Round Nineteen of the Premiership and some great games as we call three wrong. Gloucester doing for Quins, and Leicester Tigers smashing Northampton Saints whilst London Irish and Sales Sharks fought out a draw.
So one game on Friday night and it was a corker as Gloucester inflicted yet another defeat to Harlequins 17-15. Almost 15,000 saw the home team turn round a 3-12 deficit at the break to take the win and ensure that Quins stay out of a home semi spot.
Saturday and first up Bath thumped London Welsh 40-25. Welsh worked hard throughout to be in this but Bath always seemed to have another gear 20-9 at half-time and the bonus point in the second period. next to Adams Park where till 15 minutes the home side lead 13-0, and at the break 13-8. Partly thanks to a Christian Wade interception Saracens however were inflicting penalties through pressure and Wasps could not retain ball so the game slipped away for Saracens to win 13-22 and deny the home side even a losing bonus point. So to Northampton and Leicester Tigers power play.
Tuilagi smashing Foden
Powering to the line!
8-36 and the crowd streaming out before the final whistle showed the gulf in class between the sides this weekend. 3-12 at the break just grew and grew as Saints could find no answer to the all round power of Tigers. Last for saturday and Worcester Warriors had their chances but went down to Exeter Chiefs 18-24. This was 6-14 at the break and the lead changed sides a couple of times before Chiefs settled it late on.
Sunday and the crowds flocked to Reading for London Irish to host Sale Sharks in a high scoring and exciting game full of missed tackles which ended in a 33-33 draw. This was nip and tuck all the way having turned round at half-time at 20-22.
So three wrong calls this week. Here are all the results:
Results Round Nineteen
Fri 29 Mar 19:45 Gloucester 17-15 Harlequins Kingsholm ESPN
Sat 30 Mar 14:15 Bath 40-25 London Welsh Recreation Ground
Sat 30 Mar 15:00 London Wasps 13-22 Saracens Adams Park
Sat 30 Mar 15:00 Northampton Saints 8-36 Leicester Tigers Franklin’s Gardens Sky
Sat 30th Mar 15:00 Worcester Warriors 18-24 Exeter Chiefs Sixways
Sun 31st Mar 14:15 London Irish 33-33 Sale Sharks Madejski Stadium ESPN
European Rugby is back for a couple of weeks so some tough calls to make, but here are our predictions as usual in bold:
Fixtures Round Twenty
All times UK
Fri 12 Apr 19:45 Sale Sharks v Gloucester Salford City Stadium ESPN
Sat 13 Apr 14:15 Harlequins v Bath Twickenham Stoop ESPN
Sat 13 Apr 15:00 Exeter Chiefs v London Irish Sandy Park
Sun 14 Apr 15:00 London Welsh v Northampton Saints Kassam Stadium
Sun 14 Apr 15:00 Saracens v Worcester Warriors Allianz Park
Sun 14 Apr 15:45 Leicester Tigers v London Wasps Welford Road Sky
Highlights itv4 Sunday 21:00 itv1 Mon 00:30 ESPN Monday 23:30