WRW WEDNESDAY: WHO NEEDS BORTHWICK MORE?
Not one to stir gossip, but...
TWO JOBS TO DO, ONE MAN TO FILL THEM
Do England need Steve Borthwick?
I ask that in the wake of England’s Six Nations defeats, Leicester’s rise and in part, the lack of progress in the Champions Cup quarter-finals (More on that below)
But is it really as simple as Borthwick now coaches Leicester Tigers, having emerged from under the shadow of Eddie Jones and the Australian now looks exposed at perhaps the start of the autumn of his international coaching career?
Certainly, Jones is scarred publicly, by his selections this last Six Nations while he remains in post. However, albeit with an RFU review still to report, his refusal to countenance too much “advice” leaves him vulnerable two and a half years ahead of France 2023.
I still expect the appointment of another forwards coach to assist Jones rather the RFU deciding to dismiss the Australian, as in they’ve not been able to replace the man who walked away - ie. Borthwick.
Owen Slot in a thoughtful piece in Monday’s Times (£) put it succinctly:
The England review panel, though, are unlikely to encounter particularly glowing references for England’s other two coaches — Simon Amor and Matt Proudfoot, who cover attack and forwards respectively.
The noise from within the camp is that Proudfoot specialises in the scrum but has limited expertise beyond that one set piece. And for a scrum specialist, England’s latest outing, against Ireland, does not work well as a reference for him.
After the World Cup, England lost both Borthwick, their forwards coach, and Neal Hatley, their scrum coach. Proudfoot was hired to do the two jobs in one; in fact he is more a Hatley replacement than a Borthwick. There is a gap here.
It’s sound logic. So presumably the solution from the eventual report falls into one of two options:
Sack Jones and start again
Find another forwards coach and possibly another scrum coach
England wouldn’t go back for the one they lost, would they?
13 MILLION REASONS WHY THE ENGLISH ARE OUT OF THE CHAMPIONS CUP - BUT THAT’S NOT ALL
A word of reason about the woe around the last English Champions Cup involvement ending at the last eight, with Exeter’s brutal dismissal by Leinster.
Is it really something to worry about? Not when you examine where we have got to this point.
Saracens have been England’s most consistent performer in Europe for around a decade now. For reasons we are all aware of, they’re not in the Champions Cup this season. They’re at Doncaster on Sunday.
Last summer, the English clubs made a deliberate decision to rush through the remainder of their fixtures, before starting again in November with another full programme (minus as it turns out the Premiership Rugby Cup).
Is it any wonder that on the whole, Pro 14 and French clubs have looked a little sharper? It can’t all be down to the Six Nations…
But cash does also help and backed up by some comments on the BBC’s Rugby Union Weekly. I’ve been having a feeling we are seeing a trend which may continue for the near future, look at the maths.
The Top 14 clubs have just signed a inflation-busting new TV contract, meanwhile Leinster continue on their merry way, with most of Ireland’s brightest young stars….and oh, an estimated 13 million euro playing budget to bring in forwards from around the world.
That figure comes from Simon Thomas, highly respected reporter for Wales Online.
English clubs will soon be under a £5 million salary cap which is below some of the figures quoted in Thomas’ article, for the rest of the Celts:
If you look at the Welsh playing budgets, the Scarlets are on £8m, Cardiff Blues £6.8m, the Ospreys around £6.3m and the Dragons £4.8m.
The last time I enquired, Glasgow and Edinburgh were somewhere between £6m and £7m. Guesstimates on the other three Irish provinces range from £6m to £9m. It’s hard to be exact given the opaque nature of the IRFU accounts.
Something needs to give soon.
ALL OVER BAR THE SHOUTING?
Chris Foy knows his onions and while those numbers and facts have been reported or suggested elsewhere, the direction of travel is obvious for those who want to look.
“….there is a widespread desire to further expand the elite league, which will increase from 12 to 13 sides after this season. Saracens are expected to be promoted, but Premiership clubs are keen to welcome a 14th team.”
“Sportsmail understands that talks have led to a plan for no club to go down for four seasons including the current one.”
The path is clear for ambitious Ealing Trailfinders to join the top flight in due course, if they win the Championship and are willing to invest £20-35million to become full shareholders.
The RFU council are due to consider the extended ring-fencing system at a meeting in June. Sources have told Sportsmail that clubs anticipate the union will ratify the proposal. It would mean Premiership clubs are protected from relegation until after July 2024.
2024 is when the current RFU/clubs deal expires, which helps the clubs in one respect. An extra £2-3 million cash injection will come in handy during that deal’s last years, when distribution of RFU funds will be at their most advantageous to the union.
And also, when that deal expires, if the RFU were…..I don’t know….looking to simplify the contracts system, that might have implications for any future deal on promotion/relegation in the near future.
Watch this space.
