EDF Energy Anglo Welsh Cup / Ralph Ellis / 16 April 2009 / Leave a comment

Fixture congestion is hurting the Cherry and Whites as they strive for success, says Ralph Ellis.

If anybody - apart from the club owners chasing more cash - thought squeezing more games into the Guinness Premiership season was a good idea, they only need to look at Gloucester's fixture list in the next ten days. Dean Ryan's side must come out of Saturday's EDF Energy final against Cardiff Blues at Twickenham and then play both a local derby against Worcester and star-studded Wasps to wrap up their League programme.

It's the sort of fixture congestion that is nothing new to football. Successful clubs at all levels have to face similar problems every year. But the difference is the sheer physicality of rugby that makes such a pile-up of fixtures positively dangerous. Tired bodies arrive late for tackles, tired minds make bad judgements, and then the risks of injuries are dramatically increased.

Of course the situation has been made worse this year by trying to finish the campaign early to make room for a British Lions tour, but if the clubs press ahead with their plans to shoehorn another five or six fixtures into the season it will only get worse. And the irony will be that a measure aimed at trying to make more money will end up costing - because squads, and therefore wage bills, will have to get bigger to cope with the extra demands.

Ryan is under serious pressure at Kingsholm to deliver a major trophy. His team finished top of the table in the last two seasons only to miss out in the play-offs, and the fans want a trophy to show for their efforts after nearly four years of near misses while he has been head coach.

He has made his views on the fixture list clear today: "It contravenes everything the authorities set out to do," he claims in the Daily Express.

"The mandate for any elite player or international agreement is that we should not be playing midweek games. The nature of the cluttered season is that there are overlaps, but to end up with them in the last week, just when there are finals and people are contending for play-offs, only accentuates how impossible it is.

"It is going to be a very difficult week for us. We may need to handle big disappointments or huge highs, and a number of guys are going to have to play in all these games. To have nine months work riding on the back of it seems a tall order."

Gloucester are currently fifth in the Guinness Premiership table, a place and a point away from reaching the play-offs. But what should normally be a routine win over Worcester will suddenly become much tougher just 72 hours after a Twickenham Cup final.

Gloucester are [2.14] to win that final, and ironically might be good value for that because you can see a supreme effort coming to start their big week with a trophy. The Kingsholm club have arguably the most passionate, down to earth support in the sport and urgently need to deliver for them.

That's when things could start to go wrong. They will be odds-on (the early market has them at [1.6] to beat Worcester on Tuesday, but it could be worth laying whatever the result at Twickenham. Watch for them to lose to Wasps on the last day of the campaign too when tired minds and bodies will be on the line.

Five things you might not know about Dean Ryan...

1. His father was a Major in the Royal Corps of Transport and Dean also spent seven years in the Army.

2. He was bought out of the services by Wasps, and was then one of Rob Andrew's first recruits at Newcastle when Sir John Hall turned them professional.

3. His first coaching job was at Bristol - they were relegated after he moved to Gloucester in 2001.

4. His two sons Conor, 16, and 14-year-old Aaron are both keen rugby players at their school Wycliffe College

5. He has a passion for cycling, and every year compets in L'Etape, a stage of the Tour de France which is open to amateurs. He prepares by cycling 1,000 feet up Cleeve Hill in the Cotswolds.