Nick Wright previews this weekend's clash between York City Knights and Hull FC
Alex Reid looks at whether the once ever-present appearance of English clubs in the later stages of the Champions League is set to become a thing of the past
Craig Dobson looks at QPR's decision to sack Neil Warnock and replace him with Mark Hughes
James Tompkinson reviews an excellent pre-season victory for the York City Knights against Yorkshire rivals Leeds Rhinos
To many, Leicester will be seen as the true victors of this year’s premiership (regardless of whatever happens next). They’ve topped the table (for the second year running) and have performed outstandingly for the entire season. Making them undoubtedly the best side in the premiership. It’s odd then, that on Saturday the Tigers were beaten at home (for the first time this year) in a close-run game against Saracens (23-32).
Saracens have been the real success story in this year’s top flight rugby. For a while they haven’t really posed a significant threat to the best teams. However, the end of last season saw some major shake-ups in the coaching and playing staff. A large influx of experienced South African players has seen the club often dubbed ‘Saffies’ rather than their usual ‘Sarries’. But all the talk of foreign imports aside, they do deserve respect for consistently staying as one of the in-form sides this season.
Northampton are a similar story, excelling this season with fine performances especially from their electric backline. Ben Foden and Chris Ashton (this year’s top try scorer) have shown that they work extremely well together. Saturday’s game against London Irish was more of the same from the Saints. They stormed to victory, scoring three tries, and leaving the final score at 31-7. Bath complete the top four of the premiership teams - they’ve also had a strong season.
The “middle-of-the-pack” teams are London Wasps, London Irish, Gloucester and Harlequins. Both Gloucester and Harlequins had a slow start to the season and have struggled to pick it up since. Quins’ reputation is still scarred by “Bloodgate” and Gloucester have experienced a long run of games that have been a far cry from their usual top-4 form. London Irish haven’t quite been as ruthless as their side that competed in last season’s premiership final. They’ve still got the capability to impress with some great free-flowing rugby though.
Newcastle (beaten in a close game against Wasps this weekend, 21-25) may have this years top points scorer in Jimmy Goperth. But other than that there’s very little for Falcons fans to be happy about. They’ve been consistently mediocre and haven’t improved once again, making their ninth place finish completely unsurprising! Worcester are the unfortunate team to be relegated this time round; and whilst that’s been known for a little while, at least the Warriors went out fighting, only just losing to Gloucester (22-23) this weekend.
For a large part of the year I was half-expecting Sale to be the bottom-place finishers, they’ve managed to get themselves into 11th place but for far too long have been playing very boring, uninspiring rugby (they were beaten by Quins at the weekend, 35-20). Leeds Carnegie are similarly boring, and in their final game the 10th place finishers were utterly thrashed by Bath (39-3).
As for the playoffs... I imagine we’ve got some close games coming up. I think that Northampton will win against Saracens and Leicester will win against Bath. This would set up a Northampton/Leicester final on the 29th of May which is incredibly hard to predict. However, if I did have to predict it; I’d have to say that I see last year’s champions, Leicester, as the most likely to walk away triumphant.
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