WRW #6: LIEBENBERG THE LYNCHPIN?
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RUGBY ON TV THIS WEEKEND
FRIDAY (times listed are KO)
Currie Cup - 1700 Pumas v Cheetahs, Sky Sports
Champions Cup - 1730 Scarlets v Toulon, BT Sport
Challenge Cup - 1730 Castres v Newcastle, BT Sport
Champions Cup - 1945 Wasps v Montpellier, BT Sport
SATURDAY
Champions Cup - 1300 Glasgow v Lyon, BT Sport
Champions Cup - 1300 Leinster v Northampton, BT Sport/Channel 4
Challenge Cup - 1300 Benetton v Agen, EPCR.COM (£)
Premier 15s - 1400 Saracens Women v Loughborough Lightning, YouTube.com
Champions Cup - 1515 Gloucester v Ulster, BT Sport
Champions Cup - 1515 La Rochelle v Bath, BT Sport
Champions Cup - 1730 Clermont Auvergne v Munster, BT Sport
Champions Cup - 2000 Sale Sharks v Edinburgh. BT Sport
Champions Cup - 2000 Bordeaux-Begles v Dragons, BT Sport
Challenge Cup - 2000 Bayonne v TIGERS, EPCR.COM (£)
Challenge Cup - 2000 Worcester v Ospreys, S4C
SUNDAY
Champions Cup - 1300 Harlequins v Racing 92, BT Sport
Challenge Cup - 1500 London Irish v Pau, EPCR.COM (£)
Champions Cup - 1515 Toulouse v Exeter, BT Sport
Champions Cup - 1730 Connacht v Bristol, BT Sport
GETTING THERE
It was strange to see the Challenge Cup Twitter account hype up Friday’s win over Brive as revenge for that 1997 Heineken Cup Final defeat. But hey, proportion.
However, Friday did show more concrete evidence of progress where Tigers’ development is heading. To be sure, there are still areas of long-term concern, especially in certain aspects of squad depth and I remain a luddite to the amount of kicking that is fashionable right now. But the way Leicester blew Brive away in the final 10 minutes was not only encouraging but it had the odd hallmark of sides had been blown away in the past.
I’m not getting carried away. Brive are at best average in the Top 14 and like a number of teams outside of the creme de la creme, looked short of endurance in the last 20. As they say though, you can only beat what’s in front of you.
At this point, we’d have all had chance to study the game tape a second time but because EPCR don’t allow playback facilities. You’ll also have to fork out if you want to see the Bayonne game (Eur 3.99 to be precise) so be advised.
But some thoughts based on memory:
For all the talk of Wiese’s carrying and Taufua’s box-office tenacity at the breakdown (and both do much more), it’s promising to see Hanro Liebenberg become a lynchpin of the pack.
His desire to keep the ball alive in Ben Youngs’ try helped sustain that movement and the South African is involved in everything right now, based on Premiership stats - the club’s top tackler and the primary lineout source.Borthwick seems to love that size in the 6 position and Liebenberg is close to being one of the early names on any team sheet. He and Freddie Steward are the only players to play every minute so far.
Youngs and Ford are clearly the best half-backs at the club as you would expect from England’s current 9 and 10. Ford’s performance (“quicker but calmer”) stood out, but I think you could see the relish with which Ben Youngs approached his work on Friday night.
While it felt like the substitutions were timed to run Brive to their most ragged, the plan thoroughly worked.Tigers can play a bit when they want to. For all the talk of kicking - and I agree it feels too often that that is the first option - Leicester showed they have what it takes to use the ball with the Ben Youngs try run in from 60 metres out.
No question Tigers picked their moments to open up when they knew a lumbering Brive pack was out on its feet. But it’s coming together…It really hit home how depressing it is to have no fans at Welford Road when you saw the 2,000 allowed into The Rec, Sandy Park and just a few miles south at the Gardens. Tigers are not on their own - Bristol, Sale and Newcastle face similar restrictions, Harlequins and London Irish are now as well.
Am sure there are scientific reasons but is there an area more forgotten and left behind more than Leicester? I doubt it.
NO ALARM BELLS RINGING IN TV LAND
The Times’ excellent Chief Sport Reporter Martin Ziegler suggests BT Sport are getting worried about signing a new contract to cover the Premiership. Their current term runs out at the end of this season.
The story indicates that BT are telling their pundits they may not be able to renew contracts so in itself. Even though Ben Kay is a columnist for The Times, Ziegler will have more than enough contacts on his own to stand the story up.
BT Sport had an exclusive negotiating period but that passed without a new deal, and two weeks ago a new offer was rejected. There have been renewed talks since then, with discussions over making matches available via a PRL app, but BT has signalled that it is ready to walk away.
But the key passage is as follows:
Industry sources say that BT believes the offer is already generous given the downward pressure on sports’ broadcasting rights even before the coronavirus pandemic.
However, in May 2019, when PRL sold 27 per cent of its shares to the private equity firm CVC Capital Partners for £200 million, the firm believed that it would be able to sell the rights for a higher price and attract better commercial deals.
