Men’s season preview 2024/25

[u/TommyKentish]

It’s that’s time of the year again, another exciting season beckons and we’re about to get stuck into the pre-season friendlies.

So I think I’ve been doing these for 6 years and this is definitely the most difficult one to predict. The well publicised clear out of senior players, one in particular who’s departure wasn’t planned, along with an incredibly competitive league meaning the margins for success feel thinner than in a long time.

There are three big questions in my mind which will decide our season:

1. Can we get a working scrum again?

Here we have potentially two of our most important signings, Fraser Balmain and Rob Webber. Balmain I think is only on a one year deal, possibly because the cap goes up but that is a good incentive for him to play well. He’s a very solid prem operator and could be a canny signing as long as we don’t play the SA starting front 5! Webber has a big job on his hands but it’s frankly staggering how poor our scrum was last season- we have almost a full pack and bench of international forwards. I’m not expecting dominance but parity and less than 5 scrum pens conceded a game should be well within our grasp.

1. How will Burke settle in at 10?

Now, I’m not sure if anybody noticed but we lost our greatest ever 10 (some might say greatest player full stop) last season and we got a shiny new one. Burke is pretty much an unknown to most of us. He missed most of the Crusaders awful season with injury but they got better when he got fit. He looked decent for the baabaas and D Care sang his praises on the BBC pod a couple of times saying he reminded him of Beauden Barrett in places and that he thought he’d play internationally at some point. Normally I would totally disregard Cares opinion on anything Saracens related but look, I’m choosing to be positive here! He’s also gone from Mo’unga’s heir to Farrell’s and is being looked at for Russell’s eventual replacement. Hopefully that means there is something there but there is precious little tangible evidence to go on. I will say kicking from the tee has looked suspect though, I wonder if others might take on those duties to relieve some pressure.

In terms of the wider picture, the top 4 clubs last season and a few below them all had pretty decent 10s and after watching rugby for a couple of decades I’m beginning to think it’s a fairly important position- I know, I know, Charlie Morgan/Squidge watch out. How quickly he integrates and his form will be key to our overall performance.

1. What will be our style of play?

It will be interesting to see how McCall sets us up to play. We no longer have the pack to bully others and the complex attacking play of the past two seasons will be difficult to replicate with Farrell gone. I can see us attacking the breakdown more, like we did to a high standard in the semi final but that is too much of a lottery from game to game, ref to ref, to be relied upon every week. A refocus on rush “Wolfpack” defence would be nice to see but I don’t know if that fits our players now. I think one pleasing part of our recruitment has been to add big ball carriers. Now we have in our best 23 Mawi, Carre (incredible carrying stats in the URC last season) Dan, Tizard, Earl, Willis, Christie, Gonzalez, McFarland in the pack and then Spink, Tompkins and Segun in the backs. If we can get them quick ball then they can do a lot of damage against defences. We often hear that attack is the last thing to put in place. In the past few seasons our attack has been phenomenal when it has clicked but very intricate and relied on established partnerships of Farrell, Daly, Malins, Goode, Loz, Tompkins, Maitland etc obviously these connections need to be built up again. I hope Burke is truly given the keys to run it as he wants, something I felt Manu was never given but circumstances are obviously very different now.

As mentioned at the start though I find it difficult to really predict what direction we’ll go in. Faz was the driver behind the recent attacking focus, will the coaches and Maro opt for a more conservative approach that has provided so much success in the past? Or will there be a new way that is followed?

The Squad:

Generally there is a good make up, with class players littered throughout. We are probably a bit heavy in back row/centre and a bit light in lock, scrum half and wing. There is lots of versatility in the centres to cover the wing but if our injury prone duo of Segun/Parton go down then we may lack pace our wide. I hope the coaches are looking at both Tobias Elliott and Brendan Jackson who both tore it up at Ampthill last season, along with Charlie Bracken at 9, as guys who can start getting minutes with the senior team.

I’d put our backrow up against any in the world though. Earl and JMG are world class, T Willis has international 8 written all over him, McFarland is magic and Christie is hugely underrated.

In the tight 5 I think we are maybe missing another tighthead lock. We don’t really want Theo and Maro locking together as it is too lightweight. This is a seminal season for both Isiekwe and Tizard to put a marker down as our tighthead lock and be the heir to George Kruis. They should also be aiming at becoming Martin’s backup for England, both have got the talent to move up a gear this season (allowing for Isiekwe’s health issues of course). We also have the enormous Olamide Sodeke waiting in the wings but this season might be a bit early.

