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The already prevalent factor that could play a massive role in how the Premiership is decided
By PA
Sale boss Steve Diamond admitted his Sharks were “shooting blanks” as their pursuit of the Gallagher Premiership title suffered a setback with a 16-10 defeat by Harlequins.
Hooker Scott Baldwin scored the decisive try in the third quarter but Quins were far sharper and controlled the majority of a game played behind closed doors as the league returned after a five-month absence because of Covid-19.
“We’re frustrated. We didn’t get to grips with the breakdown interpretations, so we’re probably delighted to come away with a bonus point,” director of rugby Diamond said.
“My team usually gives away seven or eight penalties, so to give away 19 was disappointing. We were shooting blanks. We want to see some entertaining rugby, we certainly didn’t.”
Quins were expertly directed by 21-year-old fly-half Marcus Smith, the England prospect who kicked three penalties and a conversion.
“Marcus doesn’t shy away from the contact and without a doubt he wants to be the best player in the world,” head of rugby Paul Gustard said.
“He’s still only a kid and so for a young man to manage the field as well as he did is excellent. He gave the forwards energy and it’s brilliant to use his DNA, which is also to run and attack.
“We never really got our season going before so we are now seeing a more complete squad and are more competitive because of that.”
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Latest Comments
GB is England, Scotland, Wales. They are the 3 constituent countries in Great Britain. Ergo playing only those three countries is a tour of GB. The difference between GB and the UK is Northern Ireland. It's not a huge deal to be accurate and call places by their correct name. But please refrain from your idiotic attempts to BS that GB=UK. It doesn't.
Go to commentsThe 2023 draw was only criticized when it became apparent that the top 5 sides in the world were on the same side of the draw. Nowhere did they discuss the decision to backtrack to 2019 rankings which ensured that England and Wales (ranked #12 in 2023) were ranked top4.
The parties who trashed out the schedule were England Rugby, NZ Rugby and ITV. It is bordering on corrupt that a Rugby nation has the power to schedule its opponents to play a major match the week before facing them in a QF.
You won't find commentary by members of the relevant committees because a committee did not make the scheduling decision. I have never heard members of World Rugby speak out on the draw or scheduling issues.
For example in 2015 Japan were hammered by Scotland 4 days after beating SA. The criticism only happens after a cock up.
A fair pool schedule is pretty straightforward: The lowest two tanked teams must play on last pool day but not against each other. That means that TV can focus on promoting big matches with a Tier2 involved for that Friday.
Why does NZ Always get its preferred slot playing the hardest pool match on day 1?
Why do other teams eg France, Ireland, Scotland get so often scheduled to play a hard match the week before the QFs?
If you believe the rules around scheduling are transparent then please point me in the right direction?
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