Round 1 Reflections

After every round this season I'm going to be taking a look at a few of the topics that jumped out at me from the six matches. With 480 minutes of Aviva Premiership Rugby in the locker today's reflections include a look at London Irish's return to the competition, Saracens' exceptional first 40 and a few thoughts on Sunday's match at Welford Road.

Saracens’ first 40 at Twickenham Stadium

Saracens have now won on their last six visits to Twickenham Stadium

An opening try after eight minutes, a try-scoring bonus point after 28 minutes and a 41-3 half-time lead. In short, it was the perfect opening half from Saracens and a nightmare of simply epic proportions for Northampton Saints. 

As Saracens’ 40 minutes unfolded it reminded me a lot of the 40 minutes that New Zealand put on the park in Sydney during their first Bledisloe Cup match against Australia. They oozed confidence, they scored at will and quite simply had a ball. Ahead of kick-off Mark McCall referenced the fact that they had been working on their ‘individual skills’ during their pre-season. Now let’s be frank here, Saracens’ skills weren’t ever a weakness however it was abundantly clear from the first moments of the game that their work had, had the desired effect. Saracens' pack, in particular their front three, showed new levels of dynamic offloading, well Schalk Brits always had them but those around him stepped up and in short it added yet another dimension to a side that already had a fairly complete game.

Of course the ominous thing for the rest of the competition is that this was team taking to the field for their first competitive game of the season and doing so without key names. Billy and Mako Vunipola, Liam Williams, Owen Farrell, Jamie George and Will Skelton are all still to return into the mix - they're no slouches are they?! However as was the case with New Zealand’s Bledisloe 1 performance the back-to-back European champions didn’t replicate the same level for the second 40. As a group of players they are fiercely ambitious and demanding of themselves and I've no doubt that they will be frustrated by not pressing on however their slight second-half ‘lull’ did little to take away from the fact that Saracens looked to have stepped up once again. 

London Irish’s arrival

London Irish announced their Premiership return in style

Ahead of Saturday afternoon few people expected London Irish to make the sort of re-entrance to the Premiership that they did. Personally, and if you read the Out On The Full spotlight on London Irish, I believed that the Exiles may just turn a few heads at Twickenham Stadium. It wasn't a full gone conclusion that they would but they certainly had the potential to deliver a outing akin to the one that we saw on Saturday afternoon. 

Now, well all know that a season is not defined by one game instead the Aviva Premiership is a marathon with multiple twists and turns. The excellent thing for London Irish - both fans and players - is the reaction of their Director of Rugby to this opening victory. After he’d praised his side’s physicality, character and endeavour he answered the question as to whether the win would have earned the respect of their rivals;

“No. I don’t think so no. Everyone has got us down to finish 12th, I was just sat next to Ugo Monye and he had them by 17 points today and I imagine that he will have a similar prediction next week against Exeter. One game means nothing, we’ve got a lot of work to do to properly earn people’s respect.”

That’s the type of leadership that London Irish need and it's yet another example of why I’ve said from the word go that their former lock is exactly the right person to be leading them into this new era. Exeter away is their next challenge, a huge one, however you cannot put a price on the value of this Round 1 win. Indeed the Chiefs at Sandy Park may be too much for the Exiles but they have shown that they will turn heads in their opening block of matches and throuhgout this season if they use Saturday's performance as a base to build from. 

Spotlight on Welford Road

A firecracker of a game - little love lost between the two!

It had been 13 years, 9 months, 5 days since Bath Rugby last won in the Aviva Premiership at Welford Road. All week the talk had been about the hosts yet it was the visitors who arrived ready to upset the order and ruffle a few feathers. While words internally will be said about Bath's discipline and the fact that they had to finish the game with 13 men, the fact that they duked it out away from home and took the W was exactly what their management wanted to see. 

Bath's pre-season has been focused on improving their output on the road and ensuring that they don't execute differently away from The Recreation Ground. The rugby that they played to put them 24-8 ahead was done so with the type of composure and clarity of purpose that they'll need this season. Defensively I thought that Jonathan Joseph had a really strong game while their 9-10-12 combination showed the form that had edged them starts in the first place following their pre-season outings. 

So what of Leicester? Well on the day they didn’t put an 80 on the park but when they do my goodness me they are going to be lethal. Simple errors were costly, lineout work will be one of the orders of the week perhaps alongside some handling sharpness however the potential remains great. Personally I thought that Ben Youngs and George Ford looked confident and dyanmic together in the half backs and for a man who only played his first XVs match against Ospreys in pre-season Nick Malouf equipped himself well. The winger's hit on Taulupe Faletau was a big feather in his cap as well as some cool defence under pressure tracking back. The Australian's wheels and movement going forwards are to be expected from a man that's cut his cloth at international sevens level and with more game time he should bed in nicely there.  

The game and the result sets up two big Round 2 fixtures with Bath hosting Saracens and Leicester Tigers heading on the road to Northampton Saints. The first match will be a significant test for Bath both physically and mentally because in Todd Blackadder's words they're facing 'one of the best sides in the world right now'. While the second will quite simply be a colossal game of Premiership rugby. East Midlands derbies are fiery and tempestuous at the best of times let alone given the context of the hosts having had Round 1 to forget and their opponents losing at home. 

Record tries. If that’s the start, what’s next?

This was some footrace!

50 tries on an opening weekend of Premiership Rugby set a new record for tries scored in Round 1 - the previous best was 36 back in 2007. Now there are some scrooges out there that will immediately say ‘oh defence must have been optional’ however let’s not be one of them! We all watched the matches and instead let’s praise the quality of the a good chunk of the attacking rugby that we saw over the course of the six matches shall we? From Dan Robson's dynamism at the Ricoh Arena to Schalk Brits' outrageous offload to Vincent Koch of just one of Saracens' excellent tries there was so much to enjoy. 

Now clearly when winter arrives we’ll go back to having to sit through a few shockers. You know the ones that I mean... 3-3 at half-time and you're wishing that you could get the last 40 minutes back. Hey, it happens! We live in England and it’s just a fact of life with winter. However right now let’s just hope that the weather continues to play ball and that the clubs do too. I for one and very confident that this season’s Aviva Premiership will be the most dynamic and exciting yet. If you want to win this league then you have to score points and  you have to deliver them in style because mosgt teams’ defensive systems are so strong and tough to break down. 

Overall it was a gripping opening weekend and I realise that I’m saying that from a neutral standpoint as opposed to with colours pinned to the mast. However whether your team won or had a bit of a shocker it's great to have Aviva Premiership Rugby back and the best thing is that there's only a few more days before we build up and do it all over again next weekend!