12^th Sale

Price: £3 (£3). Pages: 92 (88). Adverts: 54.3%

Sale continue with the high advert count, and though the articles are short and readable, it just doesn't flow at all. Interesting features include a look back at the 2004 Cup Final, and previously semi-finals Sale have been involved in, plus a North-West round-up, but the away section is just two separate pages with an advert in between. Just like the game, this programme is disappointing and keeps Sale around the bottom of the table.

Score: 5/10 – just too many adverts and quite disjointed with articles broken up.

11^th London Irish

Price: £3 (2006/07 £3). Pages: 80 (80). Adverts: 40%.

Yet again, Irish offer a paper cover, but have a decent visitors section with a profile of Mark Sorenson and a discussion of recent meetings, as well as Smithy’s season preview. News pages are a little dull with little distinguishing colour, but the match reports are comprehensive and the amateur pages are good. An opposition squad list would be nice.

Score: 5/10 – being left behind on cover, plus a bit bland inside. 

10^th Harlequins

Price: £3 (£3). Pages: 72 (72). Adverts: 44.4%

Like Irish, Quins stick religiously to a paper cover; this and a stats page offering just a simple fixture list mean it can't be rated too highly. Match reports are poor with only a small summary, a few photos, the teams and scorers. Having said that, the maroon (?) colours are nice, and it is possibly the only Premiership programme containing an advert for the Only Lunch dating agency for “professionals”.

Score: 6/10 – paper cover and no team stats let down what is actually a nice publication.

9^th Bristol

Price: £3 (2006/07 £3). Pages: 72 (72). Adverts: 43%.

With the advert count reduced slightly, and still having the unique title “C’mon Bris”, this is a programme of contrast between the historical feature (season 1962/63) and Premiership previews, to match reports containing only photos, although strangely academy reports do have text. The visitors section isn’t great, although Dan Ward-Smith and Phil Dowson’s, and both teams’ comparative Opta stats are interesting. Feels too advert-laden for me though.

Score: 6.5/10 – nice features, but doesn’t have a great feel and match reports lacking. 

8^th Worcester (10/05/2008, League)

Price: £3 (£3). Pages: 84 (84). Adverts:38.7%

Feels much more professional than last season's jazzy design and quite hefty too. Inside is a practical layout with mainly white and simple use of colour, and follows a logical fomat of news, match reports here and there and plenty of stats for those who like such things. The referee and a cheerleader are profiled (again, for those who like such things), and there's a useful bus timetable, although this might not be necessary if the one on Worcs' offy was a bit easier to decipher. A smaller edition was published for our semi-final visit to Sixways a fortnightly previously.

Score: 7/10 – good solid effective effort and more professional than last season.

7^th Newcastle (29/9/07 v Harlequins)

Price: £3 (2006/07 £3). Pages: 76 (76). Adverts: 45%.

An already high advert count is raised slightly further, and though inside the features aren’t too different, a badly-needed cover redesign is welcome and original, and issues have been published for all European games with no drop in quality. The overall design has a modern and classy feel, and Blackie’s Banter had improved whilst it was still going. A good effort.

Score: 7/10 – new innovative cover and better overall. 

6^th Leeds

Price: £3. Pages: 100. Adverts: 32%.

Following a great improvement in 2005/06 before relegation, Leeds again surprise with a unique square format, though somewhat smaller than the square programmes now common in the football Premier League. This issue is a very manageable read, with introductory rules for the new supporter and general Premiership stats, as well as a nice update on injured players. Visiting teams are well catered for with chat, a feature on the [interim] DoR, stats and previous meeting reports, and match reports are strong. Only problem is the fixtures and results have to use four pages.

Score: 7.5/10 – big page-wise, but small format plus stats over four sides so disorganised.

5^th Saracens

Price: £3 (£3). Pages: 84 (84). Adverts: 36.9%.

Slightly less adverts, and a programme packed with good reads and information. I’m still not a fan of it being split into sections, and it seems to be even harder now to navigate, but in particular the match preview section is very good, with previous scores and a report from our visit to Watford in May 1999, although the photos are from a year earlier. A Heineken Cup review is interesting but not really relevant, but home players have written profiles.

Score: 8/10 – still disorganised and photo errors, but a solid issue nevertheless.

