Will any team ever be relegated from the Premiership? Doubt it
Exeter Chiefs and Newcastle Falcons are without a win this year but neither will be relegated from the Premiership due to the system.
At the 65-minute mark in the Premiership match between Exeter Chiefs and Bristol Bears in Devon, the home side were 32-12 up on their West Country rivals.
But come full-time the Bristolians had fought back in astonishing fashion to win 35-40 and complete one of the great English club comebacks.
“What a frustrating game,” said Exeter head coach Rob Baxter, who has been at the club since before they were promoted in 2010.
“We’re going to have to take responsibility for our actions. We’ve got players putting their heads in the sand a little bit, running around saying: ‘Not me, someone else do something.’
“The first major moment that goes against us, a charged-down box-kick, turned into a yellow card and we couldn’t recover.”
Premiership conundrum
But the result is a positive representation of where the English Premiership is at the moment – albeit winless Exeter and Newcastle Falcons are bad looks for the game.
Gloucester beat Bristol two weeks ago, Bristol overcame Bath last week and at the weekend Bath toppled Gloucester.
Saracens also saw their unbeaten start to the season ended by Harlequins and defending champions Northampton Saints were demolished by their local rivals Leicester Tigers.
But being winless after four rounds – as is the case for the Falcons and Chiefs – does the league no good.
We learned this week that planning rules and constraints could be critical in denying Championship clubs the ability to meet criteria they need to in order to be given a shot at promotion to the top flight.
And to compound this, some of the criteria being used to establish who can be part of the Championship includes regulations – such as the requirement of a functioning app – that some second tier, and even some top flight, teams cannot currently satisfy.
It means the Premiership, once again, will likely be a league where a team can fail monumentally – in comparison to the other nine sides – and be completely safe from the drop.
In the French Top 14 the bottom side is automatically relegated and the 13th placed team must compete in a play-off to stay in the top flight. France is thriving as a result of the competition.
In the United Rugby Championship there is no such price for finishing bottom, and Italian outfit Zebre has finished bottom in each of the last three years.
Down or up?
So with the Premiership not fully committing to either, and instead trying to appease all with a haphazard middle ground, they’re in fact causing more issues.
Exeter Chiefs are one of the stories of rugby’s professional era; they rose through the ranks to get promoted into the top flight.
From there they won the domestic league, then the European Champions Cup. They completed the dream.
But it is entirely correct and proper that after four matches without a win in the Premiership this year they are forced to look over their shoulder and at least ponder the thought of potential relegation.
They won’t go down, but neither will Newcastle Falcons. Both aren’t even likely to enter the proposed relegation play-off given the difficulties for Championship clubs to qualify.
So when shipping 28 points in 15 minutes becomes the norm in the Gallagher Premiership – Gloucester conceded 38 in their derby defeat to Bath in the latter 40 – fans can rejoice at England’s top flight being packed with tries.
But the reality is that clubs are happy to enter the contract of joue joue rugby, or eternal defeat and failure, because there are zero consequences.
Be under no illusion: a team being relegated this season is about as likely as the Red Sea parting or pigs taking flight. Drastic measures will need to be taken to ensure it is even a remote possibility. And that’s a shame regardless of the rugby.