It’s time for our Monday wrap on who has their name in lights and who is making headlines for all the wrong reasons after the weekend.
THEY’RE ON FIRE!
Marcus Smith: Harlequins have been a brutal watch for far too long, but it was heartwarming on the first afternoon after the clocks went back in the UK to see the Londoners relight their fire and show they are not yet also-rans in this season’s Prem. The league’s bottom club rediscovered their razzle and their talisman was Mr Harlequins himself, shooting out the lights in his 200th appearance for them.
All the trademark attacking brio that makes the out-half such an entertainer was on show, but we most liked his not to yield an inch attitude in defence as personified when denying the dawdling Max Malins what seemed a certain try. It was a lesson for all players to never give up on a seemingly lost cause and always give chase.
Kingsholm: The famed Gloucester ground had long been living on borrowed time as regards its intimidating reputation. For far too long, the Cherry and Whites’ stadium was too nice a destination for visiting teams as a soft on-pitch underbelly would invariably sap the enthusiasm on the terraces, but no more.
George Skivington’s lot are now a transformed side, full of gnarl and fizz, and in new signing Jac Morgan, the Kingsholm faithful have a Batman-like superhero to swoon over. Their Robin, Dewi Lake, was unavailable last Friday, but his absence wasn’t a hindrance for a fired-up team that now fully believes in its capabilities at a packed-out stadium. Just ask beaten Bath.
St Helen’s: It was January 2024 when John Barclay whipped up Ospreys fans into a frenzy with a withering comment about a truck in Bridgend used for spectator standing that he felt made “a mockery of the league”. Two and a half years later, the Welsh region threw open the doors to its redeveloped facility in Swansea and despite stormy conditions, the coastal St Helen’s setting did the trick.
Ospreys picked off United Rugby Championship rivals Dragons and amid an atmosphere described as special, the occasion went down in the books as one in the eye for the WRU who are looking to shut down either Ospreys or Scarlets. Given the upheaval they have had to deal with amid the controversy, the four-time Celtic League champions have certainly rebounded impressively and there are plenty more feisty arguments to be had about their survival. They won’t fold quietly.
Christian Wade: When Chris Ashton enjoyed his career twilight running up the scores at Leicester, few would have imagined his all-time Prem try record would be successfully chased down. At the time, Wade was away in France, having returned to union there following his exit from American football. An eventual Prem return to Gloucester didn’t set off fireworks and a switch to league seemed to end his chances of reeling in Ashton.
However, his gamble in joining struggling Newcastle has handsomely paid off. Last season was tremendously difficult, but the Red Bull club has now literally discovered its wings and Wade’s sixth try of the campaign has him level with Ashton’s 101 mark. Newcastle beating Sale comfortably was a timely uplift for them, and it will be intriguing to see what they can now achieve over the winter alongside Wade surely settling the try record.
Sharks: What a difference a year and the installation of a new head coach can make. The outlook was ugly this time 12 months ago for the South African franchise as they were winless after four URC outings, already tailed off in 14th place and in dire need of sacking John Plumtree. That change eventually came with JP Pietersen taking over and the current URC standings highlight the transformation.
Four rounds deep into 2026/27, the Durban club are in fifth place and only four points off top spot with three wins, the latest coming at Cardiff where six tries were scored. Of course, they won’t be satisfied, especially as they trail national rivals Bulls and Stormers on the ladder by a point, but they are developing a consistency marking them out as a team to be reckoned with.
Leicester’s pack: Saturday’s opening half washout at Welford Road had little in it to quicken the pulse. Tigers were drowning in the puddles and 3-7 down in an East Midlands derby that hadn’t caught fire. Then came the half-time whistle schemozzle, unwittingly provoked by Northampton, and with the likes of Henry Pollock bullied up the steps on the way to the dressing room, you sensed the second half would be a very different story and it was.
Leicester returned and they simply monstered their rivals, gobbling them up with a defiant pack performance and spitting them out with an emphatic bonus earning 25-0 second half outcome. In an era where rugby is supposedly a 23-man game, Geoff Parling ignored the bench and it was only after Freddie Steward’s 72nd-minute try that the cavalry was called on. By then, Saints had been pulped by a ferocious starting pack.
