The hooker chose a good time to impress the watching England coach, Eddie Jones, at Allianz ParkOn afternoons like this it is easy to forget just how long Jamie George had to wait for his first England start – that he was named as a replacement 19 times before getting hold of the England No 2 jersey, more than two years after his debut, and that he made three starts for the Lions before he did so once for his country. For here was further evidence that, if Dylan Hartley ends up being part of Eddie Jones’s World Cup squad, he will not do so as England’s first-choice hooker. Related: Liam Williams bags two tries as Saracens storm to semi-final...
Gloucester dogged by inconsistency, Edinburgh and Glasgow head for the last eight and Leinster have look of championsThe pool of champions has polarised. Leinster, for all Toulouse’s attempts to recapture past glories, are the team in control, even if they trail the French club by two points. Their victory over Bath was imperious, and Toulouse, who rode their luck anyway in round one in Bath, must travel to Dublin next. Leinster’s trip to Wasps in the final round does not look the challenge it might once have been. For two of England’s greatest clubs to be mathematically out of it after only four rounds is a sobering reflection on the Premiership, which looks worryingly short of the sort of teams...
Old glories on the rise with Dan Cole reviving Leicester forward power and Toulouse finding European title hunger once more Related: Six Nations set to unveil HSBC as championship’s new title sponsor Related: Owen Farrell is an England certainty. But where he plays is less clear Team of the weekend Continue reading...
Toulon’s nightmare speaks to French woes, Saracens are miles ahead of the pack and Freddie Burns had a weekend to forgetIt seemed as if all talking points would have to revolve around the 52-3 destruction on Friday night of the former multiple champions Wasps by Leinster – or the Ireland team plus James Lowe, which means the Ireland team in a couple of years’ time. But then Freddie Burns came along. Immediately all talking points became other examples of the flagrant squandering of tries. There are plenty but it is hard to think of any at such a crucial juncture of a game, to cost a team a match and coming so soon after the same player had missed a...
This year there will be no distractions as the European champions attempt to regain the domestic crown from last season’s surprise packageThis time last year Wasps and Munster had just finished ahead of the rest of the Premiership and Pro 12 respectively and had every reason to believe they could translate that success into silverware. Three weeks later they watched Exeter and Scarlets lift the two trophies instead, a harsh reminder of the sizeable difference between the marathon regular season and the play‑off sprint.That crucially important lesson will not be lost on this year’s table toppers – Exeter, Glasgow and Leinster – all of whom appreciate that nine months of relentless toil can quite easily be undermined in the sunshine of May....