Bristol add Spice but face drop

(GETTY IMAGES)

If Bristol stand every chance of being dead and buried by close of play tomorrow – defeat by Worcester at the Memorial Ground will extinguish the last lingering flickers of Premiership light and confirm their descent into the darkness of National Division One – the Anglo-Welsh Cup seems equally doom-laden.

England's elite clubs, two of whom feature in today's back-to-back semi-finals at the Ricoh Arena, have made it abundantly clear that they want nothing to do with a revamped version of the tournament next season, and while the Rugby Football Union takes a different view on the matter, it is well nigh impossible to stage a credible competition when a majority of the contestants would rather be doing something else.

The governing body, keen to maintain its relationship with the Welsh for the very good reason that it has already flogged off the broadcasting rights for a new set of cross-border fixtures, confirmed it would continue to oppose the Premiership fraternity's own deeply unsatisfactory plan to extend the 2009-10 league programme by half a dozen matches. Result? More administrative chaos. Captain Mainwaring himself could not have made a bigger botch of it.

Talking of "Dad's Army", the oldest player in Premiership rugby – Tom Smith, the 37-year-old Lions Test prop – will start for Northampton in the second of today's cup ties, against Cardiff Blues. Smith replaces the Pacific islander Soane Tonga'uiha in a line-up that sees his two of his fellow Scots, the tight-head specialist Euan Murray and the flanker Scott Gray, restored to the pack after Six Nations duty.

There are Six Nations regulars all over the place. The Blues have fast-tracked most of their current Wales squad members – Leigh Halfpenny, Tom Shanklin, Jamie Roberts, Gethin Jenkins – into their side, although the outstanding breakaway forward Martyn Williams and the powerhouse No 8 Andy Powell are nursing injuries and will not be involved. Meanwhile, the Gloucester-Ospreys tie sees the likes of Mike Tindall, Alasdair Strokosch, Gavin Henson, Tommy Bowe, Shane Williams, James Hook, Adam Jones, Ian Gough and Ryan Jones among the starters. Still more notables, from Carlos Nieto and Marco Bortolami to Mike Phillips and Alun Wyn Jones, will be among the replacements.

Bristol, bless them, have no functioning internationals, which explains, at least in part, why they are slumming it at the bottom of the Premiership table, 14 points adrift of the next worst team in the league, who just happen to be Worcester. According to Joe El Abd, their splendidly committed captain, there will be no bowing to the inevitable. "Every game we've played, bar very few, has been close, and we'll keep fighting to the end," he promised yesterday. He must know, however, that the game is up, irrespective of what happens tomorrow lunchtime.

For all that, there was some positive news for the West Countrymen, who announced the signing of scrum-half Jason Spice – a member of the Blues' starting line-up against Northampton today. Spice, a New Zealander who was close to full All Black honours in 2001, is a useful capture, but knowing Bristol's luck, he will do himself a mischief scoring the try that puts the Welsh club in the final and be rendered immobile for the next 12 months.

Saracens, meanwhile, have named the England captain, Steve Borthwick, in their second row for tomorrow's derby with Wasps at Vicarage Road. Yesterday, their opponents confirmed that Leon Holden, their assistant coach, would be returning home to New Zealand at the end of the season.