Booth expecting a tight season ahead
London Irish coach Toby Booth has said that the Premiership looks as though it will be tighter than ever before as the new season approaches.
Booth is in charge of a small but quality squad, which is capable of pushing for the top places in the league. However, the additions that many teams have made to their playing squads means it will be harder for smaller clubs to have an impact.
London Irish have been very sensible over the course of the pre-season campaign by staying out of the attention. This means they can plunge themselves into the new season without the pressure of great expectation on their backs.
Booth is a very experienced coach and it's important his side maintain a good balance and do all of the ugly things well over the course of the year. However, the stakes are higher than they have ever been and this offers the temptation of great reward.
Do the ugly things well
Booth is quite right to say that the Premiership will be a very difficult league to win this season. There are a lot of teams that possess flair and talent players who are capable of winning games.
This means sides that do not have so many explosive players need to do all of the ugly things well when they do not have the ball. This means solid tackling, accurate passing and making sure that unforced errors become a complete stranger.
Booth is not a naive coach and he has shown so far in his career that he has knowledge of detailed game plans. This will allow his team to be more effective against stronger sides and will give them a great chance of doing better than their sixth place position last season.
He said: "This league is getting tougher and tougher. Firstly there is the physicality associated with it and secondly there is the impetus all the new coaches will have. You only have to look at the impact that I had when I started, and Brendan (Venter) had at Saracens last year, along with Jim Mallinder’s involvement at Northampton and how he has improved them."
The stakes and standards are higher
The stakes and standards are higher than ever before because success in the top-flight of domestic rugby can mean a number of lucrative developments. A greater variety of sponsorship deals open up and this is one of the main forms of income that a Premiership rugby club will enjoy.
Higher stakes means more pressure and sides that are already afraid of making mistakes will go even further into their shells. This means you could see a lot of low scoring games this coming season. There are now five or six teams, including Irish, who can win the league.
Booth added: "Look at the financial situation of Bath. With Ian McGeechan going there, there’ll be new impetus there. Then there is Mike Brewer at Sale and Connor O’Shea at Harlequins there’ll be impetus there too. Their teams will have natural injections of adrenaline because they will want to impress the boss. And that’s what makes things even harder."
Betting advice
London Irish have a solid outside chance of winning the Premiership. You will get very good odds on them to do so and they could be worth a punt. They have a sensible coach who seems to know what and when to say the right things.
High stakes in rugby have always been a factor every season but with a better standard of teams you can wave goodbye to the days of impressive wins when the best teams play each other.
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