Gallagher Premiership round 11 review

So we've made it through another round of Gallagher Premiership action and in my opinion the England players were hugely missed. Having a reduced league yet no elite players available is a bit of a farce and could have implications for teams come the end of the season.

Harlequins v Northampton

Friday night started off at The Stoop. Harlequins started slowly and unfortunately for them they lost James Chisholm to injury who as I have mentioned previously has been outstanding for them in recent weeks. It wasn't a vintage Quins performance but ultimately they got the job done and took five match points from the game.

Player wise, I thought Tom Pearson was outstanding for Northampton, Henry Pollock has taken a lot of plaudits recently but Pearson is so effective in the back row and his work rate is phenomenal. Arguably he didn't deserve to be on the losing team on Friday night. For Quins, Ben Waghorn is starting to build himself a reputation as the next big centre option. He's a strong, powerful carrier. As with any young player who plays well people will start making noises for international consideration, but let's just let him play.

Gloucester v Leicester

Friday afternoon at Kingsholm saw a depleted Leicester turn up and contribute to one hell of a battle with Gloucester. It was great to see Ed Slater and his family in attendance as the Ed Slater Cup was contested. The fans of both codes of rugby always do a great job of rallying around and supporting causes.

For Leicester, Kata always made ground when he carried and Dan Cole and Ben Youngs had good games. A mention also for Mike Brown who was excellent, although he may choose more wisely when choosing a fight with a Russian wrestler!

Leicester led this one at half time, aided by Gloucester mistakes. In the second half Gloucester scored some really nice tries with Val Rapava Ruskin doing an outrageous offload. Man of the match again went to Santi Carreras who was excellent from the tee and his running is awesome to watch. Gloucester fans are desperate for him to sign a new contract, but he's at a point where he can command a fair bit of money. Gloucester took the win 38-31 and five points but in a way Leicester might not be too disappointed with taking two points back to Welford Road.

Exeter v Saracens

Saturday night saw another depleted team, Saracens turn up in Devon to take on Exeter Chiefs. Exeter took a big five points from this one with Saracens taking nothing which will be a blow for them.

Exeter now have a little bit of light between them and Newcastle at the bottom which will be a huge boost for them. Saracens had Wilson sent off late on but for them as with a lot of teams it's going to be how they start again when the league restarts in nearly two months time.

Bristol v Newcastle

Bristol took five points from this one in a 55-35 victory. But Newcastle did well to recover after a slow start and they could've easily capitulated like at Northampton a few weeks earlier. But to their credit they rallied and secured a losing bonus point.

Steve Diamond was frustrated without going into the detail about a yellow card for Hearle in the last quarter when Falcons had got themselves back into the game. It's been a difficult week for Falcons after losing Adam Radwan to Leicester but they'll take some positive from this one.

Sale v Bath

Sunday afternoon also saw an entertaining win for Bath in Manchester coming out 23-32 winners in a game where Sale will be frustrated that they took nothing from this game.

Credit to Bath who came off the back of a disappointing early exit from The Champions Cup to go to Manchester and show why they're my favourites to lift the Premiership trophy at the end of the season. Scottish fans might be a bit annoyed to see Finn Russell playing six days before a Six Nations game especially given how key he is.

On that, If some countries players are released and others aren't then there needs to be an agreement across the game that there's a player release window. I know It's very wishful thinking on my part given how bureaucratic rugby is.

Overall

So that was round 11 and we now have to wait nearly two months for the next round and that's when things get serious. No one will want to lose their round 12 game as that sets momentum for the run in. Realistically eight teams can still make the top four so it's going to be one hell of a run in!