Category: Rugby Union

• Northampton struggle to meet offer

• Smith and Mitchell fit for Saints quarter-final

Underperforming Harlequins have confirmed the signing of England’s full-back George Furbank as they seek to rebuild their squad for next season.

The 29-year-old Furbank has been an influential figure at Northampton, the league leaders, but a lucrative contract offer has persuaded him to try his luck in south-west London.

Sarries need to bounce back from Bath hammering to stay in touch with the top when they face the Prem leaders

Prestigious Prem matches are scattered across the country on Saturday but none is more significant in the title race than Saracens’ date with Northampton at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

By the time Sarries and Saints run out for their evening kick-off in north London, Gloucester will have played Leicester at Villa Park, before Bristol meet Harlequins at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff.

• Bath 62-15 Saracens

• Finn Russell kicks 17 points and Arundell scores twice

Champions Bath left no doubt about their appetite for another title as they swept Saracens aside 62-15 at the Rec to regain top spot. The Londoners started brightly and did not lack effort but Bath’s killer instinct earned them nine tries in front of another capacity crowd.

Scotland’s Finn Russell kicked 17 points from seven conversions and a penalty. Russell and the club captain, Ben Spencer, were straight back into action after ultimately frustrating Six Nations campaigns with their respective countries.

After Six Nations, focus back on clubs with Saracens’ director of rugby saying ‘there’s everything to play for’

Remember the Prem? It’s been in hibernation almost as long as your tortoise. The last sighting of England’s elite men’s domestic league was on 24 January but now, finally, it is re-emerging from the shadows of the Six Nations, starting under the Friday night lights at the Rec where second-placed Bath are hosting sixth-placed Saracens.

It has certainly felt like a protracted hiatus, even if the lower-profile Prem Cup has taken up some slack. And with only eight regular season rounds remaining every would-be playoff contender has no choice but to hit the ground running. As Bath’s head coach, Johann van Graan, says: “It doesn’t really matter what you’ve done before. It’s about what you do going forward.”

Which, up to a point, is true. The race to make the top four still has six realistic candidates separated by only 11 points. Given the lack of relegation in a 10-team-league, though, the organisers will be praying for a compelling run-in with Sale Sharks, Gloucester, Harlequins and Newcastle Red Bulls already trailing the rest of the peloton.

The good news is that a spectacular Six Nations has raised rugby’s profile at just the right time. Next week is being billed as the Big Match Bonanza, with a triple-header of games scheduled for Villa Park, Cardiff’s Principality Stadium and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

By then a few more battered England squad members should be back out on the field, including the national captain Maro Itoje and Jamie George. Reducing the number of fallow Six Nations weeks from two to one may have assisted the tournament’s momentum but, inevitably, there is a knock-on effect. Ben Spencer, though, is back to lead Bath just six days after playing for England in Paris and Scotland’s Finn Russell, too, is straight in at 10. Guy Pepper and Sam Underhill are on the bench, while Elliot Daly starts for Sarries.

The two clubs, as it happens, are due to face off again at the Rec in the last 16 of the Champions Cup on Easter Saturday, which puts the ball squarely in Sarries’ court. Lose both fixtures plus next week’s league fixture at home to leaders Northampton and their season will be in real danger of petering out.

Bath, by contrast, are sitting reasonably pretty with no post-Six Nations injury issues and their finances stabilised by the new ownership alliance of James Dyson and Bruce Craig. Van Graan has been urging his trophy-chasing squad to think of the season like a train journey; no matter which individuals get on and off the important thing is to reach their collective destination. “We’ve got things we want to achieve through the rest of the season but we know we can only do it a week at a time,” stressed the head coach. “There’s a big chunk of the season lying ahead.”