Bonus Point win for Saracens, Gloucester capitulate at Kingsholm, George Ford sublime
Defending Premiership champions Saracens began their quest to be the first team to win three consecutive titles since 2005 with a less than convincing win over Worcester at Twickenham in the first part of the weekends double header on Saturday.
Despite coming away with a bonus point victory and promising performances from the likes of Alex Lozowzki, who was filling in for injured Owen Farrell, they lacked the clinical edge we are used to seeing from a Saracens side and were guilty of failing to convert territory and possession into points on a multitude of occasions and were it not for a ruthless 15 minute period prior to the half time interval in which Jamie George, Lozowski and Schalk Burger all crossed the try line, the score line would’ve better reflected the hard work the Warriors put in.
Leicester came from 24 points down against Gloucester in their Friday night opener at Kingsholm. Whilst the visitors were completely outplayed in the first half, conceding penalties and failing to execute anything, Gloucester ran in 31 virtually unanswered points to give them what looked like a big enough margin to defend. However, an equally dominant performance from Leicester in the second half ensured they overturned the deficit and Sam Harrison secured the win in the dying moments of the game as he crossed from the back of a maul.
Bath also got the new season off to a good start with a historic 18-14 victory over Northampton at Franklin’s Gardens as England fly-half George Ford kicking all 18 points. Bath played the conditions and the game very well and, rather than trying to play exciting rugby from anywhere on the pitch, combined not giving away loads of penalties with extracting points from the Saints.
There were also wins for Newcastle over Sale and a tight win for Harlequins over Premiership returners Bristol.
Revenge for Glasgow in Galway, Munster beat Scarlets
Reigning champions Connacht were brought swiftly down to earth with a 41-5 thumping at the hands of Glasgow on Saturday in Galway. Despite Glasgow only leading 13-5 at the break, they stormed clear in the second half to claim a promising six-try victory. Ultimately, the Warriors exposed a severe lack of pre season game time for Connacht, who struggled to find any momentum all game.
The other notable result was Munster’s win away at the Scarlets, with tries from James Cronin and Ronan O’Mahony. Simon Zebo only managed 17 minutes before picking up a rib injury, and appeared to be in a fair bit of pain.
Toulon lose at home, Racing beat Toulouse
A late Waisea Nayacalevu try saw Stade Français claim a 30-30 draw with Clermont in an entertaining fixture at Stade Jean Bouin, whilst Racing 92 outscored Toulouse three tries to one for a 28-14 victory in their Top 14 match on Sunday. A late Juan Imhoff try sealed the result for Racing who led for much of the match in their second win of the season.
Toulon president Mourad Boudjellal has comically blasted his side of international superstars and called them ‘rubbish’ as he vented his frustration at a poor start to the season. They have now lost two from three, with the second defeat coming at home against Brive on Saturday in which an early penalty try was all that separated the sides in an exciting match where the lead changed hands several times.
Try of the week – Ben Spencer – The Saracens’ replacement scrum-half spotted the gap at the side of a ruck before beating and humiliating three Worcester defenders on his way to the line.
Player of the week – George Ford – Almost single-handedly kicked Bath to a historic win over Northampton, showing he isn’t just a dangerous prospect with ball in hand.
Dick of the week – Mourad Boudjellal– “my team is rubbish.” Good to see the Frenchman being as patient as ever.
What were your favourite moments from the weekend?
By Louis Miles-Stringer
Photo by: Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images
Mourad Boudjellal is kind of right thou looking at the players actually available in the Toulon squad at the moment with many away for the Rugby Championship or out with medium term injuries the squad doesn’t look as daunting as it has in previous years. Add in the timing of the November internationals and Six Nations and they won’t be full strength for a large chunk of the season. I would expect a late push from them in April/May to take them from mid table to the play off places
Injured
Gill, Vermeulen, Tillous-Borde, Giteau, Goromaru
Unavailable
Habana, Mitchell
No mention of the Wasps-Chiefs game?
It sounded like a good game, and a great second half from Wasps. What were the highlights?
I saw the highlights yesterday and thought it looked like a cracking game. Wasps will be a serious force once they have all their stars playing (if they can gel?). Robson was on top form for Wasps and Chudley was sharp for the Chiefs. Won’t be long before one of these is in with a shout for the England 9 shirt. Especially if Care keeps throwing telegraphed passes to opposing players like he did on Saturday against Bristol!!
Strange to ignore the Exeter Wasps game – arguably the pick of the fixtures this weekend.
Thought Wasps looked good. Only change from last year is the move to have a second playmaker in the midfield which I think will only improve us once we have a Beale or Eastmond in there.
Robson and Taylor were Wasps stand out players, I expect both to be in and around the England squad this year. Looks as though Young will slowly feed in the new players which should help them all gel.
Slade wasn’t great again, I still haven’t seen his pre-leg break form since the injury which is obviously disappointing. I thought Exeter’s attack was poor, too often going side to side without really penetrating but I expect that’ll get better. Without their rolling mauls, they don’t look like they have much of a plan to score tries.
