England Rugby - Mike Brown

“Look at the job I get to do. How can you not enjoy it? I love playing rugby. I’ve loved it since I was five years old. I’m representing my country so I definitely enjoy it.”

These are the words of England full-back Mike Brown, an individual that some perceive to be a little ill-tempered and grumpy. He is not. Yes the 31-year-old may stand in front of a camera after a significant loss and not say too much or he may be the first person to square up in front of an opponent's in the heat of a battle but these are not signs of an ill-mannered temperament. Instead, they are illustrations of his fierce competitive nature and his desire to succeed. 

At Pennyhill Park on Monday afternoon England's full-back addressed his media commitments in a relaxed manner, openly discussing training, the team's preparations and giving us an insight into his character and motivation. In his words their week in Portugal has ‘put them in a good place’ and this week it's about taking things up a gear. Mike may be the only specialist 15 in the squad however he openly articulated that, that fact matters little:

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“For me the competition’s in my head. I’m not the kind of player that gets complacent or anything. I’m massively competitive so it doesn’t matter if there are 10 full-backs in camp or just myself. I’m always looking to get better. I think that’s why coaches like me as a player. I’m a driven person and the competition’s in my head. I’ll push myself until the day I no longer play.”

Those with such inherent competitive natures drive the players around them and without question are an instrumental part of the most successful sports teams around. As Mike said these characteristics are ones that coaches tend to like - he wasn't trying to be big headed here - just speaking matter of factly. Who can forget England’s standoff in the tunnel at the Principality Stadium? Chris Robshaw made his point but the man right by his side, refusing to budge and saying a word or two about it, was Mike Brown. Which coach wouldn't want someone that is so driven ,and combines that with first-class rugby attributes, in their side? The intensity with which the Harlequin approaches his preparation never ceases as he shared:

“For me it’s harder to switch off. Even in the off-season I think I’m being lazy if I’m not doing something. I’m always thinking about my rugby and what I need to do, what I should be doing, what I ought to be doing; what Eddie is thinking, what the coaches are thinking, what’s happening at the club. It’s always going on in my head. I think that’s good, it keeps me on my toes, it keeps me striving to achieve what I want to achieve.”

One of the areas that the squad are working on as a whole is their visual awareness thanks to the principles and exercises set for them by Dr Sherylle Calder. England’s full-back gave an insight (no pun intended) to the mix of that side of their training: 

“We're all working on the same (thing) but obviously we're all at different levels for different things. There are a variety of programmes... for example you have to count how many times a shape changes into another shape, with other shapes also on the screen so it's not easy.

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“You have to click your space bar as quickly as possible every time a certain shape comes on to the screen to test your reactions. You have to remember numbers that flash on to the screen and then write them down. Little things like that. 

"It gets progressively harder so we're looking forward to seeing if it transfers on to the field. There's a leaderboard every week. Lozza was top last week I think…. Ben Te'o is very much bottom.”

I read recently that the other players in the squad have nicknamed the room that England's full-back shares with Tom Wood as  ‘the intense room’  and speaking to both players you can understand why. Personally I expect both to be on the field at the weekend and if you watch them closely neither will switch off for a single second.  

The 31-year-old celebrated his 50th cap in Brisbane this summer and prior to that he had appeared in 43 of the past 45 Test matches. Despite so many calling for Alex Goode's inclusion Eddie Jones has made it clear that right now that the Harlequin fits his full-back billing completely. 

Saturday afternoon will be a test for England's full-back, given the presence of France's elusive backs, but I expect to see him thrive. By only having one specialist full-back in the squad Eddie Jones is putting plenty of trust in Mike Brown and I believe that as a result this Six Nations we could see the Harlequin's game showcased at its very best and as we all know that's a delight to watch. 

Eddie Jones will announce his XV and bench to take on France on Thursday morning at 10am and England v France is live on ITV. Coverage starts at 4.10pm with kick-off at 4.50pm. 

