The Festive season can often be
associated with over indulgence and a great lull in energy however that
was certainly not the case for the Aviva Premiership as Round 11 provided
us with a plethora of points and rousing rugby.
Kingston Park is a tough place to
travel to and on Friday night Wasps certainly felt the full force of the
elements however they dealt with them well and recorded a solid away win. Despite
the ‘close’ final score; 17-12, Wasps never looked in any real danger of losing the
game; Ashley Johnson and Joe Launchbury both put in huge shifts and
collectively the team performed well. Newcastle will be disappointed that a
sickness bug kept out a number of their key players however they will be pleased to
have ended their try drought with not one, but two tries. Noah Cato and Will
Welsh both crossed towards the end of the second half and hopefully this will
provide some momentum heading into next weekend’s game against Sale. Wasps left
in good spirits and I’m sure that they will be very pleased to return home into the comforting arms of Adam Park and are thoroughly looking forward to entertaining Exeter
Chiefs on Sunday.
Worcester Warriors’ game against Saracens
was a game of two halves and the headline in The Rugby Paper today describes
the match well; ‘Gone in 19 minutes
but Warriors show grit’. The fatal damage was done when Mark McCall’s men
scored the quickest bonus point of the year with 4 first half tries from David Strettle, Schalk Brits, Alex Goode
and Charlie Hodgson. It was a superb to see Brad Barritt back on the pitch and with
the EPS Squad announcement on the horizon it was the perfect time for Alex Goode to have a blinder of a game and remind us all what he can do. Shifting our focus to the Warriors, once again
they shouldn’t be too disheartened with their performance… their loss of concentration
cost them dearly but in the second half they did make Saracens work hard defensively. Dean Ryan’s men will certainly fancy their chances against London
Irish next Saturday and Saracens will smell blood at Kingsholm.
At Welford Road the game was slightly overshadowed by the post match tiff between Steve Diamond and Richard Cockerill. Cockers' called Steve Diamond a cheat when it came to coaching the scrum and needless to say that didn't go down too well!! On the pitch it was actually a great match as Sale refused to let their opponents
get out of their reach and the Tigers found themselves a new golden boy, Owen Williams, the 21 year old ran show and scored 15 points. Sales’ old boy Mark Cueto continued to
score tries for fun and team mate James Gaskell continued to turn heads for all of the
right reasons. Both teams will fancy their chances next weekend as Sale head to Newcastle for some Friday Night Lights and Leicester entertain Bath on Saturday at home.
At Franklin’s Gardens it was
always going to be a bruising encounter filled with huge hits however none of
us expected that referee Luke Pearce would be involved in any them… sadly he
was and after a collision with Rob Webber he had to be replaced after just 2
minutes. Once Martin Fox had taken over there was a game to be played and as
you can see with 68 points on the board it was a good’un. For Bath their backs
led the way with noteworthy performances from Anthony Watson and Kyle Eastmond however
uncharacteristically they were bullied up front and let themselves down
defensively. The Saints continued their outrageously good form and brushed aside the men in Black, Blue and White with ease. Burrell, Manoa,
Myler, North, Hartley and Day were all outstanding and to be honest I could
mention more names but there simply isn’t time! They will be chomping at the bit to get home and take on Harlequins and Bath have a tough trip to Welford Road ahead of them.
The last Saturday fixture was at
Twickenham, the Big Game 6, between Harlequins and the Exeter Chiefs and in
front of 74,827 people the home team delivered their best performance of the
season. The game was played at a ferocious pace and a Nick Evans try on 2 minutes
set the tone for the day, it was all about Harlequins. The
offloading rugby played by both teams was wonderful to watch and when Exeter
did get the ball they played with intent however the defensive prowess of Quins
didn’t allow them any room to manoeuvre. Dean Mumm and Dave Ewers carried well
however all in all it felt like the Chiefs were a little overawed by the
occasion. The blonde duo of Charlie Walker and Matt Hopper turned heads with
their blistering pace and MOM Dave Ward had a superb shift. Quins are back to their best and it is just as well because they have a huge trip to Franklin's Gardens next weekend and the Chiefs will want to vent some of their frustration away at Wasps.
The final fixture of the weekend was
a huge bottom of the table clash between Gloucester and London Irish…
thankfully there wasn’t a tractor in sight and the game kicked off on time at
2pm! It was a nervy and tense affair all the way through and in the end it went
right down to the wire. London Irish had the better of the two starts crashing
over the try line after less than two minutes however it was their own
ill-discipline that gifted points galore to Gloucester. Billy Twelvetrees and
Freddie Burns both kicked well off the tee and elsewhere on the
pitch the backline trio of Rob Cook, Jonny May and Charlie Sharples performed
very well. Brian Smith and the London Irish squad will be extremely upset with
themselves for not taking more from this match however it is difficult to create points scoring chances when you kick away the majority of your possession! Irish have a huge training week ahead of them before they host the Worcester Warriors on Saturday and Gloucester have the formidable task of house the mighty Saracens in Round 12.
So there you have it we have
enjoyed 5,280 minutes of Premiership Rugby and in those 11 rounds we have witnessed endless tries, superb kicking displays and sadly some nasty looking injuries. As the sun sets on 2013 and we move into 2014 things are only going to get even more exciting because
this year’s Aviva Premiership is tighter than a pair of budgie smugglers on a
prop and personally I cannot wait to see how it unfolds.
