Today’s column comes from Stephen Goldsmith.

WE here at Wise Men Say Towers have had many debates about the relevance of fixture lists in the last couple of years.

There always seems to be this lingering frustration that we never quite get a reasonable run of games early in the season.

One side of the argument is clear – you play every team twice and the running order is immaterial.

The other is that by the time you get to the “reasonable run of games” your downwards spiral has picked up so much momentum that your players are devoid of confidence and will likely struggle anyway. That was certainly true of last season.

You can read the rest of the article here.