Saracens became the only Premiership club to gain a European Champions Cup quarter-final place, Scarlets were the comeback kids and injuries made grim viewing for GatlandWasps must be kicking themselves for their late capitulation at Harlequins the previous weekend for there can be little doubt it was at the Stoop where their hopes of reaching the knockout stages disappeared. To their credit they produced perhaps their best performance of their campaign to eliminate Ulster, securing an emphatic bonus point win only to come up just short as they and Exeter finished as the two runners-up who failed to qualify. In doing so they may have also answered a few critics who could suggest they are a fairweather team – scoring...
Manu Tuilagi needs more time to recapture his best form while Wales’s Josh Adams is at the top of his game and will deserve a first Six Nations call-upBecause it is Manu Tuilagi, the question had to be asked, but if he were picked for England now it would be more on faith than form, notwithstanding the cheeky and acrobatic manner in which he leapt over a writhing mass of bodies to score Leicester’s third try in their victory against London Irish at Welford Road on Saturday. Tuilagi had also played a part in their second try, but that was more in the vein of a Keystone Cop. “We need to have a realistic view of Manu,” said Matt O’Connor,...
England clubs suffered their worst set of results in European history but Bath, Leicester, Saracens and Wasps have the chance to lead a reversal of fortunesOK, so it looks bad. Seven European defeats for England’s seven Champions Cup representatives was their worst return in European history. Given four of the games were at home, it bodes ill for the reverse fixtures this weekend. Fair play to their Pro14 and Top 14 rivals but hang on; are we saying Bath have no chance at home to Toulon, that Leicester are doomed when they entertain Munster at Welford Road and that La Rochelle are guaranteed to win at Wasps? All are potentially competitive fixtures, all could still go either way. Even if...
Danny Care continues to improve for Harlequins (and England), Northampton are on the ropes and Exeter are really hitting the high notesThe rivalry between England’s two leading scrum-halfs, Ben Youngs and Danny Care, is becoming every bit as intense as that between Matt Dawson and Kyran Bracken in the side of the late 90s/early 00s. If that was England’s last great team, the vim of warring No9s is as strategically a valuable a dynamic as any. To date Care has been seen as the sparky game-breaker, with Youngs the game-shaper, but Care’s all-round game continues to develop. “Everyone’s going to remember him as a fantastic rugby player,” said John Kingston, Quins’ director of rugby, “but I’ve talked to him about...
Harlequins’ sick list grows, Wasps’ Thomas Young looks to land of his father’s, Rob Baxter’s Exeter side pass ‘character test’ and Gloucester get one over BathJohn Kingston paused as he mulled over whether to put a precise figure on the list of unavailable Harlequins players for this match. Twenty-eight. How many of those would be anywhere near the first team is difficult to discern but, regardless, it feels an astonishing number. The guy subbing the report that included the figure had to ring to double-check it was not a mistake. Whether this tells us anything new about the nature of rugby today will be debated long and hard. As will whether Marland Yarde was included in the 28. It looks...