25-man squad completing preprations for Saturday: Dan Cole, Ellis Genge, Jamie George, Teimana Harrison, Dylan Hartley, James Haskell, Nathan Hughes, Maro Itoje, George Kruis, Joe Launchbury, Courtney Lawes, Joe Marler, Matt Mullan, Kyle Sinckler, Tom Wood, Mike Brown, Danny Care, Elliot Daly, Owen Farrell, George Ford, Jonathan Joseph, Jonny May, Jack Nowell , Ben Te’o & Ben Youngs 

England Rugby - Camp life, captaincy and more

Once again time has flown by and the RBS 6 Nations is upon us and yesterday the formal launch took place at the Hurlingham Club in South West London. It was an opportunity for all captains and coaches to set out their stall ahead of the Championship. While we are combatting the freezing temperatures England’s squad are putting in the hard yards over in Portugal and Dylan Hartley gave us an insight into life in camp right now;

“Competition is hot and that brings out the best of the guys in training I think. It’s an aspirational place to be and I think when you’ve got people climbing over each other to be there it only brings the best out of them. 

“It is mate [a fun place to be]. I was saying to Eddie the other day it is good to have all of the boys back together. When you’ve got guys coming back from injury the energy that they bring back into the squad - the guys love each other’s company and it’s a really good place to be. 

"Not say that it wasn’t before but we’ve got good people in the room and when the guys enjoy each others company off the field the on the field becomes a lot easier. So training becomes, not easier physically, but it’s a good place to be. It’s a good environment.”

Needless to say England's environment is one that Dylan Hartley is at the heart of and drives. The 30-year-old was integral to their success over in 2016 and that was something that many people quickly forgot on the 10th December last year when he got it wrong for Northampton Saints. 

In my view, the vitriol and malice directed towards Dylan following that incident was overboard. Let's be clear I’m not condoning his action, he got it wrong and would admit that himself, yet the social media comments went far too far and we saw the keyboard warriors make spectacles of themselves. On Wednesday he spoke openly and honestly about his reflection over the past few weeks;

“I always reflect, I think being a part of this group is a privilege and when you know the journey that the team is on is going somewhere - we want to be the best team in the world - to be a part of that and to feel like it’s going somewhere is a privilege. So I’ve had a good reality check and I understand that I’m in a privileged position whether that be a player in the team or the captain.”

The fact of the matter is that this England squad are at their best with Dylan Hartley as captain. There's no doubt that he and Eddie Jones will have had words about what went on in December but I believe it wasn't ever a deal breaker in terms of his captaincy. Dylan drives the standards in training performs the link role between the squad and coaches with ease and has the ultimate respect from all involved.

The words ‘I feel fit, fresh and focused’ were his succinct definition of where he is at right now and a lack of match game time is not a problem. Injury curtailed his match minutes ahead of the autumn series and Australia tour yet he stepped up to the mark with ease and is well aware of the challenge that France will pose;

"If you look at France they have huge blokes, and they love a scrum and a maul,” said Hartley. If you look at their backline, they can be very direct and have some big threats. They also have the ability to play an unstructured offloading game, where the whole team can come to life.

"So they can play a tight, slow, set-piece game or can speed it up and play a fast, unstructured game. We have got to be prepared to deal with both and make sure we play the game the way we want to."

England's opening match will test them, particularly due to the injuries that they are combatting right now, yet the base platform that they set during 2016 will count for a huge amount. Preparation time is always limited ahead of the RBS Six Nations however their foundations are solid and with Eddie Jones cracking the whip and driving performance levels day-by-day they should be absolutely fine. 

Needless to say I expect nothing less than a positive opening performance, and victory, from England on the 4th February against France and on top of that I firmly believe that Dylan Hartley will turn heads with his sharpness and work rate and silence those that cut him to shreds back in December. 

Eddie Jones on...

With the 14 matches going on across the Champions and Challenge Cup on Saturday it wasn’t quite the right time to continue to dive into Eddie Jones’ thoughts when he announced his Six Nations squad. However with a mere three matches today we've a spot more space to work with!

As I mentioned on announcement day the Australian as open and honest about a number of areas and as always I think it's important to highlight so that we're all in a bit more of a knowledgable position regarding his thinking. Below are Eddie Jones' key thoughts on England's attack, their leadership qualiaites, mindset and more.  

England must be daring

England’s head coach has said before that teams in the past have approached the Six Nations with a fear of losing rather than wanting to win and as you’d expect he’s looking to focus hard on his side’s mentality. As I mentioned in the squad announcement article their goal is to win and he also wants his players to adhere to his definition of daring:

“Daring doesn’t mean flair. Flair to me is Allan Lamb batting – trying to do the most outrageous things. Or a 20-20 reverse sweep. Daring to me is having the mindset of the first game going out there to win the game, not relying on the opposition to make mistakes. Going out there with a proactive game – we take it to the opposition, this is what we’re going to do, if we do it well enough then we’re going to win the game. Rather than waiting, holding, hoping that they’re going to make mistakes. Hard to convince the team to play like that? We’ll find out.