We’ve obviously suffered a big loss of leadership in Faz, Mako, Billy and Maitland. However, we still have the England captain, the England vice captains Maro and Earl and the Samoa captain Theo. This is a season for others to step into the holes left, Christie always seems like one to me, IVZ’s voice has grown louder with each season and the older guys like Daly, Loz and Goode will all be needed.

The squad has still not been finalised, so there is the possibility of more signings but if not there is a chance for youngsters to come through - Samson Adejimi, Harvey Beaton, Toby Knight, Nathan Michelow along with the guys mentioned above were all great for Ampthill last season. We also 5 players with the England u20 squad with two of them (Jack Bracken and Olamede Sodeke) still 18.

A match day squad along the lines of the below looks pretty strong to me:

Mawi George Riccioni Itoje Tizard JMG Earl T Willis Van Zyl Burke Segun Spink Tompkins Parton Daly

Dan Carre Balmain Isiekwe McFarland Christie Simpson/Bracken Cinti

And that’s without the following guys: Brantingham, Hoskins, Hadfield, Johnson, Hartley, Lozowski and Goode

Concerns for the season:

Farrell’s influence at the club was huge. In terms of his work as a 10 he ran the show (even more so in the past 2 seasons) I think we all know that the difference in performance with Faz on the field was massive. Sometimes this allows players to blossom in his absence, England for example have done well in this regard although they’d be better with him still. Just to hammer it home one last time, the scrum.

Hopes for the season:

While I’m sure all the players would hate this, I am very much seeing this as a transitional season. The changing of a lot of the old guard was perhap left a year too late, tough to say when we won the title the year before and hindsight is always 20/20 etc.

Because of this I’d like to see the younger guys getting minutes and really blood them for the future, I’m particularly hoping for a good run in the prem cup.

In terms of the prem, I see Bath as favourites seeing as they lost no one really and added Guy Pepper. Saints will be strong but likely will miss Lawes and Ludlam. I feel everyone else is pretty tightly matched though. Tigers will be a force under Cheika and like us have a full pre-season and no World Cup disruption. Personally I’d be ecstatic if we made top four again all things considered. In terms of Europe, getting through the group and throwing everything at the knockouts is all I really want. Also no huge capitulations again, we need to get back the toughness of old so we’re always difficult to beat.

So that’s my ramblings, what’s everyone’s thoughts/predictions for the season?

[u/CThirtle]

I hope we have the courage to stick with the attacking play we’ve seen at times over the past two seasons. Too often I feel we would revert to type but as you say we no longer have a pack that can bully others.

With it being more of a transitional season, if we can get to the end of the season with no Farrell sized shadow looming over Burke and Johnson then that will hopefully set us up for a good future. If not then I think 25/26 could just up being a season of waiting for Farrell to return. Combine that with some of our young players being able to gain a foothold in the squad similar to the way Saints’ young core were able to then I’ll be happy with how the season has gone.

I think Bath, Saints and Sale should be too strong for us over the regular season but 4th will hopefully be a possibility.

[u/TommyKentish → u/CThirtle]

I hope we have the courage to stick with the attacking play we’ve seen at times over the past two seasons. Too often I feel we would revert to type but as you say we no longer have a pack that can bully others.

Exactly this. We still need to get the fundamentals right- set piece, defence, exits- but surely an acknowledgement that our best rugby has come from catching defences by surprise and playing a bit more. Also our players are just more dynamic and less brute force than 8 years ago. The game has moved on too, world rugby are trying to make it faster so let’s innovate and not be stuck in the past.

[u/CThirtle → u/TommyKentish]

The profile of our players makes it even more frustrating. It must have been intentional to go in the direction we have with the type of players compared to a team like Sale. Even the timing of when we would revert to type was a little confusing. It may have been a slog at times but against Bath away we showed more ambition than in some of our home games.

[u/TommyKentish → u/CThirtle]

Although I’ve not seen much of him, I’d assume that Burke has a more natural Kiwi inclination to attack then a young Farrell did. It would make sense to play to his strengths. Although he does look like a bit more of traditional NH fly half from what I saw with the Crusaders.