PREM Rugby Round 11: Five takeaways as ‘two-tier competition’ starts to form while Saracens begin to ‘unravel’
Exeter Chiefs were one of the big winners this weekend, while Saracens season continues to get worse.
Following the conclusion of round 11 of the 2025/26 PREM season, here are our five key takeaways from the latest block of fixtures.
Back with a bang
The first weekend after the Six Nations could easily have been a bit of a damp squib. It was anything but that.
All five games delivered some exceptional on-field drama. Bath running riot against Saracens, Northampton Saints and Newcastle Red Bulls going down to the wire, Exeter Chiefs edging past Sale Sharks, Gloucester stunning Harlequins with a late flurry, and Leicester Tigers capping it all off with a big win over Bristol Bears.
Across the weekend, 269 points were scored, 195 coming from tries alone, as teams leaned into the chaotic, attack-first mentality that the league and its fans are demanding right now.
Exeter’s first-phase strike plays were critical in their win over Sale, with all four tries coming via training ground moves. Bath tore Saracens to shreds with lightning-quick speed-of-ball and intelligent play in the right areas, while also backing that up with perfect execution of basics.
Northampton might have made errors, but some of their attacking shape was sublime, while Newcastle also showed their own intent, which has been somewhat missing this season, particularly when they looked to play wide.
Gloucester also took a step forward in their attacking game, one which has not quite hit the heights of last season just yet, while Leicester also looked to play a more expansive approach after overcoming the bedding-in period under Geoff Parling.
Bristol remain Bristol, which is pleasing to see.
All in all, this was the advert the PREM bigwigs would have wanted on the first weekend back from the Six Nations. It’s the sort of weekend that sets the tone for the remaining seven rounds of the regular season; it’s the sort of weekend that whets the appetite for the coming months.
It’s the sort of weekend that makes you remember why you fell in love with rugby.
Pulling away
The PREM has been incredibly competitive for a good few years now. The 2023/24 season saw seven teams competing for a play-off spot come the final day of the season, while there were six genuine contenders come round 18 last year, too.
While the competitive nature is still there, this year it seems the top four race will only really have five contenders. Northampton, Bath, Leicester, Exeter and Bristol seem to be pulling away from the chasing pack after round 11.
Out of that group, only Bristol tasted defeat, and that came against Leicester.
Round 11 saw the top four teams win by a margin of 149-75, with Newcastle the only side to come within seven points of their play-off-hunting opposition, and they were also the only side to score four tries against one of them as well. That’s good news for the Red Bulls, as they begin a new, if short, era under Stephen Jones for the rest of the season, but it likely reflects just where the rest of the league are.
When you look at the games on an individual basis, the differences are stark. Saracens and Sale both created handfuls of opportunities to score, with the North Londoners actually having more phases in the 22 than Bath on Friday night, but yet came away with a combined tally of four tries. Bath and Exeter, on the other hand, took theirs for fun and bagged bonus points.
Bristol and Leicester is somewhat of an outlier here, considering they are both firmly in the mix, but the difference between them on Sunday was the hosts were that little bit more ruthless. A dynamic that will likely define the hunt for the top four.
There’s a big gap forming now between the play-off contenders and the rest of the league. It could almost be classed as a two-tier competition.
Sixth-placed Saracens sit eight points behind fourth-placed Exeter, and seventh-placed Sale is a whopping 12 points behind the North Londoners as well. Gloucester could threaten a comeback, but it seems too late in the day for them to make up the 24 points on the top four, and it’s not even worth doing the maths for Harlequins at the moment, who are closer to being overtaken by Newcastle at the foot of the table than making the play-offs.
5 into 4
That said, though, who actually makes it into the top four will likely go down to the final few rounds, if not a last-day shootout.
Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for world-class coverage you can trust.
Each of the top five teams has at least one of their fellow play-off hopefuls in their remaining fixtures this season in various combinations and quantities, which could create a really interesting dynamic moving across the run-in.
For all five, the message will just be to keep on winning, but that’s easier said than done when you factor in their respective run-ins. As things stand, nobody within the top four is an automatic entry into the end-of-season dance.
Of the lot, Northampton potentially have the easier final stretch, even with them still to play all four of the teams below them, while Exeter and Leicester have a pretty kind block coming up as well.
It will surely now be between the current top five, as this weekend has proved, but which combination will it be in? It will be a captivating watch.
Dogfight for Champions Cup
Underneath that, the battle for the final Investec Champions Cup spot took an interesting turn this weekend, which could also spark that battle back into life. Harlequins, despite their own woes, seemed to be destined for that all-important position come the end of the season, but Gloucester and even Newcastle have thrown a real spanner into the works now.
The Cherry and Whites’ victory over Quins on Saturday saw them leapfrog over the Londoners into eighth-place, while Newcastle’s two bonus points against Northampton brings them to within nine points of them and just four behind Quins as well.
There is, of course, the lingering debate over the merits of having eight English teams in the top tier of European rugby, but for now, it remains in place and will likely give all three teams something to play for moving forward after this weekend’s action.
This is made even more interesting by the fact that Newcastle play Harlequins at home in May and travel to Gloucester on the final day of the season as well. Could there be another twist in the tale over the final European place?
Crisis stage
It started with so much promise, but Saracens’ final season under Mark McCall is just unravelling at a rate of knots, and could easily be in crisis after that Bath defeat.
Friday night was a grim look for the North London outfit, who came into the season dreaming of a genuine title push after a year away from the play-offs last campaign. They certainly started brightly, but they were quickly torn apart by a rampant Bath side. This serves as a real metaphor for the rapid fall of Saracens, who not so long ago were tearing Bath apart on the same turf.
Saracens’ crisis is almost perfectly summed up in the words of McCall himself, with the director of rugby sending an SOS call out ahead of their meeting with Northampton Saints next weekend, asking his men to fight.
In isolation, this is incredibly strong from the long-time servant of the club. He is usually calm, composed and measured in his reflections, carrying a pretty upbeat demeanour for the most part as well, but this is at least the second time he has had to publicly call for his players to show some dog.
In the build-up to their Investec Champions Cup clash against Toulouse, Saracens were read the riot act. Honest and frank conversations were held amongst the playing group in that week, which got the response the boss was after.
From there, though, much of the same followed.
Saracens were subsequently outclassed by Glasgow the following weekend, and then again against Bath this time out as well. Those aforementioned chats were also brought about after a run of three defeats in four across all competitions too.
This season has been so un-Saracens-like in nature. It’s almost the antithesis of the McCall era at the club. It’s a shame it might end that way for the long-term coach.