With the timing of George Furbank on to a Fin Smith cutout pass, or that of any of the myriad attacking talents in English club rugby, the Premiership’s PR team ushered in the return of domestic fare this weekend by releasing a load of positive numbers. They refrained from deploying a load of exclamation marks too, but a few of those would have been perfectly consistent with the general vibe. The Premiership is back! And it’s never been better!
First, boringly, to debunk some of the hyperbole, most of the stats relating to the uptick in viewing figures and attendances across the first six rounds of this season were positioned relative to last. Apparently, cumulative audiences on TNT Sports are up by 30% on this stage of the season last year; 21,000 more matchday tickets have been sold, an increase of 15%. But the start of last season coincided with the end of a World Cup, which tends to diminish figures for the domestic game.
Still, there is no doubt that, superficially at least, these are golden times for the Premiership. Well might the return of club rugby be celebrated. The matches continue to astonish with their wild narratives and the ambition of the rugby played.
Some of the stats supplied do speak unequivocally of a deepening of the Premiership’s reach into the public consciousness. The two rounds over the festive period are projected to break attendance records, particularly the second, with tickets for Harlequins’ festive match at the big stadium across the road selling at record pace. Meanwhile, only 30,000 tickets remain on general sale for the final in June at the same place. Ticket sales are said to be almost double what they were this time last season, which was in turn the fastest-selling Premiership final on record.
As so often, the contrast in vibe when the Premiership comes to Twickenham with when England do could not be greater. One brings a colourful pageant of folk immersed in rugby on a weekly basis, the other a drab parade of green jackets who boo, perhaps understandably, when the fare on offer falls short of the exorbitant price they paid for a ticket.
With somewhat clunkier timing, the RFU published its annual report this same week, just after England’s disappointing autumn on the field. Absolutely nothing in the way of exclamation marks there. Some of the stats produced in this missive have conjured howls of protest across the land. Record deficits, record remunerations, record levels of disgust. If English rugby could boo collectively, even the sunny folk of the Premiership would be joining in.
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All of which exposes a deeply uncomfortable irony woven into a sport that can be at the same time so thrilling and so irredeemably dysfunctional. Less positive for the Premiership, of course, was the demise of three of their number last season, followed up by a report, earlier this, that claimed seven of the remaining 10 clubs are balance-sheet insolvent. All of them continue to lose a lot of money. If even the RFU’s numbers are splashed in red, a significant reason for that, not to mention the price of tickets at the stadium whose name has been sold, is the millions of pounds they divert towards those same clubs in a futile attempt to keep them afloat.
And then there is the shadow over all of the above of the fate – that may or may not await our heroes – in later life as they continue to batter each other from week to week, year to year. There were press releases about that too this week, along with the unveiling of yet more international players signed up to the action being pursued against, among others, the RFU.
If this feels like the end of days for rugby, any more than it does for the world in general, one valid response is just to get out there and enjoy the Premiership while you can. It genuinely is brilliant fun. A bit like going to the pub while the meteor approaches.
