Gallagher Premiership 2022-2023 Season

It seems to be a recurring theme in the Premiership that teams run up a big lead in the first half but ship a lot of points in the second half, often making the final result close when it should have been anything but. Quins Northampton is another example this weekend and Exeter Quins and Bristol Irish the previous weekend.

Are teams saving themselves and happy to give up bonus points when they are confident of winning or do they actually capitulate?

I watched the build up to Tigers and Sarries and the BT commentators (monye i think - who is normally very balanced) said that Farrell would be up against pollard at some stage today and that the Gallerger premiership never fails to deliver for its fans.

I wonder what the glaws fans who were watching would have made of that!!!

I presume there is some sort of injury joker loophole to do that within salary cap?

Who expected anyone to hang around.

Contracts are cancelled, the club is going down. VDM has to think about his pocket and as importantly finding somewhere to train before the autumn internationals.

And you know this?

Indeed I are, but let's face it, sometimes money isn't everything nor should it be.

I expected a one year deal to stem the financial bleeding and allow him time to properly shop around.

The fact that he took a long term deal is the real shock to me.

I think you might see some quiet negotiations to try and attract the scottish or / and welsh clubs into the premership. It would make a lot of sense in some ways.

Lawrence Dallagio receiving a lot of stick for inferring on BT Sport that Wasps should be treated differently than Worcester re going into administration.

Massive financial knock on for the English Premiership Rugby.

Unfulfilled fixtures with all that loss of cash. Budgets would have been set counting on these fixtures.

That would be crazy.

The teams are private entities and a lot of them have stuff other than rugby going on. Realistically Wasps are in a £35 million + years of interest bond default and owe millions hmrc.

To keep the wolves from the door Wasps probably need an injection of £50 million in the short run. That would wipe out the rfu if they had to do it for every team in the premiership.

Is it really? Most ticket revenue comes from season tickets. Clubs won't be offering refunds.

Going from 1/13th or 1/11th of of tv money might make up for it.

Thats just the Bond debt thats in default.

Theres also revenue debt and they owe millions to the owner and to the government in refundable covid support.

The most reliable estimate of overall debt that I've seen is around £90 million.

The death of pro rugby might not be the end of the world, and I'm only half kidding. What's going on in the premiership seems to indicate that the English game is not sustainable, and in France it's the largesse of rich guys who keep it afloat, that's professional in name only as it's not really viable as a stand alone business. Meanwhile the prospects for NZ rugby seem poor as long as the Saffers see their future in Europe. Even in Ireland the whole pro game is made possible by the national team's ability to capture TV audiences and sell tickets for the 6N, that would still happen if the game were not 'professional'. But ultimately the pro game is in trouble as a result of the size and speed of the athletes and the consequent and unavoidable (reducible but unavoidable) brain injuries that result from professional rugby. The amateur game is not subject to the same kinds of injuries.

Well Gloucester stated they would be down £400k when their game against Worcester was called off. That does seem very high but they would obviously miss out on away fans plus other walk ups, then there would be various other forms of match day revenue. Maybe it was a net figure and Gloucester were also counting costs which had already been committed to as the game was called off at short notice.

Are you sure the tv money is a set pot to be shared amongst whoever is still standing rather than a fix amount per club? There's less games to be shown plus possibly less fans to watch with two clubs gone. Plus then big name players without a club or gone to another league (eg. DVDM). Then you have the general negative headlines and poor reflection on the league.