TRU's 2014/15 Aviva Premiership Review with David Flatman
After a fantastic summer of rugby that has included sevens at the Commonwealth Games, internationals in the southern hemisphere and the start of the Rugby Championship, domestic rugby has finally come back to English shores for the start of the Aviva Premiership.
This weekend the competition will roar back to life with fixtures across the weekend, as reigning Champions Northampton have to dust off the Twickenham confetti and get their title defence off to the best possible start at home against Gloucester.
However, although the opening weekend is now just hours away, there are still plenty of questions surrounding the teams and how they will fare this year.
Will Northampton be able to back-up last season’s grand final victory? Can Saracens pick themselves up from the heartbreak of last season? Can London Welsh survive in the top flight; particularly after so many summer signings?
These are just some of the questions Talking Rugby Union have looked to answer ahead of the competition and we have done so with the help of former Bath prop and current rugby pundit David Flatman.
Northampton:
Though, before we look at this season, we want to cast your minds back to this year’s final at Twickenham Stadium, 100 minutes into the game and prop forward Alex Waller, who manages to burrow his way over the try line to seal an historic victory for the Saints.
The game was “incredibly tense,” David began, “I was on the side-lines as a complete neutral for the game and even for me it was incredibly tense.
“Northampton, in that last period, just took things to a level that one of the sides needed to take it to and to be completely honest I think most people expected Saracens to take it, just because they’d done so before, and recently.
“But, in the end, it was Northampton who answered the call – they were deeply, deeply impressive.”
However, how will the champions fare this year? As many top-flight teams and professional sportsmen and woman have learnt over the years, continuing to motivate yourself and perform after reaching the pinnacle of your sport, can be an entirely new and difficult challenge.
“They have got some great youth coming through the ranks, like Alex Waller, but what I think they did last year was actually win the Aviva premiership with the smallest squad in the league.
“The amazing thing about them is how well they look after their players and how fit they are; but it does also put a question mark over them for this season.
“You know, if they get a couple of injuries to key players, how well will they cope then?”
Saracens:
Moving to the other side of the spectrum now and Saracens. The pick of the league, as they occupied the top spot for a large majority of the season and secured a first place finish.
However, a last minute defeat in extra time to Northampton, just a week after being crushed both physically and mentally by Toulon in the Heineken Cup Final, would be enough to quash the confidence of any player.
Will the London side be able to bounce back and push themselves over the final hurdle this year as they compete in search of another Premiership title? How much of an effect will those losses have?
“I don’t think it will have a massive effect,” David answered, “especially when you’ve won the Premiership before and reasonably recently.
“No team wins every final and I think that’s just fine. I don’t think we will see a massive drop-off from Saracens: I still absolutely believe that with the guys they have got in that squad they will do well.
“When you’ve got Brad Barrett running at a defence and then the guys that they’ve got upfront I think they’re going to be a top four side.
“It would be a real upset if they weren’t, but the effect of losing Steve Borthwick still remains to be seen. They have signed Jim Hamilton, so in playing terms they lose nothing because Jim is a top-class player and any Premiership club would be lucky to have a player like that.
“However, in terms of leadership… everyone knows who has ever played with or against Steve Borthwick knows what a leader he is, and for someone like that not to be around anymore, it can have a big effect on the rest of the team. We will see…”
The European Champions Cup:
Aside from the Premiership’s two finalists, accounting for the final four European places were Harlequins, Leicester, Bath and one of last season’s surprise packages – Sale Sharks.
For the first season ever, we will no longer have the Heineken Cup as a stalwart of every rugby fans calendars, with the inaugural European Champions Cup bursting into life.
But how will these teams fair in Europe? How will they prioritise the competition in respect to the league? And how will they juggle between players and their commitments?
“I think now, the great thing is that you have Premiership teams battling it out every week against each other to have that succeed to compete in Europe, with everyone else having to do it as well.
“So now the Irish, the Scottish and the Welsh have to battle it out for a place in Europe; they’re all fighting it out every week.