QUICK HITS
1. Oval Park full of kids (little ones) last weekend and how good did it look?
Hope your local club had fun last weekend. Good luck this weekend too..
QUICK HITS CAPTION COMPETITION
What is Craig Maxwell-Keys saying to Wayne Barnes during Leicester’s Challenge Cup Quarter-Final win over Newcastle?
First prize to best suggestion may or may not end up accompanying BBC Leicester to the Ulster game. (Ed: Don’t hold your breath…)
Email welfordroadweekly@substack.com with your answers
RUNNING FROM DEEP
Rob Kitson in the Guardian rummages over future format options for the Champions Cup:
All kinds of ideas currently remain on the table, with the number of competing teams for next season almost certain to be revised back up from 20 to 24, possibly with the inclusion of South Africa’s leading provinces. As shown by the issues now engulfing this month’s scheduled Rainbow Cup, however, the latter concept comes with inevitable extra complications. Ultimately it comes down to working out the optimal structure to showcase the sport’s top players and enhance the broader narrative.
So what does that ideally look like? Reverting to 24 teams looks sensible on paper but the last things any tournament needs are more mismatches, dead rubbers or mundane pool fixtures. No surprise, then, that this year’s hastily introduced last-16 format may well be retained: more knockout rugby plus more jeopardy equals more drama.
The Breakdown understands the most likely scenario, pending a late rethink over the next month, will be four pool matches for every team followed by four knockout rounds. Eight weekends rather than nine is seen as good news from a player welfare perspective but does that match the impact of the erstwhile Heineken Cup format, which had six pools of four with the top side in each pool progressing to the last eight along with the two “fastest losers”?
After they thrashed Wales last weekend, a win for Ireland over France would be one of the major shocks in the history of the Women’s Six Nations. But as the Irish Times reports, basketball has a lot to be thanked for:
“When I got to [Ireland] under-23s, unfortunately, all the funding for the women’s and men’s senior teams got cut, so that avenue or that journey wasn’t there anymore,” Delany continues. “After I did my undergraduate university degree in Dublin I then decided the best route for my professional career was to move over to England to do my master’s. And basketball became the lesser priority in my life in comparison to my nutrition career.”
These days Delany is fully immersed in professional rugby as the Leeds Rhinos performance nutritionist, coupled with Sale Sharks desire to promote the women’s team that she regularly features on in the Premier 15s, which is the elite club competition in the world.
Moves afoot at Wasps. Defence coach Ian Costello - once in charge at Nottingham - is to become Munster’s Academy Head.
The Irishman joined Wasps at the start of the 2018/19 season but will team back up with Munster, where he was involved between 2011 and 2016, ahead of the 2021/22 Pro 14 season.
“It has been a privilege to coach at Wasps for the last three seasons and it has been an incredibly tough decision to return home with my family," said Costello.
Martin Gleeson and Matt Everard seem to be staying put, but let’s see how long that lasts for..
Bath and Leicester have secured Challenge Cup semi-final spots but should both lose their matches it is possible all round-19 Premiership fixtures could be delayed, depending on logistics and any potential issues for clubs who share grounds. Some could potentially end up on the same weekend as the European final but it is understood the middle of the week is more likely for some clubs.
It’s distinctly possible that victory over Ulster will mean fans miss out on any games at Welford Road this season, though a Challenge Cup Final staged in England would be a very different matter.
All done for another Wednesday…see you again on Friday.
Chris
With regards to the increase in Prem teams, an even number always makes much more logical & fair sense and 14 teams would get my vote over 13. Sure it means some jiggling with fixtures, but it’s doable.
I am very much anti ring fencing but understood/understand the decision with no relegation for 21 + 22 seasons. Extending to 24 is not ideal, but I can see the logic in that and “starting afresh” etc, but this HAS to include Relegation/Promotion for the integrity of the league/competition in my humble opinion. Again, I know it would be logistically awkward, but I’ve always personally felt a one game, showpiece showdown, of PL bottom vs Champs Champs to decide final place in Prem for following season is an option ensuring league integrity. Or just a straight swap. Whatever, but it HAS to be open for another ‘Potential Exeter’ to happen.
Not yet they won’t but it won’t have gone unnoticed by HQ the impact he has made/continues to make at WR.
For what it’s worth,
1/I don’t think they would want to offer the job to SB at this moment in time IF they were to sack EJ, however, post ‘23 RWC and that could quite conceivably be an entirely different question/scenario.
2/Also, i get the feeling that SB would turn it down if asked currently tbh. He strikes me as being a man of honour, and integrity, who leads by example and I feel that he wants to be further along on his Tigers “journey” before being judged +/or contemplating “the big one”.
Post RWC ‘23, if the improvements seen so far continue and Tigers are sniffing around at the “top table” again.. THAT is when I will be nervously holding my breath and tactically enhancing my calls for Rob Baxter as “the chosen one”.😁