Gallagher PREM Review - Round 8

Gallagher PREM Rugby was filled with the joys of Christmas as players returned from their few days off for the festivities to entertain bumper crowds of fans burning off their food and drink, while escaping the family for a few hours.

The round didn’t disappoint with fantastic fare on offer across all five matches. Tries galore and inventive play were great late gifts for match going fans, as the PREM signed off with memorable clashes across the board.

Here’s what caught ATR’s team as the PREM waved goodbye to 2025…

Sale Sharks 43-17 Harlequins

It’s amazing the effect two players can have on a team, and, yes, those two players are the world class George Ford and Tom Curry, but it was more than just what they did and more how they gave Sale a sense of calm and drive.

Ford, as ever, was the general, and by the time he took his leave on 55 minutes, such was Sale’s control that Father Christmas would have done a solid job at 10, let alone an established PREM performer as Rob du Preez.

Curry lasted the match at number eight and was ably assisted by Jacques Vermeulen and Ernst van Rhyn on the flanks. Both were excellent. Van Rhyn was a ball of energy in his first showing of the season, while Vermeulen reproduced the showing that earned talk of an England call-up during his Exeter Chiefs days.

Quins will wonder what has happened, but again they lacked power in attack and defence. They miss Alex Dombradnt’s carrying, something Chandler Cunningham South has yet to replicate. They also have a habit of switching off at wrong moments, just ask Marcus Smith’s whose error before Raffi Quirke’s try would have made it onto one of those rugby blooper videos that filled many a stocking in years past.

Bristol Bears 36-27 Newcastle Red Bulls

For a while it appeared that we were set for a Christmas miracle, as Newcastle Red Bulls grabbed their first point of the season, but before the idea of all five crossed the mind, or even a losing bonus point, the ghosts of Christmas present haunted them once more.

No sooner had Oliver Spencer crossed for the Red Bulls fourth try that means they won’t end the year pointless and opened up a 10 point lead, than Ellis Genge came crashing through the Newcastle defence to give his side the field position from which they scored their fourth try.

Kalaveti Ravouvou’s score came three minutes after Spencer’s effort and reflected a lack of concentration after scoring. When solid defence was needed, it wasn’t there. More tries rained in after Newcastle, again, failed to live with an uplift in intensity. All known, all being worked on in England’s northeast, and something that lone point will help give energy to.

Gloucester 21-30 Saracens

If Saracens fans were in any doubt why their club had brought in Gloucester scrumhalf Tomos Williams, then they would have been erased after his showing at Stone X Stadium.

The Welshman pulled out his box of tricks and was a menace with his pace of pass and swiftness of feet throughout his 72 minutes on the pitch. His quick tap caught Saracens’ defence napping to start the move that finished with Freddie Thomas crashing over. Then came his moment of magic, tying opposite number Ivan van Zyl up in knots before a deft, looped pass that Arthur Clark accepted to score.

Van Zyl has been a solid performer for Saracens, and he took his try well here. Williams though, is an upgrade and someone among the world’s leading performers in his position. Saracens Director of Rugby Mark McCall has talked about his teams rebuild, and in Williams it looks like he has a very important piece.

Bath 21-41 Northampton Saints

If you’re going to underline your credentials as potential champions, then going away to the team that succeeded you as PREM winners, with four key players rotated out, and winning by 20 points is one way of doing so.

With Fin Smith, Alex Mitchell, Fraser Dingwall, and Alex Coles back home with their feet up and a couple of mince pies, Saints Director of Rugby Phil Dowson set the understudies the task of matching them, and boy how they responded.

Anthony Belleau has already shown his class as Smith’s replacement, and he knocked over a penalty and four conversions. Archie McParland sniped around the fringes and delivered quick ball like Mitchell and even slipped through a gap for a try. In midfield Rory Hutchinson and Tommy Freeman formed a new-look centre partnership. Freeman took the headlines by scoring a hattrick from the position he has said he wants to eventually play, with the added bonus of doing so against the current first choice England outside centre, Ollie Lawrence.

Bath will lick their wounds and work out how they failed to cope with Northampton’s speed and intensity. They will need to do so quickly, as second place Exeter Chiefs are in town next Saturday, aiming to lay down a marker for their title ambitions.

Exeter Chiefs 24-10 Leicester Tigers

Talking of the Chiefs, they kept up their run, albeit without claiming all five points, which allowed Saints to reclaim top spot. It is Rob Baxter’s side’s third win on the bounce, after away victories over Sale Sharks and Saracens, and underlines that last year’s penultimate place finish was an aberration.

Victory was based on hard work. Flanker Ethan Roots led the way in defence with 19 tackles, Daffyd Jenkins made 17 of his own, and even Henry Slade and Harvey Skinner made 15 tackles each. Every way Leicester went, there was someone in a black shirt ready to set them on their backside.

They were no less eager in attack. Greg Fisilau carried 16 times, Bachuki Tchumbadze and Roots 14, while Will Rigg, Campbell Ridl, and Jenkins made nine. One of the most impressive came late on when Skinner broke, and rather than move the ball wide, opted to back himself. A dummy, and a change of pace took him to the line, where only Jack van Poortvliet’s tackle stopped him from scoring a memorable try. It has taken him a long time to establish himself as first choice Chiefs’ flyhalf, and now that he is, he is grabbing every opening. It is something that could be said for everyone at the club right now.