Th ne PREM seas sta o Thursd nigh wi Sal Shar hosti Glouce befo Harleq enterta Bat an Newcas Re Bul fac Sarac on Frid.
That is a sentence, as uneasy on the eye as it may be, of which you can just about make sense. Much like the Premiership’s decision to lose a few letters as part of its rebrand.
On we go to the new, pithier frontier. With a new logo, new trophy, new investment, new signings and, it seems, miraculously, yet another attempt to avoid the possibility of relegation without actually legislating for it.
With next to no British & Irish Lions available, undercooked England players and a new existential threat in R360 – a breakaway league promising untold riches and, perhaps not insignificantly, with an equally pithy name. There is so much to like about the Prem, plenty to lament and, as ever, much in a state of flux.
We start on a Thursday, with the leaves on the trees already browning, but for good reason. There will be no fixtures this Saturday to avoid a clash with the Women’s Rugby World Cup final and, though you wonder if Thursday nights could catch on, the broadcaster TNT Sports – recently signed up again until 2031 – is not minded to make it permanent. Rugby broadcasters like their Friday-Sunday slots, particularly the 3.05pm Saturday kick-off because they attract football followers who have been watching the lunchtime Premier League fixture.
Accidental fans who cannot be bothered to change the channel does not immediately strike as something to celebrate, but we are where we are, and a 43% increase suggests the theory holds water, albeit vulnerable should football’s 3pm blackout meet its demise.
Still, the curtain-raiser on Thursday night promises to be a cracker, showcasing all the positives Prem officials wish to accentuate. Sale will be ultra-physical while Gloucester, whose attacking ambition lit up the competition last season, are led by Tomos Williams – one of the few Lions players allowed to play before round three because of his early departure from Australia.
Ben Curry starts for Sale because those who toured with England are available, but most have been unable to appear in Prem Rugby Cup fixtures in the past couple of weeks. Some clubs fear that leaves them undercooked or, to put it another way, that player welfare guidelines are jeopardising their players’ welfare. Rugby is nothing if not the sport of unintended consequences.
On Friday, Saracens have the honour of being the Red Bulls’ first league opponents. It promises to be some occasion and with Newcastle specifically targeting freshers for ticket sales Owen Farrell can expect a warm welcome if picked for his second Saracens debut. You can see Bath running roughshod over Harlequins – who have lost their head coach, Danny Wilson, to Wales – but Quins have a recent history of thriving in adversity and their fans love nothing more than unwinding on a Friday night after a hard week at the white‑collar coalface. The two fixtures on Sunday – Northampton against Exeter and Bristol versus Leicester – are equally hard to predict.
Tomos Williams will lead Gloucester in the curtain-raiser against Sale on Thursday. Photograph: Steven Paston/PA
Yet there is a nagging sense this is a soft launch to the season. Perhaps because Test Lions such as Maro Itoje, Tommy Freeman and Finn Russell will be absent. Maybe because of a blank Saturday or just as a result of the calendar. For this opening tranche of fixtures before the autumn internationals has come to feel a bit like sparring. Admittedly, the top four of last season all won on the opening weekend but there has come to be a sense of muddling through until mid‑March, of jockeying for position until after the Six Nations. Derby weekends and festive fixtures are financially significant, but increasingly the final third of season is the most important.
As such, bonhomie was abounding at this year’s “content capture” day, formerly known as “the launch”. Most coaches were generous with their time, albeit happier outlining generic hopes and aims than siding with a gorilla or 100 men.
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There was Mark McCall steadfastly refusing to age despite preparing for his 15th full campaign as Saracens’ director of rugby, and Sale’s Alex Sanderson welcoming Red Bull’s investment in Newcastle while confessing a rival energy drink is his go-to hangover cure.
Unfortunately, Steve Diamond poured cold water on a potential bromance with Jürgen Klopp while Geoff Parling was a little nervous on debut – “he’ll be available when he’s available” was the illuminating injury update on George Martin – and even Steve Borthwick made an appearance. He was not as visible a year ago – on the same day it was announced he would be having greater control over these clubs’ England players – but credit where its due for popping by 12 months on.
He has his work cut out because he has been denied the normal extra training week before England’s autumn internationals after the Rugby Football Union shoehorned another fixture against Australia into the campaign.
Post‑Lions fatigue is a consideration, too, and England had 100% records in the 2017 and 2021 autumn campaigns, but plummeted in the 2018 and 2022 Six Nations tournaments and on both the following summer tours Eddie Jones barely survived the sack.
Borthwick would hope to be in a better position for England’s first Nations Championship fixtures next summer, but there is a thrilling Prem race before then, even if it is a race run in three parts, punctuated by international windows. Bath are by some distancethe team to beat but while the Prem’s data partner, Oval, calculated Leicester, Saracens and Northampton are favourites to join them, it could not do so with even 50% certainty. We are entering the age of abbreviations and energy drinks but once again, this season will be defined by its unpredictability.
