5 Things We Learned In The Premiership: Round 7

Wasps will benefit most

They beat Leicester last week and Gloucester this week and Wasps seem to be on a bit of a roll at the moment. It helps that they have only a couple of players away on international duty so they have been able to name near full-strength squads for every game and Saturday’s win made it four from four in all competitions. Gloucester on the other hand are third from bottom in the league and have only two wins to their name. Bleak times at Kingsholm.

It’s all about O’Connor

And quite rightly so. Bad boy James has only been in the country a few days, probably doesn’t know any of his teammate’s names and had a hangover, yet he was the best player on the pitch against Northampton. He was quality from the back and made more metres than anyone else. Give him time to adapt, give the players time to work out how he plays and wait till Marland Yarde is back and he could take London Irish soaring up the table.

 

Is Strettle the answer?

Most people are talking about Christain Wade at the moment and who can blame them? The boy has electric feet, pace like a cheetah and can hold his own in defence yet he isn’t the leading try scorer in the Premiership this season. That accolade belongs to David Strettle who has six tries to his name now and seems to be one of the forgotten men on English rugby. He has international experience and due to the international form of Chris Ashton and Marland Yarde’s average debut, why not take a punt on him?

Newcastle’s impotence

They may be sitting in ninth place and are probably in a better position than most would have predicted at the start of the season but  Newcastle are sitting at the bottom of the ‘points scored’ table. They got thumped 40-3 by Saracens at the weekend and they have managed a measly 69 points from 7 games, less than 10 a match. If Dean Richards wants his side to stay in the Premiership this season then they had better start scoring points and sharpish. 
 

Front Mo Union

Dylan Hartley cops a lot of criticism for some of his actions but there is no denying his intentions now that the season to show just how bad men are at growing facial hair has started. Dylan has started a donation page entitled ‘Front Mo Union’ entitled to raise money for Movember and to promote the awareness of prostate cancer. If you wish to donate, you can do so here http://uk.movember.com/team/1023541