Gallagher Premiership: Five Talking Points from Round 20
Wasps’ Jack Willis celebrates his try in their rampant 59-35 win over Bristol Bears
Credit: Jacob King/PA
With just two rounds to go in the Gallagher Premiership, the playoff race looks set to go down to the wire as just two points separate Wasps in 2nd and Bristol Bears in 5th.
At the other end of the scale, Northampton Saints’ slump continued while Saracens continue to fight hard ahead of their European Champions Cup showdown against Leinster.
Due to the hectic schedule, academy graduates have earned their spurs in the cut and thrust nature of the Premiership as the league takes a weeks rest due to English clubs European commitments.
Here are our Five Talking Points from the latest set of games in the Premiership.
Top Four still up for grabs as Wasps and Bath win big
Wasps were the big winners of the weekend as they leapfrogged Bristol after thumping the West Country men 59-35 at the Ricoh Arena.
The Coventry outfit ran in a whopping nine tries as they played some blistering rugby to blast away an understrength Bears.
Since his appointment as Head Coach, Lee Blackett has overseen nine wins in eleven either side of Project Restart and has galvanised Wasps into a playoff battle.
Blackett is getting the best of a backline that had gone stagnant under previous boss Dai Young, with the team running in 99 points over the last two games and talents such as Matteo Minozzi, Zach Kibrige and Malaki Fektoa all flourishing.
Max Malins impressed as a running fly-half for Bristol, bagging two stunning tries in a losing effort. Their sights are firmly set on Leicester Tigers at home in two weeks time and then a trip to London Irish on the last day of the season.
Bath also jumped into the top four after an impressive 37-22 away victory at the AJ Bell Stadium over playoff rivals Sale Sharks.
Ben Spencer (see below) again showed his quality with a superbly take brace - the first a good finish after gathering a Jonathan Joseph kick through and his second a poacher’s try as he picked off Marland Yarde’s pass to sprint in.
He could prove to be the lockdown signing of the season as Stuart Hooper’s men aim to force their way into the end of season shake up.
It was a smash and grab win in Salford, as Bath walked away with five points on the back of a big shutout effort.
Joseph, Beno Obano, Tom Dunn, Charlie Ewels and Toby Faletau all made 10 or more tackles as they repelled the ravenous Sharks, showing a steel in defence that has been missing at Bath for some years.
Sale enjoyed 63% of possession and 70% of territory but couldn’t break down the men from the Rec despite tries for Rohan Janse van Rensburg, Jean-Luc du Preez and Daniel du Preez.
After the game, Director of Rugby Steve Diamond cut a gloomy figure when he said: “I’ve just told the lads, maybe we’re not good enough to be top four. Maybe we have reached our level.
“We had three glaring opportunities to score tries and we fluffed our lines.”
We don’t buy it here at The Flanker as we expect Sale to be right in the mix up until their final game of the regular season against Worcester Warriors.
Saints in crisis ahead of massive Chiefs test
Paul Hill on the charge for Northampton Saints in their 28-24 defeat to Leicester Tigers
Credit: Matthew Lewis/Getty Images
No disrespect intended to Leicester Tigers but if they beat you this season, you know you have had a poor game.
The East Midlanders would have been marooned at the bottom if not for Saracens financial shenanigans but pushed over a lacklustre Northampton Saints who seem to have no confidence, no imagination and no fight left in them.
First and foremost, Tigers were impressive and deserve full praise for their victory with Head Coach Steve Borthwick’s presence slowly starting to be felt.
In many ways, it was a Leicester performance of old as they forced Northampton into conceding penalties at the ruck and the scrum.
The impressive Zack Henry kicked 17 points as Leicester turned the screw like they did in the Johnson, Back and Healy era, with Ben Youngs early try perhaps symptomatic of the game as a whole.
Northampton were going through the motions in attack and George Furbank fumbled the ball, before being smashed by giant wing Nemani Nadolo and Youngs simply scooping up the loose ball to jog in.
A late Henry Taylor try gave the Saints a losing bonus point and added a bit of gloss to the scoreline, but they didn’t do enough in the slightest to get the win.
Northampton had all the ball, all the territory, but no idea how to get over the whitewash - even when Tigers were reduced to 13 men in the first half.
Their once much vaunted attacking game now looks predictable and half paced, with the defence still leaking soft tries to boot.
After the game, Director of Rugby Chris Boyd blasted his side saying: "It was probably the worst performance in two years since I've been here, so that's embarrassing.
“Everybody is pretty down in the changing room and it'd going to be a pretty tough job to pick us back up again.
"It was absolutely not the way we wanted to play here at Welford Road in a derby. I could've stomached losing the game if we had put in a great performance, but, it was a very flat performance. Massively disappointing."
