1
Sarries pounce on Chiefs slip as Saints sink sorry Sharks
By Peter Hanson
Saracens capitalised on Exeter Chiefs' slip by sealing a late bonus-point win over Leicester Tigers to go top of the Premiership, while Northampton Saints hammered Sale Sharks in Saturday's action.
The Chiefs lost for just the third time this season against Gloucester a day earlier and Sarries ran in 28 unanswered second-half points at Allianz Park to defeat the Tigers 33-10 and reach the summit on points difference.
It was not all plain sailing for the home side, who trailed 10-5 at the break, with Jonah Holmes crossing just before the break for the Tigers after Richard Wigglesworth's score for Sarries.
But the champions stepped up a gear after the break and Tom Woolstencroft went over before late tries from Ben Spencer and David Strettle gave Sarries a full haul.
Northampton, who saw Dan Biggar limp off after 19 minutes, were in rampant mood in their 67-17 rout of Sale, as the Saints ran in nine tries to end the Sharks' five-match unbeaten Premiership run.
Cobus Reinach had scored twice by the time Tom Wood and Tom Collins dotted down either side of a penalty try for Sale.
And there was little respite after the break as Ahsee Tuala, Taqele Naiyaravoro, George Furbank, Rory Hutchinson and Collins added second-half tries.
After the match, Northampton boss Chris Boyd said Biggar was taken off as a precaution in welcome news for Wales in their Six Nations bid.
"We removed him and he probably could have played on," he said in quotes reported by BBC Sport.
"He came back from Italy with a really, really low-grade MCL strain in the knee and was keen to play and he didn't train on Tuesday and he trained on Thursday and trained really well and felt really comfortable.
"But he just caught it again and that was precautionary."
Harlequins went back third in the table after defeating struggling Worcester Warriors 47-33 in a high-scoring encounter at The Stoop.
Quins registered seven tries in total, with Joe Marchant, Gabriel Ibitoye, Mike Brown and Jack Clifford securing the bonus point by half-time, while further scores from Danny Care, Ben Tapuai and James Lang downed the Warriors.
Newcastle Falcons remain rock bottom, though, after going down 30-13 at Bath.
Trending on RugbyPass
2
Six players Rassie Erasmus must hand Springbok debuts to in 2025
3
Ex-England flyhalf says All Blacks scared
4
Gloucester respond to complaints over Russian flag
5
Latest Comments
we need a damaging 12 that takes 2 men to tackle that will take pressure off the 10 while also creating space for the 10 and 13 . Leicester is the only guy that fits the mould . The next thing is " will he be able to develop a good offload " ? .
for 13 Joey manu has more x factor then reiko and jordie put togeather . he's got one season in japan before he looks to come home . he's a dark horse but his skill set is something the All Blacks don't have . if he comes home and lights up the npc in a game or 2 , id love to see him fast tracked and come off the bench for the All Blacks and thrown into the deep end to see if he can swim . Just to see if he's worth the time and effort to develop further . We all saw how good sualii did for the wallabies and joey manu is just as good as sualii . He's safe under the high ball , a solid defender , has a master offload , and he's fast and strong .
he fits the mould for razor's offload tactics .
Plus reiko and jordie have had the 12 & 13 for how long and I haven't seen anything special from either of them .
Go to commentsRussia has taken their freedom. Dying for nato won't change that.
Go to comments