1
Luke Pearce marches Saracens back 20 metres over Vunipola backchat
By Ian Cameron
Referee Luke Pearce showed he wasn't in the mood for backchat back during the eagerly anticipated Exeter Chiefs - Saracens clash at Sandy Park this afternoon.
Pearce marched Saracens back a total of 20 metres following two consecutive exchanges between him and Billy Vunipola, stamping his authority on proceedings in the 23rd minute of the contest, following comments from Saracens No.8.
The ref mic then picked up Pearce telling Alex Goode: "That player has an option. If he does it again, he's gone [pointing towards Vunipola]."
Judging by Vunipola's angry reaction to teammate Jackson Wray after the telling off from Pearce, it clearly didn't land too well with the former England forward.
It's the second significant telling-off by an international referee this weekend, with South Africa's Jaco Peyper giving a joint tongue lashing to Bismark du Plessis and Bongi Mbonambi after the pair fired up in their URC derby in Durban.
Exeter Chiefs have won their last four home games against Saracens, after winning just two of their previous seven such matches in the Premiership.
Saracens have lost just one of their last nine games in the Premiership, however, that sole defeat came on the road; they’ve averaged 36 points per game during that run.
Saracens are undefeated in their last six games, their longest unbeaten run in the league since March – December 2018 when they won 16 consecutive games.
Trending on RugbyPass
2
Henry Arundell lined up for early England homecoming
3
Government provides bleak assessment on the state of the Premiership
4
Steve Borthwick handed fresh injury concern ahead of Six Nations
5
Latest Comments
Well the other idea I had been toying with which I think is still used in football, is something like each pool winners of the Challenge Cup gets entry into the round of 16 etc (or whateveer equivalnt entry point we can come up with) in the Champions Cup.
Those T2 sides could play a pool or some simple comp with the bottom dwellers (that was actually something else I liked in Jones structure, he left out 2 English sides alltogehter, 4+4-2), and then come into the Challenge Cup when those top4 sides go up?
That idea just helps keep a nice balance for me. I like both comps having exactly the same structure, and raising 4 or so T2 sides requires that to break in some manner.
Neither. You have a situation where like the Stormers lose to la Rochelle in Ro16 but lose out to a lower performing league team in Benneton (5th place v 7th) just because they made it to the semis of Challenge Cup.
Go to commentsWalter has been permanently psychologically damaged since his wife left him and moved in with a man from Sydney.
Go to comments