Leipy's Blueprint for a Proper Season
By Leipziger
May 20 2005
Something a bit different now, with two views on the age-old question of the season structure. Tomorrow, Mark's view on how the season should be changed, but we start off today with Leipziger's blueprint for "a properly structured season".
Premiership
Championship – simple. The team on top of the table after 22 games is the Champion. No playoffs.
Relegation – two teams down, two up automatically, OR one up one down automatically and a playoff between Premiership 11th and Division 1 2nd, haven’t decided yet. This increases the amount of teams getting experience of the Premiership, increases competition in Division 1 as more teams get the chance to go up and also means more investment in the Premiership and better standards as teams have more chance of going down.
Heineken Cup – 6 teams (top 5 teams plus RFU Cup winners get into Heineken), or 7 teams including the Heineken Cup winner if necessary, who if they already qualify by another means, have this 7th place taken by Premiership 6th or 7th as necessary. If an English team wins the Parker Pen and haven’t already qualified for the Heineken by the league or Cup, they take the place of Premiership 5th. No Wildcard playoffs.
No games on Christmas weekend to allow players to spend time with their families and thus increase morale and give them two weeks’ mid-season rest.
RFU Cup
Premiership teams enter at the last 32 round in order to give smaller clubs more experience of playing big clubs and also give Premiership fans novel opponents.
The Cup Final is the last game of the domestic season to provide a focal point and big Twickenham final.
Heineken Cup / Parker Pen
Remains as they are. Getting rid of the Parker Pen Cups would not prevent burnout as most international players play in the Heineken, and teams not involved in it would be left kicking their heels during European fortnights.
Internationals
6 Nations – moved to the end of the season and played in one block.
International friendlies – permitted in the summer of non-World Cup years in 4-year cycles i.e. 2009, 2013, 2017 etc. Home and away, one or two games each.
Lions – no room for it I’m afraid.
Players
A player could, including internationals, play a maximum of 41 games in 2005/06 if his team got to the final of the Cup and Europe. Players will be restricted to 32 games as they are now, including a maximum of 6 internationals. However, a player playing in 4+ 6 Nations matches would not be allowed to play in any international friendlies to promote development of younger, fringe players.
Non-internationals get 4 months off (May, June, July, and sort-of August), or fringe players get most of the 6 Nations off before any international friendlies. International players involved mainly in 6 Nations get 3 months off as they are supposed to today.
Sample Fixture List for 2005/06
3/9/05 Premiership 1
10/9/05 Premiership 2
17/9/05 Premiership 3
24/9/05 Premiership 4
1/10/05 Premiership 5
8/10/05 Premiership 6
15/10/05 Premiership 7
22/10/05 Europe
29/10/05 Europe
5/11/05 Premiership 8
12/11/05 Premiership 9
19/11/05 Premiership 10
26/11/05 RFU Cup Last 32
3/12/05 Europe
10/12/05 Europe
17/12/05 RFU Cup Last 16
24/12/05 FREE WEEKEND
31/12/05 Premiership 11
7/1/06 Premiership 12
14/1/06 Europe
21/1/06 Europe
28/1/06 RFU Cup QF
4/2/06 Premiership 13
11/2/06 Premiership 14
18/2/06 Premiership 15 / RFU Cup SF
25/2/06 Premiership 16
4/3/06 Premiership 17
11/3/06 Europe QF (SFL1)
18/3/06 Premiership 18
25/3/06 Premiership 19 / Europe SF (SFL2)
1/4/06 Premiership 20
8/4/06 Premiership 21
15/4/06 Premiership 22
22/4/06 RFU Cup Final
29/4/06 Europe Finals
6/5/06 6 Nations
13/5/06 6 Nations
20/5/06 6 Nations
27/5/06 6 Nations
3/6/06 6 Nations