“Everyone has to deal with trying to qualify alongside their domestic league, so there’s no resting in the league whilst targeting Europe – everyone is going to be going for it flat-out.
“There will certainly be a lot of tired bodies a year from now and it is all about who can stay fit and then if you do get those injuries who is going to come in to the side and fill that gap.
“There are plenty of teams that did really well last season, like Sale Sharks, for example, they did brilliantly last season. They caused so many upsets that about half way through the season we all stopped calling them upsets.
“However, Sale have lost some players, with one being their front-line prop to Bath, Henry Thomas. Losing a young international player like that can have a bad effect: they’re the sort of players you want to stay at your club for a decade and be ones you can build a team around.”
Bath:
Another team who made headlines last season were Bath, with their vibrant, youthful side, spearheaded by fly-half George Ford, who were incredibly unlucky to not make the playoffs.
“A lot of people were disappointed they didn’t make the top four,” David confessed, “especially after the start to the season they had.
“If you looked at a World XV right now you would probably have Francois Louw either in it or very close to, because he is that good; he is getting Man of the Match Awards in almost every game he plays for both Bath and the Springboks.
“He is a sensational player and he missed the last seven games of Bath’s season. They missed out on the top four by a single point and you would back yourself that Louw would add at least another two points to Bath’s tally over seven games. So with Bath it was a very, very close-run thing.”
The big news for the West Country side over the last season, though, is the arrival of rugby league star Sam Burgess, as he completes his cross-code switch to the union game.
“I’m really excited about Sam’s arrival; as a rugby fan I’m massively excited about Sam Burgess, to be honest with you, more than any other signing, because we don’t really know what’s going to happen.
“I think, potentially, it is the best signing any Premiership club has made, along with prop John Afoa who is going to Gloucester – if he plays anywhere near he has done for the last couple of seasons then I think he is one of the best tight-head props in the world.
“But in terms of pure excitement then Sam Burgess is the one for me,” David confessed, “being a little bit crude about it, I just can’t wait to see him smash someone,” he joked. “As long as he learns to wrap his arms and tackle six inches lower, then he could cause some serious damage.
“The next question is where he is going to play? I really don’t know… he will probably start at 12 and may move towards the back row, he may not; but at some point he will take a ball up and someone will take a ball into him and then it’s going to be crunch time – I can’t wait!”
London Welsh:
Finally, moving on to the Premiership’s new boys – London Welsh. The Exiles cast aside their more-favoured opposition, Bristol, in the Championship playoff final to seal their position in this year’s Aviva Premiership.
London Welsh and Head Coach Justin Burnell have recruited relentlessly over the summer break, with an enormous number of players coming to Oxford and the Kassam. The pick of these being former All Black and World Cup winner, Piri Weepu.
Weepu will experience his first taste of Premiership rugby after enjoying years of success in the Super Rugby competition.
Will the Welsh survive? Can they push for a mid-table spot in the league? How difficult is it for a new team to make their mark in the top-flight?
“I think they’ve recruited nicely,” David began, “what you get with Piri Weepu is, obviously, a top-class player with great service for you backs. So if you’re under pressure up front, which they might be on occasion, then you have Weepu with great service who is great at digging a ball out and relieving pressure.
“He will ship that over to Olly Barkley and he’s one of the best in the business at clearing the lines. So there is a good pressure, release system there.
“In terms of longevity I don’t think any coach goes into a season telling his guys these are the five games we are going to target and have to win, because as soon as you lose one of those you think you’re knackered.
“They’re the sort of team who will get a few seeing-to’s but I think they will prove really awkward to beat at home and that’s especially when the weather is bad.
“Art their ground, to be completely frank about it, there’s not that much atmosphere and that can prove to be a really shock-to-the-system for professional players, used to playing with lots of noise and big crowds.
“I think that could be a massive advantage for them.”
Listen to the rest of our interview with David, above, as he also discusses whether Sam Burgess will feature heavily for England and which teams could be surprise packages in the Aviva Premiership this season.
The league kicks-off this Friday night, the 5th, as reigning champions Northampton welcome Gloucester to Franklin’s Garden.
