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Chiefs stay perfect, Wasps hold on despite Thacker hat-trick
By Christopher Devine
Exeter Chiefs maintained their 100 per cent record in the Premiership with a 23-6 victory over Gloucester, while Harry Thacker's second-half hat-trick was not quite enough for Bristol Bears as they went down 32-28 to Wasps in a dramatic encounter at the Ricoh Arena.
The Chiefs are one of two sides, along with reigning champions Saracens, to have won all of their league games this term and claimed victory number eight with relative ease at Sandy Park on Saturday.
Two Danny Cipriani penalties inside the first 13 minutes gave Gloucester the edge, but the hosts responded with 23 unanswered points, Nic White and Alex Cuthbert crossing for converted tries and Gareth Steenson adding three penalties
Saracens will look to respond to Exeter's latest win on Sunday when they visit Leicester Tigers.
Wasps looked set to record a thumping victory over Bristol when they opened up a 32-7 lead early in the second period.
However, Bears hooker Thacker then claimed tries in the 57th, 61st and 73rd minutes - all of which were converted - to set up a grandstand finale.
Bristol were unable to find another score that would have given them victory, but did at least claim a bonus point as Wasps held on to move up to third.
Sale Sharks climbed off the foot of the table, leapfrogging Bristol and Newcastle Falcons with an 18-13 triumph over Northampton Saints.
Two tries from Denny Solomona proved vital after Cobus Reinach and Ollie Sleightholme had gone over for Northampton.
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Latest Comments
"Right, so even if they were the 4 worst teams in Champions Cup, you'd still have them back by default?"
I think (i) this would literally never happen, (ii) it technically couldn't quite happen, given at least 1 team would qualify via the challenge cup, so if the actual worst team in the CC qualified it would have to be because they did really well after being knocked down to the challenge cup.
But the 13th-15th teams could qualify and to be fair I didn't think about this as a possibility. I don't think a team should be able to qualify via the Champions Cup if they finish last in their group.
Overall though I like my idea best because my thinking is, each league should get a few qualification spots, and then the rest of the spots should go to the next best teams who have proven an ability to be competitive in the champions cup. The elite French clubs generally make up the bulk of the semi-final spots, but that doesn't (necessarily) mean that the 5th-8th best French clubs would be competitive in a slimmed down champions cup. The CC is always going to be really great competition from the semis onwards, but the issue is that there are some pretty poor showings in the earlier rounds. Reducing the number of teams would help a little bit, but we could improve things further by (i) ensuring that the on-paper "worst" teams in the competition have a track record of performing well in the CC, and (ii) by incentivising teams to prioritise the competition. Teams that have a chance to win the whole thing will always be incentivised to do that, but my system would incentivise teams with no chance of making the final to at least try to win a few group stage matches.
"I'm afraid to say"
Its christmas time; there's no need to be afraid!
Go to commentsYou are a very horrible man Ojohn. Brain injury perhaps?
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