Gloucester’s U18s beat the Leicester Tigers’ equivalents 17-7 in a top of the table clash in the Northern Conference of the U18 Premiership this weekend, leaving them as the only unbeaten team in the league.
The victory sent them two points clear and makes them the first side to beat Leicester since the league’s inception last season.
In the Southern Conference Exeter Chiefs nudged their way to the top of the league with a 39-20 away win over London Wasps, leaving the Chiefs unbeaten and top of the table by a point.
Behind them, on 14 points, are both London Irish, who drew 31-31 with Bath, and Harlequins, who are also unbeaten.
Irish’s draw with Bath leaves them at a slight disadvantage compared to the other two battling it out at the top given that they have played a game more than their rivals, however the Exiles ability to collect bonus points, one per fixture on average, keeps them in the hunt.
It is a similar situation in the Northern Conference where Northampton Saints sit in 3rd position 5 points behind Gloucester and 3 behind Leicester. However the Saints bonus point record and the fact that they have a game in hand means that they are still very much a threat, as they showed to come back from behind against Leeds Carnegie this weekend, winning 30-26.
At the foot end of the Northern Conference Worcester Warriors picked up their first points of the campaign as they battled to a 5-5 draw away against Sale Sharks, an impressive result given some of Sale’s play this term.
In the South things went from bad to worse for Bristol as they fell to a 57-12 defeat to Saracens at Allianz Park, giving Saracens their second win of the competition.
The good news for Bristol is that London Wasps remain at the foot of the table with them on one point, after suffering a third defeat from three, and the two sides will meet on Friday evening in what is shaping up to be a hugely important game.
It is set to be interesting at the top end of the conference too as Exeter Chiefs and Harlequins will go head to head for top spot and to be the last remaining unbeaten side in the conference on Saturday afternoon.
Up in the North Worcester will look to build on their draw with Sale when they play Leeds, while Newcastle will go in search of their first victory of the season when they play a Northampton Saints side who could go one point from the top with a good victory.
Rounding off Saturday will be a mid table clash between Bath and Saracens in the Southern Conference, one that should give us plenty of attacking rugby, before the weekend is rounded off on Sunday afternoon in Gloucester, with the arrival of Sale.
Results:
London Irish 31-31 Bath
Saracens 57-12 Bristol
Leeds Carnegie 26-30 Northampton Saints
London Wasps 20-39 Exeter Chiefs
Gloucester 17-7 Leicester Tigers
Sale Sharks 5-5 Worcester Warriors
Tables:
U18 Premiership Northern Conference | |||||||
Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | BP | Points |
1 | Gloucester | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 17 |
2 | Leicester Tigers | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 15 |
3 | Northampton Saints | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 12 |
4 | Sale Sharks | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 |
5 | Leeds Carnegie | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
6 | Newcastle Falcons | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
7 | Worcester Warriors | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 |
U18 Premiership Southern Conference | |||||||
Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | BP | Points |
1 | Exeter Chiefs | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 15 |
2 | London Irish | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 14 |
3 | Harlequins | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 14 |
4 | Saracens | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 9 |
5 | Bath | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 8 |
6 | London Wasps | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
7 | Bristol | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 1 |
Squads:
Saracens N/A
Bristol:
Forwards: Baker Player Challenger Reseigh Ward Gompels Smith Silk Tait Beck Humphrys Polledri Kis’bury Boyland.
Backs: Littlewood Uren Mogg Smith Slowik Floyd Caven Harris Melville O’Connor.
London Irish:
1 Jake Waterman (St Pauls Catholic College) 
2. Ollie Adams (St Pauls Catholic College) 
3. Tyler White (St Pauls Catholic College) 
4. Ollie Curry (C) (St Pauls Catholic College) 
5. Theo Vukasinovic (Reeds School) 
6. Max Berry (St Pauls Catholic College) 
7. Greg Brown (St Pauls Catholic College) 
8. Isaac Curtis-Harris (Fort Hill Community School) 
9. Conor Murphy (St Pauls Catholic College) 
10. Ross Catlin (Wellington College) 
11. Harry Lightfoot-Brown (St Pauls Catholic College) 
12. Ross Neal (RGS High Wycombe) 
13. John Williams (St Pauls Catholic College) 
14. Bradley Greer (John Fisher School) 
15. Cameron Cowell (St Pauls Catholic College).
Replacements: 16.
