1) Wasps give a glimpse of rugby’s bright new dawn
Those who insist rugby will go soft under the revised high tackle interpretations should study the thunderous 80-minute encounter served up by Wasps and Leicester in Coventry. If this is what the game’s future looks like, sign me up. In the first half-hour Wasps attacked as if touched by the gods, or at least an on-song Kurtley Beale. When Beale accelerates there are few more exhilarating runners in the world and, with Elliot Daly and Christian Wade both similarly box office, it seems almost indecent that Willie Le Roux will also be available for the Premiership run-in. If Wasps have a weakness, however, it is when opposing sides slow their supply of ball down. Suddenly those dazzling thrusts are harder to generate and, without a tireless worker such as Joe Launchbury, they become more vulnerable. In Thomas Young and Tommy Taylor, however, they have improving young forwards of clear international potential and will be mighty hard to beat in a home play-off, particularly if the Ricoh Arena is as full as it was on Sunday when a season-best crowd of almost 28,000 pitched up. The focus has been on Leicester all week – and what a character-laden second-half the Tigers delivered – but, of the two Midlands clubs, it is Wasps who are better placed to achieve something special between now and May. Robert Kitson
- Match report: Wasps 22-16 Leicester
- Haskell suffers head injury 35 seconds into comeback
- Leicester at crossroads as old ways feel like wrong ones
2) Munster’s perfect farewell sets up thrilling shootout
Munster’s win at Racing 92 was a near-perfect tribute to Anthony Foley. Ronan O’Gara, the Racing coach and former Munster fly-half, wore a “Foley 8” shirt before the match in a particularly touching gesture, and it could perhaps only have been improved had the thus-far pointless home side turned up. In fairness to Racing, few sides in Europe would beat Munster in this kind of form and, in a match rescheduled after Foley’s untimely death, the men in red put in a performance for their former coach to be proud of, easing to a bonus-point win. The French team, to give them their due, marked the occasion fittingly with big-screen tributes in memoriam. The result lifts Munster to the top of pool one with 16 points and, with Racing on their radar once again in two weeks’ time, qualification for the quarter-finals should be a cakewalk from here. Next week they make the trip to Scotstoun, where Gregor Townsend’s thrilling Glasgow Warriors await for what could end up a shootout for top spot and the chance of a home quarter-final. Both sides are flying high in the Pro12, playing some of the best rugby seen by any side in that competition for a couple of years now. The reverse fixture at Thomond Park, a comfortable 38-17 win for the home side, was a bit of a damp squib in terms of being a contest. This time, both should be close to full strength and going all out for the win; it has the ingredients to be a modern European classic between two sides who will enrich this competition the further they go in it. Dan Lucas
3) Saracens use pack power to hang on with 14 men
A common theory is that a yellow card is worth seven points to the opposition. When Saracens saw their prop Richard Barrington sent off 11 minutes in against Exeter, they had six full 10-minute periods to play. They immediately conceded 10 in two minutes, but after that the Chiefs scored a solitary penalty as Saracens, like Bristol against Worcester on Boxing Day and England against Argentina in November, overcame an early red card and avoided defeat. Football has a history of teams winning after having a man sent off, but in rugby union the loss of a player has tended to be a greater handicap, especially when teams operate with seven forwards. Sarries responded to Barrington’s red card by immediately bringing on another prop and playing with eight forwards. Saracens had established an early dominance up front, which they maintained; they messed up Exeter’s lineout delivery and they secured penalties at the breakdown to make the contest even territorially. It was hard to tell which team was playing a man short and it may be that a side-effect of the new tackle laws is that teams become more adept at moving the ball and taking advantage of space behind. There is, in the short-term at least, likely to be an increase in the number of red cards for dangerous tackles and the test is whether the authorities will leave decisions to referees, who have access to replays, or use the wider net of the citing system. Brad Barritt, who went high on Geoff Parling a second before Barrington, will be a test case this week. He was fortunate not to receive a yellow card, but if the citing officer judges he should have seen red, it will mark the outlawing of a challenge above the line of the shoulders, even if it starts below, and more teams will have to prepare for playing with 14 men for longer than 10 minutes. Paul Rees
4) New laws cause concern for players and officials
