Whilst the England Squad takes
on the Wallabies there is a huge job to be done in the Aviva Premiership as
Round 7 arrives in town! The other big arrival this week was Mr James O'Connor who
has been given a lifeline by fellow Australian Brian Smith to play some rugby
at London Irish until the end of the season. The well-known Wallaby is likely
to be thrown straight in at the deep end this weekend against Northampton Saints
and it is a good job that BT Sport already had that fixture on their scheduling list!
The
action in Round 6 was as compelling as ever and there is no chance that the
Aviva Premiership will be eclipsed by the internationals... the powers that be
have shifted the kick off times on Saturday to ensure they we can enjoy every
single minute of rugby and personally I would like to say a big thank you for
that! The table itself certainly makes for interesting reading and with the
game at Twickenham taking away a number of key players there is the potential
for a couple of upsets! So let's have a little look, fixture by fixture at what
Round 7 of the fabulous Aviva Premiership has in store for us;
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| Aviva Premiership continues to produce outstanding rugby |
This week there are two sets of Friday Night Lights
one at the AJ Bell Stadium where Sale host the Exeter Chiefs and the other at
Sixways where Worcester entertain Bath. Sale Sharks are the more likely of the two to record a
home win… however the team of the moment the Exeter Chiefs will fancy their
chances against absolutely anyone at the moment, and rightly so given their
outstanding form. The Chiefs are proving that you do not need superstars to
shine instead simply combine talent all over the pitch with a huge work ethic
and will to win and you have yourself the formula to be a force to be reckoned
with. Keep your eyes on Dean Mumm and Ben White – both of whom have try scoring
records that their wingers would be proud of and clearly the usual suspects Phil
Dollman, Dave Ewers and co will all put in big performances. For Sale, well the
will want to step it up a gear or two after their away trip to The Stoop in which
they never really got going. Back under the bright lights of the AJ Bell Dan
Baird will need to rally his troops to ensure their defence is spot on as
Exeter will exploit any gap, however small or large, with ease and Danny
Cipriani will need to bring some of that X Factor that we all know that he has
onto the pitch to give them a chance of turning over the Chiefs.
Across at Sixways I think that we all hope for the sake
of Dean Ryan and his players that they are not too comprehensively beaten by a
Bath team that is proving to have more than just ‘youth exuberance’. It is
never nice to see a team lose week in, week out however you suspect that this
Friday Night will not be the time for the Warriors to record their first win
since March 2013. Bath will simply be looking for more of the same, last Friday
night against Gloucester their forwards were huge, out muscling Gloucester at
the breakdown and in the set piece and hopefully if it is a dry night their
backs will be able to show what they can do. We’ve yet to see the best from the likes of
Anthony Watson and Jonathon Joseph and I think even the Bath try scoring
machine Semesa Rokoduguni has a lot more to give, so the overall message is watch
out Worcester the Black, White and Blue men are coming!!
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| More to come from JJ (Image Patrick Khachfe/Onside Image) |
As I mentioned before on Saturday we start our Aviva
Premiership fixtures a little later in the day than normal, at 5pm and the
first stop is Kingsholm where Gloucester entertain London Wasps. This will be a
fascinating fixture, Gloucester will hurting after losing the West Country
Derby last weekend whereas London Wasps will be on a high following their quite
comprehensive win over Leicester Tigers at Adams Park. I suspect that
Gloucester’s training week will be heavily focused on scrummaging as we all saw
last Friday night that without a strong scrum you don’t have the platform to
work off and points are difficult to come by as a result. Wasps will be buzzing
(it really did have to be done, sorry!!) after their win over the Tigers, their
forwards were strong for the full 80 however the star of the show was Mr Andy
Goode, who had a majestic day with the boot in difficult conditions. It will be
fascinating to watch his match up against Freddie Burns who also was the
shining light for his team last weekend. The Shed will be expecting something big from
the Cherry and Whites and Wasps will be looking to deliver yet another upset… get ready for a cracker at Kingsholm.
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| Andy Goode will be critical again this weekend (Image London Wasps) |
The next stop is Welford Road where the Leicester
Tigers host Harlequins, two champions who are both not quite on top of their
game at the moment. Leicester were disappointing against Bath and surprisingly
Cockers (who is now back in match day action) was quite matter of fact about it
and didn’t scream or shout!!! Harlequins, well their start of the season
problems have been well documented, an ever growing injury list and a little
lack of belief has resulted in their lowest table position for a long time. This
match will be an interesting one, and could be one of the ‘shocks’ of the
weekend as Leicester didn’t look too cohesive last weekend. The amount of
changes that the Tigers have had to make due to international call ups and
injuries has forced new partnerships all over the field and the question is can
they gel within a week? Harlequins will know this is a big opportunity for them,
the chance to beat Leicester Tigers at Welford Road doesn’t come around too
often and their youngsters will need to step up again in order to pull off the
win and continue moving up the table.
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| The main man is back but I suspect that the masks will stay! (Image @LeicesterTigers) |
On Sunday London Irish host the Northampton Saints at
the Madjeski and Saracens welcome the Newcastle Falcons to Allianz Park.
Clearly the arrival of James O’Connor at Sunbury has been a huge talking point and
it will be superb to see him run out on Sunday. Ignoring all of his off the
field problems there is absolutely no doubt that James O’Connor is an extremely
talented rugby player and he will be a huge, huge asset to London Irish this
season. As a squad the men in green need to bounce back from a difficult game
up at Kingston Park and front up against the mighty Northampton Saints. Their
visitors, well last weekend they showed everyone just how powerful they are and
how much they mean business this year. Having the strength to beat Saracens by
1 point is a big achievement, but beating them by 21 is absolutely monstrous. It
was the collective effort of the whole Saints squad that combined together for
the full 80 minutes to steamroller the best team in the league to date and I’ve no
doubt that they will want to build upon that performance this weekend in Reading.
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| Welcome to London Irish (Image @LiRFC) |
The final game of the weekend is back at Allianz Park
and as I have just mentioned Saracens had a tough old time last weekend,
conceding more points than they have done at any stage in the last four seasons
and this will still be causing them a lot of pain. It was the manner in which
they lost the match that was the most shocking factor, overpowered up front and
exploited defensively for the full 80 minutes… that is certainly not something
that you would expect from the wolfpack. However let’s not get too carried away
as Saracens are a mighty and proud team and I have no doubt that they will
bounce back with a bang at home this weekend. The Newcastle Falcons will be pleased
with their last gasp victory against London Irish, a win is a win at the end of
the day however it comes about and they will be looking for any opportunity to
try to distance themselves from Worcester. My personal view is that they may be
more than a little overpowered this weekend on the artificial surface and will
struggle to match the angry Saracens XV.
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| Allianz Park welcomes back Premiership Rugby |
If you have friends, other halves, spouses or partners
who are not into rugby then I suggest that you say goodbye to them on Friday
night and meet up with them again on Sunday evening because this weekend
absolutely nothing else matters. With 1 QBE International and 6 Aviva Premiership
matches there are 560 minutes of rugby to enjoy and I for one will be watching
as much as I possibly can!!! I suggest that you clear your diaries, start your countdown now and get ready for a colossal weekend of rugby.
