Can Northampton Saints and Glasgow Warriors defend their hard-earned respective Premiership and United Rugby Championship titles? If not, who will be their biggest threats? And which individuals have the ability to exchange relative anonymity for a place in Andy Farrell's British & Irish Lions squad next summer?
The weather is half-decent, the pitches firm, the scent of freshly cut grass and embrocation reliably evocative. There is just one sizeable drawback, as every professional club executive can testify. Primarily, it is all about the price tag and whether or not the sums stack up. Out in the real world it is less about smelling the Deep Heat than absorbing the financial pain.
If anyone needed proof it came late last week. An eve-of-season board meeting would usually be about dotting the i's and crossing the t's to ensure the best chance of a shiny, happy campaign. Instead, the Premiership's power brokers have been debating whether or not a British & Irish men's league may be a better way forward. Efforts have since been made to pour cold water on the story but there is rarely smoke in rugby without some glowing embers.
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