No change for Falcons
The Falcons entered derby weekend with a point to prove having been comprehensively beaten at home by Leicester last week- they failed spectacularly. Sale have had a good start to the season and were boosted by the returns of key players such as the Curry brothers but Newcastle will still be disappointed by their performance on Friday night. Adam Radwan returned but made little impact and was beaten in a one-on-one by his opposite number,Reed for a try. There was a clear tactical change from the Falcons going into this game which revolved around an added directness with their attack and more emphasis on forwards making gains with the intention of earning the right to play wide in more favourable scenarios. This did not work. After a somewhat optimistic summer, it looks and feels like the Falcons could be in the same place they were last season.
Wingers run wild
I could easily have made this headline about yet more late disappointment for Exeter having lead 32-12 until the last 15 minutes. That collapse was in large part down to a flurry of tries from Ibitoye who scored one of the quickest hat-tricks in premiership history. The Chiefs were given an early advantage by Feyi-Waboso and Brown-Bampoe who scored two each. Feyi-Waboso is already an England regular, Ibitoye has been making his case for a while and Brown-Bampoe is an exciting prospect for Exeter at the moment but potentially for the national team. As good as the attacking skills of their wingers is, Exeter will need to improve their game management and defence considerably if they are to have any success this season. As for Bristol, their strong start continues. They face a wounded Saracens side which will have a point to prove next weekend.
Bath wake up
Last weekend, Bath lost their first home league game for over a year in a west country derby against Bristol. This week, it looked like another west country derby was going to end in defeat when Gloucester were leading 24-17 at half-time but Bath were able to mount a come-back and then go onto attain a comfortable victory. After 3 halves of disappointing rugby, the visitors were able to wake up thanks to their stars stepping up when it counted most. Fin Russell and Ollie Lawrence ran riot as Bath dominated the second half, outscoring Gloucester to 31-7. For the home side this was a crushing display in the second half and to make matters worse, multiple players were lost to injury including Gareth Anscombe. Gloucester entered the season with a new philosophy which is based upon attacking from everywhere and being unafraid to play with the ball. This has seen them score a lot of points but converely has seen their points conceded tally surpass expectation by far too much. There is mounting pressure on the director of rugby George Skivington to turn things around or Gloucester could see some significant changes before next season.
Tigers maul Saints
This was the game in which Leicester had to prove themselves to be contenders and the Tigers did just that. It was expected when Michael Cheika was brought in that Leicester would be a physical side and that was put on show on Saturday. Northampton had brief flashes of brilliance but were otherwise comprehensively beaten in all areas of the game. One man who typified Leicester's performance was a man with a point to prove - Freddie Steward. He was going up against the man who took his 15 jersey in the England squad, George Furbank, and Steward came out on top. He was solid in the air as per usual but also dominated defensively with some big hits as well as scoring a try.
The drought is over
It had been too long since Harlequins had beaten their bitter rivals, Saracens. Last season, Quins were beaten badly at home in this fixture then lost the next meeting at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in an even worse fashion. This time around, things were different. An electric atmosphere at the Twickenham Stoop was matched by an electric showing from the home players. Perhaps what was most remarkable about this victory was that this was not a style normally associated with the west-Londoners. Harlequins were defensively resolute for large portions of the game and used the excellent tactical kicking of Marcus Smith to control territory. One other note was an unfortunate ankle injury to Andy Onyeama-Christie who went straight to the hospital but thankfully seemed to be okay as he was photographed watching the game whilst in a bed.
Add comment
Comments