Northampton Saints are set to make the play-offs despite finishing top of the league. Photo: Getty Images/David Rogers
When the whistle blew and the European Cup trophy was raised, a shocked Antoine Dupont trudged to his delighted mother as the world's best player. Captain of the best club team in Europe and South Africa and officially the final's best player, Dupont mustered all the energy he could to hug his family; all this with the knowledge that in the field of club rugby the wizard from Toulouse has achieved No. 1 status.
It's a title that anyone in any competitive field covets: being No. 1. Of course, it's all relative — Dupont failed to reach those heights internationally last fall — but whether it's a local sevens tournament this weekend or a sixes tournament at the start of the year, no one likes to lose, and more often than not, the ones who finish first are the ones who don't lose. To misquote Dr. Seuss, it takes a special person to be No. 1.
Dupont is special and, to quote Seuss correctly, unique. Just like this season's Northampton Saints; a special set of players at a special club who have achieved special heights this season: finishing top of the Premier League table, leading for months, playing the most exciting and swashbuckling brand of rugby in the league. Their reward? The name of Jeremy Clarkson's farm (Diddly Squat for those who don't watch his documentary).
History suggests that the prize for finishing first in the Premier League does give the home team a significant advantage – as my colleague Ben Coles wrote this week, no team has ever won the Premier League from third place, and these teams have… or reached only twice in the final – but by offering Bath the same advantage as Northampton this weekend, English rugby's top flight forgot rule number one: finishing first is an achievement in itself, no matter what convoluted system administrators come up with to crown the winner. a true winner.
Trophies for the winner?
Finishing first has often been a poisoned chalice – only five teams have lifted the trophy since – and Northampton's 'anti-reward' is Friday night's semi-final clash with Saracens. Say what you will about Saracens' inconsistency this season – as Owen Farrell did on Tuesday – but no one would want to face this band of knockout guerrillas in the semi-final. The two teams have met three times at this stage, with Saints winning just once – and that was not at Franklin's Gardens, where the play-offs take place this Friday. Saracens won easily last season.
If the Premier League must have a play-off system then so be it, but it is grossly unfair that there is no greater prize for being top of the table. Almost every director of rugby or head coach during the craziest of seasons has been caught on tape shouting the same old platitude about how the Premier League is a marathon, not a sprint. They were almost right: it's a marathon where whoever clocks the fastest sprint finish is crowned champion.
“In rugby league there is a trophy for the league leaders, but that doesn't matter to what we we do,” Phil Dawson, Saints director of rugby, said this week. “They won't remember who finished top of the table, they will remember who won the trophy.”
The Saints deserve an award befitting the achievement
Dawson, generous and insightful as always, is right. We won't remember Saints finishing top of the table in 2023-24, but we should. Finishing first should mean something – as it does in almost every sport or field – and something more than a useless trophy for the league winners before the true winners have their day in the sun at Twickenham; The Premier League should change its end-of-season template so that it rewards a marathon winner and is consistent with a 10-team league.
The Shaughnessy Top Four Playoff is a concept introduced in 2003, when the Premier League consisted of 12 teams and finishing in the top third of the table was the hallmark. However, from 2000 to 2003 the Premier League used a different system, which I urge the Premier League to return to. The team that finished first headed straight to Twickenham and, against all odds, achieved well-deserved glory. If the league winners lose this match to the winner of the play-off between the second and third placed teams, they will still have their 15 minutes. And at least officially they would have finished second.
The drama – and financial incentives – of the play-offs are non-negotiable, but it would be borderline scandalous if Northampton didn't even have the opportunity win the trophy by losing a single match to the team with the latest rugby experience. Even if the Premier League is reluctant to award trophy status to the team that finishes first, the Saints deserve an award commensurate with that achievement. Like Dupont, they are unique, special and #1.
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