Saturday brought to an end the regular league phase of the
Aviva Premiership and with it some remarkable observations. The top four sides were all undefeated when
their internationals were available; save games against each others. Leicester hasn’t lost a domestic game outside
international windows full stop; this in a league where excellence is
thoroughly frowned upon and where great teams in Europe are sacrificed on the altar
of competitiveness at home. And still the other 8 teams couldn’t defeat a
single playoff team when the contest was a fair one between first teams. Northampton have only lost to Leicester in
two epic encounters where Tigers somehow bagged the full the 10 points, but
dispatched Sarries at home 30-3 and defeated Quins 24-3. Quins lost yet another Leicester thriller;
but have dispatched Sarries at Wembley 24-19 with some last gasp defending
complimenting the vivid attack. Sarries
might be the nations bogeymen with their, ahem, attritional style but they did
manage to spoil Quins’ Christmas party at Twickenham. All other sides have been vanquished.
At the opposite end of the table the difference is if
anything more dramatic. Newcastle have
been relegated by 1 point; however since the world cup ended and teams returned
to full strength they have earned 7 more points than nearest rivals Wasps. Considering the above would Wasps have beaten
either a full strength Saracens or Leicester as they managed in the first two
weeks of the season? Relegation in world
cup years is always controversial as the international windows never affect teams
equally but this year it is pretty galling and it seems fair enough to say the
worst side has not been relegated. That
is how sport works though so the rugby fans in Newcastle will just have to take
their medicine and hope next time they are good enough to stay above the fray.
No comments:
Post a Comment