“The first couple of games [last year] we were quite reticent to play any rugby. We got better against Ireland and Wales and we went back into our shell against France again. That’s the challenge ahead, we’ve got a short period of time to change mindsets but I think we can do that.”

Attack, attack, attack

When taking the job the Australian was clear that the fundamentals of their set piece and defence would fall into place first before the finer details of his side's attacking game and this belief remains strong. England have the brilliance of George Ford and Owen Farrell in the middle alongside ample spark and invention yet their attack, in Eddie Jones’ mind, is still building:

“It's a work in progress. I think our understanding of how we want to attack is improving. We need to improve our individual skills which is why we've got Sherylle Calder in to improve our hand-eye co-ordination. The subtleties of our attack need to improve: the accuracy of our running lines, our alignment and our passing skills.”

One to Watch

As ever players are emerging through the Premiership pathway with big performances at their club and two in particular have stuck out. First Saracens' Alex Lozowski:

"Lozowski has been the find of the Premiership. He plays well at 10, he plays well at 15, he's just got a good head for wanting to improve. So to have him in the squad as a back-up player where he can potentially play 10, 12 or 15 is a great bonus for us."

Next an individual emerging at Bath Rugby, Zach Mercer remains very new to the Premiership competition and as a 19-year-old he's got an awful lot of development ahead of him but he's caught Eddie Jones' eye:

"I like the look of the Bath back-rower, Mercer. I think he’s got something about him. He’s probably not an 8, he’s probably a 6, but he is certainly a guy we’ll keep an eye. Good young player."

Leadership and captaincy

Now one of Eddie Jones’ extended goals, by extended I mean that it isn’t going to happen overnight, is to increase the leadership density of the side. In other words ensure that England have more leaders within the group so that they can fly by themselves. Right now he believes there’s a bit of a leadership deficit in the squad but that's something that can, and should, change:

“My job’s to make myself redundant. I had a coffee with Ben Ryan yesterday and he was saying when he sent his (Fiji) team out to play the (Olympic Sevens) final that was the most relaxed he was because they knew what to do, they knew their job, they could just get on with it. He created in that Fijian team a great strength of leadership ad that’s what we want to do with England.

“Look back to the 2003 team. How many of those blokes had to be told what to do? Richard Hill, Dallaglio, Back, Johnson, Thompson, Dawson, Wilkinson, Greenwood... You had these players who could just get on with the job.”

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The Australian has already talked about a foundation captain potentially leading into a new captain and he was crystal clear that there isn’t a black and white point in a team's development, or a specific date, when that changes:

“There is no line to be drawn. It happens naturally. Leadership is something that evolves naturally. If you create the right environment, you get people coming through and you get people dropping off. I know everyone loves Itoje and if he comes through and develops, he could be a candidate but he’s certainly not at the moment.”

So after the final pieces of the European jigsaw have been put into place the squad are heading to Portugal and the plan is simple:

“Just to be on the same page, so that everyone understands what their responsibility is to the team. From a personal point of view we want to have selection clarified. When we catch plane out of Portugal I want to know exactly the 23 that will face France and then understanding how we are going to beat France.”

England Rugby - Six Nations Squad Announcement

On Friday morning Eddie Jones announced his squad Six Nations Championship squad and his first port of call at Twickenham Stadium was to highlight that this is his squad ‘for the first game anyway’. As always the Australian is keeping his players on their toes and we all know that he will make any changes that he sees fit in a flash!

As soon as this weekend's Champions and Challenge Cup matches have been completed the 34 players selected will head off to Portugal for a training camp. During prior breaks between international action we’ve heard England’s head coach articulate his displeasure at the level of performance that he’s seen from his players however this time, by in large, he’s content with their output:

“I've been around to nine of the 12 clubs since the autumn series and the judgement from most of the Directors of Rugby has been quite positive on what the players have brought back. There's been one or two that haven't fulfilled that responsibility, but I think in the vast majority it's been very good - it's great for English rugby.”

