Five takeaways from the Premiership weekend

David Skippers
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After a busy round of Premiership action, Planet Rugby features writer James While has written his five takeaways from the weekend’s games.

The pack

This weekend saw the table literally split in half, with seven points difference between the five teams in a chasing pack with Exeter Chiefs way ahead with 55 points. Northampton, Bath, Bristol, and Wasps all recorded wins to underline their credentials as top four contenders, with only the much-fancied Sale slipping up as they were roundly trounced by leaders Exeter 32-22 at home. Big wins for Bristol – with Semi Radradra putting in an individual performance of seismic stature – and Bath underlined their claims as the form sides, with Saints finally capturing the flowing form and fearless rugby that had characterised their form in 2019 late on against London Irish.

However, the fixture compression will now take its toll this coming week as all of the top six sides meet in the next two days. Wasps host Sale in a fixture that’s crucial for the Coventry club; a loss for Sale means a potential drop to sixth, whilst Bath travel to Saints and Bristol host Exeter in a top-of-the-table clash. All games are just too close to call, but one thing is certain; clarity of form and finish will emerge by Thursday morning.

Depth

With Premiership Rugby effectively capping the game time of all players in an attempt to reduce workload and ensure safety, the rotation and the tactical use of squad depth means that the next few weeks will be as much a game of chess as a game of rugby. The simple edict is that ‘No individual will be allowed to start more than two matches in the same week and players will only be permitted to be on the pitch for a maximum of 180 minutes per week’, adding a neat and arguably welcome spanner into the tactical workings of the teams.

Wasps won at Worcester with something approaching a second team at the weekend, leaving them well placed to put out a full strength team against Sale, a side that have, to date, used a lot of their big guns in the first two games. Bristol too need to look carefully at their resources, whilst Saints and Bath’s sheer depth of quality stands them in good stead for the inevitable rotational needs of the compressed season. As much as anything, the reserve players will become as crucial as the world superstars over the next few weeks, a healthy position as the team with the best structure, deepest playing pool and most balanced selections are the teams most likely to prosper.

Stop/start

Despite the excitement of ‘return to play’, the rugby spectacles so far have been more akin to reading glasses than Tom Ford sunglasses. Match ball in play times have reduced greatly to, in some cases, 31 minutes, which is 16 minutes below the desired benchmark of 47 minutes that’s notionally set as a target by Premiership Rugby and World Rugby. Mistakes born of a lack of match sharpness, the new style of law enforcement and endless reset scrummages have conspired to erode the actual footballing time and it’s essential that the game remedies this pretty quickly.

The average penalty count per game has risen from 31 to 38 between pre-lockdown and post-lockdown. There is no simple solution to this, other than absolute consistency of officiating, (something we don’t believe is happening quite yet) and total respect of the breakdown interpretations by the players. The delicious irony here, of course, is that the sides that adapt the quickest to these two points are the sides set to thrive through lower penalty counts and greater time on the ball.

Supporting acts

With the big six, as noted, pulling well clear of the chasing pack, there’s some deep concerns over the form and standard of the bottom six. Harlequins are the exception, unlucky to have been pulled apart by a rampant Saracens performance, but Quins rallied well in the second half and put in enough powerful counterpunches to suggest that nothing more than a slice of luck is needed for them to greatly improve their position.

London Irish, a side in limbo by the late completion of their new home stadium, are feasting on scraps and remain on 28 points, but don’t help themselves with poor discipline, which cost them dearly when hosting Saints at the Stoop.

Gloucester look strong for their relative positioning but won’t be relishing the visit to the angry Saracens on Wednesday night, where a win for them looks as daunting as scaling the north ridge of Everest right now. The same cannot, however, be said of Worcester, who blew an early lead against a second-string Wasps at the Ricoh Arena. Only their bonus point balance keeps them ahead of the hapless Leicester Tigers, who actually have a better record in terms of results. The form, playing resources and results of both teams must be seriously concerning for all involved now and both Tigers and Warriors must be desperately looking for an end to this gloomy season so they can reset and restart.

England watch

The diminutive figure of Eddie Jones seems to appear on our screens as often as Ant and Dec at Christmas right now. His poker face augmented by his inscrutable Covid mask. But there’s a sparkle in his eyes as he’s seeing many fringe England youngsters putting in performances that will give him headaches of the right sort. Both young Saints locks Alex Moon and Nick Isiekwe were outstanding at the Stoop, corralled by another hopeful, sniping scrum-half Alex Mitchell.

One of the finest performances of the weekend was Ben Earl’s electric display in Bristol’s impressive win against Gloucester. Young Bath players Ben Spencer and Will Stuart were simply compelling in the demolition of Tigers, with Spencer now nailed on as the favourite for the England nine shirt, whilst for Chiefs, Luke Cowan-Dickie and Henry Slade underlined their substantial claims for England with consummate displays, underpinned by a masterclass of control at fly-half by Joe Simmonds.

Elsewhere, it won’t have escaped Jones’ attention that one moment at Allianz Park characterised his options at number eight, when the young challenger, Alex Dombrandt completely obliterated the old stager Billy Vunipola in one tackle late on in the game, one micro moment that might suggest the king, if not dead, is creaking whilst his successor elect is now thriving.

by James While

 

Bath