PREM comparative form table reveals surprise frontrunner

Positivity may be in short supply at Bristol and Northampton at the moment, given the ridiculous run of bad luck suffered by both squads on the injury front.

Having already been hit by the news that three frontline players needed surgery (AJ MacGinty, Harry Randall and Gabriel Ibitoye) following their opening round 42-24 win over Leicester, Bristol lost two more players – Louis Rees-Zammit and Joe Jenkins – in last weekend’s rout at the hands of Saracens.

Meanwhile, Saints have been soldiering on despite having a whole team of players in the treatment room, as well as their rested Lions, which may explain why they have fallen away badly in the second half of both their matches: the 33-33 draw at home to Exeter and the thrilling 37-34 round-two win at Gloucester.

Despite being stretched so thinly, both teams have accumulated more points than in the corresponding fixtures of the 2024/25 season, with Bristol leading the form table, along with Saracens, on +4.

Last season, a try bonus point was all the Bears had to show for their trip to Saracens, a 35-26 defeat, while they drew a blank in losing 36-19 at home to Leicester.

Saracens have enjoyed a blazing start to the season with back-to-back bonus-point wins against Newcastle and then Bristol,  taking them to the top of the PREM table, on points difference from Bath.

In 2024/25, Sarries had to settle for a losing point at Newcastle before bagging all five points against Bristol.

Saints, the then defending English champions, enjoyed a 30-24 win at home to Exeter a year ago, but had to settle for a point after scoring four tries in a 41-26 defeat away to Gloucester as the curtain was drawn on their insipid title defence, giving them three points fewer than this time around.

Exeter are the other team to be in ‘profit’, with the three points from their high-scoring draw against Saints complemented by the full five points from last weekend’s 38-15 win at home against Newcastle Red Bulls, whereas last season they could only manage five points from those same two fixtures.

Current PREM champions Bath’s results are like-for-like after the first two rounds, having picked up bonus-point wins away to Quins and at home to Sale last season, as has been the case this campaign.

The biggest ‘losers’ are Gloucester and Newcastle, who are five points down compared to the same fixtures in 2024/25.

Gloucester returned home from the CorpAcq Stadium pointless in round one, whereas they got two bonus points away to the Sharks in 2024/25, and the three points they bagged in the rollercoaster match to the Saints were also two fewer than the season before.

Newcastle picked up their first of their two PREM wins against Saracens last season, but failed to replicate that in their first league game as the Red Bulls, while they drew a blank at Exeter, whereas they got a losing bonus point – and should have had so much more – when beaten 17-15 at Sandy Park at the end of March.

Gallagher PREM comparative form frontrunners

1= Bristol +4pts
1= Saracens +4pts
3. Exeter +3pts
4. Northamton +3pts
5= Bath 0pts
5= Harlequins 0pts
5= Sale 0pts
8. Leicester -4pts
9= Gloucester -5pts
9= Newcastle -5pts