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After the World Cup and Europe have dominated the early stages of the season, the Premiership takes centre stage over Christmas and it feels like the most pivotal festive period ever.
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With Christmas Day and New Year’s Day falling on a Wednesday, each team has three consecutive league fixtures over this period and they will shape the table and tell us a lot more about who are contenders and who are fighting for their lives.
The majority of Premiership clubs, whether by design or because of the way things have unfolded, seem to be focusing on the league more than the Champions Cup this season so it feels like a massive few weeks.
Northampton will be looking to reassert themselves after leaking 14 tries in two games against Leinster. They are worthy leaders at this stage but Sale is a tough place to go and that is because of the quality of their squad now, not just because of their grit and because some teams perhaps have underestimated them in the past.
Bristol are sitting pretty in second place but they have the ultimate test of their credentials first up as they travel to the champions. If they’re still in the top two after the next few weeks, we’ll know they’re play-off contenders.
Exeter’s game against Saracens at Sandy Park next weekend is the most mouth-watering one of the whole festive period and. They have trips to Leicester and London Irish either side of that and will be hoping to have retaken their customary place in the top two by the end of all that.
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The other end of the table is even more interesting, though. Leicester, Bath, Wasps and Saracens have won 27 of the last 32 titles between them and they now make up the bottom four.
Tigers have six of England’s World Cup contingent in their side to face the Chiefs at Welford Road this weekend, as well as a host of other international talent. They then travel to Quins and host Bristol in the coming weeks, tough fixtures but two home games in this run of three. They have to step up now or their situation will look seriously perilous come mid-January.
London Irish’s game at home to Bath on Sunday is huge because, while a win can’t possibly guarantee them safety this early in the campaign, with other sides struggling so badly it would make things look very good indeed for them.
Bath have all their big guns back with Anthony Watson, Jonathan Joseph and Sam Underhill all starting and they will be desperate to alleviate some of the pressure on them ahead of a home game against Sale and the West Country derby at Gloucester.
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And, the stakes couldn’t be much higher for Wasps as well. They have to face the top two in Bristol and Northampton but first up it’s Quins at the Ricoh Arena, which feels massive.
There’s no love lost between those two teams and it’s a fixture that always has a bit of bite and spite to it. It seems absurd to say it this early on but, with the fixtures they’ve got coming up, it almost feels like a must win game for Wasps.
If you’re Leicester, Bath or Wasps and you come out the other end of this run of three games and haven’t picked up at least one win, you’re in serious trouble. Big clubs have gone down before and it looks like one of that huge trio is favourite this time around.
Christmas Day falling on a Wednesday is almost convenient for clubs in a way as that can often be a day off anyway but there won’t be too much more than that one day off for the players this Christmas as it’s business time on the field.
A lot of clubs’ eyes are firmly on the league this season, whether they have ambitions to win it or need to focus fully on it to stay in it, and now the distraction of Europe has been put to one side for a few weeks there are some seriously big games coming thick and fast.
This is the most crucial Christmas period ever in the Premiership. It’ll be no good blaming too much turkey this year and one or two teams could find themselves stuffed if they get it wrong over the next couple of weeks.
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments