The New Year is here, bringing with it a cloud of bad weather and hangovers. Cutting through the fog is Best of the Weekend, bringing you all of the rugby news from across the domestic leagues.

Sarries march on; struggles continue for Wasps & Bath

Saracens continued their astonishing unbeaten run with the most bizarre of bonus point wins over Leicester, winning 26-6 thanks to a hat-trick of penalty tries and a token contribution from hooker Jamie George. This is Sarries’ 12th consecutive win in all competitions and the defending champions showed the might of their forward pack in some style. Simply put, they just don’t look like losing and this brushing aside of Leicester should draw nervous gulps from the rest of the Premiership.

London Irish threw away a 14-6 half-time lead against Gloucester, losing 27-14 and leaving Kingsholm empty-handed. Early Exiles tries from Ciaran Hearn and Alex Lewington were cancelled out by Gloucester’s second half efforts from Matt Kvesic and Billy Burns, and by that point James Hook had already kicked 15 points’ worth of penalties. However, the news that winger Jonny May will undergo knee surgery will temper the Cherry and Whites’ positivity somewhat.

Wasps’ clash with Sale saw Danny Cipriani kick the Sharks to a 15-9 victory against his old club. The visitors had the best scoring chance of the afternoon with Rob Miller squandering a sure-fire finish, due in equal parts to Chris Cusiter’s last-ditch tackle and Jimmy Gopperth’s overzealous assist attempts. Gopperth and Elliot Daly provided the points for Wasps from the tess.

Battling the wind and rain at Sixways, Harlequins allowed Worcester to rally late, resulting in a narrow 24-20 win. Charlie Walker crossed in each half to go with Luke Wallace’s score, giving Quins a 24-3 lead just after the break. At this point Worcester finally found their footing – quite literally – pounding over through Marco Mama, winning a penalty try and finally seeing Phil Dowson dot down after Charlie Walker’s slip (and a shirt tug that was bafflingly missed by every one of the officials); the Warriors claiming a hard-earned losing bonus point.

If Worcester gave Harlequins a shock, then Newcastle went one better by upsetting Bath 19-14 at Kingston Park, for the first time in over 10 years. Although Bath’s early try through Guy Mercer suggested that Bath would have it easy, the Falcons struck back through Rob Vickers, and with Craig Willis finding his kicking boots to the tune of 14 points. Bath could find no way back into the game and Newcastle’s first win of the season lifts them above London Irish into 11th.

Northampton secured a win over Exeter Chiefs on Friday in unspectacular fashion, with the final score reading 8-3. Mike Haywood’s try proved the difference between the teams, while Exeter were unable to capitalise on the opposition’s mistakes, and were consistently punished at scrum-time meaning their usually lethal attack was neutered. The Chiefs remain second in the league, but Saints move up to fifth, four points behind Leicester.

Aviva Premiership Star Man: Billy Vunipola

Blues and Scarlets play out a derby delight

Unarguably the pick of the PRO12 action came at the Arms Park where Cardiff snatched a 29-27 victory over Scarlets thanks to a late try from Alex Cuthbert. The visitors made the quicker start to the game, with Ken Owens and DTH Van der Merwe both scoring against the run of play inside the first 15 minutes.

At 14-3 down, Cardiff then began to take matters into their own hands sending Cory Allen, Dan Fish and Kristian Dacey in for tries, to which Scarlets replied with two Aled Thomas penalties, making the scoreline 22-20 to Cardiff. Despite being down to 13 men, Scarlets regained the lead with Gareth Davies’ try, converted by Thomas, which gave them a five point lead with fifteen minutes left. However, Cuthbert and Cardiff struck on 76 minutes, driving over from close range to level the score, before Patchell’s conversion rubber-stamped the Blues’ victory. Despite the loss, Scarlets remain top of the PRO12 thanks to a losing bonus point.

Zebre completed the double over Treviso in the second all-Italian clash of the season, winning 18-8 thanks to tries from Luke Burgess and Giulio Tonolatti, while Edinburgh did the same in the corresponding Scottish match-up. The visitors squeezed their way to victory, 14-11, thanks to the kicking of Sam Hidalgo-Clyne and a Phil Burleigh try after the game was controversially moved to Murrayfield due to inhospitable conditions at Scotstoun.

Ulster and Munster came together in a rather miserable affair, with Munster relying on the kicking of Ian Keatley to win 9-7. Ulster’s solitary try, from Louis Ludik, should have been disallowed for a knock-on in the build-up.

