Saracens’ loss allows Exeter to extend Gallagher Premiership lead to seven points

Bath Rugby take the scalp of Premiership Champions at the Rec
Photo: Bath Rugby

With only six more games to go in the Gallagher Premiership, there is still plenty to play for at both the top and bottom end of the table.

On Saturday bottom side Newcastle Falcons traveled down to the Ricoh Arena and came away with a nail biting 20-19 victory over Wasps.

Falcons replacement fly-half Brett Connon’s 30 metre penalty clinched a last gasp success over Wasps that gave Newcastle’s survival hopes a massive boost. Tries from Nemani Nagusa and Sonatane Takula gave Newcastle an eight-point advantage with 15 minutes remaining, it looked certain that Falcons would clinch their first Premiership win over Wasps since 2012. But Ben Harris’s converted try after a Rob Miller penalty nudged the host in front, only for Connon to snatch victory at the death.

Bristol Bears claimed their first Premiership away win of the season by beating Northampton Saints 26-24 at Franklin Gardens, in a controversial finish that saw four Saints players sin-binned.

Bears replacement Ian Madigan kicked an injury time match winning conversion following a try by centre Piers O’Connor. Bears had earlier taken a 12-0 lead, before Saints steadily brought themselves back into the game. With five minutes remaining Saints led 24-19 and looked on course to take the win, before the late drama of the yellow cards ensured that the hosts finished the contest with only 11 men.

Exeter Chiefs collected a bonus point win at Sixways after completing a narrow 33-30 win over Worcester Warriors and increased their lead over Saracens at the top of the table to seven points.

The hosts put four tries past Chiefs in the second half to run the west country side so very close. Despite the narrow loss, Worcester did have the luxury of picking up two bonus points for their afternoon’s work. At the break it was the visitors who were in a very good position to claim the win after leading 19-6 thanks to a brace of tries from Santiago Cordero before the Warriors fightback. Three further tries from Exeter gave them a 33-18 lead before Worcester hit Exeter with two tries in the space of five minutes from Tom Howe and Chris Pennell to reduce the deficit to three, but the Chiefs held on in the final minutes for victory.

Rhys Priestland kicked six penalties to give Bath a much needed 18-9 victory over Saracens.

For the visitors Alex Lozowski kicked three penalties, but also missed four as Saracens finished try-less for the first time in 40 matches. It was a day of milestones for Sarries’ Alex Goode, celebrating his 200th Premiership appearance, David Strettle, 150th club start and Ben Spencer’s 100th league appearances for the club, but it was the home side who were to spoil the party for the Saracens trio, by claiming victory.

After the game, Bath coach Todd Blackadder was delighted:

“I thought we had a really good strategy out there and our back three in particular were great with the aerial balls. Defensively we put Saracens under a lot of pressure and won those crucial turnovers at the breakdown. They stuck to the game plan and most significantly, brought the physicality that was required to win.”

Sale Sharks picked up a bonus point victory over Leicester Tigers 32-5 at a rain-soaked AJ Bell Stadium on Friday.

Sharks ran in six tries, despite only having a five-point advantage at the break. But further tries from Russian Valery Morozov, Josh Beaumont and Faf De Klerk were enough for Sale to record a comfortable win.

On Sunday it was 3rd place Harlequins facing 4th place Gloucester at the Stoop.

Harlequins were on a five-game winning run in the Premiership but were soundly beaten on the day 29-7.
The bonus point victory moved the Cherry and Whites to within three points of Quins. Jason Woodward and Ruan Ackermann went over in the first half before further tries from Tom Marshall and Danny Cipriani in the second secured a comfortable win. Harlequins winger Nathan Earle scored a late consolation try for the hosts, but on the day were soundly beaten by a much better side.