LONG READ 'Bath should be planning their open-top bus parade'

The Premiership final has become as much a part of English rugby union’s furniture as a striped blazer and a stressed treasurer.

The traditional method of determining a champion club – winning the league – is rarely mentioned anymore.

The scenes on Merseyside after Liverpool secured the Premier League title at the weekend prompted a moment of reflection, though.

If rugby union was as it used to be, Bath would have been enjoying the self-same party at the weekend. Their victory over Newcastle Falcons gave them an unassailable lead at the top of the Premiership. Fifteen points clear with three games of the regular season left, they are guaranteed to finish first having won four more matches than their nearest pursuers Leicester.

Bath have, like Liverpool, clearly established themselves as the best side in the country. Yet their only reward amounts to home advantage in a semi-final. There isn’t even a league leaders’ trophy.

In the 22 editions since the play-offs were introduced to determine the champion club, history tells us more often than not the side that finishes first fails to win the Premiership. There have been 12 winners who did not top the table over the regular season.

Is that sporting justice?

The first three finals all saw the top-of-the-table club overturned by battle-hardened play-off winners so, in response, the knockout phase was expanded to four clubs for 2005/06.

English rugby union made the switch from a first-past-the-post system to a play-off formula in the 2002/03 season.

For the two seasons prior, the Premiership had tested the waters with a play-off competition after the regular season although the champions were still decided by league finish.

Administrators tried to change that mid-season in 2001/02 with Leicester well on their way to the title but the outcry which followed led to a screeching U-turn.

It was only temporary however and the first winner-takes-all Twickenham final came into play the year after. The first winners under the new system, Wasps, finished 15 points behind the team they defeated in the final, Gloucester. The play-offs only involved three clubs initially with the team that finished top, fast-tracked straight into the final. Not that it did Gloucester much good who were thrashed 39-3 at Twickenham.

Predictably, given the outcome, there was a furore but the attendance at Twickenham – 42,000 – persuaded the administrators to persevere. Rugby union fans clearly saw something in the cliff-edge decider and the big day out.

The first three finals all saw the top-of-the-table club overturned by battle-hardened play-off winners so, in response, the knockout phase was expanded to four clubs for 2005/06.

It has remained the same ever since.

It is hard to deny the semi-final and final concept has added annual jeopardy, especially in a season when one team has dominated like this one.

What if Liverpool, instead of celebrating a title wrapped up with four games to spare, were asked to do it all over again by defeating Manchester City and Arsenal in a play-off?

Imagine the same scenario in English football, though. What if Liverpool, instead of celebrating a title wrapped up with four games to spare, were asked to do it all over again by defeating Manchester City and Arsenal in a play-off?

It would be a huge money-spinner and would provide more of the dramatic moments the broadcasters and marketing departments crave but there would be uproar. What if the title that should rightfully be Liverpool’s ended up going to City or Arsenal? How could that be when Liverpool have won seven more games than both of them?

If such a commercially avaricious entity as the Premier League will not compromise on fair play when it comes to crowning their champions then it does make you wonder how rugby union could have waved through the change and allowed it to have become engrained.

Of course, many other sports swear by a showpiece final too but it still does not make it right. If fairness is the overriding concern Bath should be proclaimed champions without any further need to prove themselves. They are the pre-eminent side.

They are not unbeatable, however, in a one-off game. They lost at home at Bristol in October and at Northampton in January.

You would expect Johann van Graan’s side to win a home semi-final whoever they are up against but, again, it isn’t guaranteed.

Northampton, who finished top in 2014, lost a home semi-final to fourth-placed Saracens who went onto lift the trophy at Twickenham. Likewise, Bristol fell off their perch four years ago, beaten at home in an iconic thriller by the eventual winners Harlequins.

The records tell us Bath will have a 50-50 shot in the final. As many league runners-up – 10 – have won the Premiership final as table toppers.

What if Finn Russell does a fetlock? Or Beno Obano gets himself sent off again like in last year’s final? It is all on the day.

Let’s say Bath do make the final. Let’s say the other home semi-finalists also prevail. What happens then? The records tell us Bath will have a 50-50 shot in the final. As many league runners-up – 10 – have won the Premiership final as table toppers.

Bath’s season-long labours earn them no advantage at the Allianz Stadium. Maybe they should. Maybe the team that comes top should be given a head start in the final – the number of points they finish above their opponents over the course of the regular season? It would give them something meaningful to play for in their next three games. But should they really need to have something meaningful to play for after what they have achieved across of a campaign played out, home and away, in all weathers with the anomalies of injuries, suspensions and rogue refereeing decisions smoothed out as much as it is possible for all the teams?

If the play-offs are about peaking at the right time, the league is all about consistency over time. Ultimately, it is the league which comes up with the more complete answer to the question of who is the best.

The genie is out of the bottle now and English rugby will not be going back to the old format. Not when the proceeds – on-site and from their broadcast deal – from two semi-finals and an Allianz Stadium sell-out are at stake.

The final is a hugely important occasion financially for a league which could do with every penny it can lay its hands on. But that does not alter the fact a league system remains the purer method of deciding the champions.

Bath should be planning their open-top bus parade, as we speak.

English football has it right.