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'It's a little disappointing... you want the teams fully loaded'

(Photo by Henry Browne/Getty Images)

Harlequins assistant Nick Evans has acknowledged how some fans might feel short-changed by how the Gallagher Premiership fixture planners have scheduled both games versus London rivals Saracens at a time in the season when both clubs will be denied the use of players in Eddie Jones’ England squad.

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The reigning Premiership champions welcome the newly promoted Saracens to The Stoop this Sunday for a contest in which Harlequins don’t have Joe Marler, Alex Dombrandt, Marcus Smith or Joe Marchant available for selection as they are all currently with the England squad in Jersey ahead of the Autumn Nations Series.

Saracens will similarly be deprived of four of their main players due to England selection, Jamie George, Maro Itoje, Owen Farrell and Max Malins all off-limits to Mark McCall for a first clash with Harlequins since an August 2020 fixture when the suspended 2019/20 season was restarted.   

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How Wales can beat the All Blacks in Cardiff

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      How Wales can beat the All Blacks in Cardiff

      Harlequins and Saracens has long been one of the most keenly anticipated fixtures whenever they meet in the top flight and they are currently two of the 2021/22 season’s form teams, each winning four of their matches so for to respectively occupy second and third place on the table behind early pace-setters Leicester.

      Sunday’s match is a sell-out, a testament to the attacking rugby both teams have been playing in recent weeks, but this type of clash clash minus the England contingent will, unfortunately, be repeated in February as the return fixture at the StoneX is scheduled to go ahead on the same weekend that Jones’ Test team are in Italy for the second round of the Six Nations. 

      Attack coach Evans admitted he understood the frustration of the people who want to see Harlequins and Saracens going at it at full strength, but he hopes this quirk in the fixtures planning for 2021/22 can be placated at the business end of the season by the two teams potentially meeting at full strength in a semi-final or a final. “We just have to work really hard to try and meet them [Saracens] in the semi-finals, I guess, or the final,” he told RugbyPass.

      “Look, I guess it is a little disappointing because you want the two teams to be fully loaded going at each other but it is the nature of the beast. We look at the schedule, it is on the board in our room, and the England boys are away for a lot of it and there are a lot of games that we are not going to have them.

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      “That is just part and parcel. We go week-to-week and this week we are going to play Sarries and we are going to lose four of our guys and four other guys are going to have to come in and fill their spots and they are going to have to do really well.

      “They [Saracens] are going to lose four guys and they are going to have the same thing. I get it from a fan’s point of view, a neutral’s point of view and a journalist’s point of view that we want to see the teams at their best but we are just going to have to work really hard and earn the right to be in a semi-final to meet them there or in a final, but that is a long way away yet.”

       

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      T
      TWAS 8 minutes ago
      How the Lions will heap pressure upon Australia's million-dollar man

      I’m sorry but this just seems like incredibly selective analysis attempting to blame all team failures on JAS.


      Looking through the examples:


      Example 1 - long place by JAS, all support overruns the ruck. Pilfer also achieved by a player resting his arms on JAS - so should be a penalty for of his feet anyway. No failure by JAS there failing to secure the ball. By his team mates, yes.


      Example 2 - a knock on punched out by the first defender who’s tackle he initially beat, from behind. An error by JAS absolutely. But every player makes the odd handling error.


      Example 3 - JAS just beaten to the ruck because defender shoots to make a good tackle He passes and immediately follows. Potentially should have been a penalty to Aus because the tackler had not released and swung around into JAS’s path preventing him securing the ball, and had not released when the jackal went for the pilfer. Tackler prevented a clean release by Potter and if there was any failure, it was the ball carrier who got into a horrible position.


      I am struggling how you try and blame 1 on JAS and not support, but then blame JAS when the tackler fails to make a good placement.


      Example 4 - JAS flies into this ruck out of nowhere, seemingly runs past the 12 to get there. Also did you miss McReight and Williams just jogging and letting JAS run past them? Anyway he busts a get to get there but was beaten to the contest. Any failure here is on the supporting players, McReight and Williams and JAS showed great instinct to charge in to try and secure.


