The Aviva Premiership is reaching its halfway point with players from every team braced for an unrelaxing Christmas and new year. Not only do three key league weekends await but stricter interpretations regarding high and dangerous tackles have left everyone fretting that one false move will have major implications for club and country.
At first glance such appetising, high‑profile games as Wasps v Bath and Exeter v Leicester should be about who kicks off 2017 in the top four and which international players can enhance their Six Nations hopes. Instead there is widespread anxiety that a well-meaning desire to improve player welfare may end up having the reverse effect in terms of increased stress levels.
While harsher sanctions for some acts of foul play are not due to be activated until 3 January, the rash of red and yellow cards during the recent two European weekends have generated plenty of concern among those whose weekly job is to stop offloads or clear out rucks. Wasps’ Elliot Daly, once again available for his club following his red card for England against Argentina and subsequent three-week suspension, will not be the only one treading carefully over the holiday period.
The dilemma of all concerned is well summed up by Daly’s colleague Jimmy Gopperth as second-placed Wasps seek to complete a calendar year unbeaten in all competitions at the Ricoh Arena. “It’s a tough one as a player,” the Kiwi fly‑half said. “You wish they’d altered [the tackle directives] in the off season so we had time to adjust. There are cards flying left, right and centre for things that wouldn’t even have been penalties before.”
It is Gopperth’s firm belief that the game’s leading players have been put in an unenviable position: “We don’t want to take the contact and the impacts out of the game because that’s what makes rugby what it is. Sometimes tackles do go a little high and now that’s going to cost your team 10 minutes or even longer if it’s a red card. That’s putting a lot of pressure on sides. Rules are rules and we just have to adjust as players but it could have a massive bearing in terms of swinging games. Teams are really going to have to look at it.”
Among the knock-on effects could be higher-scoring games, even in deep midwinter, if players hesitate to tackle in the way they have become accustomed to doing. There is also a risk that significant personal duels, such as Daly opposite his England squad colleague Jonathan Joseph, could be overshadowed if, once again, disciplinary issues dominate the post-game narrative.
Bath and Wasps, with 10 games gone, have lost just two matches each, with Wasps sitting only a point behind the leaders Saracens. Dai Young’s side have scored 10 tries more than the defending champions and have also won their past 17 matches at the Ricoh Arena since losing to Sarries in the final week of 2015. With their injury problems now easing, Gopperth believes they are steadily growing stronger. “What’s made the difference this year is the depth of our whole squad. For the first time we’ve got a few guys back now and there are a few more to come over the next few months. When everyone’s fit it’s not going to be easy for the coaches to pick a team.”
Wasps may also consider they are due some festive luck, given their controversial last-gasp defeat away to Connacht last week. With Leicester also due in Coventry in early January, the next fortnight is full of possibilities, although Gopperth is wary of George Ford, whose touchline kick earned Bath a Champions’ Cup victory at the Ricoh last season. “He’s a great little player with a very smart head on him,” Gopperth said. “He’s a threat and we know he can put Bath in the right areas ... he’s so valuable for them. These three games over the Christmas period could set you up brilliantly but they’re going to be pretty tough.”
Leicester, meanwhile, will travel to Devon to face an Exeter side beaten only once in their past six matches in all competitions while Saracens, with Chris Ashton back on the bench from his 13-week suspension for biting, will look to extend their unbeaten home run at Allianz Park to 13 games at the expense of an improving Newcastle.
Possibly the Christmas weekend’s most gripping fixture, however, will be on Boxing Day when 11th-placed Worcester visit the league’s bottom club Bristol. The mood at Ashton Gate is brightening and there is quiet optimism that a belated first Premiership victory of the season could be on the horizon. The Warriors have not won away since March and, following a brace of European wins over Pau, a home success could elevate Bristol to within a point or two of their opponents. “The whole atmosphere has shifted,” the Bristol fly-half Adrian Jarvis said. “We have started to get better results and play better with more freedom.”
