PWR Round 16 talking points: Sale dealt capital lesson by Saracens

Premiership Women’s Rugby offered us plenty to mull over as the competition enters a spell of Spring hibernation.

Round 16 included big wins for top two duo Gloucester Hartpury and Saracens, while Trailfinders Women go into the break in the top four thanks to victory against Loughborough Lightning, while Bristol Bears dealt Harlequins another blow to their confidence.

So for the last time for a while, here are three talking points from Round 16…

Saracens hand Sale London lesson

Last week Sale Sharks boss Tom Hudson was keen to emphasise that his team had not secured top four rugby yet.

“Top four isn’t ours to lose, it’s ours to steal.”

A simple statement which perfectly emphasised where Sale found themselves ahead of a clash with Saracens at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday.

Coming into the contest Sale were riding the wave of five successive victories. Their stock has never been so high. Everything about their run was unprecedented and the knockout rugby fantasy was more tangible than ever before.

Saracens ran riot on Saturday afternoon in North London. At the end of 80 minutes Alex Austerberry’s team had wrapped up a 56-0 win.

They scored eight tries and their try scoring bonus point was secure on the stroke of 20 minutes when Marlie Packer dotted down.

It was a relentless display from Saracens, who in turn were able to show how much disparity there is between the top two teams in the league and every other contender to the throne.

For Saracens, aside from their pair of losses to Gloucester Hartpury, it was more of the same. For Sale it was a lesson about just how much further they have to go. Even if they can find contentment in their quintet of victories.

Trailfinders keep finding ways to win

If there is one thing you have to credit Trailfinders Women for, it is their tenacity. Because that is the attribute that will take Barney Maddison’s team to the PWR’s top four.

PWR

P

W

L

D

PF

PA

PD

BP T

BP-7

BP

Total

1

Gloucester-Hartpury Women RFC

13

13

0

0

65

2

Saracens Women

13

11

2

0

56

3

Exeter Chiefs Women

14

7

4

3

46

4

Sale Sharks Women

14

6

7

1

37

5

Trailfinders Women

13

5

6

2

36

6

Harlequins Women

14

5

8

1

36

7

Loughborough Lightning

13

4

7

2

32

8

Bristol Bears Women

13

4

8

1

25

9

Leicester Tigers Women

13

0

13

0

1

On Sunday afternoon the West London side came up against a Loughborough Lightning team that had gone blow-for-blow with Gloucester Hartpury just a week prior.

In the end a pre-Guinness Women’s Six Nations hat-trick for Abi Burton and scores for Grace White, Meg Jones, Ella Amory and Cassandra Tuffnail cancelled out all of Loughborough’s efforts.

The biggest damage to Trailfinders will be the loss of their Black Ferns as Georgia Ponsonby, Tanya Kalounivale and Maia Roos, who will not return to London after their Pacific Four Series exploits this Spring.

As routes to play-off rugby go, Trailfinders’ is as tough as it gets with matches against Gloucester Hartpury and Saracens coming to finish the regular season.

Bears pile more misery on Harlequins

Six in a row. Ross Chisholm’s Harlequins have lost six matches in a row. Heading into this international window it appears that the closest that the West Londoners will get to knockout rugby is the happenstance that the PWR final will be hosted at the Twickenham Stoop.

Just how this Harlequins team – with the talents contained within it – have seen their season falter and drop away to such a significant degree has been unsettling.

Wherever you look, coaches talk about consistency and standards. But they want positive consistency. Harlequins have consistently allowed themselves to be arm-wrestled out of contention in fixtures.

They have had promising spells and allowed standards to drop, letting their opponents overwhelm them.

This weekend’s loss to Bristol Bears was indicative of that. Cardiff’s Principality Stadium was the stage for their latest stumble at the hurdles as the side failed to make the most of Beth Wilcock and Aoife Wafer’s first-half tries. The Londoners did not land a punch in the second half.

Those in Quarters now have just one game left to play this season. Admittedly they will have to wait until the end of May for that clash with Leicester Tigers and have one less game to play this term than fellow top four chasers Trailfinders.

Placed sixth, with 37 points, a lot has to go right for Harlequins, with other results sure to have a say on who finishes where at the end of Round 18.

Bristol, alternatively, can have further cause for celebration at the end of a block of fixtures which has included four wins and a draw.