The lack of a close season hasn't been quite as aggressive as that for football, but as the new rugby season was launched in the usual slick style at Twickenham the slick marketing of the previous season's various finales still seemed to be ringing in our ears. And even more fresh in the memory were the rather less slick performances of exhausted England players on the other side of the world.

The fanfare for the new Zurich Premiership season was upbeat, and the vital statistics are impressive. Season-ticket sales have grown by 19 per cent across the board, and a crowd of 50,000 is expected next weekend when the season begins with a double-header at Twickenham between London's four Premiership sides.

After the financial holocaust that followed the game's professionalisation, London Irish have now joined Leicester and Northampton in declaring a profit, and two other clubs are said to have broken even as well, albeit secretly. Even new boys Worcester have impressive statistics to impart and are in a position to make a credible stab at being the first team to avoid bottom in their first season in the Zurich Premiership.

And this is where the first sign of bitten nails can be detected beneath the varnish. One team will have to go down, and the struggles of Rotherham, who still teeter on the brink of extinction after their relegation last season, are a sinister reminder of how sharply rugby's strength falls away beneath the top tier. The fate that would befall some of the clubs in the Premiership if they ever went down doesn't bear thinking about, and so none of them do. But expect the dreaded relegation debate to resurface should Worcester prove competitive.

One debate that has never gone away, however, concerns the much-maligned play-off system to determine the champions. For the second season running, Wasps were crowned the champions of England, despite having finished second in the league proper. There are undoubtedly problems with this system - not least the idea of a 22-match, nine-month slog through the boglands of the English winter and out the other side again simply to determine who gets to play who in a one-off match at sunny Twickenham. It is as protracted and torturous a way of deciding seeds as sport has dreamt up.

The real problem of the Premiership, however, is that it continues to be played alongside eight international matches, meaning that the leading players are absent for more than a third of the programme. Under those circumstances it is impossible for anyone to make the unchallenged claim that they are the best side in England just because they finish top. A tanned Lawrence Dallaglio (he managed to have a three-week holiday this year) was animated on the matter at the launch. 'This year during the autumn internationals we [Wasps] are playing Leicester and Gloucester away from home,' he said. 'Now, you can't honestly say to me that if we give up to nine players to the England squad that that is a fair system if they're two games that could decide the league.'

So the play-off concept effectively gives teams a second chance, and they just have to hope that they are not so heavily handicapped by international call-ups as to be denied a top-three finish (as Leicester were last season). Not that that was ever the reason for the introduction of the play-offs, but it looks as if it's here to stay and it is far from domestic rugby's biggest issue.

And to ask who will be champions in nine months' time is thus as futile as to ask who will win a one-off game at the end of another gruelling season with all eyes on the Lions tour that will leave for New Zealand the following week. Nevertheless, in addition to the usual suspects, expect Newcastle and Saracens to be involved at the season's sharp end.

Whatever the outcome, though, no one will have to wait long before another tilt at the title gets under way the season after - unless of course they get relegated, in which case the wait could be very long indeed.

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