Loose Pass: A view on Sam Warburton’s bold idea and fans let down by Bath team selection

This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with rotation policies and the disaffection with the status quo…

Whose priority is it?

Given the current state of English club rugby and several PR blips along the rocky road, letting down a good 25,000 people en masse in one instant is possibly not the smartest move.

Granted, last-minute ticket buyers had 48 hours after Bath’s team announcement to change their minds. But for the huge proportion of said 25,000 people whose tickets were purchased well in advance, the absence of Finn Russell, Joe Cokanasiga, Ollie Lawrence, Beno Obano and Alfie Barbeary from Bath’s line-up at Leicester on Sunday was a significant let-down. Sure, it was nice for the home faithful to see old foes Bath put to the sword, but definitely not as nice as it should or could have been.

“We came here to win but we weren’t good enough,” was Bath boss Johann van Graan’s take on it, also saying that he backed his group. All fair enough and he probably even believed it but had this been the Premiership Final, for example, or even a game with qualification or some such riding on it, Van Graan would have backed a very different group, without a shadow of doubt.

There is a lot that speaks for squad rotation. There is still too much rugby around, the season is too long and international players especially, and even more especially in the immediate aftermath of a World Cup year, need all the cotton wool they can get.

Bath’s run recently – in which they have been excellent – has also been a heavy one. Two Champions Cup games, a trip to Sale Sharks and matches against Harlequins and Exeter Chiefs preceded the trip to Welford Road. Next week is a big derby match, followed by Champions Cup clashes with Racing 92 and Toulouse. Looking at the run, and if you wanted to plan a rotation week in it, it would either be the trip to Welford Road or maybe the home clash with Harlequins. Who would Van Graan rather let down, 25,000 Tigers fans or 15,000 home supporters at the Rec? It’s not even a question.

And yet fans all over are being short-changed. We’ve seen teams recently miss out on semi-final qualification opportunities because other teams already qualified have rotated and suffered defeats which would not have been feasible on a normal full-strength team day. We even saw semi-finals played by under-strength teams last season, as said teams sought to stay fit for back-to-back showpieces.

That’s not competitive integrity. That’s not giving our paying punters their value for money. That’s not selling the Premiership as a league in which the best team wins. It’s a test of management, of making sure you do just enough to be in the mix and then winning two big games at the end.

OK, it’s what it is, and has been for yonks. The season structure is not going to become any more or less mished, mashed or carefully organised any time soon. Managers and teams must manage correctly; this is not an individual criticism of Van Graan or Bath. But a big game in holiday season involving a top-of-the-table side facing a rival in a fixture with scores of years of tradition behind it was thoroughly devalued this weekend past and it simply does not sit well. Surely we can find a structure where it doesn’t need to be so?

🗣️ “I think there would be an enormous appetite for this new league, and I don’t think it would devalue Europe."

🏆 Sam Warburton has proposed a new two-tier competition. https://t.co/2zyaDZb2E6

— Planet Rugby (@PlanetRugby) December 30, 2023

The endless suggestions

Of course, many are trying. We’ve a new suggestion for a British and Irish league from Sam Warburton, featuring the English, Irish, Welsh and Scottish clubs in a two-tier league of 20 and access play-off games to it at the end of the season.

An interesting idea on paper, goodness only knows what Zebre Parma and Benetton make of it. Or the South African teams, who appear more and more to be marmite to observers and pundits within European circles. But from home nation circles, certainly fun to imagine at the very least.

But it does seem that almost every week, as we head into 2024, some bright spark chimes in with another tweak to competition formats to help make it all more even, more balanced, more financially viable, more competitively honest, or more…

More everything. Always better, always something different, always more.

Loose Pass has done it too, many times, different writers down the years. But when reading the report of Warburton’s idea, this time it just felt right to exhale and ask: really? Do we need more change? We’ve lost three major clubs in England, we’ve seen geographical regions chop and shift – even lose their relevance. We’ve come through change all the time. Rugby seems to be in constant flux, with a new competition revealed at international level every year, with a revamp of club competitions every year. By the end of every season, it always feels like the same old present in different packaging.

So Loose Pass’ resolution for the year ahead is to embrace the present. Embrace the competitions we have, embrace squad rotation, embrace bizarre and infeasible travel schedules and embrace unsustainable financial models. After all, it’s just a bit of fun isn’t it?

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