Panic Stations

Stephen Jones of The Sunday Times argues that the continuing battle by several Zurich Premiership clubs to avoid relegation is making for a mouth-watering climax to England's domestic season.

Talk about the sting in the tail. Just before the world of rugby moves on to a massive climax in the RBS Six Nations championship, tribute must be paid to the climax of another competition which was once regarded as merely the bread and butter of the English season. We have just seen an epic weekend of rugby, tinged with panic.

The Zurich Premiership of 2002-03 has been easily the best competition to date and as we saw last Sunday, one of the most thrilling elements is beyond doubt - the battle of avoiding relegation. Of last weekend's six games, while Sale and Leeds battled it out for the places in the top three to take them into the Zurich play-offs, all of the other five games were part of the ferocious battle to avoid relegation. The matches were excellent, hair-raising and the crowds were remarkably good.

Of course, the clubs involved would rather not have this palpitating endgame at all - almost all the chief executives and directors of coaching at the clubs are terrified of relegation and want a closed shop. There is the normal panic/shame factor of being relegated, because to be relegated is to be exposed, it is to underline the obvious fact that you have the playing side of your club wrong if you are losing games.

Granted, there is also the commercial factor. It is perfectly permissible for clubs and club owners to complain that banks and financial institutions are wary of advancing loans for ground rebuilding and the like if the club to whom they are lending could disappear from the top flight. Newcastle Falcons, for example, are rebuilding their ground and making it a superb backdrop for rugby in the North-East and yet it is still entirely possible that the Falcons could fill the one automatic relegation place and be saddled with something of a white elephant.

But wherever you stand on the dispute, imagine the deadening effect on the season if there was no relegation. To a great extent, four of the five relegation epics played last weekend would have meant nothing, would have been a stroll in the early-Spring sunshine, not worth paying to watch. As it is, all of Bristol, Saracens, Newcastle Falcons, Bath and London Irish are in danger. Lovely!

What happened last weekend with the relegation spectre roaming? Nearly 19,000 people went to the Madejski Stadium, Reading to watch London Irish against Harlequins. Sadly for the Irish, the 19,000 went to watch them lose and frankly, as far as the match was concerned there was probably better entertainment to be had from the tumultuous St Patrick's Day celebrations which the club put on. But St Paddy or not, if there was no relegation from the Premiership this season I very much doubt if more than 6,000 would have attended. Even if London Irish go down then they have the proceeds from 13,000 watching, eating, drinking and souvenir-buying spectators to ease the pain, and that from one match alone.

All of Saracens, Newcastle Falcons and Bristol Shoguns were up near to the five-figure mark for crowds, underlining another major increase in Zurich crowds. Newcastles marvellous, heart-stopping win over Leicester not only gave them a fighting chance of survival but even raised a question mark against Leicester's ability to make the top three. Bath, battling like mad, were watched by only 8,200 spectators but that represented a capacity crowd. The team may have declined but there is no sign of a loss of faith by the Recreation Ground faithful - just, as ever, a massive loss of revenue.

Bath could easily be in the 15,000 crowd bracket on a weekly basis, they could market themselves as far East as Swindon and as far West as
Penzance, if only they had the capacity - and if only the Bath city council ever realised the good done for the city's name by its rugby club and help them extend their capacity. Again, there was a bite in proceedings caused by Bath's relegation worries.

And the good news is that the tension can only build, the fascination can only increase and the crowds can only get bigger. Bristol have to go to Saracens and still have to entertain Bath; Newcastle have still to face Saracens at home and in the last match of the season, Newcastle Falcons have to travel to Bath. We are already at panic stations with four or five matches per club still to be played.

The prospect is fantastic. It is something that those who wish to close the relegation trapdoor must bear in mind - and in a perverse way, enjoy it along with the rest of us.