Curtis Langdon (St Pauls Catholic College) 
17. Joel Armitage (Senior Academy) 
18. Dylan Emerton (Farnborough Sixth Form College) 
19. Charlie Stonehill (St Pauls Catholic College) 
20, Luke Frost (St Pauls Catholic College) 
21. Jerome Trail (St Pauls Catholic College) 
22. Seb Herold (St Pauls Catholic College) 
23. Callum Watson (St George’s School) 
24. Joe Gwyther (St Pauls Catholic College) 
25. Eddie Lewis (St Pauls Catholic College) 
26. Cam Smith (St Pauls Catholic College).
Bath N/A
Leeds Carnegie
1. Lewis Boyce
2. Jordon Poole
3. Charlie Capps
4. Guy Borrowdale
5. Dan Preston-Routledge
6. Raffen Cherrington
7. Josh Bainbridge (C)
8. Tom Burridge
9. Jack London
10. Max Green
11. Dan Tai
12. Max Wright
13. Cam Leadley
14. Ben Magee
15. Taylor Prell.
Replacements: 16. Harry Wales
17. Toko Tedoradze
18. Nathan Smith
19. Brodie Wilson
20. Jimmy McDaniels
21. Nick Rawsthorne
22. Tom Gorman.
Northampton Saints
15 Howard Packman 
14 George Wacokecoke 
13 Rotimi Segun 
12 Rory Hutchinson 
11 Conor Bullivant 
10 Harry Mallinder (c) 
9 Cameron Lee-Everton; 
1 Jake Byrne 
2 James Fish 
3 Luc Jeannot 
 4 Jordan Onojaife
5 Josh Peters
6 Karl Wilkins
7 Lewis Ludlam 
8 Ollie Lyons.
Replacements: 16 Owen Griffiths 
17 Harrison Marshall 
18 George Cox 
19 Will Allman 
20 Michael Morris
 21 Harry Sheppard 
22 Nico Defeo.
Exeter Chiefs
1 Ollie Dawe 2 Jack Innard 3 Jack Stanley 4 Ed Holmes 5 Josh Caulfield 6 Kieran Westlake 7 Nat Bayett 8 Bradley Howe 9 Jack Oulton 10 Joel Matevasi 11 Kai Little 12 Tom Holdsworth 13 Ned Warne 14 Jack Faulkner 15 George Toomey.
Replacements: 16 Charlie Gibbings 17 Tommy Southworth 18 Billy Keast 19 Luke Hattam 20 Toby Papp 21 Jack Maunder 22 Tom Putt 23 Harrison Cully
London Wasps
1 Tom West 
2 Harry Baron 3 George Edgson 
4 Jake O’Leary 
5 Will Morrison 
6 Jackson Burton 
7 Jack Willis (c) 
8 Matt Blandford 
9 Akira Takenaka 
10 Ben Wood 
11 Shaquille Jack 
12 Harry Glover
 13 Owain James 
14 Pat Culligan 
15 Alex Winterburn.
Replacements: 16 Felix McKenzie 17 Sacha De Gentile-Williams
18 Cecil McCarthy 
19 Stephen Arroyo-Hover 
20 Oliver Adams 
21 James Small-Edwards 
22 Tim Bitirim 23 Dan Wotton.
Gloucester N/A
Leicester Tigers N/A
Sale Sharks
1. Derby 2. Barker 3. C Parker 4. Postlethwaite 5. Nott 6. McGrail 7. Parfitt 8. Hughes 9. J Mitchell 10. Dixon 11. Greer 12. Bedlow 13. Ditchfield 14. Hardman 15. A Mitchell.
Replacements: 16. Lawton 17. Brocklebank 18. Robsinson 19. Maher 20. Bell 21. Morgan 22. Wilkinson 23. Hampson.
Worcester Warriors (from):
Joe Wrafter Charlie Robinson Joe White James Page Callum Young Myles Edwards Will Priestly Andrew Kitchener Shay Kerry Huw Taylor (C) Harry Cross Piers Morel Andrew Boyce Ben Williams George de Cothi Ryan Scott-Young Reece Beddows Reece Chapman-Carry Tom Howard Scott Smith Max Himbury Matt Edwards Jon Hughes
