Wasps and Exeter put on a show; Northampton grind Bath down

The showdown at the Ricoh Arena between Wasps and Exeter Chiefs certainly seemed to offer potential for top notch rugby but in practice it surpassed even those high expectations. Exeter wound up 41-27 winners, but the journey to that scoreline was far from ordinary. With Wasps’ home stadium somewhat of a fortress at the moment, the Chiefs shocked everyone by smashing their way to a first-half bonus point scoring four tries through Thomas Waldrom (2), Jack Nowell and Mitch Lees, all inside 34 minutes. With the score at 27-6, Wasps mustered a try before the break from a George Smith grubber kick which Frank Halai latched onto. After half-time it was a different story entirely as Wasps barrelled over twice in the first 10 minutes of the second period. The Chiefs were far from finished however, and Thomas Waldrom completed his hat-trick on 56 minutes before the final nail in the coffin was hammered home by Moray Low. The only blight on a wonderful game was a potentially serious injury suffered by Henry Slade.

As always the officials were never far from controversy in the Premiership this weekend. Both Northampton’s 13-11 win over Bath and Worcester’s 20-29 defeat at the hands of Leicester were largely decided by the discretion of the respective officials’ interpretation of the scrum and breakdown and Bath Director of Rugby Mike Ford was scathing in his criticism, saying ref Craig Maxwell-Keys was ‘guessing at scrumtime’.

Worcester’s defeat was particularly heartbreaking for the neutral, with the Warriors leading 17-0 at one point in the first half. However, a rash of cards shown by Wayne Barnes and the resultant slew of penalties allowed Leicester to storm back into the game, and there are few sides better at shutting down a game like the Tigers. Tries from Graham Kitchener, Telusa Veainu, Lachlan McCaffrey and a penalty try brought Leicester back from the brink and Owen Williams’ conversion of the final try even denied Worcester a losing bonus point. Northampton and Bath meanwhile went stride for stride but for a single George Ford conversion, which ended up making the difference.

Quins munched a sorry looking London Irish team 38-7 with Tim Visser scoring a hat-trick. Danny Care and Jack Clifford added the two further tries for Harlequins in a commanding performance, with Irish adding a consolation score through Halani Aulika.

Gloucester found themselves on the right side of the scoresheet for the first time in a few weeks, beating Sale 23-19 in front of The Shed. Sale delivered two wonderful tries through Nev Edwards and stuck with Gloucester for the majority of the game, although the decision to kick for touch and eschew kicks at goal harmed Sale down the stretch.

Round 6 was concluded by Saracens v Newcastle at Allianz Park and any thought of an eye-popping upset were put to bed as Sarries crashed through the Falcons defence time and time again, although left it late to record their bonus point, coming away with an easy 38-3 victory.

Aviva Premiership Star Man: Charlie Hodgson

Connacht surrender top spot to Scarlets

After a monumental victory over Munster put them atop the Pro12 table, Connacht stumbled away at Cardiff Blues, losing 20-16 and missing out on a first ever league double over the Welsh side. The teams traded tries early on with Manoa Vosawai and Ian Porter crossing in the first fifteen minutes before Eoin Mckeown was the beneficiary of a Connacht rolling maul to put the table-toppers ahead once more. Tom James scored in the second half for the Blues but it was the kicking of Rhys Patchell that was the difference in the end.

Scarlets and Treviso conjured a close-fought contest, decided by a last-gasp penalty but with Scarlets edging through 22-20. Treviso looked as competitive as they have at any point this year and looked to have grasped a late victory after two tries by Sam Christie and another from Eduardo Gori. However Scarlets were still in touch thanks to a brace of scores from Morgan Allen plus a DTH van der Merwe effort and Steve Shingler booted a penalty in the dying stages to puncture the Italian comeback and claw their way to the top of the Pro12 table.

The other Welsh-Italian fixture saw a plethora of tries, eight in total, as Ospreys rolled Zebre 39-22. International flanker Justin Tipuric was on rampaging form and helped himself to two, supplemented by Jeff Hassler, Eli Walker and Jonathan Spratt, along with 14 points from Sam Davies.