And then just as we go to print! (£)
Telegraph Sport understands that both parties are keen to “get the deal done” despite the board of PRL initially turning down an offer to renew a contract with the broadcaster, which has held the rights for English club rugby’s league for the last six years.
One senior Premiership source indicated that the stalling of recent negotiations merely reflected a state of “brinkmanship” between the two parties over the value of the deal.
PRL are clearly under pressure from CVC to increase commercial income, with the primary source the TV deal. But where would they have got the competition to force the price up,?
For what it’s worth, it would be a big surprise if Sky were even interested. The Sky rugby department which was the absolute industry standard, has now been effectively dismantled.
They’ll bring some crew back again for the Lions in the summer but it would be a surprise if they got back into the ring for purely the Premiership, even with parent company NBC’s affiliations in the US. Sky, even under new American owners, don’t need a reminder on who shafted them and will need a lot to convince them to bail out the Prem.
Amazon Prime are hinted at as a possible alternative, but it’s possible to see a future contract similar to Rugby Australia’s deal with Nine and streaming service Stan, as mentioned in WRW #1. After all, Five work closely with PRL with a number of live games as it is and ITV aren’t getting out of rugby anytime soon.
If the Telegraph’s story is right, BT are in the clear but to ditch them would have been incredibly harsh who helped the English clubs secure more governance at European level, whose coverage has generally replaced Sky as the benchmark for other broadcasters and who paid up their contract in full amid Covid-19.
GETTING JIFFY WITH IT
Ro Tiger asked about the Jiff system and how it affects French clubs’ ability to bring in their own talent. So you can blame Ro for this quick explainer.
First of all, JIFF stands for “Joueurs Issus des Filières de Formation” - essentially academy-reared players. These regulations were first agreed around a decade ago, alongside the introduction of a salary cap, to reduce clubs’ spending and encourage more French talent.
Even now, the size of the salaries are eye-popping compared to English levels. Stade Francais and Toulouse have budgets of between 35 and 38 million euros (in excess of £30 million) and to put it in further context, Brive and Bayonne pay around half of that - but that’s still some way north of the Premiership Rugby salary cap figure, even with credits.
The rules have been tightened since their introduction but they are now severe:
Top 14 and Pro D2 teams must field no fewer than 16 JIFF players in every matchday squad
Clubs can only have 14 non-JIFF players in their overall squads which includes medical jokers, but there is some leeway for newly promoted teams.
How do you become a JIFF player?
You have either been registered with the French federation for five years, by the age of 23
Or, you have spent three years in a French academy by 21.
And that’s it.
The rules - which the big clubs fought tooth and nail to prevent - have two main effects. Clearly, finding the best JIFF players pays big dividends and it explains why there is so much young talent bursting through in the French game. That also means that if you’re JIFF-qualified, you can demand more money.
The other effect is the slowing of recruiting from other nations. The very big names are still tempted, though the Japanese Yen is more and more attractive. But the likes of Pieter-Steph Du Toit joining Montpellier for a reported 1.5 million euro a year deal seemed unlikely earlier this year and still do, now.
Clubs are adapting though to the new rules, by scouting earlier from major schools and colleges in the Southern Hemisphere, for instance. Brive’s setting up of an academy in Fiji in 2014 saw them take criticism and others are doing it even now, in conjunction with the Fiji Rugby Union.
It helps the FFR if those players decide they want to play for France - and be sure the attractions of a well-paid international career will be powerful - but there is nothing in the JIFF rules which states a player has to be French-qualified, unlike virtually every other major rugby-playing nation.
So players can - and do - turn out for their home nations. What’s more, the French traditions of spotting talent from the less established nations, especially elsewhere in Europe, continues. As of 2019, those numbers were not going down and may well go up in future seasons.
It is paying off handsomely for French rugby, given the way their national team has been transformed. In time, they may need to revisit the regulations when this generation starts to age but the system works for France - and the world game can only look on.
And worry.
PS Next week’s Welford Road Weekly will show one up and coming nation got a hand from Tigers and it’s proving useful even now,
BIG HITS
But the key point is this…
POTENTIAL QUARTER-FINALS DRAW (if participants are as seeded)
Australia v Japan
South Africa v France
England v Wales
New Zealand v Ireland
…which leaves potentially an Aus-SA SF (unless the hosts have something to say about it) and a repeat of that England-New Zealand semi final from 12 months ago.
As for England.
RUNNING FROM DEEP
Asked why he has allowed Cipriani to leave with at least 23 games remaining this season, Skivington explained: “When a player wants to move on and fancies a new challenge, there is no point trying to keep them at a club where it’s not necessarily for them any more, because it will only cause dramas.
Adam Hastings is a tasty replacement for Cipriani from Glasgow. But there will be plenty eyeing up talent at Eeinburgh, too - just don’t ask Cockers.
Don’t think the concussion case will fade from the headlines any time soon…
Fancy some nostalgia this festive season? Next year is 20 years since that hot spring day in Paris…
Another day done. There’ll be another Welford Road Weekly in time for Christmas so look forward to your comments and feedback soon. Enjoy your week!
Hay Chris another excellent edition ,again lots of insightful research keep up the good work Thankyou Bill G.
20 years? Where did it go?
Time we were doing that again. I'm not hopeful.