4^th London Wasps (01/12/07, Cup)

Price: £3 (2006/07 £3). Pages: 84 (76). Adverts: 38.1%.

Eight more pages and slightly less adverts, I quite like Wasps’ programme this year with pen profiles of the home players and more on the opposition than previously. Interestingly ex-Wasp Steve Bates is profiled (did they know something we didn’t?), and there are short reports of our previous Cup matches too. Match reports laden with stats and opinion, this is a good issue.

Score: 8.5/10 – good improvement to a decent issue.

3^rd Bath

Price: £3 (£3). Pages: 84 (84). Adverts: 42.2%.

Too many adverts, and awful photos of Danny Grewcock looking like Roger Uttley, but a good colour scheme and a decent away section with overview, features on players and John Fletcher in his last Falcons game, and squad pictures which we don’t always get for visiting teams these days. The Bath tourism page, with a discussion of the city’s nightlife is interesting and Bath boast one of the better Supporters Club pages too.

Score: 9/10 – great issue but advert count let it down.

2^nd Gloucester (23/02/2008, League)

Price: £3 (£3). Pages: 76 (76). Adverts: 34.2%.

Pretty similar to last season. Still offers good match reports and a strong mix of opinion, from Peter Arnold and Shedhead Bob Fenton, as well as features on former players which are interesting, but still I’m not a great fan of an interview with the DoR rather than a column. Captain’s column has been beefed up and the away section is very good, so there is improvement.

Score: 9.3/10 – one of the most interesting reads in the league.

1^st Leicester

Price: £3 (£3). Pages: 92 (92). Adverts: 39.1%.

Like many other clubs, Leicester have toned down the advertising a touch and as usual offer a vast array of opinion from different figures, as well as a preview of their forthcoming England v Ireland A match. A comprehensive review of the Guinness A League compliments decent match reports, and an interview with the Wellington Rugby Union’s media manager. Visitors section isn’t too inventive though, so it misses out on top marks slightly.

Score: 9.5/10 – visitors part is OK, but not in keeping with the high standards throughout. Still the one to beat though.

Others

Glasgow

Price: Free. Pages: 4.

An A4 sheet folded in half with cover, teams and a column by the Glasgow chief executive. Not brilliant but more than expected for a friendly.

World Cup (13/10/07 England v France)

Price: €10. Pages: 84. Adverts: 29.7%.

A really nice production, concentrating not only on the particular match with previews and reports from England and France’s quarter-finals but also the tournament as a whole in both English and French. General World Cup stats and results lists are given, as well as profiles of all of the referees and match and fan photos. I really like this programme. Incidentally, the one from the South Africa group game was 68 pages and €8, but still decent quality.

Connacht

Price: €4. Pages: 52. Adverts: 51.9%.

This be different in that it’s A5 size, and has a good interview with a former player (Simon Geoghegan), but the opposition bit only has two pages of text and some photos. Decent price though compared to Premiership programmes.

Brive

Price: €1. Pages: 36. Adverts: 41.6%.

A proper programme from Brive this season, including half a page in English on our French hosts. John Fletcher and topically Steve Thompson and Luke Harbut are interviewed. Small, but for the paltry sum of €1 you can’t go wrong.

England (v Wales 02/02/2008)

Price: £5. Pages: 100. Adverts: 33%.

More like a brochure these days with the hard spine, and overpriced compared to Premiership programmes, but still a good read. Toby ‘Charlie from Busted’ Flood is in the Q&A hotseat and there are features on England’s young players, the World Cup and Wales not having won at Twickenham for 20 years (sigh). A column by the manager would still be welcome, rather than an article / interview though.

Notes

I was interested to see the prices of the Brive and Connacht programmes, thinking back to when I watched Bundesliga and their programmes were generally €1-€2, whilst still being of comparative size and quality to the football Premier League. Are Brive and Connacht producing programmes at a loss, or are English clubs making huge profits on their sales? Not sure of the answer to that, but considering lower league German sides charge around €1 for smaller issues, I'd guess it's the former.

And after suggesting last year that both sports had reached a price ceiling, I note that Birmingham City have become the first club to charge £3.50 on a regular basis, and I expect will continue to do so in the Championship. I wonder which if any Guinness Premiership club will take the leap soon? I think £3 is a good price, gets money in but not too expensive for what is essentially a fortnightly magazine.

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