- Sarries, to win the Gallagher Premiership 2022/23 Grand Final – 15/8, Paddy Power)
- Gloucester to make final – 16/1 EW (various), 1/3 odds, places 1 & 2)
It took Freddie Burns’ drop goal to prevent Saracens from becoming the first team since Newcastle in 1998 to win the Premiership directly after promotion.
So if Sarries can come within seconds of lifting the trophy after a season out of the loop, it’s hard to bet against them getting over the line in 2022/23.
Looking for weaknesses in their squad is a forlorn task, there aren’t any, not really unless you take injuries in the second row into consideration.
Elsewhere though, their depth is incredible. For every international they lose to England this season, they have a quality replacement lined up and over the course of a long season, we expect them to go the distance this time around.
Leicester built their title success on George Ford’s game understanding, a watertight defence and brilliant basics.
While the latter is a given second time around, Ford has now moved on. Handre Pollard is a different type of 10 to Ford and coming to Tigers late, off the back of the Rugby Championship, will mean some adjustment time is needed.
Tigers’ title win was an opportunist one in that rival teams that otherwise would have been marked down as contenders, notably Exeter, were a shadow of their former selves, and it’ll be a big ask for them to do it again.
We said two seasons ago that Gloucester was the team with the most improvement in them. After incremental improvements in results, the Cherry & Whites will hope to kick on. Emotionally, they will be super-charged too because of Ed Slater’s MND diagnosis.
With a powerful maul and some lethal backs, anything less than a Top 4 finish would be a disappointment.
It’s a similar tale with Northampton. Chris Boyd got them moving in the right direction but they were still too inconsistent to be amongst the front runners. Recruitment hasn’t particularly been eye-catching and the first proper season under Phil Dowson and Sam Vesty could be one of stability rather than shooting for the stars.
Bristol should be there or thereabouts after last season’s flat performance if they have better luck with injuries.
They recruited well and early in bringing in local hero, Ellis Genge, and Magnus Bradbury and AJ MacGinty. If Pat Lam decides it’s time to go for broke again and return to the free-flowing style that won them the European Challenge Cup and got them to the Prem semis, the good times could roll again, especially if Charles Piutau and Semi Radradra can recapture their 2020/21 form.
Quins have a relatively settled squad, and if they can pick the same 23 week in and week out, which was the secret behind their 2021 title win, they’re definitely in with a very good shout of reclaiming the trophy.
For Exeter, it was a case of the wagons circling as teams found them out to a degree on the pitch and, off it, they were drawn into a protracted dispute about their Native American branding. Having had their feathers ruffled, the Chiefs will be hoping that their rugby does the talking this time around; however, they will have to contend without some big players in every sense of the word in Jonny Hill and Sam Skinner.
Hill has gone to Sale and while their squad is laden with talent, it’s still debatable whether they have the wherewithal to become serious challengers.
With owner Simon Orange rumoured to be getting restless, you do worry that Sale could just easily unravel as it could go on to become the northern powerhouse they strive to be.
Wasps, meanwhile, have had dark clouds hanging over them for a while due to their failure to pay bondholders what they’re due, and despite what the coaches and players may say, it can’t be a good environment to be in. Also, they have lost loads of experience with Jimmy Gopperth, Malakai Fekitoa and other older heads like James Gaskell and Rob Miller moving on.
London Irish have lots of ins and outs and Albert Tuisue, in particular, will be a hard act to replace. The exciting set of young backs who have come up through the ranks together remains though, and the telepathic understanding between them should keep them high up in the try-scoring charts again.
Worcester will do well to even start the season let alone win games with the future of the club in such serious doubt, and Newcastle will be the same old Newcastle – capable of the odd noteworthy win but not enough class or depth to make steps up the table.
For Bath, this season couldn’t be any worse than last. Johann van Graan has come in and pledged good basics of a solid set-piece, a team fit enough to go 80 minutes and a much better defence.
Pragmatism can only take you so far up the table however and it’s likely to be a season of very small gains.
Our predicted finishing order:
- Saracens
- Harlequins
- Leicester
- Gloucester
- Bristol
- Northampton
- Exeter
- Sale
- L Irish
- Wasps
- Bath
- Newcastle
- Worcester
