Premiership Team of the Week: Northampton Saints backline rewarded by Nick Easter
Nick Easter picks his Premiership Team of the Week.
Former England and Harlequins number eight Nick Easter sits down with Planet Rugby’s James While to give us his Team of the Round from the recent Premiership action.
We have teamed up with eToro, the official investing and trading partner of Premiership Rugby, to launch a new feature that will see us name a best XV from a famous face after every Premiership round for the remainder of the season.
So without further ado, let’s see who Easter has picked in his selection.
Premiership Team of Round 11
15 George Furbank (Northampton Saints): An incredibly competitive position where Bath’s Tom de Glanville also shone in his team’s defeat of Gloucester, but Furbank is close to the hottest property in English rugby right now and I love how he works as a secondary 10 with Fin Smith. He’s causing Steve Borthwick the right sort of headache in terms of selection and it’s almost certain that he’ll be a part of the Elite Player Squad named on January 17. A shout out too for Max Malins who again showed his all-round skills at 15 for Bristol Bears.
14 Ollie Sleightholme (Northampton Saints): I really could have picked the entire Northampton backline and their ambition and skill is a testimony to the best attack coach in the Premiership, the brilliant Sam Vesty. Elsewhere, Joe Cokanasiga showed us how his aerial game has improved out of all recognition down at the Rec for Bath whilst Immanuel Feyi-Waboso celebrated his announcement regarding England with an assured display for Exeter Chiefs. The great news is that England are starting to build a lot of options in the wing berths.
13 Dan Kelly (Leicester Tigers): Kelly was absolutely brilliant in attack and his chip and chase for the try that was disallowed was a wonderful piece of individual skill. However, defensively he didn’t enjoy his best outing against the silky skills of Saracens’ Elliot Daly, who also demonstrated his vision and pace in defeat. Kelly will want to look at his defensive decision making for that Daly try but apart from that he’s back to the form of two years ago.
12 Rory Hutchinson (Northampton Saints): I can’t not pick Saints’ match-winner who was incredibly influential all afternoon at Sandy Park, but 12 was incredibly competitive and both Solomone Kata and Benhard Janse van Rensburg were huge in Leicester and Bristol’s respective wins. Van Rensburg in particular has been one of the signings of the season and continues to impress every time I see him.
11 Will Muir (Bath): Muir is a big old fashioned wing blessed with great defence and a lot of power. He’s thriving feeding off Finn Russell’s vision and one of the key reasons Bath are flying high. A word for my old mucker Mike Brown who started on the left wing and put in a typically abrasive performance, almost acting as a fourth back-row, a position I’ve always felt he really wanted to play in!
10 AJ McGinty (Bristol Bears): MacGinty used his knowledge of his old club to record an unlikely win based on form and was absolutely outstanding in every facet of play in a memorable away win for the Bears in Salford. He delivered a performance that was good enough to see off the brilliant Smith, who again shone for Saints and an assured display from the world class Handre Pollard in the arm wrestle for Tigers against Saracens.
9 Alex Mitchell (Northampton Saints): It’s absolutely wonderful to see a player of the intuition of Mitchell thriving and growing every time he plays. He’s now clearly the best nine available to England, but if I were Borthwick I’d also be speaking to Ben Spencer, who once again put in an immaculate shift managing the game for Bath, as he continues to show huge improvement in his speed of pass and ruck continuity.
8 Ben Earl (Saracens): Sarries may have lost, but Earl was their stand-out as he made a welcome return to fitness. I simply don’t understand the debate around the England eight shirt when Earl is so brilliant there. He’s not far off the size of Ardie Savea and plays a similar pacy style so for me he’s a shoo-in there, as long as England pick a lineout option at six. His opponent Jasper Wiese was his usual brilliant self in carry and a shout out too to Saints’ Sam Graham, the former chef at the England training camp Pennyhill Park, who yet again made an impact off the bench.
7 Dan Thomas (Bristol Bears): Thomas was a pain in the backside all afternoon and absolutely eclipsed the Sale back-row, as his work around the breakdown shone in a memorable win. I was hugely impressed with Bath’s Miles Reid too, a man capable of playing anywhere in the back-row to the highest level.
6 Jacques Vermeulen (Exeter Chiefs): A bit of poetic licence here as I switch the big flank from seven to six, but he was one of the reasons Chiefs got such a hot start against Saints. Gloucester’s Ruan Ackermann again demonstrated his worth in defeat at Bath whilst I like greatly the industry of Matt Rogerson, a superb signing for Dan McKellar at Leicester Tigers.
5 Ollie Chessum (Leicester Tigers): Huge. Absolutely monstrous performance by a player maturing into a fine leader in addition to his athletic abrasion. England need to fit George Martin, Maro Itoje and Chessum into the same back five and if they do that, they’ve the ability to test the physicality of any Test side. A word for a lad I coached and liked greatly, Joe Batley, one of life’s warriors, who was impressive against Sale for Bristol.
4 Josh Caulfield (Bristol Bears): I know that leaving out the outstanding Tiger Martin will raise a few eyebrows, but to go to Salford Community Stadium and front up against Sale’s power is an outstanding achievement and Caulfield was at the centre of that. A word for Itoje too – he was brilliant in his maul defence and lineout work before a soft yellow card saw him leave the pitch and allow Tigers to build a score.
3 Josh Iosefa-Scott (Exeter Chiefs): When Isoefa-Scott first came up north from New Zealand he struggled to get his mojo going in the tight. But with England paper thin in their tighthead stocks this massive man is putting his name into the hat big time. My runners-up, Joe Heyes (Leicester) and Ehren Painter (Exeter), are also both England hopefuls, but neither have the influence around the park of big Josh.
2 Jack Walker (Harlequins): The Quins scrum was one of the reasons they won on the road up at Kingston Park and the underrated Walker was immaculate yet again in his set-piece work. Curtis Langdon added to Saints’ game-changing momentum off the bench, whilst Julian Montoya showed his international class as always for Tigers.
1 James Cronin (Leicester Tigers): The chatter on social media over the weekend in Ireland was all about how the national team are overlooking Cronin. He was outstanding in scrummage, but adds so much in his defensive work, stealing and disrupting all afternoon. A nod to the work of Exeter’s Nika Abduladze who really got Exeter on the front foot early doors until Saints mounted their incredible comeback.
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