It felt like the start of the Premiership season proper – across England this weekend came a sprinkling of Rugby World Cup stars, striding their way back into club action after weeks away on their international adventures. For Sale, George Ford invoked the spirit of Marseille by dropping the Sharks to victory at Bristol, Theo Dan and the rest of a largely second-string Saracens bounced and bopped to a heavy win over Newcastle, and Finn Russell pulled Gloucester’s strings as Bath silenced Kingsholm. The financial wellbeing of the league is an ongoing concern but on the pitch the English top flight appears in reasonably rude health.
If there is a sense that the season is still in the feeling out stage, there is no time to dally in a condensed Premiership. Already more than a quarter of the season has gone, the reduction from 13 teams to 10 in the last year or so reducing the Premiership from 24 match rounds to 18. A slow start, as experienced by Leicester, can leave the gap to the top four opening wider and wider – no wonder, then, that Tigers coach Dan McKellar termed next week’s derby clash with Northampton as “must win” after his side suffered a fourth defeat in five games.
