JEREMY GUSCOTT
OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE… EVERY WEEK
THE beauty of the last Premiership season was it was incredibly competitive, and this was reflected in a showpiece final between Northampton and Bath at Twickenham which was in doubt right up to the last seconds.
The game had great drama throughout, despite Bath being reduced to 14 players when Beno Obano was red-carded for a high tackle midway through the first half.
It was the same with the season as a whole, with only 10 league points separating Northampton and Bath, who finished first and second in the table on 60 points, from Exeter, who finished seventh on 50.
This season you would expect Northampton and Bath to pick up where they left off – with the Saints looking to retain the title, and Bath looking to go one better by supplanting them at the top.
Northampton topped the Premiership for most of last season, and they deserved to win it, with Courtney Lawes going out in style before moving to France to join Brive.
The Saints have such an exciting back line; Tommy Freeman is a class act, and the combination of him and George Furbank has helped to transform the England backline. I was also impressed by the way Ollie Sleightholme took his chance in New Zealand over the summer to force his way into England contention on the wing.
I’m looking forward to this season, and because I’m a Bathonian I watched a lot of Bath last season, mainly because they were worth watching – and it was the same across the board in the Premiership.
Bath’s resurgence started at the end of the 2023 season, and continued strongly last campaign to put them in with a title shot. Finn Russell will be wanting to make Bath’s attack even more incisive, and out wide Will Muir was brilliant last season. The fans love him, and with Joe Cokanasiga also having one of his best seasons at The Rec, they are in good shape on the wings. Johann van Graan also did well to rotate his front five but keep the pack competitive, and he looked after the squad as a whole, with no-one over-used.
For a decade Saracens produced teams always capable of winning the Premiership or the European Cup – and they scaled the heights twice to claim doubles in 2016 and 2019 – so, normally, Saracens would be favourites. That’s changed with the loss of the Vunipola brothers and a competitive and tactical force like Owen Farrell. It seems as if they have lost almost a generation of experience with the departure to France of three players of that influence and calibre.
However, Saracens are renowned for great recruitment, and if Mark McCall and his coaching team have managed to fill the gaps left by Owen, Mako and Billy in one close
“It wouldn’t surprise me if any of last season’s top eight finished in the top four this time”
season all you can do is applaud their ability to identify and select the right players.
Saracens will hope that one of those is new Kiwi fly-half Fergus Burke. He played for a very good team in the Crusaders, but it is still a big ask for Burke to come straight in and call the tune in the same way as Farrell. It’s why this season seems like more of a watershed for Saracens – but it would still take a brave soul to say they will not be involved in the top four.
Michael Cheika‘s arrival at Leicester as head coach is likely to result in there being another contender back in the running for a top four place, after last season’s eighth place slump.
The revival of a club with such a great league record and history is an exciting prospect – and with a squad featuring double Springbok World Cup winning fly-half Handre Pollard, and up-and-coming England forwards George Martin and Ollie Chessum, you would expect Leicester to be fully primed. Add to that the biggest support base in the country, and a full house at Welford Road urging them on, why wouldn’t Tigers get back to the top?
Sale weren’t all that far off with a third-place finish last season, and they are very much in the mould of where Saracens were before developing into a team which could adapt to play in all ways. If Alex Sanderson can get Sale to follow that Saracens pattern of bolting-on new elements they will be a dangerous side.
Bristol are in a similar position. They played some enthralling stuff in the late run that saw them just miss out on the play-offs by finishing fifth. Their counter-attacking ability, sparked by players like Max Malins and Harry Randall, was at times off the charts, and if their forward base is solid we can expect more of the same. Would I be surprised if Bristol finished in the top four? No.
Harlequins, who were one place below Bristol, also play an entertaining brand, but Marcus Smith and company will also have to be more consistent to be in with a chance of putting silverware back on the shelves at The Stoop.
Exeter won’t be happy with their seventh place finish last season, especially as it is only four years ago that they won a Premiership and European Cup double.
The Chiefs have dropped off the pace a little after having to rebuild, and have a bit to prove. At the moment they are not quite maintaining the same level as their old arch-rivals Saracens, despite bringing through exciting young international talents like England wing Immanuel Feyi-Waboso and Italy flanker Ross Vintcent.
At the bottom of the table Gloucester and Newcastle both have a lot of ground to make up. Gloucester are a big club which is underperforming, and will hope that their new Welsh 9-10 pairing of Tomos Williams and Gareth Anscombe can give them lift-off.
As for Newcastle, after an entire season without a victory, their main focus is to try to get a win and build some momentum.
The Premiership is good to watch, and is a combative, tough league. This was highlighted by Northampton losing six of their 18 matches, while Bristol, four places below them, lost seven. It was so competitive that any preview of the season produces more questions than answers, with very little separating the top eight clubs. That’s why, if any of the sides from 1 to 8 last season finished in the top four this season, I wouldn’t be surprised.
There is a good chance we will again see lots of tries and big scorelines, although it will probably also be helped by poor defence. I put some of the massive scorelines from last season down to there being no relegation. This season there is meant to be a promotion-relegation play-off, but the conditions around it are still in dispute. It should be spelled-out in black and white so that everyone knows where they stand at the start of the season.
All that we know is that if there’s no relegation it will be brakes off, and if there is relegation it will be tighter.