We all know that England are approaching this Six Nations Championship in a very different place to twelve months ago. This time last year Eddie Jones had been in charge for a very short period of time and the memories of their World Cup nightmare were fresh in players' minds. Now the squad are spring boarding into the Championship off an hugely impressive run of victories and as a result their ambition is clear:

"Our aim is to win the Six Nations, we're not trying to hide that but to do that we'll have to prepare for each game very well."

Alongside this aim Eddie Jones also set out the squad's broader goals for the year ahead. The first is to 'improve the depth of the squad' and the second is to 'develop their fundamental skills'. On top of that he's also going to spend ample time addressing another area that will help them on their road to 2019 and that's 'increasing the leadership density of the team'. 

Now clearly the injury situation that they find themselves in now should facilitate the first goal and the second will be greatly assisted by the presence of Dr Sherylle Calder - the visual awareness coach that has arrived as a consultant. Sherylle has a proven record within the world of rugby and most of you will remember her name from Sir Clive Woodward's 2003 World Cup winning set up. 

As with all goals there are external factors that could hinder them being achieved and in his usual straight talking manner Eddie Jones highlighted those challenges clearly and openly on Friday morning;

“If you read anything in the media at the moment players are talking about Lions, they’re always asked about the Lions. So particularly in 2017 the Lions tour is always a massive attraction but also can be a massive distraction in terms of players focusing on the future rather than focusing on what’s going on at the moment.

"Then you’ve got the expectation of the team - every time someone comes up to you on the street they come up to you and say that you must be fascinated about the game against Ireland because they’re going well. Well Ireland isn’t a concern for us, but if you keep in hearing that then that can get into the back of your head and become a distraction.

"So, we’ve got a lot of distractions in front of us and part of our job as a coaching staff, management staff and the senior players in Portugal is to make sure at the start of the camp in Portugal is to make sure that we get the focus right and that’s beating France.”

From a squad point of view next week's camp in Portugal will be essential in terms of bridging that gap between Premiership rugby and Test rugby and assessing a number of players' fitness levels including captain Dylan Hartley. Personally I still believe that Dylan will lead out England on 4th February but right now England's head coach is keeping his captain on his toes, as he does every player, with the open discussion about the captaincy not being a permanent position. 

Now that Eddie Jones has announced his squad Out On The Full's coverage of all things England Rugby will ramp up a notch so look out for more of Eddie Jones' thoughts arriving on Saturday morning and plenty of analysis and discussion in the build up to their opener and beyond. 

2017 Six Nations Squad

Forwards: Nathan Catt, Jack Clifford, Dan Cole, Charlie Ewels, Ellis Genge, Jamie George, Teimana Harrison, Dylan Hartley, James Haskell, Nathan Hughes, Maro Itoje, George Kruis, Joe Launchbury, Courtney Lawes, Joe Marler, Matt Mullan, Kyle Sinckler, Tommy Taylor, Mike Williams & Tom Wood

Backs: Mike Brown, Danny Care, Elliot Daly, Owen Farrell, George Ford Jonathan Joseph, Alex Lozowski, Jonny May, Jack Nowell, Henry Slade, Ben Te’o, Anthony Watson, Marland Yarde & Ben Youngs.

Nordoff Robbins 2017 Six Nations Rugby Dinner

For those of you that have been following Out On The Full for a little while now you will know that Nordoff Robbins’ Six Nations Dinner is a firm fixture in my calendar. However, for those of you that are new to Out On The Full then allow me to introduce you to a wonderful evening and charity and advise you strongly to see if you can be at next year’s dinner. 

Nordoff Robbins is an independent music therapy charity and in their own words they are ‘dedicated to changing the lives of vulnerable and isolated people’. It’s often the case that the music therapy that Nordoff Robbins provides makes breakthroughs with individuals in a way that other therapies are simply unable to do. We all know the power of music on our own emotions, mood and feelings and the same can be said for those that often find communication of any from difficult or suffer from conditions such as autism or dementia. 

Each year Nordoff Robbins host a series of events in order to support their work and these span across a number of different sports like rugby, boxing football and golf as well as a plethora of music events. All of their evenings are brilliantly delivered and if you are the person that's in charge of your corporate outings then I can honestly say that a table at Nordoff Robbins' Rugby Dinner is a solid investment. The first Nordoff Robbins Rugby Dinner I attended was prior to working in rugby when I worked at GSK as a Brand Manager and it was a corporate night out that was discussed for a long time afterwards and the team continue to return each year.  