Leinster only needed one try to overcome Connacht 13-0, Josh van der Flier controversially touching down despite no evidence of him actually grounding the ball. Johnny Sexton and Ian Madigan kicked the remaining points in yet another match marred by conditions.

Rounding out a selection of low-scoring fixtures (with the exception of Blues vs Scarlets), Ospreys defeated the Dragons 12-7 at the Liberty Stadium. Former Dragon Dan Evans opened the scoring before Hanno Dirksen added another before half-time. The second half yielded one score for Newport Gwent through Ed Jackson, but the Ospreys rode out the game with their lead intact.

Guinness PRO12 Star Man: Tom James

Business as usual for Racing and Clermont; Toulon up to fourth

Two tries from James O’Connor helped Toulon to a 21-17 victory over Pau, although in both scoreline and manner, it was far from convincing. O’Connor and Konstantin Mikautadze crossed to give Toulon a healthy lead, supplemented by two penalties from Tom Taylor. However, mid-way through the second period Pau turned to Conrad Smith, who danced through for an excellent solo try, before they added a further penalty try with five minutes left. Pau claim an all-important bonus point that keeps them in touch with the sides above them in the table.

Clermont faced an unlikely 9-0 deficit at half-time of their game with Agen, but found some extra juice in the second period, eventually winning 33-16. Two Camille Gerondeau tries, a penalty try and 18 points from Camille Lopez’s boot saw Clermont fly past their opponents and sees them second in the table, level on points with Racing 92 who…

…narrowly overcame Bordeaux Begles at Stade Yves du Manoir, 23-18. Bordeaux scored all of their points from the tee, while Racing had Dmitri Szarzewski and Alexandre Dumoulin scores either side of half time; Dan Carter kicked 13 points.

La Rochelle and Brive beat Castres and Montpellier respectively, with both losers picking up bonus points. Castres scrum-half Rory Kockott amassed all of his team’s points in a 25-21 loss, while Jone Qovu and Zach Holmes combined to edge past Castres and up to ninth in the table. Brive meanwhile, scored a solitary try to beat Montpellier 19-18. Poutasi Luafutu crossed for Brive while Teddy Iribaren kicked the rest of the home side’s haul.

Grenoble put the heftiest scoreline past Oyonnax, winning 42-17 and earning a try bonus point in the process. The win was all but sealed within five minutes of kick off with Maritino Nemani and Hendrik Roodt’s tries, before Charl Mcleod scored Grenoble’s third before the break, giving them a 25-3 lead. Gio Aplon and Fabien Alexandre added tries after the break and although Oyonnax managed to get Silvere Tian and Maurie Fa’asavalu over the line, the five points were safe for Grenoble.

Kiwi centre Paul Williams scored a 78th minute try to pull off a come-from-behind 18-17 victory over Toulouse. Stade started the game 20 league points behind their opponents, and behind on the scoreboard early as Alexis Palisson scored for Toulouse after five minutes. Sebastien Bezy’s four penalties kept the visitors ahead, but Stade scored twice in the last 15 minutes of the game through Hugo Bonneval and then Williams, handing them an unlikely win. Relief and delight in equal measure for Stade Francais.

Top 14 Star Man: James O’Connor

Try of the Weekend: This weekend was filled with stodgy affairs with lots of pushover tries scored. There were some long-range efforts, especially in Gloucester’s win over London Irish, but Conrad Smith’s dummy-led try against Toulon is the pick this week. This is partly down to it being a very good try, but also because it involves Smith selling his former All Black teammate Ma’a Nonu an outrageous show and go. It is vintage Smith and although it looks as if he can barely run at the moment, he STILL beat five defenders on his way to the line.

Hero of the Weekend: Newcastle fly-half Craig Willis, making only his second Premiership start and third appearance, kicked 14 points to lead the Falcons to victory over Bath. This was impressive enough on its own but it is also the first time Newcastle have beaten Bath at Kingston Park since 2003. Willis deserves plaudits for his heavy involvement in Newcastle’s first victory of the season.

Villain of (last) Weekend: Strong contenders for this week’s Villains are Leicester’s front row players, who were decimated repeatedly by their Saracens counterparts. Instead, the award goes to Henry Trinder’s hamstrings. The injury-prone centre has played just 21 times since November 2013, having suffered shoulder, knee and hamstring injuries, and pulled up while scoring his second try against Harlequins (a week ago). Trinder seems cursed with bad health and we wish him a speedy recovery.

By Fraser Kay (@fraserkay)

Photo by: Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images