The playoffs, which they looked nailed on the be a part of in January, are now a long faded memory as they head into a daunting European Champions Cup quarter-final against Exeter Chiefs this Saturday.
To make matters worse, an injury crisis is in full flow as they only have one fit loosehead prop available with 19-year-old rookie Emmanuel Iyogun promoted into the first team squad.
When it rains, it most certainly pours.
Saracens and Exeter - how the mighty fall (in very specific circumstances)
In any other season, Saracens against Exeter would be dominated by a week of buildup about the latest instalment in the defining saga of modern English rugby was here again.
The long-proven best two sides in the country going head to head. A dress rehearsal for the normally fairly inevitable Premiership Final. This was a game that should have it all.
However, this is 2020 and nothing is normal.
Instead of being treated to a genuine clash of the titans, what those watching at home saw was a battle of two teams with much bigger issues on their mind.
The need for more careful squad rotation than in any known year led to a situation wherein weakened teams were generally to be expected, but a second-string affair was certainly on show.
A lack of top-team players on both sides, although more noticeable on the Exeter side of things, told its own story about both sides having their sights firmly fixed on this weekend’s Champions Cup quarter finals - albeit for very different reasons.
Elliott Obatoyinbo goes in for his first ever Premiership try for Saracens
Credit: Rex Features
Saracens, already relegated and preparing for life in the Championship next season, have been building exclusively toward their clash with Leinster for weeks and everyone knows it.
Exeter have already tied up the top spot in the Premiership and are also in desperate pursuit of the European gravitas that Director of Rugby Rob Baxter knows will take his team to the next level.
While those clashes this coming weekend will be all the more intense for it, unfortunately what we were left with in the Premiership was a game with less stakes than a vegan restaurant as Saracens ran out 40-17 winners.
It was a match far short on passion or consistent quality, although the London side showed the necessary class when it mattered as evidenced by Elliott Obatoyinbo’s memorable first Premiership try for Sarries.
Put simply, it was a damp squib where once there were fireworks worthy of New Year’s Eve on Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Gloucester and Quins set sights on next season
Monday night’s 28-15 bonus point away win for Harlequins confirmed European Champions Cup rugby for next season, but the scoreline probably didn’t reflect the hard fought battle these two sides had.
Quins Head of Rugby Paul Gustard will be particularly impressed with the way his boys defended throughout the game.
Although Gloucester managed to throw away a number of gilt-edged chances, the intercept tries for Stephan Lewies and Scott Steele - a handy acquisition from London Irish - showed the defensive grit Gustard is known for might finally be rubbing off on his players.
Gloucester have had a season to forget but it must be stated they are in a state of flux with Head Coach George Skivington only in the infancy of his coaching tenure.
They have an exciting back three in Louis Rees-Zammit, Ollie Thorley and Jonny May and even if Danny Cipriani was not at his best Monday night, he is a mercurial talent who has taken his side into the playoffs before.
Back to back victories for Harlequins are too little too late for a top four push but Gustard will look to consolidate their ‘best of the rest’ 6th place and a Premiership Rugby Cup win over Sale next Monday would give his side momentum heading into next season.
Both these sides have ultimately disappointed this season, but there are flickers they could both be up the interesting end of the table come the conclusion of the 2020/21 season.
England hopefuls stake their claim
Despite being back in action for a month, the restart has absolutely whizzed by as Premiership matches have come thick and fast.
Suddenly, England Six Nations and Autumn Nations campaigns are looming in the distance with a number of players surely impressing Eddie Jones.
As mentioned, Ben Spencer was brilliant in the game against Sale but he has done it week in week out since joining Bath outfit.
Although he impressed at times for Saracens, their love of the box kick meant he was often replacing veteran Richard Wigglesworth from the bench.
Now, the shackles are off and he must be a banker, at the very least, for the England matchday squad against Italy on Halloween.
In fact, Saracens imminent relegation appears to have thrust guys into the spotlight who may have been bit part players previously.
Nick Isiekwe, Ben Earl and even Max Mallins have been allowed to show what they can do week in week out in the starting spots.
It’s worth looking to see if that trust in academy graduates continues at Saracens next season with the North London men unlikely to be playing quality opposition week in week out.
And what of some wildcards who could put themselves forward for England?
Zack Kibirige has looked menacing in the Wasps backline and could stake a place later this year. Meanwhile, Ted Hill has gone very much under the radar but the youngest ever Worcester captain was capped at just 19 and the added responsibility seems to have not diminished his prowess.
Throw in a couple of starlet fly-half’s, with Marcus Smith and Jacob Umaga banging on the door, and Mr Jones has a lot of interesting decisions to make over the next month or so.
