Category Archive: -Rugby Union Leagues-

• Bath 32-33 Newcastle
• Newcastle hold off Bath fightback

Just when it appeared as if stunning individual tries from the England outcasts Semesa Rokoduguni and Jonathan Joseph would prove enough to complete a Bath comeback, up cropped Mark Wilson – another overlooked by Eddie Jones – to clinch what was in effect the match-winning score for Newcastle.

Joel Hodgson still had to convert but it was Wilson’s close-range effort four minutes from time that allowed the replacement fly-half to kick Newcastle to a third away win in a row. It had appeared as if they would have to settle for two losing bonus points, despite having led 19-0 at one stage, but a late siege finally saw them crack Bath’s defence.

Related: Marcus Smith shines for Harlequins but Leicester Tigers turn the tide

Related: Saracens’ stroll to victory over Sale marred by Billy Vunipola injury

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• Harlequins 28-31 Leicester
• Eddie Jones watches 18-year-old fly-half impress before injury

Eddie Jones was among the spectators a day after the England head coach named the Harlequins fly-half Marcus Smith in the squad for a training camp in Oxford this week and overlooked the home side’s prop Kyle Sinckler. He had reflected the previous day that the rugby in the Premiership this season had been a mixture of the good, the bad and the ugly, and here he was treated to all three in one sitting.

The 18-year-old Smith was having a growing influence on the game when he suffered a knee injury nine minutes into the second half having helped his side regain the lead. His departure, along with that of the England flanker Chris Robshaw, was a turning point in a game neither side managed to control.

Related: Saracens’ stroll to victory over Sale marred by Billy Vunipola injury

Related: Mark Wilson swoops for Newcastle in thrilling last-gasp victory at Bath

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• Saracens 41-13 Sale
• England No8 leaves field in distress after catching knee in awkward position

It is innocuous afternoons such as this – a routine maximum haul at home for the European champions – that can inflict the most damage. Billy Vunipola left the field just before half-time in evident pain, unable to put any pressure on his right knee. With England due to gather in Oxford tomorrow for a three-day camp in advance of the November internationals, the timing is particularly unfortunate – for player, club and country. And all this after a return last week from the injury that had cost him his place on the Lions tour. Early indications, too, were that he was back in fine fettle.

Vunipola went down when his knee was caught in an awkward position as he helped his team-mates defend a maul on their tryline. Saracens saw off the threat without too much trouble, gradually forcing Sale back with each collision until Juan Figallo won a relieving penalty, but the true extent of the damage became apparent only then, Vunipola clearly in much distress and helped off the field after a few minutes’ treatment.

Related: Carl Hogg questions Wayne Barnes as Worcester lose to Gloucester

Related: Marcus Smith shines for Harlequins but Leicester Tigers turn the tide

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• Gloucester 24-19 Worcester
• Worcester fight back but home side hang on in exciting finale

After their narrow defeat to Gloucester Worcester’s head coach, Carl Hogg, was left to rue an early yellow card for Donncha O’Callaghan. Hogg described referee Wayne Barnes’s decision as “a tough call” and Worcester conceded 17 points while he was off the field before fighting back.

Hogg said: “We slipped off one or two tackles during that 10-minute period and it cost us dear. Wayne Barnes has ruled that Donncha wasn’t back 10 metres when they took the quick tap and go. By the letter of the law he’s probably right. I think it is a tough call in the first five minutes of the game and it cost us dear.”

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• Harlequins prop escapes censure for antics against Wasps at Ricoh Arena
• England and Lions team-mates had to be pulled apart

Joe Marler has been reprimanded for his spat with James Haskell during Harlequins’ victory against Wasps but the England prop is not facing a suspension.

Marler has been given a citing commissioner’s warning for his role in the incident – pulling at Haskell’s scrum cap and squirting his England and Lions team‑mate with water – in an acknowledgement that the 27-year-old was deserving of a yellow card at the time. Marler’s actions were considered to be contrary to good sportsmanship.

Related: Premiership, Pro14, international and Premier 15s rugby union talking points

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Gloucester must learn less is more, Denny Solomona presses his England case and the tussle to wear the No13 jersey in the autumn internationals hots up

When Gloucester’s head coach, Johan Ackermann, was asked if his honeymoon was over after a second successive defeat, he replied that it had never started. The club remain the Premiership’s enigma, capable of defeating the champions one week and then folding against a team looking for their first win the next. Leicester were expected to start with fury after meekly succumbing to Northampton the week before but Gloucester were unprepared for the onslaught, conceding an early sucker try on their way to a 21-point deficit after 20 minutes. They played with intent and made a number of line breaks, but moves broke down because of a lack of familiarity, overambition and poor handling as a heavy penalty count against them prompted attacks from deep. The ingredients are there but over the years they have been thrown together to serve up an unappetising mix. Less will be more for Ackermann. Paul Rees

Related: Wasps call for crackdown after England team-mates Marler and Haskell fight

Related: Damp squib in Philadelphia exposes distance of American rugby dream

Related: Marcus Smith helps Harlequins end Wasps’ unbeaten run in feisty affair

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• James Haskell sent off for grabbing Marler by the throat
• Wasps’ Dai Young incensed by Joe Marler behaviour

Wasps have called for rugby’s authorities to take further action following Sunday’s angry flare-up between the Lions and England team-mates James Haskell and Joe Marler. Haskell was sent to the sin-bin for grabbing Marler by the throat with both hands but Wasps’ director of rugby, Dai Young, believes the sport needs to crack down on the players who spark such incidents.

Quins subsequently went on to win a niggly Premiership game 24-21, inflicting Wasps’ first defeat of the season, but Young’s sympathies lay with Haskell after Marler, following a prolonged tussle between the pair on the ground, apparently squirted water at his England colleague’s face. “If someone rips your hat off and squirts water in your face, what do you expect?” said Young.

Related: Marcus Smith kickstarts Harlequins in hard-fought win over Wasps

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• Wasps 21-24 Harlequins
• Marcus Smith kicks four penalties and conversion

Joe Marler goaded James Haskell into a yellow card as Harlequins squeezed past Wasps 24-21 at the Ricoh Arena.

Quins inflicted Wasps’ first Aviva Premiership loss in Coventry since a 26-16 defeat by Saracens in December 2015 in a bad-tempered affair.

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• Newcastle 7-29 Saracens
• Farrell kicks five penalties and a conversion in Philadelphia

On a hot evening at the home of Philadelphia’s soccer team, a Saracens side featuring six 2017 Lions won “away” against Newcastle, with a try by Chris Wyles, a penalty try at the death and 17 points from Owen Farrell’s boot, to end the two teams’ week in Pennsylvania.

Mark McCall’s double European champions are back on track after a defeat at Bath. Dean Richards’ Falcons, who had a breakaway Vereniki Goneva try converted by Sonatene Takulua, will regroup, deal with jet lag and prepare for their own trip to the Rec.

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• Leicester 24-10 Gloucester
• Tigers score three early tries for first Premiership win of the season

A contest between two of English rugby’s heavyweights, both scrambling to retrieve their reputations, was light and frothy. The Tigers, bidding to avoid three straights defeats at the start of a Premiership campaign for the first time, effectively won the match in the opening quarter, when they scored three tries.

The England scrum-half Ben Youngs claimed the first two, the opening one after he took a quick penalty 10 metres out while the Gloucester flanker Lewis Ludlow was stuffing his gumshield into a sock in readiness for what he anticipated was going to be a kick at goal.

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