Premiership must avoid scrapping relegation - it’s the only thing that’s made this season entertaining

Five clubs - including Leicester Tigers and Wasps - could find themselves in the relegation dogfight come the end of the season, yet it is proving the best story line of an Exeter-dominated season

Newcastle Falcons boss Dean Richard (right) last week called for the Premiership to be ringfenced (Getty)

It was no surprise to hear Dean Richards’ sudden U-turn on Premiership relegation before the weekend’s fixtures. After all, his Newcastle Falcons are bottom of the pile, three points from safety with just five rounds to play.

It’s also no surprise that Leicester Tigers, the established heavyweights of English rugby, are also keen on seeing the top flight ringfenced, given they now sit a precarious five points ahead of Newcastle and find themselves trapped in their worst season since rugby union went professional.

What is a surprise is that heading into round 18 of 22, there are still arguably five clubs who could feasibly find themselves in the relegation dogfight come the end of the season, and all we can say is thank God for relegation because if it wasn’t for the scrap for survival, the Premiership would be the dullest campaign in recent memory.

Exeter Chiefs are romping away at the top of the table in what should be a record haul should their current tally of 71 exceed the 87 that Saracens achieved five years ago. To argue that this has been dull is no doubt harsh on the Chiefs – plenty of their rugby this season has been stunningly beautiful to watch – but pre-season predictions were that Exeter and Saracens would run clear of the rest and, sadly, that is what has transpired.

In beating Bath on Sunday 29-10 with a 12th try bonus point of the season, Exeter became the first team to seal their place in the end-of-season semi-finals with a game to spare, and should they go on to book their place in the Twickenham showcase, it will be the least they deserve.

But what this domination of two teams does is reduce the top of the table dogfight to a one-game showdown, unless one of Gloucester or Harlequins can show enough to upset the establishment in the semi-finals. On form alone, that appears highly unlikely.

Even the race for the top four has simmered down, with an eight-point gap opening up between fourth-placed Quins and fifth-placed Northampton, so from now until the afternoon of Saturday 18 May when round 22 comes to a halt, all eyes will be on those battling it out at the bottom.

It is why we cannot allow the clubs to succeed in their quest to fence off the rest of the country. Negotiations have already taken place about how ringfencing the Premiership can occur, with the 13 Premier Rugby stakeholders (the 12 Premiership clubs plus Championship leaders London Irish) looking for ways to create a new tiered system at the top of the game.

Rob Baxter's side face the ultimate task in taking on Munster for a place in the Champions Cup quarter-finals (Getty)

No relegation = more money for that elite club, yet it also sends the message of “what’s the point” to every club that ever dreamed of trying to reach the hallowed turf of the top flight.

If relegation were to be scrapped, then the next Exeter Chiefs – only nine years since they won promotion to the Premiership – would be blocked from developing their own fairy tale story. It would also make the bottom half of the league redundant for the final months of the season, developing a similar prospect to Super Rugby where teams shut off once their play-off hopes end. Nobody wants that in the Premiership.