Nick Cain: These weakened teams undermine competition

There are occasions when it is hard to fathom the workings, and the culture, of the English Premiership. Why, at a time when the English clubs need all the credibility they can muster, because they are locked in a power struggle with the Celtic Unions, do they permit their own product to be diminished?
One of the biggest clashes of Round Three was the meeting of two unbeaten sides, Saracens and Bath, at the Allianz Stadium in North London. Yet, Bath, who had made their best start to the season for aeons, after being middle-of-the-road to mediocre for the best part of a decade, decided to field a weakened squad.
Another questionable decision was Northampton's call to rest their Lions loose-head Alex Corbisiero for their trip to Kingsholm – especially in the light of the lack of scrummaging power which helped the referee in his dubious decision to award a match-winning penalty to Gloucester at the death. Had Corbisiero been on the field, that penalty would have been less likely.
However, where Saints rested only one marquee player, Bath went the whole hog. By resting key England squad players like fly-half George Ford, lock Dave Attwood, outside centre Jonathan Joseph, and new back five forward Matt Garvey, not only
did Bath blunt their competitive edge, they forfeited one of the most precious commodities in the game. Momentum.
A winning run, and the confidence it breeds, is not something to be squandered. However, by sticking the main movers and shakers of their first two wins on the bench, that is exactly what Bath did.
Predictably, their momentum was stopped in its tracks by a full strength Saracens outfit, and the match was over as a contest by half-time as a result of Bath's supine selection policy. By the break Saracens led 31-3 and had already secured the bonus point courtesy of four of the softer tries scored this season.
More importantly, that bonus point, and the advantage it gives Saracens in terms of potential points-scoring differential, drives a dagger through the heart of the oft-repeated Premiership claim that it is the most competitive club league in the Union world. The result also has a damaging knock-on effect throughout the league, with implications for each of the 12 clubs in terms of where they finish.
To illustrate the travesty of a competitive fixture ruined, when Bath brought on their big guns after half-time they made enough significant inroads to suggest that if both sides had come to play from the outset it would have been a cracker.
Unfortunately, the damage had already been done, with the deficit too great for Bath to overhaul. Bath's director of rugby, Gary Gold, defended the decision to rest players on the basis that it is a long season. Head coach Mike Ford at least acknowledged that they had got it wrong.
“We have a plan on selection for the whole season, and I will hold my hand up and admit it didn't work today,” Ford said.
What the Premiership suits have to recognise is that the pre-ordained club selection policies outlined by Ford are often a menace to competitive standards, as is the decision to field a severely weakened team at any stage in the season. Nor is the EPS agreement, and its rest windows, any excuse.
The EPS agreement stipulates that every England elite squad member should be rested for one Premiership match between rounds three, four, and five, ahead of the Autumn Internationals. It also stipulates that, in a Lions year, if a returning tourist plays from the start of the season he should be rested for two matches over those same rounds.
It begs the question why Bath were unable to rest, for instance, Ford and Attwood in yesterday's home game against London Irish, and Joseph next weekend at Sale? Or one of them in each of the three rounds?
At least ERC, for all their myriad failings, were prepared to punish clubs who deliberately fielded uncompetitive sides. Agen discovered this to their cost in 2002 when they were thrown out of European tournaments for two seasons, and fined 20,000 Euros for “contriving to achieve a particular result” after losing 59-10 to Ebbw Vale in the European Shield.
If the Premiership are to retain their integrity then their own governance, aimed at setting the highest competitive standards, has to improve. When leading players who are in good form and uninjured are pulled from starting line-ups in significant numbers, alarm bells should ring at PRL's Regal House offices.
Bath are by no means the only culprits, and it is essential that any club in the elite tier tempted to put out a weakened team should know they will be the subject of fierce scrutiny and potential sanctions.
It begs the question why the Premiership – which have managed to extend their own powers to scrutinising referees – have not made their first priority appointing a watchdog to enforce competitive standards within their own league?
The 8,047 fans who turned up at Allianz Park will not get a refund for what was a semi-competitive match, although they deserve one. What they will do, should this become a Premiership trend, is find something else to do with their weekends.