Since the first season of Premiership Women’s Rugby is delayed by the WXV, the RFU has cunningly slipped in the Allianz Cup to start in September. That lessens our impatience.
In turn it raises the age-old question: which is better, to win the Cup or the League?
The glory of the Cup is that you have beaten all-comers, whoever they may be, and you can take home a beautiful pot to polish up every day for a year.
Against that comes the longer-term achievement of finishing top at the end of a gruelling season. With all its ups and downs, you have shown stamina and perseverance to stand head and shoulders above the rest.
In the final analysis league and cup offer the chance to have two bites at the cherry.
Recent History
Last year Exeter Chiefs could mask their disappointment of once more being losing finalists in the league with a second successive Cup win. They were rewarded with a triumphant open-top bus parade through the city’s streets.
The Allianz Cup is still quite new; this year will see its third appearance. It was introduced to fill a gap that many wanted to see closed. The league table can appear settled from an early stage; it becomes obvious that teams A, B and C will fight it out for the top position, but what about the rest? The Cup gives them a renewed incentive.
And it would help offer more club members the chance to get on the field and play their part. Different moves of this sort have been trialled since the Premier 15s started in 2017, including dual-qualification. But this latter experiment has had only limited success. Without the Cup a club with, say, 47 members (Bears) would find it hard keeping everyone occupied.
Priorities?
With the ten clubs adding new names to their membership, it’s impossible to tell how the Cup will work out on its third appearance.
What priority will head coaches give it? Some may prefer to concentrate all their attention on the league programme. That, after all, is the deciding factor in a club’s success. The four who have fallen by the wayside all found league victories hard to achieve. If the Cup had been in place from the start, it’s unlikely their fate would have been any less distressing.
But it can be a useful pick-me-up. A knock-out victory or two can do wonders for a team that has found itself in the league doldrums.
This season’s shape allows the managements to take a close look at the new combinations it has acquired, before the nitty-gritty of the league kicks off in November.
New Schedules
The new global calendar requires all member nations to reassess the structure of their season. The Allianz Cup divides into two pools, to enable the round-robin stages to fit neatly into the space available, 22 September-28 October.
The one disadvantage of having ten clubs in the league comes when you divide them by two. It means that each week one club in each pool has a bye. That may be good news for anyone feeling short of breath, but otherwise creates an unfortunate imbalance.
Then comes the inevitable long delay. The knock-out stages will not be completed until finals day on 27 April 2024. The league and the Six Nations must have their proper place.
The two Pools:
Pool A: Bristol Bears, Exeter Chiefs, Leicester Tigers, Sale Sharks, Warriors
Pool B: Gloucester-Hartpury, Harlequins, Loughborough Lightning, Saracens, Trailfinders
