Glance quickly at the Premiership table and it looks upside down. The bottom four clubs have won 27 of the 32 titles since English rugby adopted the league system in 1987 and while Saracens are below the rest because of the 35 points deducted for breaching the salary cap regulations, the three clubs immediately above them, Leicester, Wasps and Bath, are down there by right.
These are early days with only five rounds completed, but with three more being staged over the next two weeks and just one other before clubs lose their England players for the Six Nations, it is the time of year when fears become injected with a shot of reality.
Saracens, Leicester, Bath and Wasps supplied 21 players to England’s World Cup campaign. The first three can expect to be inconvenienced again and for Saracens, who expect to have to win at least 16 of their 22 matches to avoid relegation, it will add to pressure the club has not experienced for more than a decade. At least they are accustomed to winning, a habit their rivals above them will be looking for in their Christmas stocking.
Leicester, Bath and Wasps have won 22 league titles between them, but their league form this season has reflected how they finished the 2018-19 campaign: the Tigers have lost 11 of their last 14 Premiership matches, Wasps 10 and Bath eight.
“People expect Wasps, Leicester and Bath, really big clubs with lots of history, tradition and success, to be up there in the top four,” said the Wasps director of rugby, Dai Young, who welcomes back his England second-row Joe Launchbury for Saturday’s visit of Harlequins to the Ricoh Arena. “Sadly, the reality is that isn’t quite the case at the minute.
“It is tough for us. We are down there and we have to shoulder that. The expectations on us as clubs will not go away and we do not want them to. We want to be considered a big club and we need to get back up there, which we are working hard to do. Every club is spending up to the salary cap now, making a tough league even tougher.”
Leicester’s only league victory this season was achieved late at home to Gloucester and they have not picked up a bonus point in their four defeats. They have an unbeaten record in the European Challenge Cup, in which they are competing for the first time, but they laboured away against the part-timers Calvisano last weekend and Exeter at home on Saturday will be a few notches above.
“We showed elements of grit and determination at Calvisano with a young side,” said the club’s director of rugby, Geordan Murphy. “We did not perform as well as we could have done, but the players worked really hard for each other. Exeter’s have been hugely impressive in the last five years. We know the challenge that faces us and where we need to be better.”
Leicester will be armed with their six England World Cup players while Exeter are resting Jack Nowell and Luke Cowan-Dickie, although Henry Slade leads the side. It is an indication of where the Tigers are that the Chiefs feel, with the strength in depth they have developed, they can also afford to give Alec Hepburn, Sam Simmonds and Nic White the weekend off ahead of next weekend’s home encounter with Saracens.
Bath are at London Irish on Sunday. Two seasons ago, the Exiles went down with a whimper but this time they have an experienced coaching team and made a number of high-profile signings, including the Australia second-row Adam Coleman, who makes his first Premiership start this weekend.
“We have spoken about drawing a line in the sand from the first couple of months and starting again,” said Bath’s Lions and Wales centre Jamie Roberts as the club looks to recover from last weekend’s battering at Clermont Auvergne. “I have been through periods like this before in my career and when you reflect on them you learn how not to do things. That is often the driver for success.
“I felt embarrassed on the pitch at the end of the Clermont game. We have not been good enough in the first two months of the season: it is rosy when you are winning but when the pressure is in it brings out the best in people. We are under pressure and we have had honest conversations. We do not like the position we are in and have to react.”
