New signings Danny Cipriani and Dan Biggar faced off, Will Skelton impressed for Saracens and Worcester ran Wasps closeThere are plenty of high-profile fixtures heading to Newcastle over the next 12 months, with the city to host this season’s European Champions Cup final and England’s final warm-up game prior to the 2019 Rugby World Cup, which will be confirmed this week for a Friday night at St James’ Park. There are currently only around 10,000 public tickets left for the European showpiece next May, which Saracens will be hoping involves another trip to Tyneside for them. If their Australian forward Will Skelton, who has slimmed down by 15kg since the end of last season, can maintain the promising form he...
Cool-headed Exeter shone without setting hearts racing, as Saracens and Wasps slipped while injuries dominatedFinal league position: 1st Related: Premiership team of the season: from Henry Trinder to Donncha O’Callaghan | Robert Kitson Related: Saracens turn focus on recapturing Premiership title from Exeter | Robert Kitson Continue reading...
A clean-up job awaits John Kingston’s heir, Gary Graham shines again and Kitchener’s tumble leaves Gopperth the fall-guyHarlequins have been linked with so many coaches since the announcement last week that John Kingston will leave after the season that they could they could set up a sideline transporting supporters. After their recent tie-up with New Zealand, names such as Tana Umaga and Scott Robertson have been mentioned and if Quins take that route it would mean that only three clubs would be headed by an Englishman next season – Exeter, Newcastle and Sale – compared with six at the start of this one. Whoever takes over has a salvage operation: Quins slumped to another defeat, three Gloucester tries in the...
It is three years since Quins, Northampton or Bath made the Premiership play-offs and anxiety is growing at these traditionally big clubsAt this stage of the domestic rugby season the table seldom lies. It is not enough simply to blame under-achievement on injuries or match officials or the weather. If, after seven months of league rugby, a high-profile, well-backed club is wallowing in lower-table mediocrity the only remaining place to look is the bathroom mirror.Perhaps the defining aspect of this year’s Premiership season has been the unusual number of big sides conducting major inquests with three weekends of the campaign left to play. The bottom three clubs – London Irish, Worcester and Northampton – had already parted company with their...
Ellis Genge impresses in the heat of battle, Saracens end tough week on a high and Marland Yarde spearheads Sale’s late pushLoosehead prop is not a problem position for England with Mako Vunipola backed up by Joe Marler, but Beno Obano and Ellis Genge are World Cup pretenders and rivals for a place in the World Cup squad next year. They stood out at Twickenham in their different ways: Genge was dominant in the scrum, pulverising Shaun Knight to create the platform for Leicester’s victory, while Obano was prominent in the loose, making 15 tackles and carrying hard to make more metres with ball in hand than any other Bath forward on a day when Leicester dominated possession. Genge has...