WE’VE GOT TO UP OUR GAME

Like many of you i spent an instructive weekend at home channel hopping between the Gallagher Premiership and the final Rugby Championship games and what a churn of thoughts and emotions that resulted in.

First, up here in the north we had better start smelling the coffee because much of the rugby in the Championship has been of an entirely different level and intensity to what we are seeing every week in our league.

england’s best players must now start raising their levels again, starting hopefully with the first round of european matches this weekend.

And the other thing that hit me from the South Africa game against New Zealand is how a raw coach can impact disastrously on a game.

That was an horrendous call by Rassie erasmus to bring the brilliant Malcolm Marx and Faf de klerk off with eight minutes left when the Boks were leading 30-18. New Zealand can score 20 points in eight minutes, the match is never won until the final whistle. erasmus should have spent a humbling Saturday night apologising to his players.

Meanwhile, back home the first game i watched was Bath against exeter. Again, i was amazed all the chat from Todd Blackadder before the game seemed to be about the future and grooming Stuart Hooper as the next coach in two years.

Forget that, the only thing that ever really matters is winning the next game.

There was some muddy thinking by Bath as well in the closing minutes when they needed at least eight points to gain a losing bonus point and wasted an inordinate amount of time organising a fruitless lineout.

On Saturday night it was Harlequins against Saracens, which was a full-throated affair but there was still way too much box kicking for my liking. Yes, it was wet but both sides showed, when they became more ambitious, that it was possible to play ball in hand in the conditions.

Saracens finished strongly to win and it was good to see Billy Vunipola enjoy such a fine allround game. A hat tip to Billy as well for telling the ref he had knocked on when everybody seemed to think he had scored before half-time.

it is clear that Saracens and exeter are in a completely different class to the rest of the league, which i would suggest is slightly worrying. Leicester, Wasps, Bath and Gloucester must find a way of closing that gap.