It Is Not Over Until The Fat Lady Sings – Aviva Premiership Round 12 Review

In January it is critical to start the year as you mean to go on and for our Premiership team’s that meant delivering a match day performance that they were proud of and achieving a solid Round 12 win. We have now passed the half way point in the season and it is the time when I am allowed to start talking about winning momentum, securing a playoff place and European qualification, I would have said Heineken Cup qualification but who knows what is going on there... all in all we are shifting nicely into the business end of proceedings.  So without further ado let’s review Round 12 in all of its glory;

The first set of Friday Night Lights were a Northern set at Kingston Park where the Newcastle Falcons hosted their ‘local’ rivals the Sale Sharks. In the cold night air the visitors broke Falcons’ hearts taking the win and denying their hosts a losing bonus point with late penalty from substitute Nick MacLeod. However Newcastle's new signing Sinoti Sinoti did give the home team something to smile about making an immediate impact, it will be exciting to see what he can do over the course of the coming rounds. The Sale Sharks will wake up this morning content with life and very happy to have won 'up North' as it was only their second win at KP in 21 attempts! Both teams now head into the Amlin for a little European fun!! 

  

Further down South there was the small matter of the Northampton Saints entertaining Harlequins at Franklin’s Gardens and what an encounter this was. Whilst the first half was certainly one for the purists as it involved a lot of big hits, scrummaging and forward play it was still captivating for all to watch. With 6 points a piece at half time there was everything to play for in the second forty, however the second half belonged to Saints and Saints only. The catalyst was a powerful George North try on 45 minutes and from then on Jim Mallinder’s men never, ever looked back. Hartley’s opportunistic try made the score line unflattering to Quins and put the game well out of their reach. It is the first time that Northampton Saints have done the double over Quins since the 2004/5 season and unsurprisingly Franklin's Gardens was rocking. The visitors left feeling aggrieved and a little hard done by however with 6 home games in a row they will still be eyeing up a strong Top 4 finish. 

As predicted it was a dog fight at the Madjeski between London Irish and Worcester Warriors and the nerves were certainly evident early on when both teams were guilty of trying far too hard to make things happen. In the first half Irish enjoyed the lion’s share of the possession however they didn’t convert this into points and at half time the score read 6 all. Clearly strong words were said in the Irish dressing room because after half time the team displayed a level of intensity that we have only seen glimpses of before this season and they took it to Worcester. For the first time we saw just what James O’Connor can do when he is given a bit of the ball and the kicking duties... he scored all 22 of Irish's points and had a stormer! Today Worcester will hurting, they are now 11 points adrift and hosting the Leicester Tigers at home in Round 13. It certainly looks to be a very difficult run in for Dean Ryan’s men and I just hope the players and supporters can try to enjoy their rugby and not focus too heavily on the now seemingly inevitable prospect of relegation.

22 points from Irish's Australian Wonder

The most talked about team of the weekend were Gloucester however sadly for all concerned at the club it was for all of the wrong reasons. ‘It was probably the worst Gloucester performance I have ever seen’ wrote Stephen Jones in The Sunday Times and he has been watching and writing about rugby for more years than I have been born. ‘Too many passengers in the Gloucester pack at the minute. As a player if you want to watch then you can pay £30 like the other 13,800!!’ tweeted Lawrence Dallaglio during the first half... all in all the work rate and desire to wear the shirt seemed to be lacking and was heavily criticised. Gloucester Rugby are a proud team and they will rectify this, however it pains me to see a club with such history falling short. Saracens, well they certainly did not fall short, once again they played with ruthless efficiency, their form is undeniable and the only team I can really see challenging them at this moment in time is Northampton Saints... Neil De Kock showed that there is life left in his legs and Brad Barritt had an strong return back from injury even taking the time to moonlight flanking! I could continue name dropping; Goode, Farrell, Bosch, Brits, Hargreaves, but enough is enough, we all know that they are a force to be reckoned with. All in all Gloucester need to take a long hard look at themselves and pick themselves up quickly before they head back into Europe and Round 13 whereas Saracens will look forward to heading to Toulouse and beyond!

'Alex Goode; the best player in England' said Will Greenwood 

On Sunday we experienced two huge matches between Leicester and Bath and Wasps and the Chiefs...  both were tempestuous affairs and both had climatic endings. Up at Welford Road it was an intense affair between two team’s who have enjoyed differing journeys to date... Bath have been flying high in all competitions with the minor exception of a drumming from Sarries whilst Tigers have been off colour but still recording the wins. However their historical form didn’t matter as on Sunday it was all about the here and now with many calling the match a 'mini England audition’ with the EPS squad imminent and the likes of Joseph, Ford and Watson on the pitch. It was a lively affair and those under the spotlight shone, in particular the two youngest George Ford and Anthony Watson. For Tigers it was also a young gun who also stood out... Jamie Gibson had an absolute stormer and saved the day with a last minute try. 

The match saving Jamie Gibson

At Adams Park it was an equally close affair between London Wasps and the Exeter Chiefs... the Chiefs were first to cross the try line and in the first half pacified Wasps and looked to be the stronger of the two teams. Henry Slade enjoyed a dominant performance from the boot and things were looking rosy for Rob Baxter’s men at half time. However like the Tigers the home team refused to be beaten and their comeback was led by MOM Joe Simpson who scored a beautiful scrum half sniping try and made a try saving tackle in the second. Andy Goode, by his own admission on Twitter ‘played like a tool’ for 79 minutes, not finding touch at all and generally having an off day, however that was all erased when he landed a thumping drop goal with the final kick of the game to secure the win. The final score Wasps 19 - Exeter 16... did Exeter deserve to lose? Probably not, however that is competitive sport, it can be cruel and heartbreaking.

Superb celebrations at Adams Park

So there you have it that was Round 12; it was certainly a tempestuous one that was filled with pulsating fixtures and spellbinding finishes. Now it is time to head into another European break as Round 13 doesn’t kick off until 7th February... between now and then we will find out who is in and who is out of Stuart Lancaster’s 6 Nations EPS & Saxons squads, we will find out who marches on in Europe and we will of course enjoy the small matter of the first weekend of the 6 Nations. So sit back, relax and get ready for a lot more rugby...!