This
season the Aviva Premiership delivered as only it knows how; with tantalizing tries, crafty conversions and more precision penalties
than Dan Carter on steroids! That’s right, the pinnacle of English
rugby was upon us for another year. A new champion would be crowned,
a dramatic promotion/relegation saga would unfold in the latter part
of the season and the Premiership powers that be would make a shock
announcement regarding the Heineken Cup.
We start locally,
where Conor O’Shea’s Harlequins were the team to beat this
season. Quick hands and physical crash-ups saw a new giant of the
English game emerge. A shadow of their 7th place former selves,
English skipper Chris Robshaw, has brought this team the glory they
truly deserve after a phenomenal season. They fought out a 30-23
victory over Leicester; who were appearing in their eight successive
final. Fantastic tries from Tom Williams and Chris Robshaw alongside
some smart play from Danny Care on the day and Nick Easter’s
excellent kicking, saw Quins claim the Premiership trophy for the
first time. Vindication for Conor O'Shea who has sought to
re-establish the club's good name after the Bloodgate scandal of
2009.
Top try scorer in this season's Premiership was
Sale Shark's Rob Miller. The England U20s player managed to score ten
tries this year for the Sharks, one more than Wasps' Christian Wade.
His most memorable of the campaign coming halfway through the season
at Edgeley Park, just minutes before time, against a stern Bath
opposition. A relieving kick became a loose ball; Miller kicked it on
and managed to beat his opposite number, Nick Abendanon , to the ball
to score the try.The fly-half-come-fullback has proved invaluable for
the Sharks this season, helping them to a 6th place finish; an
improvement on the season before's 10th.
One
can only expect bigger and better things from the boys at the Salford
City Stadium this year with two big incoming stars. Literally in the
case of lock, Richie Gray, from Glasgow and figuratively in the form
of fly-half Danny Cipriani from the Melbourne Rebels.
Turning
to Europe now: the historic victory of Leinster over Ulster in this
season’s Heineken Cup final; making it three titles in the past
four years, has led the Premiership’s governing body to make moves
towards an exit from the northern hemisphere’s premier rugby
tournament. This comes alongside the French clubs, who are reportedly
also in disagreement with how the tournament is organised and with
the qualification structure that exists.
This
year only one of the seven English clubs made it out of the group
stages (Saracens) and had to settle for quarter-final defeat. This is
not good enough as far as the RFU are concerned who, under Stuart
Lancaster, are undergoing a revival in English rugby.
Officially,
neither of the countries’ clubs can leave the tournament without
two years notice; which allows until the 2013-14 season for the
matter to be sorted.
The
English and French propose that the Heineken Cup should be reduced
from 24 teams to 20 and that these teams would be selected in a
different manner than that which exists at the moment. This system
would now see the top six in the Premiership, Top 14 and Pro12
qualify along side the winners of the previous year’s Heineken and
Amlin Cups. That means that the existing seeding system would make
way for three league winners and the two cup winners to take top
seeds in the pools (reduced to 5 from 6).
Back
in Britain, the Championship was won when London Welsh beat the
Cornish Pirates 29-20.
Remarkably, the Dragons were denied promotion
to the Premiership on a contradictory technicality.
According to the
RFU, London Welsh failed to reach the minimum standards of a
Premiership club; mainly because they did not meet the requirements
for primacy of tenure. This states that you cannot share your stadium
with another club. And as London Welsh shares Kassam Stadium with
Oxford United they do not meet the requirements.
As
it stood, the Newcastle Falcons would remain in the Premiership, despite only achieving 6 wins in 22 games this season, and finishing
bottom of the table.
London
Welsh appealed the decision and had the ruling reversed. This was
aided greatly due do the double standards of the RFU which already
allowed Premiership clubs London Irish,Wasps and Saracens to
cohabit with FA clubs. Newcastles Falcons were demoted to the Championship and London Welsh promoted to the Premiership. Promises of
big signings from this outfit have met fruition when they announced
the signing of the prodigal Gavin Henson from Cardiff. He is set to
assume first place kicking duties when the season kicks off in early
September.
Ups
and downs abound in the Premiership this season. Uncertainty exists
for the future of English club rugby on the European stage. But the
domestic future is bright. One thing is for certain, and that is that
next season the Premiership will be back. Over the course of nine
months; we will see new giants of the game emerge, new national
hopefuls under the revival and most of all, new memories of this
beautiful game that will stay with us as long as we chase the
odd-shaped ball.
Felix
(@lightningrust): Blogger, eternal student of business & law,
sunshine rugby player with a passion for music and fitness. Coffee is essential. Leinster fan and Irish proud.
© JL Pagano 2012
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