The PWR now takes a week’s breather; cudgels taken up again on 8 March.
The most striking feature of recent matches has been their closeness. For example: Loughborough Lightning 21 Bristol Bears 24; Sale Sharks 15 Harlequins 12; Saracens 36 Bears 33; Quins 38 Exeter Chiefs 38.
This means drama! with a capital D, and helps to explain the shape of the current table (see below). It divides neatly into 2 + 3 + 3 + 1.
The clubs placed 3-5 (Chiefs, Quins and Trailfinders), are separated by three points only.
Top-dogs
It’s ding-dong at the top. The two runaway leaders, Gloucester-Hartpury and Saracens, exchange places week by week mainly because of the number of games completed.
Glos-pury won the first of the two battles, hence their unbeaten record. But can they repeat the feat?
There is a stark contrast in their playing stats: Sarries are far superior in points scored; their defence as usual the best in the land.
And then there were nine
At the end of January Genevieve Shore, PWR’s boss, offered a reason for maintaining the current total of nine clubs: an insufficient player-pool.
Though this outcome is the result of intricate study, I find it desperately hard to credit. We have players from all over the world wishing to take part; schools, colleges, academies, universities and clubs are all seeing a heartening increase in numbers and enthusiasm.
On the other hand, across the period 2017-26 we have seen five clubs disappear from view. But this happened essentially for financial reasons, not playing numbers. Clubs that couldn’t keep up were sent packing.
Yet in today’s structure we still find one club left in its starting blocks, Leicester Tigers.
One financial review claims that the Welford Road club has the second smallest amount of debt (to Quins) of all the Gallagher Premiership sides. So why the lack of achievement?
There we have the intractable problems of pro-rugby in a nutshell. It doesn’t pay its way.
Review-time?
If we followed the pattern of earlier years, we would be expecting another re-tendering process soon. But since the only likely outcome would be the exclusion of the bottom club, it strikes me as highly improbable.
With every passing year the gap in attainment between the elite league and the Championship below it grows cavernous wider. Where could PWR Ltd possibly find a tenth club?
And we are in the middle of a 10-year schedule. When, if ever, can we expect a review and possible changes in policies?
Crude Figures
The RFU pours about £15m into women’s rugby and receives about £7m in return. The aim of course is to get those numbers closer together.
This deficit bears on the business of the so-called World Cup Bounce.
In so many ways the news is positive. It’s difficult to know what we should reasonably expect, since there have been so few parallels in the past.
Estimates for attendances at coming 6N matches are extremely encouraging. But it’s harder to claim the same for the PWR. Sure, the figures are well up for both spectators and sofa-ridden viewers.
But precise numbers come rarely. Mostly it’s percentages, and they can look huge. Since we don’t know the starting point, we can have little idea of the true state of affairs.
All too often TV cameras are placed in the same stand as the spectators. We hear you; we rarely see you.
Were we over-ambitious expecting to see 10k+ at every match? Yes, but I suspect club treasurers are disappointed by this year’s gates.
On balance the PWR is giving huge value for money. Every match can be viewed; playing standards keep rising skywards. Players put so much energy into their performances that this rest week is well deserved.
As a reminder here are the present standings in brief:
Table P W Pts
Sarries 11 10 50
Glos-pury 10 10 50
Chiefs 11 5 35
Quins 11 5 33
Trail Finders 11 4 32
Lightning 10 3 23
Sharks 11 3 23
Bristol Bears 11 3 20
Tigers 10 0 1