      Example 5 - JAS is following the lead of players inside him. How this is his fault I don’t know what you are thinking


      Example 6 - Gleeson misses a tackle so JAS has to drift in off his man to take the ball carrier, leaving a larger overlap when he offloads. Failure by Gleeson not JAS


      Examples 7 and 8 - Wallabies defensive line isn’t aggressive. But noting to do with JAS. Fisher has actually said he is not coaching a fast line speed. To try and blame JAS is again selective.


      Seems like an agenda in this rather than the genuine, quality analysis I’ve come to expect from the author.

      37 Go to comments
      J
      Jfp123 39 minutes ago
      France push All Blacks to 80th minute in narrow Dunedin defeat

      So, you think top rugby players’ wages ought to be kept artificially low, when in fact the forces of “demand and supply” mean that many can and indeed are commanding wages higher than you approve of, and even though players regularly get injured, and those injuries can be serious enough to cut short careers and even threaten lives, e.g. Steven Kitshoff.

      .

      As far as I can make out your objections amount to

      1) they’ve sent a B team, which is not what we do and I don’t like it. Is there more to it than that? You haven’t replied to the points I made previously about sell out Tests and high ticket prices, so I take it reduced earnings are no longer part of your argument. Possibly you’re disappointed at not seeing Dupont et al., but a lot of New Zealanders think he is over rated anyway.


      2) The Top 14 is paying players too much, leading to wage inflation around the world which is bad for the sport.

      Firstly, young athletes have a range of sports to choose from, so rugby holding out the prospect of a lucrative, glamorous career helps attract talent.

      Above all, market forces mean the French clubs earn a lot of money, and spend a large part of that money on relatively high wages, within a framework set by the league to maintain the health of the league. This framework includes the salary cap and Jiff rules which in effect limit the number of foreign stars the clubs employ and encourage the development of young talent, so there is a limit on Top14 demand. The Toulon of the 2010s is a thing of the past.


      So yes, the French clubs cream off some top players - they are competitive sports teams, what do expect them to do with their money? - but there’s still a there’s a plentiful supply of great rugby players and coaches without French contracts. The troubles in England and Wales were down to mismanagement of those national bodies, and clubs themselves, not the French


      So if you don’t want to let market forces determine wage levels, and you do want to prevent the French clubs from spending so much of their large incomes on players, how on earth do you want to set player wages?


      Is the problem that NZ can’t pay so much as the Top 14 and you fear the best players will be lured away and/or you want NZ franchises to compete for leading international talent? Are you asking for NZ wage scales to be adopted as the maximum allowed, to achieve this? But in that case why not take Uruguay, or Spain, or Tonga or Samoa as the standard, so Samoa, a highly talented rugby nation, can keep Samoan players in Samoa, not see them leave for higher wages in NZ and elsewhere.

      Rugby is played in lots of countries, with hugely varying levels of financial backing etc. Obviously, it’s more difficult for some than others, but aside for a limited amount of help from world rugby, it’s up to each one to make their sums add up, and make the most of the particular advantages their nation/club/franchise has. SA are not the richest, but are still highly successful, and I don’t hear them complaining about Top14 wages.


      Many, particularly second tier, nations benefit from the Top14, and anyone genuinely concerned about the whole community of world rugby should welcome that. England and NZ have laid down rules so they can’t make the most of the French competition, which is up to them. But unlike some NZ fans and pundits, the English aren’t generally blaming their own woes on the French, rather they want reform of the English structure, and some are calling for lessons to learned from their neighbours across the channel. If NZ fans aren’t satisfied, I suggest they call for internal reform, not try to make the French scapegoats.


      In my opinion, a breach of standards would be to include on your team players who beat up women, not to regularly send a B team on the summer tours for reasons of player welfare, which in all the years you’ve been doing this only some of the pundits and fans of a single country have made a stink about.


      [my comments here are, of course, not aimed at all NZ fans and pundits]

      266 Go to comments
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