1) Saints give up home advantage but still play to the crowds
Northampton have used Stadium:mk before, as have Saracens, but the Saints forfeited home advantage on Saturday to allow the organisers of the World Cup a run-out before the matches that will be played at the ground during the tournament. The capacity has nearly doubled since rugby union was last played at the home of the MK Dons and the Premiership clash yielded a record attendance, 27,411, surpassing even the crowd attracted to the League Cup tie against Manchester United in the autumn. The main problem was traffic congestion, which built up around the ground more than three hours before the start because of road closures and road works. The ground itself is typically fit for purpose, flowing with function rooms, hospitality suites, bars and car parking. The playing surface was firm and did not cut up, something that helped the rolling ball but the in-goal area was so small that even a weighted kick could lead to a scrum way back. One day the in-goal area will be uniform, but not while football grounds are hired. Northampton’s victory all but guaranteed them home advantage in the play-off semi-finals: after they have disposed of London Welsh in the next round, they end the regular season at Leicester when their rivals may need to win to finish fourth, and earn a date at Franklin’s Gardens. Dylan Hartley may find himself with something else to do that weekend. Paul Rees
• Match report: Northampton 25-20 Saracens
2) Future looks bright for Wasps
On and off the field things are looking up for Wasps. If they can beat Leicester and London Irish in their final two games an unexpected place in the play-offs is within their grasp and their average attendance since their move to the Ricoh Arena will top 20,000 once the Tigers have popped down the M69 next month. Financially big things are also happening with a seven-year retail bond being issued this morning on the London Stock Exchange. The club hope to raise between £25m and £35m, with investors being offered a 6.5% interest rate. Already the club, as the new owners of the Ricoh Arena, have the biggest turnover of any rugby club in Europe bar Toulouse and are now seeking to pay off the stadium debts they inherited, including £13.5m to Coventry City Council. “You can’t build a successful sports club on quicksand,” stressed Wasps’ deputy chairman Nick Eastwood, suggesting the club expected to be competing “at the sharp end of the season” within three to four years. Given the proximity of Leicester, Northampton and Worcester, the next few years in the Midlands will not be dull. Robert Kitson
• Match report: Wasps 36-29 Exeter
3) Are streakers fair game for a hit?
There can be few clichés more deplorable to any right-thinking rugby fan than the old condemnation, “If he’d done that in the high street he’d be charged with assault”. As if standard practice on the sports field – and the rugby field in particular – has anything to do with that in the shops. If you rugby-tackled a granny on the high street you’d be in big trouble, even if you kept it below shoulder height and used your arms. But the cliché was given an interesting twist at Welford Road, when Chris Hala’ufia put in a technically superb tackle of great ferocity on … a member of the public. The kind of guy you might see sauntering down the high street. True, this guy had no clothes on. He was a streaker, in fact, and he was being allowed to run through the London Welsh defence with only a little less grace than they have offered opponents on their most generous days this season. The majority of Exiles knew they shouldn’t touch him. Hala’ufia, though, thought differently and levelled him with a hit that would have shaken a professional rugby player. Thankfully, our streaker was a well-built fellow – perhaps Hala’ufia recognised that before he took action – but had he been less so the Tongan might have more to answer for than the red card he went on to receive in the second half. Do members of the public leave behind their rights the moment they step off the high street and onto the field? Maybe, but rugby players, particularly the hard-hitting ones, are best advised to leave them alone. Michael Aylwin
• Match report: Leicester Tigers 38-17 London Welsh
4) Marler injured - but not out of the World Cup
So it was Joe Marler, not Chris Robshaw. Will Carling earned himself a rebuke from his most recent successor as England captain, when he suggested on Twitter last week that Robshaw’s World Cup was in doubt because of a shoulder injury. There’s rarely smoke without fire – and if Carling did cotton on to a rumour regarding the busted shoulder of a prominent England international at the Harlequin club, the Chinese whispers seem merely to have meddled with the player’s identity. After a win at Sale that keeps alive Harlequins’ slender hopes of making Europe next season, Conor O’Shea, their director of rugby, announced that Marler’s season is over with a shoulder injury. But his World Cup is not in doubt. “It’s not a worry,” O’Shea said. “He came back from the Six Nations with a shoulder injury. We thought, because he had this problem before, that you could strengthen it, but we made the decision yesterday. Will he be fit for the rest of the season? No. But will he be fine for England’s training camps? Yes.” Michael Aylwin
• Match report: Sale 23-25 Harlequins
• Brown out for rest of season with concussion headaches
5) Gloucester conserve energy before being forced to go for the kill
Twickenham may be a Villa Park shy of capacity on Saturday for Europe’s finale between Clermont and Toulon, but the Stoop is a sell-out the evening before for the Challenge Cup final. And well it might be, for Gloucester and Edinburgh, the contestants, scored nearly 80 points between them this weekend. Gloucester’s 42, though, were compiled in mad-cap fashion, 26 of them scored in the last quarter of an hour to overturn a Newcastle side who had led comfortably since the 12th minute. Was that surge the sign of a team in confident mood or one flying by the seat of their pants? Most likely, their lacklustre showing for 65 minutes was the sign of a team killing time between a semi-final and a final. More worrying, perhaps, are the injuries to Jonny May and Sione Kalamafoni, both withdrawn in the first half, and Dan Murphy. More worrying still is the form of Edinburgh who killed time by demolishing a Zebre side 37-0 that had 10 Italy internationals in their starting line-up. Michael Aylwin
• Match report: Gloucester 42-40 Newcastle
6) Bristol are top dogs but cannot rest on their laurels
Bristol may be champions but their 26-30 victory at Worcester on Saturday doesn’t mean an easier path in the Championship play-offs. Andy Robinson’s side, who have a history of tripping up when promotion seems at hand (Exeter, Cornish Pirates and London Welsh) now face Rotherham home and away, a team which has given them more problems in the regular season (the Titans missed a kick for a draw at home last month) than London Scottish, who now face Dean Ryan’s side, starting on Saturday. Mike Averis
• Match report: Worcester 26-30 Bristol