The evening is always hosted in honour of a particular player's achievements in the game and last night that person was Chris Robshaw. As you'd expect with such a well respected individual the room was packed with Familiar faces there supporting including Jeremy Guscot, Mike Tindall, his Harlequins' colleagues and Lawrence Dallaglio who actually I found out was Chris' childhood hero (something I perhaps should have known before). 

Before the evening started in earnest I spoke with Chris on the side of their red carpet about his visit to Nordoff Robbins' music therapy centre, his injury situation and of course the forthcoming Six Nations Championship:

England's back row forward showed extraordinary resilience in the face of a whole barrage of criticism following England's World Cup issues in 2015 and bounced back following a change of captaincy. As a result of his consistency, work rate and output he 30-year-ol won over the opinion of Eddie Jones - something that is notoriously difficult to do. Chris has been at the heart of Harlequins' historic success and has driven England forwards in a way that impressed his straight-talking coach at Harlequins Nick Easter (click below to here Nick's thoughts)

As I mentioned earlier Nordoff Robbins continues to work tirelessly to change lives of individuals that have so many challenges and obstacles in their daily lives and their Rugby Dinner is key part of raising the funds to do this. 

With such a focus on the forthcoming Six Championship last night and with England's squad being announced first thing on Friday morning (20th) I'm already looking forward to a stellar Championship. 

As always I'll be bring you every step of England's journey over the coming two months and I hope that this article has done a number of things. First, brought to your attention the work of the superb charity, second provided you with some insights and clarity from Chris himself in terms of his injury situation and finally given you a feel for what is a stunning rugby dinner in the hope that you might join me there next year!

Premiership Rugby Round 13 - Review

Round 13… boy did that deliver! 

If you’re going to sign off from Premiership Rugby for a month then you may as well do it in style! From Friday night’s head-turner at Kingston Park to Sunday’s game of two halves at the Ricoh Arena we saw it all. Now it’s time to dive head first into two rounds of Europe before the Anglo-Welsh Cup arrives again and the RBS 6 Nations starts. From an Out On The Full point of view I’ll follow the Premiership team’s through Europe and then when it comes to the Six Nations switch the focus directly onto England. We’ve a busy period ahead so look out for a mixture of written content, audio bulletins and the return of the VLOG!

Back to Round 13 and I’ll start at Kingston Park where Dean Richards finished the evening with a massive grin on his face (yes it was captured on TV too!) and Newcastle prevailed against Bath. Once again the visitors were unable to put away a game that they had firmly in their own hands (12 points ahead going into the final 10 minutes) but the credit has to go to Falcons for pushing Bath off their stride. Dean Richards’ men were focused and precise in what they needed to do during the latter stages of the match and it was orchestrated by the most mature and accomplished performance I’ve seen from Joel Hodgson ever. Jon Welsh’s epic chip and collect was a personal highlight alongside the ridiculously brilliantly finishing of Semesa Rokduguni but as a whole the greatest praise must be saved of Newcastle as a collective. They’re building with more to come while Bath need to re-find their clinical winning edge. Full Time: Newcastle Falcons 24 - 22 Bath

At Allianz Park we witnessed Saracens at their powerful and resilient best as they battled with 14 men to secured a hard-fought, and well earned, draw against Exeter. Of course the talking point was the incident that resulted in Richard Barrington receiving a red card. I have not qualms with that decision, I believe that was correct, but I was surprised that Brad Barritt wasn’t penalised too at the time. Geoff Parling’s health remains at the forefront of all of our minds and we hope that he will be fully fit following his return to play progression. On the whole we saw the benefit of Saracens’ collective understanding and power game while Exeter didn’t take charge as they’d like. Jack Nowell astounded us all with his one handed take for his try and in my mind has to start for England against France on 4th Feb however he and his side would have wanted more than just a draw. Full Time: Saracens 13-13 Exeter 