Munster have hit an ugly run of form, losing their second consecutive match, this time to NG Dragons 22-6. There were several try-scoring chances that went begging, especially in the first half, but the lion’s share of the points came from the boot, Dorian Jones and Jason Tovey kicking 17 for Dragons and Munster relying on Rory Scannell for their six.

Ulster beat Edinburgh 14-7 at home, with all of their points coming within the first 11 minutes of the match. Rory Scholes and a penalty try put the Irish side ahead and Edinburgh could only manage a converted Cornell du Preez try in their attempts to get back in the game.

Guinness Pro12 Star Man: Justin Tipuric

Racing struggle to a draw while Toulon go a-romping

After defeating Toulouse last week, Racing 92 would have been eyeing their game with Pau as an opportunity to score some tries and carry five points into next week. They were able to do neither of those things however, as they scratched together a 15-15 draw with 12th placed Pau, with all the points coming from the kicking tee.

Toulon faced Agen, and their performance couldn’t have been further from that of Racing. They ran in eight tries on their way to a 53-23 victory with Drew Mitchell bagging a brace and Romain Taofifenua, Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, Bryan Habana and the Armitage brothers also crossing. Agen managed two tries of their own, but Toulon looked classy and even boasted a centre partnership of Mathieu Bastareaud and Ma’a Nonu.

Elsewhere Toulouse, Castres and La Rochelle won comfortably. Toulouse beat Oyonnax 27-3 with tries from Tala Grey and Luke McAlister. Castres had an Alex Tulou hat-trick to thank for their 34-19 victory over Montpellier, and La Rochelle’s Zack Holmes kicked 16 points to go with tries for Lepani Botia, Kevin Gourdon and Gabriel Lacroix in their 33-16 win against Grenoble.

Clermont rounded out the weekend against Brive and finished 26-21 winners. They kept their noses ahead through a combination of Morgan Parra’s goalkicking and tries from Aurelien Rougerie and Albert Vulivuli, to maintain a narrow lead at the top of the table.

Top 14 Star Man: Alex Tulou

Fiji pip England to Dubai Sevens title

England began their World Sevens season with a bang, twice recording last minute wins in the knockout stages – first over Argentina in the quarter-finals, then USA in the semi-finals – to set-up a finale against Fiji. The Islanders proved too strong, however, romping to a 28-17 win.

It was a disappointing weekend for the favourites elsewhere, with New Zealand twice being felled by USA – first in the group stages, then in the bronze final – and South Africa beating Australia to win the Plate and finish fifth overall.

Try of the Week: I’ll start with honourable mentions and they go to Rokoduguni’s solo flight down the touchline at The Rec and Nev Edwards’ try from a sublime chip by Danny Cipriani. But we’re France-bound for the best of the best this week with Agen’s Johann Sadie getting the plaudits for his try against Toulon.

Hero of the Week: It may not have taken place on the grandest of rugby stages but former Scotland international Thom Evans made an unprecedented return to rugby this weekend at the Dubai Sevens. For those whose memories are hazy, Evans played 10 times for Scotland before suffering a horrific spinal injury which nearly paralysed him. Playing for the UR7s Wanderers at the Dubai International Open, Thom not only made his triumphant return to the sport but scored two tries with his first touches of the ball on the way to a 45-0 victory. Those who remember the moment he was injured will realise how incredible it is for him to be back on a rugby field.

Villain of the Week: First and foremost, Donncha O’Callaghan deserves an honourable mention. His two yellow cards against Leicester sparked Worcester’s demise in a winnable game. He now has three yellow cards in his first six Premiership appearances. But the real villain this week is Mike Ford for his criticism of referee Craig Maxwell-Keys. Bath understandably felt robbed as their scrum imploded and handed Northampton seven penalties and ultimately the win. However, for Ford to so roundly place the blame upon the officiating of Maxwell-Keys seems, frankly, a little disingenuous. Yes, for better or worse the referees sometimes make their mind up about which pack is dominant during the game and that colours their decisions, but this is something that has helped Bath as much as it has harmed them. It has been a frustrating start to the season for Ford and Bath, but this particular outburst just smacks of sour grapes.

By Fraser Kay (@fraserkay)

Photo by: Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images