Week 4 of the Aviva Premiership is in the bag. There was some superb rugby and questionable refereeing. Here is a wrap of the weeks action.
Gloucester 24-19 Worcester
Gloucester nearly grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory on Friday night at Kingsholm. Billy Burns opened the scoring in the tenth minute with a penalty before Ollie Thorley scored twice in three minutes to give the Cherry and Whites a commanding 17-0 lead after 17 minutes.
Worcester’s first points came from the boot of Ryan Mills in the 24th minute, which he added to on the stroke of half-time, and that was the final score of the first half.
Second half substitute Henry Trinder then set up Billy Twelvetrees for a try at the start of the second half with a scintillating break and superb offload to send the centre under the posts. Gloucester looked to be cruising to victory before Worcester set up a very nervy ending with Perry Humphreys scoring twice in the 60th and 71st minutes to bring Worcester within a score. Fortunately for the Kingsholm faithful Gloucester held out to get their second win of the season.
Bath 32-33 Newcastle
What a game at the Rec. Bath showed why they are such a Jekyll and Hyde team. The Falcons raced to a 19-0 lead through tries from Sonatane Takulua, Rob Vickers and DTH Van Der Merwe in the first 20 minutes.
Bath then replied with 32 unanswered points as stalwart Matt Banahan, Fijian flyer Samesa Rokoduguni, Charlie Ewels and England and Lions Centre Jonathan Joseph all scored to earn a bonus point. Rhys Priestland converted three and added two penalties as Bath looked to build on their home win against Saracens a couple of weeks ago.
Newcastle, who last week were comfortably beaten in Philadelphia by Saracens, refused to lie down, though, and got their own bonus point try through Chris Harris in the 67th minute then went again to score in the 77th minute with flanker Mark Wilson dotting down and Joel Hodgson converting both for a fantastic victory.
Harlequins 28-31 Leicester
Fresh off ending Wasps 20-game home victory record, Harlequins were brought back down to earth by a Tigers team for whom George Ford scored a late penalty to seal the win.
England prospect Marcus Smith kicked a fourth-minute penalty that Ford cancelled out two minutes later. The Tigers then scored the first try of the game as Telusa Veainu scored. Ford couldn’t add the extras but Smith reduced the arrears with his second penalty of the game five minutes later. Ford’s second penalty of the half meant the half-time score was 11-6 to the visitors.
The game burst into the life in the second half. Danny Care was the first to score four minutes into the half with Smith converting. The crowd had barely had time to sit down after celebrating before Quins were in again with number 8 Matthew Luamanu to finish off Marland Yarde’s good work.
Johnny May replied for the Tigers in the 53rd minute with Ford converting and then a mere four minutes later Greg Bateman added his name to the scoresheet. Ford converted again for the Tigers to lead 25-21 only for Alofa Alofa to wrestle the lead back in the 63rd minute. Ford then won the game with two penalties in a minute just over five minutes from time.
Saracens 41-13
At times Saracens were truly sublime. They looked like they could score every time they got the ball at Allianz Park. They did just that twice in the first ten minutes as Wales winger Liam Williams opened his account for the North London club after four minutes before Ben Spencer punished some poor ruck defence and went under the posts five minutes later.
Sale managed to frustrate their hosts for most of the rest of the half, they were unable to penetrate the Saracens defence which was fast and aggressive. At times they were clearly offside but managed to get away with it, which didn’t help the Sale cause. Faf De Klerk got their only points of the half 26 minutes in, but Owen Farrell kicked a penalty ten minutes before half-time to cancel it out and keep their 14-point lead intact.
Spencer added a second try 12 minutes into the second half before replacement prop Vincent Koch powered over from close range. Josh Charnley ran a superb line to carve through the home defence only to have the ball dislodged as he went to score. Byron McGuigan faired better as he finished well in the corner only for Nathan Earle to score the final try for Sarries.
McGuigan did have the final say, but Sale were well beaten. The only negative for Saracens was Billy Vunipola’s injury that forced him off in the first half after a lengthy delay.
Exeter 31-17 Wasps
Exeter won the replay of the premiership final at Sandy Park as they put in a clinical performance against a weakened Wasps team. They put together over 30 phases pretty much from the kickoff. This eventually resulted in winger Olly Woodburn scoring in the corner after Wasps had repelled attack after attack.
With the possession stats standing at 97.3 per cent in the home side’s favour, Wasps hit back. An overthrown lineout was seized upon by Ashley Johnson who scampered in from 20 metres. Exeter then ground Wasps down as their forwards took control. They went through phase after phase time and again. Dave Dennis dived over just after 20 minutes after more concerted pressure and fellow flanker Don Armand five minutes later crossed the whitewash.
Wasps were unable to get any continuity into their game as they tried too often to go wide instead of punching through the middle and Woodburn finished off a great break from Henry Slade just before halftime to put the game out of reach and earn Exeter a first-half bonus point. Jimmy Gopperth’s penalty was all Wasps could reply with.
Replacement hooker Shaun Malton then powered over 20 minutes into the second half as Wasps once again couldn’t get any fluidity. They eventually put a nice move together as Elliot Daly made a break with Nathan Hughes and Joe Simpson in support to put Josh Bassett over but it was not enough to prevent their second defeat in two weeks.
London Irish 25-40 Northampton
London Irish’s first premiership game back at the Madejski ended in a comfortable win for Northampton. The visitors crossed for six tries, two for Australian Centre Rob Horne.
Nic Groom started the rout in only the second minute before Horne got his first only four minutes later. He only had to wait 20 more minutes before he could add his second try of the game. Mikey Hayward scored off the back of a lineout drive as Northampton wrapped up the bonus point with just over 30 minutes gone. Tommy Bell scored Irish’s only points of the first half with a penalty 12 minutes in but with Harry Mallinder converting three of their tries, Northampton held a comfortable 26-3 lead at the break.
Northampton noticeably eased up in the second half and Irish made the scoreline respectable adding three tries of their own through Alex Lewington, Bell and Josh McNally in the 80th minute but George North and Jacobus Reinach added their names to the scoresheet for Saints to continue their good start to the season. The games between Worcester and London Irish loom large for both clubs.
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He was born 1905, 1904 or 1908 according to various reports, in Wairoa, Hawkes Bay, and is remembered as one of the great Māori players.
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