Rugby union: talking points from the weekend’s Premiership action

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2015/apr/13/rugby-union-talking-points

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1) Saracens’ desire can drive them into Champions Cup final

Saracens have hit form at the point in the season when tournaments come to be decided. They have won seven successive matches in all competitions and head to France at the end of the week for the European Champions Cup semi-final against Clermont Auvergne, opponents they defeated by 40 points at the same stage last season, buoyed by the return of the England outside-half Owen Farrell from a knee injury. While the scoreline against Leicester was convincing, parts of Sarries’ game creaked: they struggled up front at times, wobbled in the lineout and took a while to deal with Julian Salvi at the breakdown. What they do have, as they showed in defeating Racing Métro in Paris, is an unwavering self-belief and an indefatigable will. For all their skill and ability – Billy Vunipola remains rampant – it is desire driving them on and in that sense it does not matter where they play Clermont. Nothing fazes them. Paul Rees

• Match report: Saracens 22-6 Leicester• Clermont target Champions Cup final and revenge against Saracens

2) Gloucester could yet ruin Quins Champions Cup hopes

Harlequins have become used to a place in the play-offs in recent seasons, having made the top four in four of the past six seasons. This season they’re on the play-off trail again, but it remains a long shot – and it’s not the play-off they might have hoped for. This one they’re chasing is the play-off for the Champions Cup next season. This is the mad race for, er, seventh place.

London Irish have done them a favour, by beating Sale on Sunday, but Sale’s bonus point means Harlequins are still five points behind the Sharks, who currently hold seventh place. Next round, the two meet in Salford, and Quins have no choice but to win, before finishing with a home game against Bath and a trip to Newcastle. Sale finish at home to Newcastle and away at Exeter. But it could all be over for both by then. The irony is that Gloucester, having been knocked out of the running for seventh by their defeat on Saturday at Harlequins, may yet qualify by winning this season’s Challenge Cup, the final of which is on 1 May at – you guessed it – the Stoop. They would first have to beat Exeter at Kingsholm in the semi-final next weekend. The English are honouring the Challenge Cup by offering passage into the Champions Cup play-offs to its winner, should they be English, ahead of the seventh-placed team in the Premiership. The Pro 12 and Top 14 do not offer the same, so even if Edinburgh or the Dragons, the other semi-finalists, were to win the Challenge Cup they would still have to finish seventh in their league to take up the Pro 12 play-off spot. Got it? Michael Aylwin

• Match report: Harlequins 29-26 Gloucester

3) Sale’s complacency at London Irish could cost them dear

If Sale fail to make the Champions Cup next season, their director of rugby Steve Diamond will look back at London Irish as possibly the crucial loss. Whether they learn the right lesson is another matter. Diamond spent most of his post-match press conference berating referee Greg Macdonald, who had had a bumpy ride in only his second Premiership outing, but Sale could and probably should have wrapped up the game by half time. They really shot themselves in the foot with Danny Cirpiani’s over-ambition when the England fly half attempted to run from under his own posts rather than hoof the ball into the stands. Mike Averis

• Match report: London Irish 25-23 Sale

4) The experimentation continues to find Burgess’s best position

Sam Burgess made his first Premiership start of the season at blindside flanker in Bath’s 29-19 win at Newcastle on Saturday, as the search for his best position continues. Until now the former rugby league player has been used at centre by Bath, a position to which Stuart Lancaster clearly feels he is best suited, but Mike Ford, his head coach at The Rec, has always believed the Burgess’s future lies in the back row. The 26-year-old was more solid than spectacular in his new role at Kingston Park, with some nice carries soured by a couple of fumbles, but Ford indicated afterwards that he is set for a run at No6. “Sam has a lot to learn, but he is only going to get better, so we just have to keep playing him,” said Ford. “It’s hard for him because he has only been in the game for six months, but I think you’ve seen the future tonight.” The time for experimentation is far from over. Rob Bleaney

• Match report: Newcastle 19-29 Bath

5) Wasps will enter crucial fixtures with timely boost

It may not have been the 70-point bombardment Wasps dished out in November but a Tom Varndell hat-trick helped secure an obligatory bonus-point win against London Welsh. Varndell’s tenth score of the season put the Bristol-bound wing three tries behind Mark Cueto’s current all-time mark of 85, and with the additional finishing power of Christian Wade and Nathan Hughes it is not surprising Wasps are the Premiership’s highest try-scorers this term. However, running defeats to Sarries and then Saints before this weekend has shifted ambitions from a top-four finish to simply securing sixth and the guaranteed Champions Cup rugby that comes with it; next up are two crucial meetings with those sides directly above them – Leicester Tigers and first Exeter Chiefs – and although Welsh may be a gimme, the healthy win is nonetheless a vital boost for Dai Young’s stuttering side as they approach a decisive period. Lawrence Ostlere

• Match report: London Welsh 13-40 Wasps