HIA’s in the limelight again, Saracens suffer injuries, Jonathan Joseph facing Ben Te’o challenge for England place, and Eddie Jones has a back-row dilemmaFor the second Friday night in a row, a team has been reduced to 14 players after incurring a head injury, having already emptied their bench. Ten days ago it was Bath then it was Gloucester this time and while the Cherry & Whites claimed a second win of the season, they had to withstand considerable pressure from Worcester to do so. The issue was that Tom Savage suffered a head blow deemed serious enough that he had to be taken off permanently rather than for a head injury assessment and as a result, Ed Slater could...
This weekend’s Premiership match in Pennsylvania and Pro14 games in South Africa have more costs, fewer fans and a huge carbon bootprintBefore this week the most absurd away fixture in European club rugby history was probably Connacht’s 12,000-mile round trip to Siberia in November 2015. The Irish province did manage to beat their Challenge Cup opponents Enisei-STM in temperatures as low as -18C but a technical fault with a charter plane caused such travel chaos some players were stranded for days. “Energy levels at all time low … BO levels at an all-time high,” read the memorable tweet from the Connacht back-rower John Muldoon.Once upon a time crossing the Severn Bridge was the most exotic cross-border club rugby experience available....
Bath should give England’s Eddie Jones food for thought, Northampton respond after being labelled soft and Newcastle command attentionThe Premiership is an unforgiving place for teams who start slowly. Bottom-placed Worcester have lost their opening two games and injuries are already beginning to bite. Losing their strongest scrummager, Nick Schonert, to a suspected broken ankle is a major blow and the Warriors are down to two fit fly-halves with the league season barely a fortnight old. To compound matters, England’s Ben Te’o has an ongoing arm problem which has forced him off prematurely in both his team’s games to date. “He’s got a plate in it and it’s sore,” said Gary Gold, Worcester’s director of rugby. “Every time he gets...
Saracens are again the team to beat, champions Exeter must not rest on their laurels, Leicester look strong once more, but club v country rows will growHe is far too laidback to acknowledge it but Jamie George provides the ideal case study to best explain the tangled web that is the domestic season – a campaign that kicks off on Friday with its unique blend of annual optimism and unseemly self-interest. The 26-year-old Saracens and British & Irish Lions hooker started all three Tests in New Zealand in a series the All Blacks were expected to waltz through, only for Warren Gatland’s troops to come away with a draw against the odds. More on those odds later, for they are...
Exeter’s Premiership victory has won plaudits as has Saracens’ in the Champions Cup but British & Irish Lions players need careful management next seasonExeter Chiefs. Saracens are back-to-back European champions but neither they nor Wasps could topple the Chiefs when it mattered domestically. While the Lions could yet ambush this category they will do well to equal the ceaseless positivity and collective spirit of English rugby’s new market leaders. Robert Kitson Related: Alex Goode try seals Champions Cup final victory for Saracens over Clermont Related: Scarlets score six tries to sweep aside Munster and win Pro12 title Related: Wasps go to Premiership final as Josh Bassett’s late try floors Leicester Related: World Rugby ‘disappointed’ with Northampton over George North injury...