Gopperth looked good for his try, made Woodburn look like a chump with the inside, outside weaving run
Very good finish – one any winger would be proud of! He actually went very well at 12 in general, but it will only improve with players with more experience in that channel playing there.
I know that Billy V got motm on Saturday for Sarries, but I thought Burger and Barritt were outstanding. Barritt just seemed to appear for the George and Burger tries to push over the line and Burger delivered the pass for Lozovski’s try and worked well as the forwards/backs link man. Frequently passing from behind the ruck to keep play moving in the backs. His experience is going to be key when AIs and 6N come around.
Burger was the one for me that looked very good – he looks like a great signing, much like Smith for Wasps last year.
Wrigglesworth looked awful though. Everytime Sarries looked like they were about to break loose, he’d dither at a ruck and slow the ball down. That Sarries pack are so mobile, a really dynamic 9 could have the causing havoc. Spencer looked better when he came on, but it doesn’t look like the Sarries hierarchy massively trust him. Imagine what the Vunipolas and Itoje would be able to do worth off a Dan Robson’s shoulder.
They use Wiggy as a controlling scrum half, and I think he was trying to control it more because Faz wasn’t playing. Lozowski did ok, but his lack of experience puts more pressure on Wiggy to control the game more. Hoping that Faz is back this week and that he’s fully fit!!
When Goode moved to 10 and Lozowksi went to 13 I thought we looked pretty good as well. Goode at 10 with Spencer at 9 would keep defences busy.
Spencer’s try was excellent though. Obviously Worcester were pretty knackered by then, but a perfect example of playing what’s in front of you and backing yourself.
I’m not really sure slowing the game down counts as controlling it? When the pace increased, that’s when most Sarries looked most in control.
I can’t help but feel his way of playing is limiting Sarries – which is a pretty frightening concept considering they are already dominating European rugby.
Worcester were certainly putting us under pressure at the breakdown in the first half so maybe they were forcing him to try and slow it down? I still expect to see him start next week. For some reason as you say Spencer is only trusted to start when there is no other choice. I don’t understand it myself, he’s never done anything wrong in a Sarries shirt, and we wouldn’t have won the last LV Cup if he hadn’t been in the squad. A very talented player with a top kicking percentage off the tee as well!!
Odd that there were only two Pro12 matches this weekend. Explains the short write-up, though.
This isn’t really designed to be a comprehensive review of all the Rugby at the weekend, more of a highlights package. The Italian teams and the Dragons all losing aren’t really highlights, and Cardiff nearly always beat Edinburgh. We could list out results, but that’s not very exciting.
Feel free to add your own comments to what we’ve written, or to tell people about anything that’s missing – that’s the idea of this column.
To be honest, I’m not really a fan of this new shorter format you have introduced this season.
Even if it is just one sentence letting us know the score line, I feel that you should cover the entire league over the weekend. e.g. Wasps overcame Exeter 25-20 in an exciting affair at the Ricoh OR Cardiff Blues defied the horrible weather to claim a 34-16 Bonus Point win against Edinburgh at The Arms Park.
People coming to this website aren’t half-hearted fans looking for the highlights package only, but real fans with a genuine interest in how all teams are doing in their respective leagues.
OK, appreciate the feedback! We’ll take it on board.
To put forward a different point of view, I disagree with Owen G.
If I just want to see scores, i can go to the newspapers’ websites. If I want more than that then ESPNScrum will have all the stats on the game.
What I come here for and what I’d like you to spend your time on, is not listing how many points Zebre got beaten by this time, but in depth report and analysis that sets up a conversation.
If you want to write about Zebre then that’s great, but let’s have an analysis of why they are poor and what they could do to turn things around and perhaps even whether they should be in the league at all.
If someone want to start a discussion on a game you don’t cover then they can do so in the comments.
Of course, if you can find the time to both list scores and to write decent articles, by all means do so, but if it’s a choice of one or t’other, then let’s have articles that look more deeply than just a score-line.
I’d agree with Pablito in not just writing a scoreline, but alongside Owen G I disagree in omission entirely. I know the idea to make things more streamlined is more suited to those on the go or wanting some punchy headlines in one place – but the BBC still have their results page, Sky, BT etc ditto, and if you’re only offering the scores then its not really worth the extra surfing. A little analysis, comment, opinion and so on promotes the discussion that you want to achieve far better than just a scoreline, as it starts a conversation people otherwise might not have. However, omitting even a footnote scoreline for certain matches is a dangerous path to walk down; I’m an avid Exeter fan and I was quite surprised to find that a match that some pundits on other sites reckon was exciting and compelling didn’t even get a score footnote here. I’ve always enjoyed coming here for the extra nuggets of thought or wisdom to help get a feel for what went right or wrong for the team, when I wasn’t able to watch a match myself. If matches are being omitted from the review, then supporters from all teams are going to feel a bit let down as and when theirs, for whatever reason, doesn’t make the cut (not least because they are going to wonder why their team wasn’t worthy enough compared to other teams). I just feel it sets a bad precedent.
Thanks everyone for the feedback on this, we’ll try and find the balance. Ignoring the Wasps v Exeter game was an oversight, and we’ll try and get it right in future.