We will all be
Key signings:
3rd, will lose sf
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10th
Key signings: loss:
7th
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1st, will lose final
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12th 8th 4th, will lose sf
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6th
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9th
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2nd, champions
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5th
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11th THE aftershocks from the Lions series will be felt in the Aviva Premiership when it kicks off tonight, with champions Exeter sensing it may lead to a more defence-orientated league.
Last season, the two most potent attacking sides, Wasps and Exeter, fought out a dramatic final decided in extra-time as try-scoring trumped try-prevention. It temporarily exploded the myth that defence ultimately wins titles.
But the prevailing lesson from New Zealand in the summer, according to Rob Baxter, is that defence is on its way back and the instincts of the Chiefs’ shrewd director of rugby tend to be spot on.
“I definitely think you will be seeing more and more teams use defence as a pressure weapon. That’s what you saw in New Zealand and the Lions had a great deal of success with it,” said Baxter. “They put pressure on their basic skills and you saw that, under pressure, the All Blacks RUGBY CORRESPONDENT are human and make just as many mistakes as everybody else. You’ve seen Saracens be very effective with it and we like to think we have decent line speed in defence. You will see more and more teams in the Premiership use it as a way of breaking up teams who want to attack in a fluid manner.” Pragmatism is a sobering launch message for a league that has lost one of its finest attacking showmen in Wasps’ Kurtley Beale, but there are some exciting incomers. Watch out for the giant Fijian wing Napolioni Nalaga at London Irish and the new Northampton half-backs Cobus Reinach and Piers Francis, a novelty as an