Week two of the Aviva Premiership saw another round of exciting and high scoring games, as this excellent start to the season continued. At an average of five try’s a game, it was a weekend to savour.
For London Irish though, the high try count is starting to look a little concerning as for the second week running they conceded 40 points as they went down 31-40 at home to Gloucester.
It was a vast improvement for Brian Smith’s side in attack though as they crossed the whitewash three times themselves, showing glimpses of the attacking play that was such a feature of his first spell in charge.
It was Gloucester fly half, Freddie Burns, though who sealed the victory, kicking 25 points for the cherry and white’s. If he maintains this kind of form with the boot he will soon be pushing very hard for a place in the England squad, as his attacking play is unrivalled in the position at the moment.
Leicester continued their perfect start to the season, scoring five times as they beat Worcester 34-26 for their second bonus point victory. Manu Tuilagi was the standout player, finishing off two excellent moves early on and promoting Director of Rugby Richard Cockerhill to say he expects the young outside centre to be the best 13 in the world in the next twelve months.
Much praise has to be given to coach Matt O’Connor who has transformed this Leicester side into an exciting, try scoring machine, far removed from the ‘boring boring Leicester’ sides of old.
Over at the Twickenham Stoop Harlequins scored forty points for the second week running, though this time it was in far more comfortable fashion as they beat London Welsh 40-3. Once again fly half Nick Evans was the man of the match, which only served to demonstrate that Quins simply cannot afford to lose him to Japan or France, as has been rumoured.
For London Welsh it was a harsh lesson, but they can rest a little more easily now, safe in the knowledge that things can only get easier now that Tigers and Harlequins are out of the way. These games were never going to be the ones that keep Welsh up, it’s all about the matches with their relegation rivals.
Northampton secured a bonus point victory against Exeter as they won a tight game 24-21. The Saints forwards were as powerful as ever and in truth that was probably the only difference between the sides as Exeter scrapped and harried the Saints, disrupting their game at every opportunity.
Both sides have started the season well, and both will feel they have come out of that game in pretty good shape, with Exeter going some way to avenging their 30 point defeat at Franklin’s Gardens last year.
Elsewhere, Bath beat Wasps 30-23 in a game where dazzling new Bath winger Kyle Eastmond scored his first ever Premiership try, while Wasps’ Christian Wade scored once more, as he further presses his claims for a spot on the England wing.
Saracens meanwhile beat Sale 23-16 in Sale’s first game at their new home, the Salford City stadium. It was returning old boy, Charlie Hodgson, who took the game for Sarries, landing six penalties to make it two wins out of two for the 2011 Champions.
For Fifteen Rugby it was a clean sweep, with six correct predictions out of six, though a few of the margins were a bit off!
