Nobody doubts the attacking flair he has at his disposal but his forwards will need that sort of grit against the likes of Leicester and they have sometimes been found wanting in that department in recent times. Perhaps the return of the old war-horse, Jon Hall, to the coaching staff is already taking effect. Leicester bounced back against London Irish with a routine win after a poor performance against Saracens last week but their Director of Rugby, Dean Richards, was predictably unimpressed. One day, hopefully soon, we ll perform for the full 80 minutes and somebody will take a real beating, was his comment for public consumption. Neil Back reached yet another milestone by becoming the first forward to score 50 tries in the Premiership.
Wasps now look the best of the rest.
After losing their first two matches they have bounced back superbly despite continuing injury problems. Rob Henderson was forced into action at No. 10 against Gloucester and scored three tries but has no intentions of changing position permanently. I m probably the game s first crash ball fly-half, he joked afterwards. Only Rotherham are below them still with just two bonus points to their account after losing at home again, this time to injury ravaged Northampton. Ominously the strain appears to be showing in the board-room as well as on the field just when they all need to be pulling together sad, after so much hard work over the past few seasons.