thumping loss at Gloucester. Head-scratching may be the sound of the season at Franklin's Gardens, but it will be a caress compared with the noises from Wasps should they lose at home to Saracens.
Masters of overcoming a slow start, Wasps almost seemed to be mocking themselves by leaving it even later than usual to stifle a yawn and lace up their boots. Are victories over Newcastle in the premiership and Edinburgh, twice in the Heineken Cup, signs of a giant awakened at last or a fading echo of times past? Tomorrow will tell.
Well above the predictable strugglers at the bottom and higher than the enigmatic Saints and defending champions, comes a solid midriff of clubs that have obeyed the formula of the autumn. Suppliers of players to national causes — Bath, Leicester, Saracens — found November awkward. Worcester, not so affected, won two out of three.
Harlequins and Sale seemed immune to any notion of form or player availability, for differing reasons. Sale recovered from losing at home to Worcester by beating Leicester in Stockport and Wasps away, swinging fortunes that match their erratic passage through the Heineken Cup. They travel to Bath tomorrow fresh from last week's upset in Montauban.
Harlequins, meanwhile, are simply hot on all fronts, the team of the moment, playing attractively and defending ferociously. A bit like the top two, Gloucester and London Irish, who strode on through November and December unbeaten and untroubled, at least on the field. Their play is sweet; the sound of the Guinness Premiership making money again centre-stage is even sweeter.
