Category: Rugby

• Internationals must have 10 weeks off

• Lions not available until third round of Prem

Saracens’ Mark McCall is the latest Prem director of rugby to question player welfare regulations that he believes have left internationals undercooked for the season’s start.

Guidelines mandated by the Professional Rugby Board – established as part of the club-country agreement – dictate that England players who took part in summer tours of Argentina and the US have 10 weeks off. They were available for the first set of Prem games last weekend, but could not take part in the two rounds of Prem Cup matches before that.

High-profile takeover has rejuvenated an ailing club, with the opportunity for Steve Diamond’s team to take flight and grow

Don’t mention the F-word. Such has been the pace of the Red Bull rebrand that one Newcastle official joked there would be spot fines for anyone who forgets it is no longer the Falcons giving them flight.

Energy drinks are in, feathered friends out, but the feelgood factor now coursing through the north-east promises more than just a dopamine hit. For the club, who only a few months ago were exploring a loan from their league rivals to stay afloat, and the revamped Prem, there is a feeling that the Red Bull revolution can be seminal.

Season-opener between Sale and Gloucester promises to be a cracker in English rugby’s new frontier

Th ne PREM seas sta o Thursd nigh wi Sal Shar hosti Glouce befo Harleq enterta Bat an Newcas Re Bul fac Sarac on Frid.

That is a sentence, as uneasy on the eye as it may be, of which you can just about make sense. Much like the Premiership’s decision to lose a few letters as part of its rebrand.

Defending champions Bath are favourites to retain their title but Saracens will be boosted by Owen Farrell’s return

• The Breakdown: Prem rebrand aims to turn heads

There have been six different title winners in as many seasons but the defending champions are favourites to buck that trend. In Johan van Graan Bath have a relentlessly process-driven coach, not someone who would allow an ounce of complacency to creep in, and they have Ollie Lawrence and Jaco Coetzee back for the start of the season after long-term injuries.

English top flight’s push to attract a younger audience is accelerating and relegation may soon be a thing of the past

Times are changing so rapidly in rugby that even the competition names now have go-faster stripes. Farewell to the familiar old Premiership and welcome, kicking off on a Thursday this year, to the Gallagher Prem. Or, strictly speaking, PREM. Who needs boring extra lower-case syllables or superfluous vowels in 2025 anyway?

Even the league’s updated logo is now bright orange to denote “intensity” and the mission to woo new fans – the younger the better – is accelerating by the week. Ask Rob Calder, Prem Rugby’s suitably bearded head of growth, what he thinks, for example, about the traditional rhythm of promotion and relegation and he does not hold back. “There’s a Victorian interest in promotion and relegation but actually that’s existential for a lot of clubs.” Sorry, are you suggesting the meritocratic English club pyramid is a Victorian concept? “Yeah. I think it’s old school. If you want the sport to grow you need to grow the conditions for ambition and investment.”

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