1) Simpson impresses as Wasps lead clean sweep
Talk about a fast start: in two consecutive weekends Wasps have scored 65 points and conceded only 12 against the two teams who have monopolised Europe’s elite club tournament for the last five years. It has been anything but a fluke. Their dynamic attacking game means they are always liable to score tries but their defence has now completely neutered two of the continent’s best teams. The arrival of the former Wallaby George Smith has made a huge difference but the form of the scrum-half Joe Simpson will seriously interest England’s new coach, Eddie Jones. Simpson did not make the World Cup squad but is developing into a highly influential No9, galvanised by the arrival at Wasps of Dan Robson, another highly promising English prospect. “I don’t see many nines better then Joe out there,” said Dai Young, Wasps’ delighted director of rugby. The six wins from six attempts by Premiership clubs over the weekend was the first English clean sweep for seven years. Robert Kitson
2) Northampton dominated Glasgow despite absentees
There is no pretending that Glasgow were anywhere near their best – and their hooker crisis deepened further when Pat MacArthur became the fourth casualty of that department in only the eighth minute of this game – but Northampton’s domination of the set-piece was impressive, not least because of the raft of players they had missing. Chastened by a less than convincing start to the season, their media man ran through the roll call of absentees before the game, almost as an apology for what might be about to follow. Dylan Hartley, Alex Corbisiero, Courtney Lawes, Victor Matfield, James Craig and Calum Clark were just some of the names mentioned. In the end it felt less like an apology and more like a warning. Matfield will be available from next week, which is a sobering thought, and Hartley is close to shaking off the head knock he took a couple of weeks ago. Equally sobering is the fact he might not get back in the team, such has been the form of Mike Haywood in his absence. Michael Aylwin
• Match report: Glasgow 15-26 Northampton
• Mallinder looks to future as Northampton see off Glasgow
3) Racing pack force the issue against Scarlets
In the post-World Cup reassessment of the way rugby is played in Wales, the ways of the west may well be promoted as the way ahead. The Scarlets traditionally love a passing game but they cannot throw thin air about. The rain and Racing pack made this a most troubled evening for the home forwards. Dreams of adventure still require a bedrock of possession. The few scraps that allowed the Scarlets to attack by hand were dropped close to the line. This was a chastening wintry night for the side that illuminated the Pro12 in autumn. Set-piece and skills were exposed.
Racing’s heavyweight pack did a real number, winning clean possession and making yards through the tackles. This was French rugby at its most dominant, the very style that allows the clubs of the Top 14 to rule Europe. It is also the very style that can leave French teams looking leaden of foot and mind when it is resisted more forcefully than the Scarlets managed. When it works it is hugely effective and nobody enjoyed himself on the front foot in the rain more than the scrum-half Maxime Machenaud. He has played 16 times for France but is making a case for a lot more caps. Eddie Butler
• Match report: Scarlets 12-29 Racing 92
• Lydiate’s World Cup pain put into perspective by Paris attacks
4) Where should Slade play?
Stuart Lancaster saw Henry Slade as a ball playing 12 but he was back in his more customary club position of No10 for the Champions Cup home game against Bordeaux-Bègles. So which is the better position for the multi-talented youngster to play in? Rob Baxter made no apologies for using him at outside-half. He wanted his half-backs to control the territory and pace of the game against Bordeaux-Bègles and wanted Slade’s big boot to fulfil that role. He did it superbly as the Exeter Chiefs picked up the full five points as they beat Top 14 opposition in the top tier for the first time. But with George Ford and Owen Farrell ahead of him in the race for No10 under Stuart Lancaster it was no wonder Slade was happy to fill in one position further out. So where will Eddie Jones feel he should play? After all it was Jones who gave Matt Giteau his first run in the Australian jersey at No12 and he loves to have a ball player fitting in a second five-eighth role. Baxter is sure his man can mix and match for club and country but Slade runs the risk of not being considered one thing or the other. He is a bit like Wales’ James Hook. There is little doubt his left-footed kicking option outside Ford’s right boot would be very useful in the England midfield and his distribution skills are second to none. Maybe it is time for him to chase one jersey only. Rob Cole
• Match report: Exeter 34-19 Bordeaux-Bègles
• Baxter hopes Jones appointment can spur his players on
5) Ford is early leader in battle for fly-half berth
Eddie Jones’ first weekend as England head coach could scarcely have gone better, with the Premiership’s six European Rugby Champions Cup representatives – the pinnacle of the player pool Jones can pick from – all victorious. There can be few domestic players with as much to gain, or lose, from Jones’ appointment than Bath’s George Ford. A high-profile casualty of Stuart Lancaster’s failed World Cup reshuffle, Ford faces a battle to convince Jones that he should return to his international fly-half berth, with competition from Owen Farrell, Henry Slade and Danny Cipriani, who has already been name-checked by the new England coach. Ford did his chances no harm in Bath’s narrow win over Leinster, which belatedly got their continental campaign off to a winning start. With Wasps stunning the defending champions, Toulon, whose match with Bath was postponed following the Paris attacks, victory was vital for Mike Ford’s team and it was the fly-half who led the way. Ford was not the only Englishman to impress. So, too, did the centre Kyle Eastmond and the props Nick Auterac and Henry Thomas. Their efforts forced a penalty try in the second half but every other point came from Ford’s boot, including a late penalty to clinch the win. The country’s finest fly-halves have a month to impress Jones and earn themselves a place in a senior squad that will be set until summer. Ford may well have taken an early lead. Niall McVeigh
6) Leinster left with it all to do after another defeat
When Bath were doubled in the pool stage of the 2011-12 European Cup by the eventual winners Leinster it was a time when Premiership clubs complained that they were not competing on an equal basis with Irish and French sides who were able to lavish more money on players. It was the last season anyone but Toulon won the trophy and now it is the Pro 12 teams who are concerned that they are being left behind by the French, and the English. The tally of victories after two rounds of the Champions Cup is 7-1 in favour of the Top 14 and Premiership, the Pro 12’s sole success coming at Ospreys where Exeter lost. The big hike in the salary cap is to come for the Premiership, but their growing strength can be measured on the benches. Bath were missing three international players through injury but still had the resources to cope with Leinster’s second-half fightback. Leinster pointed out that they had not had much time to assimilate their World Cup players, but they tended to be rested by the national side anyway for the first few weeks of the league season in readiness for Europe. If Leinster earned a measure of redemption after the previous week’s humbling at home by Wasps, they had to hang in for long periods and struggled in the set-pieces. With back-to-back fixtures against Toulon to follow, the team that in 2012 won the European Cup for the third time in four years, the last occasion a Pro 12 team reached the final, has it all to do. Paul Rees
