Aviva Premiership Round 5: 5 things we learned

1. Crisis time

Leicester Tigers fans can officially start panicking now. It is not so much that they have lost three on the bounce in the Premiership (although when was the last time that happened?), it is the manner of the defeats. Once again they rolled over far too easily against Gloucester, adrift 30-9 at half-time and already staring down the barrel of another defeat. The defensive organisation was more in the league of London Welsh than Saracens or Northampton Saints, and that is reflected in their league position – tenth. Yes, they have again been hit hard with a horrific list of injuries, but the same was true at the start of last season – after five rounds then, their record was won three, drawn one, lost one. More to the point, they had been competitive, something they weren’t at any stage against Bath or Gloucester this season. The team they have should still be good enough to compete in these games. They need their big names back and they desperately need to beat Harlequins at Welford Road this Friday.

2. Where will Slammin’ Sam fit in?

As of Monday, Sam Burgess is a Bath Rugby player. The fractured cheek bone he suffered in the NRL final at the weekend means he will have to wait a while to make his bow in Bath colours, but we are still deliciously close to what will be one of the biggest points of intrigue this season – how will Burgess fare in union? The only problem is, at the moment Bath don’t look like they need him. Kyle Eastmond and Jonathan Joseph have developed into the most dangerous centre pairing in the Premiership – something that didn’t quite happen last year – and they both excelled at the weekend in Bath’s mightily impressive win over Saracens. They have Horacio Agulla to return from Rugby Championship duty, and tonight Luke Arscott, Ollie Devoto, Matt Banahan and Anthony Watson all play in their reserve team. Add Burgess into the mix and you have a dizzying amount of depth in that back division. To keep them all happy and playing will be quite a task for Mike Ford and his team.

3. Too early to speak of relegation?

The season is still young, certainly, and while last week this column looked at the fact it would be a two horse race for relegation there is now one out and out favourite. London Welsh’s second 52-0 loss of the season (in just five rounds – the fewest points they have shipped in a game is 46) combined with Newcastle’s heroic 29-24 win over Exeter means it is already difficult to see anyone but the Welsh exiles going down. They’ve conceded almost double the number of tries of their nearest relegation rivals. If next weekend’s game against the Falcons at the Kassam was an important one before, it is now utterly must win. Should they lose, they will be at least seven or at worst nine points adrift, having played their closest relegation rivals at home. There may be a long way to go still, but this is already one of the most important games of the Premiership season.

4. Rotate at your peril

Both Wasps and Exeter rested several of their big names at the weekend for their respective trips up north, and from a combined possible ten points they made the long journey back with just one – the Chiefs’ losing bonus point. Exeter faced the easier game, against the previously winless Newcastle Falcons, but looked to lack a bit of penetration – something the benched Sam Hill certainly would have given them. Wasps had plenty of try-scoring opportunities but came up against the staunchest of defences against Sale, and needed someone that might have been able to unlock it with a bit of magic – someone like Elliot Daly and Tom Varndell, for example, both of whom were given the day off. It is a long season and player welfare is paramount, but they might both have been better off rotating players for home games – there’s no such thing as an easy game on the road in the Premiership.

5. Winging it

There were varying fortunes for England’s potential Autumn International wingers at the weekend. Semesa Rokoduguni was a man possessed for Bath, ripping the Saracens’ fabled wolfpack defence to shreds with his power and pace. On the opposing side, Chris Ashton looked out of sorts, yellow-carded for a cynical knock-on and unable to make inroads with ball in hand, while over at Kingsholm Jonny May finished his try smartly to take his tally to four for the season. Marland Yarde finally looked comfortable in a Quins shirt and managed a brace of tries – and though it might have been against London Welsh, who have been leaking tries this season, the second needed a lot of finishing. On Sunday, Christian Wade had a thoroughly mixed bag, familiar defensive frailities resurfacing in the form of a woeful failure to ground the ball behind his own line, for the second time this season. He went on to score a brilliant try, ducking and diving his way to the line, but it’s likely to be his defensive errors that caught the eye of the on-watching Stuart Lancaster more.

By Jamie Hosie
Follow Jamie on Twitter: @jhosie43

Photo by: Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images