At Franklin’s Gardens Bristol and Northampton were embroiled in an enjoyable match that delivered 58 points and six tries in total. After such a challenging period of time for both sides it’s great to see the Saints starting to get their confidence back and the building output Bristol. Once again Jason Woodward as the visitors’ catalyst and he’s been the most important signing of all this season - his 21 points and his contribution across the park hugely impressed me. It was level going into the final quarter but Saints did the business and pressed on, Tom Wood continues to led them with distinction and I firmly believe that his leadership is a vital contributor to their shift back on track. Full Time: Northampton Saints 32-26 Bristol Rugby 

At the Twickenham Stoop Harlequins made it 10 wins from 10 home matches in the competition however their poor away form means that they aren’t as high up the table as they'd like to be. Speaking of table positions Sale Sharks’ tenth place isn’t far from ideal however their losing bonus point was vital. Once again Denny Solomona showed that finishing skills have seamlessly transferred across the codes and his hit rate of four tries in four appearances is superb. On the other side it was Tim Swiel that really turned heads with 24 points in total and an accomplished performance that will have him knocking on the door to start against Edinburgh in this weekend’s Challenge Cup match. The match itself delivered plenty to feast the eyes on and finally a word for Adam Jones who didn’t even think that he was going to be playing (he was back in Wales earlier in the day) and ended up on the field at loose head. Full Time: Harlequins 29-26 Sale Sharks

The result at Kingsholm was one of the shocks of the weekend for me and it was such for two reasons. The first was a little surprise at Gloucester’s performance given their two narrow defeats of late and the second was the capitulation of Worcester after such a productive Round 12. The Cherry and Whites gave us all a showcase of what they can deliver from an all signing, all dancing performance for 80 minutes while their visitors struggled. Carl Hogg has said that there were some ‘serious words’ following the game and you’d expect so because their performance levels on the day weren’t good enough. Full Time: Gloucester Rugby 55-19 Worcester Warriors

The final game of the weekend was an absolute belter at the Ricoh Arena and it was a classic game of two halves. That phrase is such a cliche but in this case the shoe fits and it resulted in the most enthralling game of the weekend. Wasps’ opening half was a dream, they were at their devastating and clinical best while Leicester looked like a rabbit in the headlights. After all of the emotions Leicester had been going through during the week it looked as if they were going to be pummelled and taught a lesson. Whatever was said in their dressing room worked because in the second forty they wrestled back control of the gain line and physically dominated. As a result Owen Williams’ boot got them right back in it and they had opportunities to take the game. There were dazzling individual performances from Ellis Genge and Ed Slater alongside Guy Thompson delivering for the hosts. Full Time: Wasps 22-16 Leicester Tigers 

Premiership Rugby Round 13 - Preview

So we’ve just got time for one final Premiership Rugby hoorah before the competition takes a break for a month. It’s fair to say that Round 12 kept us on the edge of our seats from the opening match to the last and I expect Round 13 to do the same. 

With the news that Richard Cockerill has left Leicester Tigers there will be a huge focus on Sunday’s offering as his former side head to their now local rivals Wasps. Historically matches between the two are intense encounters and this weekend’s will be heightened from a Leicester point of view. 

Before that there’s plenty of rugby to enjoy and at the start of the weekend the one millionth fan of the season will attend Newcastle Falcons against Bath. To date 995,976 people have watched Premiership rugby live and BT Sport’s average audience figures are up by 13% on last season. It’s proof that this competition is building season-on-season and a testament to the work, and output, of the clubs and of course Premiership Rugby.

As it stands there’s one point separating the top two, three points separating the four sides in the battle for a top six spot and the complexion at the bottom of the table is set for numerous twists and turns before Round 22 arrives.

So, focusing on the rugby at Kingston Park this Round 13 fixture is an intriguing one given both sides' output last weekend. Newcastle are confident and building game-on-game and Bath will been frustrated by the fact that a game that they controlled got away from them. As a result I expect the two to go full throttle and give us another Friday night cracker - it should be a far cry from the thrashing that Bath handed out to Dean Richards’ side back in September. The focus for each will be trying to ensure that they are the ones driving the agenda and controlling the game at the key moments. Last season Bath didn't enjoy their trip to Kingston Park and left frustrated at their output so the challenge for Dean Richards' men will be to ensure that, that happens again.  Stat: Bath have not won away from home since their trip to Exeter on 30th October while Falcons have only won one of their last dozen against Bath.

