Aviva premiership
As pointed out by Scrumdown, one of our knowledgeable contributors, yesterday Saracens played their first Premiership game at their new home ground, the Allianz Park, in Barnet Copthall. The match was played on an artificial surface and although it is the second game that has been played there it was the first one that they played in front of ten thousand people which is a capacity crowd for the stadium.
With an exciting weekend of Premiership rugby the focus seems to be on the clash between table-topping Harlequins and fourth placed London Wasps.
Freddie Burns will look to lead Gloucester to victory over London Irish in a key Premiership clash at Kingsholm on Saturday.
Freddie Burns insists he’s relishing the added responsibility placed on his shoulders this season and believes Gloucester have every chance of celebrating a Premiership top-four finish this campaign.
Leicester Tigers will play host to Gloucester at Welford Road on Saturday in the key clash of the last round of the Premiership in 2012.
Today we had 2 Aviva Premiership games on TV, and we had this Live Game Article… but with a difference.
We were more casual, giving updates whilst talking nonsense inbetween.
How’s that for a nice mix?
The battle between the four frontrunners for pole position on the Premiership standings will heat up in this weekend’s Round 11 action.
So close is the title hunt that any of the Harlequins (33), Saracens (32), Northampton Saints (31) or Leicester Tigers (30) could top the standings at the conclusion of the weekend’s play.
Table-topping Harlequins will look to return to winning ways when they welcome Worcester Warriors to Twickenham Stoop in the opening Round 10 fixture on Friday.
It will be a bottom-of-the-table clash when Sale Sharks take on London Irish to kick off the Premiership action on Friday.
After two emphatic European victories Worcestor Warriors will be keen to give their home crowd something to cheer about in the Premiership against Sale Sharks on Friday.
Wing Mark Cueto admits it is easy for Sale Sharks to get bogged down with the negatives of their start to the Premiership season, but he insists only a positive frame of mind will bring a change of fortune.
It is the fifth round of Premiership action this weekend and it sees Saracens make the trip across London to Harlequins to face the reigning champions at The Stoop.
As the Premiership starts gaining momentum, the spotlight will shine much brighter on newcomers London Welsh, who opened their account with a fine win last week.
Champions Harlequins will be out to extend their unbeaten start to the English Premiership when they take on Sale Sharks this weekend. Quins currently head the standings after two rounds, but with five teams still unbeaten there is plenty of pressure to continue their winning ways.
The second round of the 2012/2013 season’s Aviva Premiership was completed this weekend. In the first match of the weekend London Welsh were comprehensively beaten by Harlequins, who scored six tries to none. In the last game, which was played on Sunday, Northampton Saints managed to scrape through against a brave Exeter Chiefs outfit.
The second round of Aviva Premiership games take places this weekend and while it may only be Round Two, Saracens have laid down an early marker in the 2012/13 Premiership season.
The tournament organizers couldn’t have wished for a better start to the season with an action packed game between London Wasps and Harlequins at Twickenham. Harlequins secured a narrow victory after being more than twenty points behind with twenty minutes left to play. Ten tries were scored in total in this match.
The Aviva Premiership gets underway this weekend, with the first match kicking off at 1500 South African time on Saturday at Twickenham. There will be a further four matches on Saturday with the final game for the round due to kick off at 1500 South African time on Sunday.
The regular rugby season officially kicks off in the UK and Ireland in just over two weeks time when the Aviva Premiership and RaboDirect Pro12 league games start. However, the clubs have been busy with their pre-season preparations and a number of friendly matches were played this past weekend.
Aviva Premiership Rugby newcomers have been given a tough draw as they face nine-time English champions Leicester Tigers at home on the opening weekend.
This is the third article in our series looking at players from the northern hemisphere who may be lesser known on the international stage. Previously we looked at two wingers, Harry Robinson and Tim Visser, who at that time had yet to start an official test for their country.
We now feature a forward, England flanker Tom Johnson. The other difference is that by now Johnson has actually played two tests for England, against South Africa.
Harlequins captain Chris Robshaw was the proud man who was able to hoist the Aviva Premiership trophy following Harlequins victory over Leicester in the final not long completed at Twickenham. England captain Robshaw played a big part in the win and was good value for the super try he scored.
As reported earlier in the week the finals of the Aviva Premiership and the RaboDirect Pro12 take place this weekend. They should both be really high intensity games with the teams competing quite evenly matched.
This weekend saw the semi finals of the two competitions being played. The final scores were fairly close in all but one of the matches.
The Aviva Premiership ‘dream team’ for the season 2011/2012 has recently been announced. On Tuesday evening, in London, various awards for this season were handed out with the accolade for player of the season going to Harlequins, and England, captain, Chris Robshaw.
This weekend sees some big rugby action up north. Firstly there is, as earlier reported on this site, the penultimate tournament of the 2011/2012 IRB Sevens competition in Glasgow. While on the ‘domestic’ front there will be the last round of the league stage of the RaboDirect Pro 12 and the Aviva Premiership.
World Cup-winning South African captain John Smit is set to play more regularly at prop for his new club, Saracens.
It is becoming increasingly obvious that Springbok coach, Peter de Villiers, is starting to push the panic buttons.