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Roll up! Roll up! It’s Thursday, come get your rugby!
Roll up! Roll up! It’s Thursday, come get your rugby!
Yep, that’s right, Thursday. The fifth day of the week. The day before Friday, and this season an evening when two significant matches will take place.
First, the Gallagher Prem opener between Sale Sharks and Gloucester at Salford Community Stadium on Thursday 25 September, and then, on Thursday 5 February , France welcome Ireland to the Stade de France for the Guinness Men’s Six Nations opening fixture.
The former is to avoid a clash with the Women’s Rugby World Cup final and bronze medal match that are taking place on the Saturday, with other Prem fixtures taking place on the Friday and Sunday.
The second is to avoid a clash between with the Milano-Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games Opening Ceremony that is always likely to be popular in France, but which has been given greater interest after Paris 2024’s success and France’s Alp hosting the 2030 edition.
They follow on from the British and Irish Lions Tour when three matches took place in midweek – against Queensland Reds, ACT Brumbies, and the First Nations and Pasifika XV – with good crowds, and the chance to watch our favourite sport at a less conventional time.
Could it work in the Prem this season? It’s certainly an idea that needs debating and worth giving a try.
A LESSON FROM COVID
As the sport returned from COVID, the sporting ban on attending fans ended on midnight on Sunday, so London Irish, Bristol Bears, and Newcastle Falcons nudged matches back into the working week to take advantage of the new rules and allow fans back in for the first time in over a year.
The sun shone, the limited crowds were more buoyant than ever, and the players and fans reported their enjoyment of the midweek experience.
Despite that feedback though, the league returned to Friday, Saturday and Sunday fixtures, with only matches at Christmas the rare exception.
SCHOOL HOLIDAYS
One thing to get clear is we aren’t extolling matches every midweek. After all, with 18 pre-playoff matches, clubs wouldn’t want to take the risk of limiting their main revenue source too often.
That said, why not try them in the school holidays? In England, there are two-week holidays for Christmas and Easter, and one-week half term holidays in October, February, and May.
Kids can stay up later, and in April and May the evenings are becoming longer and warmer. This would be a great time to try and would ensure that the matches are family friendly, and like the Harlequins Big Match at Allianz Stadium at Christmas become part of the fabric of those holidays.
INTERNATIONAL RELIEF
Clubs regularly complain that while the Guinness Men’s Six Nations or Autumn Nations Series are on, their finances are hit by the lack of action.
How to solve that? Put on a matchday or two in midweek. We’re thinking the February half term holiday which usually comes after the Six Nations first two weeks.
Even if it is the Prem Cup, it would avoid that clash at the weekend when the internationals draw attention.
Players who aren’t needed by their international team could come back from camp to play it would be another television window that would bring in more finances at a usually dry spell.
TV TALKS
Of course, for the idea to gain traction, television would need to be fully behind the idea.
TNT Sports the Prem UK rightsholders, also broadcasts the Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League football in the UK, with every match live on their various channels and streams.
With two of those rounds taking place in the October and February half terms, the Prem would need TNT to make space on their channels. Would they do so when they would likely want to spread the rugby fixtures across more than one evening?
CLOSE TO HOME
Key to midweek matches being a success would be having crowds through the door to provide the atmosphere and backdrop that they provided back when they came through the door in 2021.
With this in mind, making the matches as easily accessible as possible to each set of fans is necessary. So why not make it a derby round. Leicester Tigers v Northampton Saints, Saracens v Harlequins, and the various mix between the four west of England sides.
The only outlier at this stage is Sale Sharks v Newcastle Red Bull. With over a two-hour drive, it stretches the idea a what a derby is.
As the two northerly outliers though, both who are likely to be challenging in coming seasons, it would be a mark of the leagues success if a clash between these two in Greater Manchester by the Tyne made its mark with the paying public.