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Gallagher-Prime Minister
Sale Sharks Director of Rugby Alex Sanderson has insisted that Gallagher PREM remains a very fertile ground for international rugby amid concerns that it is failing to adequately prepare players for the Test arena.
A noticeable gap has opened up between England’s teams and those at the top of the European rugby table over the past decade, while England have similarly fallen behind the top-ranked Test nations.
It is no coincidence that England is last Six Nations the title came in the same year they last saw England win the Investec Champions Cup, when they Exeter Chiefs won their first European crown in 2020. Since then, only one English side has reached the final, while all six winners have come from France, with Leinster also five finals. France, meanwhile, has won three of the previous six Nations, including the previous two, with Ireland winning two more.
The Top 14’s financial advantage over PREM has been well documented, allowing the league to recruit some of the best players in the game. But questions have also been raised about whether the high-profile Tests PREM has seen in recent years translate to European competitions or whether they are conducive to creating a test-match environment.
But Sanderson believes both the “standard and the intensity” of PREM have risen, but stressed the importance of how matches are played in creating a product comparable to international rugby.
While Sanderson believes the quality is in PREM, he also presented the other side of the coin: Steve Borthwick and the England coaching staff must get the best out of those players. This was not necessarily a criticism of the England head coach, but rather an observation that it is a two-way street in the ever-present question of whether PREM is preparing players for international rugby.
“I think the standard and intensity of PREM has gone up,” Sanderson said ahead of the new PREM season. “That is one of the factors of international rugby, the speed is faster than PREM, and the physical activity is more intense.
“Then there’s the nature, the style and the strategy. Part of that comes down to how it’s refereed, so we’ve talked about the kind of product we want to put out and the nuances and interpretations of the law and whether we can match that with an international referee.
“Then the other part comes down to coaching. That’s not on us, that’s on Steve and his group. He’s got a pretty experienced group there. You have to shape your strategy for the group you have and who you’re playing against.”
“I think we provide a good platform; there are enough good players who are good enough to do the job and come together.”
