Big hits, fights and physicality – the Premiership is going all out to celebrate the tough side of rugby as the new season starts this week.

Players and coaches have been consulted and they came back with a strong message that the game has been too bashful about the brutality and the bruises, as it seeks to attract new fans.

The i Paper understands content creators at the rebranded “Prem” have been given a brief of “big hits, niggle and gym content”, while a production company will film behind-the-scenes material on similar themes.

As examples, last Friday the league’s X channel highlighted how Louis Rees-Zammit was booed as the Welsh wing scored for Bristol Bears away to his former team Gloucester in the Prem Cup, and his sin-bin dust-up with a soundtrack of the referee describing “a

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