1 month til RWC2023, how are Gallagher Premiership 2023/24 sides preparing?

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how are Gallagher Premiership 2023/24 sides preparing?

“They are hard at work” is the answer for how Gallagher Premiership 2023/24 sides are preparing, all the while the ‘stars of the game’ are en route to France and the Rugby World Cup 2023.

That’s no insult to the league, though, after just 72 days since the Grand Final where Saracens claimed another premiership, you would expect the pre-season to be overly affected by RWC2023 player exclusions at all clubs. Though for some, more so than others.

This will have an immediate effect on the start of the 2023 calendar, so expect the most impacted to react and to both give the opportunity to younger men – but also this factor could also undermine any ‘lack of planning’. Or even those who had to endure cost-cutting, because even sides like ‘Sarries have financial constraints. The playing roster budget can only be stretched so far. So in some cases, the riches are not enough to fill the spaces left by English and other nations’ players. Stakeholders hope that signatures were gained for quality replacements, and clubs’ own development programs which generate new names.

Though every senior position lost cannot be fully covered by a replacement. 

Focusing on the upcoming season starting on October 14, it, unfortunately, will clash with the World Cup tournament. That is elementary, though the input from those men who are often overshadowed by the likes of senior clubmen Manu Tuilagi, Jack Walker, Tom Curry, and Ellie Genge is tough to digest for stakeholders. Promoting other men to step up, stand out, and even retain their places in European competition post-RWC.

This is the current challenge for each of the ten clubs involved. Reduced yet again by the removal of London Irish, so the pressure to perform from the outset sits on many new players’ shoulders.

Gallagher Premiership 2023/24 sides preparing

A hot June/July has led recently to some cooler weather which will have pleased the men involved in the full preseason. Most have conditioning programs aiming to rise near to a peak around early October.

That preseason began after the slim two-three week break at the conclusion of the 2022/23 calendar. For French club players, they will have felt that end of their season/beginning of preseason was undeceivable, so English clubmen should be pleased they could take a short holiday at all.

From the Newcastle Falcons, down to the Exeter Chiefs, all sides will be counting the days to the opening round. And importantly, doing their preparations without leading names involved. For the Falcons, those names include many Argentine Internationals, while for Exeter they will be without several Welsh men who face England in the return match of the Summer Series warm-up games. this weekend So each has holes to fill, yet not as much as Saracens or Harlequins do.

For clubs with a higher number of first-pick players missing, it will naturally be a tougher assignment. For Saracens’ head coach Mark McCall, the International Test windows are always challenging. He is probably more used to this than would be his adversary, Tabai Matson at ‘Quins. Yet the challenge could feel substantially higher, with Matson and his coaching group adapting to new demands on their rosters. Not just England either, there are players like Andre Esterhuizen from the Springboks who will leave a big gap in the Harlequins’ midfield.

And with the removal of such talent, gives both an elevation to substitute players, yet negatively impacts club marketing and promotion strategies. Because if you remove Marcus Smith (see above image), even while an able replacement like Will Edwards or newly acquired Jarred Evans can try to fill his place, the marketability of early-season games is affected. So every opportunity is afforded those men, while Smith attempts to cement his role as the starting England flyhalf.

Similar examples can be found across the entire league. Northampton has some big holes to fill in their locking group. Leicester have to fill spaces in the front row and at first receiver. The demands on all domestic competitions in the Northern Hemisphere are something their Southern rivals have little regard for.

Every one of the Gallagher Premiership 2023/24 sides has similar ‘extra demands’ to contend with from Round One. Missing so many well-promoted faces, the impact on promotional media is just as important, so that supporters do not feel their side has lost any impetus. If that is not amended properly, membership figures could be impacted at the early stage of the calendar.

Should the Premiership 2023/24 marketing include RWC players

Obviously, yet in preseason occurrences, sparingly. Why would this hinder the product? Relativity is one valid point because if Maro Itoje will be in France until October 31, his image has little to do with the ‘exciting opening rounds’ of the Premiership 2023/24 season. It includes him and other leading players for sure, in the way they will participate in the majority of the calendar. However, at this early period for Premiership 2023/24 sides, relative players and match-ups are promoted equally.

The full calendar has been promoted since July, with early rounds seeing Bristol Bears hosting Leicester on Friday, October 13. Yet the marketing of this fixture can hardly show Kyle Sinckler or Freddie Stewart. They are not relative in the context of this game, so promotion will reflect the players who will be involved.

So have the young players at the forefront [like Dan Kelly above]. Highlight a new wave – and adapting to a post-RWC tidal wave of retirements across World Rugby is going to require a good investment in talent. New faces. Show your big names obviously, if not with secondary profiles or in graphic listings only. Yet in the preseason, marketing and promotion should complement the effort put in on the hardened summer grounds by some unfamiliar names.

Clubs currently have been promoting the players who have been selected for their national squads. A great recognition of their value to the organization naturally. All Gallagher Premiership 2023/24 sides should be proud of the local and imported talent that will represent their clubs in France.

Yet while that tournament is on the lips of fans across the globe, back in England the Premiership continues unabated. Ready to ‘kick off’ after a long preseason. One with key members removed, yet every effort must be made to provide the same effort as in past seasons. With no perceivable difference in the output from players selected, so the pressure is on coaching groups to produce results in the opening rounds of the calendar – so it does not limit the club’s long-term objectives; to reach the playoffs in 2024.

 

“Main photo courtesy of Leicester Tigers’ Twitter account“

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