At Kingsholm Gloucester Rugby will be doing everything in their power to ensure that they don’t end up on the wrong side of the result. The Cherry and Whites looked to have their Round 12 game under control but ultimately they didn’t get the W they needed. Conversely Worcester delivered their most assured performance of the season against Harlequins and will know how important it is to build upon that for the sake of their season. Interestingly Worcester have lost just one of their last four Premiership Rugby fixtures against the Cherry & Whites and that was by only two points last season. Essentially it’s more of the same for both sides because despite the result Gloucester managed the conditions last weekend and Worcester really did put their game on the park. Stat: The Warriors have yet to record a single league point from their six away games in the tournament this season 

It’s time to re-visit last season’s Premiership Final again and this time we are doing so with Exeter Chiefs in more confident form than they were back in September. Exeter have the joint best away record in the competition this season, gaining 20 points from 6 trips and they hold that with Saracens. The Chiefs' revival was epitomised by the way in which they wrestled the game back from Bath in Round 12 and they’ll need every bit of that fighting spirt on Saturday. Saracens ground out their win against Leicester and with home comforts on their side will look to enhance their output. There’s plenty of individual head-to-heads to look out for (should all be selected) including Jack Nowell facing Sean Maitland, Gareth Steenson against Owen Farrell and Jamie George against Jack Yeandle. Stat: Saracens have won their last four encounters with the Chiefs and are unbeaten at Allianz Park since March. 

Harlequins hosting Steve Diamond’s Sale Sharks will be another intriguing match-up given their respective outputs in Round 12. Harlequins will be mightily disappointed that they couldn’t shake off their travel sickness at Sixways and given their loss Sale now find themselves in a bit of a pickle. Of the two it’s the Sharks I worry about more because Harlequins’ 100% home record this season is deserved and they’re just travelling like a Top 14 side right now! The Sharks are missing key elements right now, still they can’t take control of games and don’t seem to have the go forward to give their backs the platform they need to thrive. Steve Diamond's side have lost their last eight first team matches and they know that gaining a big fat W soon is vital. Stat: Harlequins have gleaned 25 of their total of 28 league points at home this campaign. 

At Franklin’s Gardens Northampton Saints will be well aware that the side arriving on their doorstep is one that has four consecutive victories behind them and a huge desire to keep on building. Bristol’s turnaround started with an injection of confidence gained during their Challenge Cup back-to-back fixtures and they have built from there. Equally Northampton are re-building their steel and showing the required togetherness to get them out of the hole that they found themselves in. In this one I suspect that the opening quarter will be vital; the Saints will want to exert their power on Bristol while the visitors will look to ignite their danger men early. In Round 12 both showed that they can keep cool heads in the face a match slipping away from them and of course all eyes will be on Tom Vardnell to see if he can score one more try and hold the Premiership all time try scoring record outright. Match Fact: Bristol have scored 17 tries in their last four matches and Northampton are looking to achieve three Premiership victories in a row for the first time since March. 

The final match of the weekend sees Wasps host their local rivals Leicester Tigers. Of course there will be a big focus on the visitors given the news this week that Richard Cockerill was asked to step down as Director of Rugby. The hosts will be well aware of the situation and simply need to focus on themselves because their output this Premiership season has been hugely impressive. The stats speak for themselves… Wasps have won their last 18 matches at the Ricoh Arena in all tournaments and have only dropped one possible league point there in any tournament this season. Conversely Leicester’s output has been slightly more undulating and that’s shown by having won three and lost three on the Premiership road this season. As per usual this game should be filled with bruising hits and intensity of the highest order and I’m expecting Wasps’ back line to continue to show us how it’s done. Stat: Wasps beat Leicester 34-22 at Welford Road in Round 2 and have not achieved a Premiership Rugby double over their now near neighbours since 2008/09  

Full Round Schedule

Fri 6th Jan - Newcastle Falcons v Bath Rugby (7.45pm) Live on BT Sport

Sat 7th Jan - Gloucester Rugby v Worcester Warriors (3pm) 

Sat 7th Jan - Saracens v Exeter Chiefs (3pm) Live on BT Sport

Sat 7th Jan - Harlequins v Sale Sharks (Twickenham Stoop, 3pm) 

Sat 7th Jan - Northampton Saints v Bristol Rugby (Franklin’s Gardens, 3pm) 

Sun 8th Jan - Wasps v Leicester Tigers (3pm) Live on BT Sport