1) Lam asks for lineout law enforcement
Bristol’s head coach, Pat Lam, has asked Twickenham to scrutinise the law governing the lineout, arguing that Exeter are regularly awarded tries that should be penalties to their opponents. The Chiefs won the West Country derby with two tries that followed lineouts. Lam’s gripe with the first one was that the throw was not straight but his main complaint was with the second which turned into a driving maul. Lam wants the governing body to enforce the lineout regulation which states that players who do not participate in a lineout have to remain behind the offside line until play crosses the 15-metre line (from touch), pointing out backs who join a maul before that point has been reached are offside. HQ can expect another call. Paul Rees
2) Gloucester are missing Cipriani
As Johan Ackermann pointed out after Gloucester’s defeat by Leicester, it can be too simplistic to blame a loss on the absence of individuals, all the more so when they have a profile like Danny Cipriani’s. But there can be little doubting he has been missed since he went down with a chest injury last month. Gloucester lost the match he was injured in, squeezed past Newcastle but have since lost to Sale and Leicester. On Saturday they performed far better than against the Sharks but Cipriani’s direction was still sorely missed and how Gloucester have underperformed in his absence should prove a powerful bargaining tool as he engages in talks over a new contract. Gloucester cannot get him back on the pitch soon enough. Gerard Meagher
3) Vunipola gives Jones a boost
Good news for Saracens and for Eddie Jones: Billy Vunipola is back, not yet fully match fit after almost three months out with another broken limb, but causing havoc again. The England No 8 scored a superb opening try and played the full 80 minutes of Friday’s 24-18 defeat at Sale. It was his first appearance since fracturing his left forearm against Glasgow in October and put him in line for England’s Six Nations opener in Ireland on 2 February. Vunipola has started only three of England’s past 23 Tests due to a catalogue of injuries but an international return now seems inevitable. His teammate Richard Wigglesworth summed it up afterwards: “Billy deserves a bit of luck in the next few weeks.” Amen to that. Ross Heppenstall
Team of the weekend
15 Mike Brown Harlequins
14 Bryce Heem Worcester
13 Sam James Sale
12 Juan de Jongh Wasps
11 Gabriel Ibitoye Harlequins
10 George Ford Leicester
9 Danny Care Harlequins
1 Ross Harrison Sale
2 Max Crumpton Harlequins
3 Dan Cole Leicester
4 Jonny Hill Exeter
5 Graham Kitchener Leicester
6 Thomas Young Wasps
7 Tom Curry Sale
8 Ben Morgan Gloucester
Try of the weekend
Denny Solomona Sale v Saracens
Solomona is hitting form at the right time with Eddie Jones due to name his England squad for the Six Nations on 17 January. He scored his sixth try of the season against Saracens on Friday, and what a finish it was. Faf de Klerk fed Sam James whose inside pass found Solomona, who dropped the shoulder to leave Saracens’ defenders in his wake.
Blake to make Tigers return
Geordan Murphy all but confirmed the return to the Leicester coaching staff of Phil Blake over the weekend. The former rugby league player initially joined the club as defence coach in 2014 but left the club a year later following a six-month suspension for breaching the Rugby Football Union’s betting rules. He has also worked as a defence coach for Wasps since leaving Welford Road but he was spotted at Saturday’s victory over Gloucester in a Leicester tracksuit. “Now Phil’s come around and we’re just sorting out the final nuts and bolts,” said Murphy.
Owens impresses at No 8
A doff of the cap to Ken Owens, the Scarlets captain and hooker who lined up in the unfamiliar position of No 8 against the Dragons, such is the length of their injury list. Owens impressed and earned rave reviews from the Scarlets head coach Wayne Pivac after his side’s 22-13 victory: “We didn’t have anyone one else. I thought he handled it pretty well.”
4) The Dominator presses England claims
Mike Brown made a record-breaking 308th appearance for Harlequins at Newcastle on Saturday, eclipsing the previous record set by Grahame Murray in 1973. A thumping win was the perfect way to celebrate the landmark and, while Brown was his usual effervescent self, centre stage went to blindside flanker Alex Dombrandt. The 21-year-old from Croydon, dubbed “The Dominator”, was all things to Paul Gustard’s men: winning tackles at the breakdown, supporting the attack, cajoling his teammates. Inspiring. Dombrandt is being talked up as an England candidate and it would be no surprise to see him make Eddie Jones’ squad for the forthcoming Six Nations. Ross Heppenstall
5) Blackadder shows integrity amid the madness
The temptation to bend the rules must have been intense, but each time Bath lost a prop to the sinbin they dutifully sent on another for a scrummaging contest they knew they could not win. Contrast with the 2017 shenanigans of France and Wales at the end of the only other finish to compare in recent years. Todd Blackadder has had his problems but when he looks you in the eye to say such gamesmanship never occurred to him you know you are talking to a man of integrity. We think it is the first time a squad has finished with more players off the pitch than on. Michael Aylwin
6) Doubts remain over Hartley’s fitness
Northampton have endured a topsy-turvy seasonal period and uncertainty
also still surrounds the fitness of England’s co-captain Dylan Hartley. Chris Boyd, Saints’ director of rugby, has strongly hinted his hooker will not feature for Northampton again prior to the Six Nations. So will Hartley be fit to face Ireland in Dublin? “I would have thought so but grumbly knees can keep grumbling,” replied Boyd. How would he define “grumbly”? “It’s not ligament, it might just be wear and tear. I do know he’s been working incredibly hard and doing two or three fitness sessions a day. Apart from the grumbly knee he’s actually in pretty good nick.” Wasps’ director of rugby, Dai Young, meanwhile, believes his son Thomas still has a decent Test career ahead of him. “He’s an international rugby player not playing international rugby,” said Young Sr. “Mind you, he knows he’s got to play well otherwise he can’t come round to the house and see his mother.” Robert Kitson
