LONG READ 'The Premiership's values can renew the league's diminished profile'

The Premiership has been through the mill of late. Three clubs have gone bust and some of its biggest names have departed for the Top 14.

Its diminished profile was underlined this week when its opening terrestrial TV highlights programme of the new season was shovelled into an 11.45am Wednesday graveyard slot to fit in coverage of the British Open snooker instead.

Times are hard. Sometimes though the sporting world offers a handy comparison which makes you appreciate English club rugby for what it is.

Manchester City versus Arsenal and Sale against Harlequins took place a few miles away from each other last Sunday. City-Arsenal was a gripping match but one riddled with a dispiriting fakery and fury. Sale-Quins was, in contrast, a truly awful spectacle but as honest, committed and honourable a contest as you could have wished for.

No-one put on an injury, no-one confronted the referee wild-eyed with rage at a decision and no-one threw the ball at the back of an opponent’s head to gloat that his team had just scored a late equaliser.

Congratulating Premiership players for not doing any of these things is, as the golfer Bobby Jones observed when he was praised for calling a penalty stroke on himself, like offering congratulations for not robbing a bank. But the dark arts row which exploded following the clash of the Premier League’s top two clubs served to emphasise the wholesome values English club rugby – and rugby in general – is still able to trumpet.

Let’s not pretend rugby union players are angels. As a game rugby is about getting away with as much as possible.

Plenty feared the advent of professionalism would corrupt rugby’s ethos and nudge it down the same dark alleys as football. Money would be its ruination, came the lament. It is true there have been bumps along the journey to where we are now. The Harlequins bloodgate episode would stand out in any sport as a truly jaw-dropping piece of connivance. It was scandalous – not least because Quins weren’t the only ones at it. They were just the club which were caught.

There have also been other shady fads such as players chasing kicks initiating contact and going to ground. Or front row ‘injuries’ which were nothing of the sort but which brought a struggling pack the haven of uncontested scrums. But despite these embarrassing departures, rugby’s values have emerged largely intact.

Improved surveillance with the arrival of the Television Match Official, the mic’d-up ref and player and the presence of so many cameras at matches has helped preserve them. New Zealand second row Andy Haden probably wouldn’t have tried his infamous 1978 lineout dive against Wales these days because he would have known he would never have got away with it.

But whatever the drivers, the end result is positive.

The morals of the English game are in rude health, according to Gloucester director of rugby George Skivington.

“I think the sport is probably a lot cleaner in terms of the dark arts than it was 10, 15 or 20 years ago,” he said. “Players don’t really get away with anything in terms of pushing the boundaries of sportsmanship.

“There’s a little bit of screaming and shouting that I don’t think we need in my opinion – that is the way it has gone a bit – but from my point of view I think rugby union’s values are pretty strong.

I watch the football and I’ve seen so many yellow and red cards over the past couple of games, so much back chatting and so many interruptions to the game.

“We all shake each other’s hands before and after and if we can facilitate it coaches and players will have a beer afterwards and a good chat. I think in general we are very respectful of referees and of the people who pay to come and watch our games. You watch our lads on the weekend. We lost the game and it was very tough to swallow but the lads stayed out, signed autographs and made sure everyone who had turned up and bought a ticket got a bit of their time.”

Let’s not pretend rugby union players are angels. As a game rugby is about getting away with as much as possible. The laws are there to be pushed, nudged and cajoled as far as they will bend. Surrounding that spongey framework, though, has always been a rigid code of honour.

Premiership Rugby this week offered a glimpse into the data it collects on each of its clubs to monitor the maintenance of those standards. It is something they have been doing for seven years amid concerns behaviour towards match officials at top level was deteriorating and of a general rise in s**thousery.

Each week Premiership Rugby operations officials sit down with referee Ian Tempest and RFU officials coach Chris White to look at any problem areas and flag them up. They will then liaise with club directors of rugby to police any issues. The data shows incidents of concern are on the retreat. Last season had the fewest since the numbers started to be collated and none at all in the most serious category – conduct prejudicial to the values of the game.

Northampton number eight Juarno Augustus believes especially when it comes to interactions with referees, respect remains in rugby’s blood.

“I watch the football and I’ve seen so many yellow and red cards over the past couple of games, so much back chatting and so many interruptions to the game,” he said.

“I don’t think there’s any benefit in going to argue with the ref. That’s why TMOs are there – to bring up something the ref might have missed.

“I can’t go up to the ref and tell him it’s the wrong call. He’d just tell me to turn around and put 10 metres on me.”

One area English rugby needs to keep an eye on is players appealing for a decision.

Augustus was involved in such a situation in last season’s Premiership final when he was caught by a high tackle from Bath prop Beno Obano. The officials had it covered anyway and Obano was red-carded but they do not need any extra assistance from biassed witnesses.

In general, though, the league’s culture is in good order. That isn’t the be-all and end-all but as a foundation stone for renewal it is an important start.