The top four sides in last season’s Premiership will avoid each other during the World Cup stage of next season’s league programme, which starts on a Friday night in the middle of October when Harlequins face Wasps at the Stoop.
The Premiership starts at the conclusion of the group stage of the World Cup and three rounds will be played before the end of the tournament that, because it is being hosted by the Rugby Football Union, has forced the start of the league to be delayed by six weeks to avoid commercial conflicts. The London double-header, which is usually held at Twickenham on the opening Saturday of the season, has been put back to 28 November.
So the first three rounds of the Premiership contain few headline-hogging fixtures. Saracens begin the defence of their title at home to Sale on a weekend when promoted Worcester take on Northampton and the highlight is the west country derby between Bath, May’s beaten finalists, and Exeter, who missed out on the play-offs through points difference.
Wasps, who, since moving to Coventry last year, have turned debt into assets and are targeting a return to the top four, have a demanding start to the campaign: they follow what used to be a London derby away to Harlequins by welcoming Bath to the Ricoh Arena before travelling to Leicester, while after starting at home Quins travel to Leicester and Bath.
The three rounds after the World Cup final feature clashes between last season’s top four: Northampton, who finished top of the table, face Saracens at Franklin’s Gardens in a repeat of May’s play-off semi-final; Leicester then face Bath, after two European weekends, before Bath entertain the Saints.
With World Cup countries this month cranking up their preparations for the tournament, clubs do not yet know how many players they will be losing this autumn, although the late start to the campaign means that those whose teams do not get beyond the group stage will be available for the first weekend.
The Saracens director of rugby, Mark McCall, said: “The opening fixtures are hard to forecast for us as we currently have 21 players away on international duty in their respective training camps. It will be a massive test for the depth of our squad as the season starts a week after the World Cup pool stage. Until then we will not know exactly who we’ll have available but it provides the younger members of our squad with the opportunity to get some valuable experience.”
While the RFU has paid £13m to Premiership Rugby to compensate for the late start to the league season, the clubs hope that the interest generated by the World Cup will help them build a tournament in which attendances rose by 5% last season and the television audience increase by 6%.
Bath are looking to sign the Wales and Lions No8 Taulupe Faletau from Newport Gwent Dragons but the move has stalled because of Premiership Rugby’s insistence that the forward would not be allowed to have a clause in his contract permitting full international release. He has a season to go with the Dragons, who need approval from the Welsh Rugby Union and the other three regions to release Faletau from his contract early.
Wales hope that Faletau will still be playing in 2023 when he would be in line to appear in his fourth World Cup. Four countries have officially declared interest in staging the event: Ireland and Italy are bidding to do so for the first time while South Africa were the hosts in 1995 and France were 12 years later. The winner will be announced next May.
Premiership opening round fixtures
Friday 16 Oct 19.45 Harlequins v Wasps
Friday 16 Oct 19.45 Worcester Warriors v Northampton Saints
Friday 16 Oct 20.00 Newcastle Falcons v Gloucester
Saturday 17 Oct 14.00 Bath v Exeter Chiefs
Saturday 17 Oct 14.00 Saracens v Sale Sharks
Sunday 18 Oct 15.15 London Irish v Leicester Tigers
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