Dan Sheehan at eight: Eyebrows were raised in Ireland when Leo Cullen picked his world-class hooker at No.8 and the outcome of their derby with Munster – a hard-fought 24-18 win – meant the experiment was a success. Injuries and a lack of faith in the remaining options resulted in the decision that Leinster would be best served by repositioning Sheehan and starting Ronan Kelleher at hooker, and the stats reflected positively.
The previous time at home, versus Cardiff on October 10, Sheehan was restricted to six carries and just a two-metre gain as the hooker, but a very different panorama as the starting eight last Saturday resulted in a chart-topping 17 carries for 60 metres. Sheehan has always had baller skills and he didn’t let his team down. However, rather than clamour for a repeat of the experiment, perhaps the question that should be asked is why Leinster can’t get the best out of his ball-carrying abilities as their No.2.
Table-topping Scots: Are we in the foothills of an uplifting season for Scottish club rugby or is the sight of their unbeaten teams filing the top two spots in the URC simply a strange kink in the early part of the new season? Time will tell on that score but for now, the ladder has the revitalised Edinburgh at No.1 with Glasgow, a franchise with a more reputable consistency, a point behind in second.
Given that we know how potent the Warriors can be, we’ll dwell on Edinburgh here. Monsoon conditions meant they were only 5-3 up at the interval against the grieving Lions on Friday night. In previous years, they would have struggled to figure things out at the break, but there appears to be greater intelligence about them now and winning the second half 26-7 was impressive.
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COLD AS ICE!
Irish derby allegation: Controversy is nothing new in league matches between Leinster and Munster. Go back to the very first final of the Celtic League in December 2001 and you have the red card shown to Eric Miller for kicking Anthony Foley in the balls. 25 years later and the outcome of their latest URC clash has been mired by the allegation that Gavin Coombes was “grabbed in the groin area” in the first half, a claim the TMO couldn’t assist with.
At the time of publishing, we’re still awaiting clarification from the citing commissioner on whether or not Leinster have a case to answer. Coombes stuck his head above the parapet a year ago with his Croke Park celebrations after a Munster win, so he was always going to get attention from Leinster on Saturday. However, the 48-hour window afforded to the citing boss has meant rugby’s dark arts have been the main post-derby talking point rather than the match itself. That’s a pity. Perhaps the window should be reduced so that this type of negative PR doesn’t have to linger as long as it does.
Saracens: Pull up a chair and uncork a bottle… the Saracens show is certainly becoming a soap opera to forensically follow this term. The underwhelming finish to the Mark McCall era has now carried over into life under Brendan Venter, their wine consultant or should that be ‘whine’. They’re certainly not in dire straits, but the crossover has been undeniably uncomfortable.
Their third defeat in five outings would have been palatable had they properly put it up to Harlequins, but the 18-point loss was a thumping. Quins were supposed to be the club low on confidence, but you wouldn’t have known that with the way the first half played out at The Stoop. Is a winter of discontent on the horizon at the StoneX?
Racing and Clermont: When it comes to naming French clubs respected on this side of the Channel, Racing and Clermont rate highly as they are the two Top 14 clubs most unlucky to never win the Champions Cup. 92 lost out in 2016, 2018 and 2020, with Clermont doing likewise in 2013, 2015 and 2017.
This prominence, though, has greatly faded, and the fall-out now extends to domestic form where Clermont are drifting in 12th and Racing 13th after just two wins each in the opening seven rounds of Top 14 matches. Clermont were ambushed at 14th and last place Vannes at the weekend and Racing surrendered at home to Montpellier, setting up next Saturday’s head-to-head as a compelling battle of the fallen giants.
England women: Like the London buses, two defeats have arrived back-to-back for John Mitchell’s world champions. Not since 2016 had the English endured an LL sequence, yet here we are, a pair of losses inflicted by Canada over successive weekends to end a 41-game unbeaten streak.
That’s quite a change to the enthusiastic chatter surrounding Mitchell’s side, but the calendar can help them out here. If they were left without a match until their Six Nations title defence, there would be plenty of chat about what has suddenly happened to their usual good fortune. However, Friday’s tour-ending game against the USA provides the welcome opportunity to get back in the W.