“If you do it right it’s happy days; if you get it wrong, it’s see ya later.” That was the matter-of-fact summary of the new environment the players are having to operate in, as offered by Teimana Harrison, Northampton’s flanker. We were mercifully free of any controversy in this match, with Andrew Jackson refereeing the tackle sensibly. Which is not to say we couldn’t have had some. Harrison himself clashed heads with Jason Woodward, the latter concussed, when he went for a bear-hug-type tackle. It may not have been quite illegal, but, as a tackle made by an upright player, it’s exactly the kind we know to carry the greatest risk of concussion. Olly Robinson, the Bristol captain, argued that there should have been a penalty under World Rugby’s revised sanction system. Accidental incidents have a minimum sanction of a penalty and reckless ones (ie when the tackler “knew or should have known” that there was a risk of making contact with the head) a yellow. By the latter yardstick there should have been a yellow in this match, when Mitch Eadie went high on George North. He was only penalised, which presumably meant Jackson considered the height of his tackle to be an accident. It’s difficult to hit a 6ft 4in winger above the shoulders by accident, but equally a yellow would have seemed much too harsh for what was harmless contact. Meanwhile, we saw two yellows in the game between the Scarlets and Ulster for similar types of tackle. The first prevented a try, so was fair game, but the second would never have elicited a card before these new sanctions. “I think it’s not right,” said Harrison. “If it’s a blatant swinging arm to the face, fair play, it deserves to be a red or a yellow, but if it’s just a slip-up I don’t think there’s any harm in just a penalty or something.” Michael Aylwin
5) Marler injury adds to Jones’ England woes
John Kingston was optimistic that Joe Marler’s calf injury will have cleared up in time for the Six Nations but with England’s opener less than four weeks away, it will be of concern to Eddie Jones nonetheless. Mako Vunipola will certainly be missing against France at Twickenham, leaving Jones with limited options at loosehead prop. Ellis Genge was not named in either the training or Elite Player Squad while Nathan Catt is uncapped, leaving Wasps’ Matt Mullan as the only likely candidate should Marler’s calf injury, suffered against Gloucester last month, persist. It was enough to prevent him from taking part in England’s training camp in Brighton last week and is just one of a raft of problems in the pack, with question marks over Chris Robshaw, George Kruis and Joe Launchbury (and now James Haskell), Billy Vunipola also absent and Dylan Hartley set to begin the Six Nations with very little game time. Jones says he views such a lengthy injury list as an opportunity but last year’s grand slam was founded on a vastly improved scrum and Marler’s fitness problems are therefore a headache for the head coach. Gerard Meagher
6) Richards rebuilding Newcastle and his reputation
As Dean Richards can testify, sometimes in life you get what you deserve and the Newcastle side he has spent the past few seasons fashioning into a respected force certainly did on Friday night. Richards’s reputation lay in tatters after he was given a three-year ban from rugby for his pivotal role in the Bloodgate scandal at Harlequins in 2009. But he guided the Falcons to promotion to the Premiership in 2012-13, his first season in charge , and although it has taken time, Newcastle finally look capable of more than just mere survival. During Bath’s visit on Friday they displayed the kind of resilience that characterised Richards’ own playing career, grinding out a famous victory courtesy of two late tries from Mark Wilson and Ben Harris. Say what you like about Richards, and many have since that gory sequence of events which began with the Harlequins wing Tom Williams biting into a fake blood capsule, but Newcastle’s six wins from 13 Premiership games this season suggest that fights with relegation may be a thing of the past. Ross Heppenstall
7) Worcester must shape up or ship out
10th, 12th, 11th, 10th, 12th, 11th, 10th, 11th: these are Worcester’s finishing positions in their past eight Premiership seasons. Considering how heavily the Warriors have been bankrolled by Cecil Duckworth, the lack of improvement since their all-time best finish of eighth, now more than a decade ago, is startling and the supporters deserve credit for their seemingly eternal patience. Just beyond the mid-point of this season they are well and truly embroiled in a three-way battle to avoid the drop yet again and, between them, Sale and Bristol it is the Midlands team whose situation looks the most perilous. Their form is not as bad as Sale’s – the Sharks have lost nine on the trot – and they remain above Bristol by a point, but the manner of their 55-19 thrashing at the hands of Gloucester (the Premiership’s most maddeningly inconsistent team?) was among the sorriest performances of any side this season. Bristol, on the other hand, were vibrant and unlucky at Franklin’s Gardens – never an easy place to go, even this season – while the feeling is that Sale’s young and talented squad will, under Steve Diamond’s tutelage, be alright in the end. Put bluntly, it is difficult to see what Carl Hogg’s side are bringing to the Premiership party: Worcester is the most picturesque town to visit in the division, but this is all that is stopping the Warriors from being to rugby what Sunderland are to football. Dan Lucas
