4 hours ago
8
Remember the Prem? It’s been in hibernation almost as long as your tortoise. The last sighting of England’s elite men’s domestic league was on 24 January but now, finally, it is re-emerging from the shadows of the Six Nations, starting under the Friday night lights at the Rec where second-placed Bath are hosting sixth-placed Saracens.
It has certainly felt like a protracted hiatus, even if the lower-profile Prem Cup has taken up some slack. And with only eight regular season rounds remaining every would-be playoff contender has no choice but to hit the ground running. As Bath’s head coach, Johann van Graan, says: “It doesn’t really matter what you’ve done before. It’s about what you do going forward.”
Which, up to a point, is true. The race to make the top four still has six realistic candidates separated by only 11 points. Given the lack of relegation in a 10-team-league, though, the organisers will be praying for a compelling run-in with Sale Sharks, Gloucester, Harlequins and Newcastle Red Bulls already trailing the rest of the peloton.
The good news is that a spectacular Six Nations has raised rugby’s profile at just the right time. Next week is being billed as the Big Match Bonanza, with a triple-header of games scheduled for Villa Park, Cardiff’s Principality Stadium and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
By then a few more battered England squad members should be back out on the field, including the national captain Maro Itoje and Jamie George. Reducing the number of fallow Six Nations weeks from two to one may have assisted the tournament’s momentum but, inevitably, there is a knock-on effect. Ben Spencer, though, is back to lead Bath just six days after playing for England in Paris and Scotland’s Finn Russell, too, is straight in at 10. Guy Pepper and Sam Underhill are on the bench, while Elliot Daly starts for Sarries.
The two clubs, as it happens, are due to face off again at the Rec in the last 16 of the Champions Cup on Easter Saturday, which puts the ball squarely in Sarries’ court. Lose both fixtures plus next week’s league fixture at home to leaders Northampton and their season will be in real danger of petering out.
Bath, by contrast, are sitting reasonably pretty with no post-Six Nations injury issues and their finances stabilised by the new ownership alliance of James Dyson and Bruce Craig. Van Graan has been urging his trophy-chasing squad to think of the season like a train journey; no matter which individuals get on and off the important thing is to reach their collective destination. “We’ve got things we want to achieve through the rest of the season but we know we can only do it a week at a time,” stressed the head coach. “There’s a big chunk of the season lying ahead.”
Saracens’ director of rugby, Mark McCall, is preaching a similar mantra, using the nine-try thriller against Bath back in November as evidence his side are not too far away. “We’re four points from the playoff positions so there’s everything to play for,” said McCall. “It is a huge test against Bath. They’re a team who have been together for a while now and are very comfortable in their own skin.”
It is a particularly big game for a couple of Bath players. Henry Arundell, dropped by England for the final rounds of the Six Nations, will be looking to get his mojo back beside the River Avon, while Alfie Barbeary will also be keen to impress at No 8 before his move to Saracens in the summer.
McCall, for one, seriously rates Barbeary. “Alfie is like Tom Willis in a way. He makes things happen and has big moments on the field. We’ve talked to him a few times down the years before he went to Bath. I think with Tom going he’ll complement our other back-rowers.”
