What a wonderful way to kick off round one of the 2017/18 Aviva Premiership with every game having bonus points with nine (seven try-bonus points & two losing bonus points) of the 12 teams getting a bonus point. There were also 50 tries scored with a record of 11 of the 12 teams scored three tries or more.
If you for some reason missed all the action, this is all the excitement you missed.
Gloucester Rugby 28 – 21 Exeter Chiefs
I’ve predicted both Gloucester and Exeter will be struggling this season for different reasons, but I honestly thought Chiefs would walk away for this opening game of the season with a tough win.
I couldn’t be more wrong, fair play to the Cherry and White’s and their new coach Johan Ackermann showing passion and grit to hand the champions an awakening that it could be a hard season ahead.
Things began well for the Chiefs; No.8 Sam Simmonds opened their account within the first five minutes ending a sweeping move.
With limited possession, Gloucester was able to reply from close range with second row Jeremy Thrush. Before Simmonds once touching down this time showing his strength and pace.
Then just before half-time, Thrush’s long arms dotted down through a ruck to make the score line 14-14 at half time.
The beginning of the second half couldn’t have started off any worst for Exeter losing Gareth Steenson to the sin bin in the opening minute.
The cherry and whites couldn’t take a major advantage of the extra man, but they did take the lead for the first time through a Ben Morgan try. For only Olly Woodburn to tie things up again.
In the final moments of the game, the Kingsholm faithful spurred their team into the 22 and the city of Gloucester erupted as debutant Jason Woodward crossed over.
Newcastle Falcons 35 – 8 Worcester Warriors
Newcastle was one of the success stories last season finishing eighth, however, this could beat that this season. Not only will they get into the play-off spot for the Champions Cup, but they cemented their place as a dark horse for the top four with this impressive win.
With five minutes on the clock, Alex Tait crossed the white wash then Sonatane Takulua five points from the boot to give the home side a 10-0 lead after 20 minutes.
After 28 minutes, Worcester had issues losing their British and Irish Lions Ben Te’o, but at least they finally got their first points on the board thanks to a Tom Heathcote’s penalty.
It was 10-3 until the 47th minute where Josh Adams forced his way to give the Warriors their first try of the season to make it 10-8.
The Falcons were able to extend and double their lead with a Takulua 25-metre kick and Bobby Vickers try with the bonus points scored by the scrum-half.
The home side rounded off the win with Kyle Cooper and Juan Pablo Socino touching down to get the bonus point.
Saracens 55 – 24 Northampton Saints
Saracens have put the whole Aviva Premiership on watch after battering Northampton in the first 40 minutes in front of the Twickenham crowd in the first match in the London Double Header.
Sarries needed just 28 minutes to clinch the try bonus point with winger Sean Maitland taking 13 minutes to score his hat trick.
Nine tries were scored by the home side, Maitland (x3), Brad Barritt, Richard Wigglesworth, Alex Lozowski, Vincent Koch, Schalk Brits and Ben Spencer.
ACTION SHOT | @SchalkBrits crossing the line taking Saracens to 4️⃣6️⃣ points! pic.twitter.com/stzW8bk3ex— Saracens Rugby Club (@Saracens) 2 September 2017
Saints did decide to show some fight back in the second half getting three tries of their own with young Lewis Ludlam getting Northampton’s first try of the season and Tom Wood crossing the whitewash twice.
However, this scoreline and first half performance should course worry for the Franklin’s Gardens faithful, but let’s hope they turn it around before the Midlands derby against Leicester Tigers this weekend.
As for Mark McCall’s men, this was the perfect, dominate display they would have wanted.
Wasps 50 – 35 Sale Sharks
Over in Coventry, Saracens weren’t the only team to score 50 points, Wasps continue their try scoring dominates with Dan Robson becoming only the second scrum-half in the league’s history to score four tries.
It only took two minutes for Robson to touch down and then clinching his hat-trick within 32 minutes before adding a fourth three minutes into the second half.
No surprise who the media asked to speak to after today's game - just the 4 tries in 43 minutes @d_jrobson 🔥https://t.co/CYZDgCRK3C pic.twitter.com/rTzwDQFAfT— Wasps (@WaspsRugby) 2 September 2017
Wasps other scorers came in the form of Christian Wade, Will Rowlands and Alex Rieder and 15 points from the boot of Jimmy Gopperth.
This by no means Sale was sitting back as they showed their own attacking display and grabbing a try bonus point with Byron McGuigan, Ben Curry, Denny Solomona, Francois de Klerk and Josh Strauss.
London Irish 39 – 29 Harlequins
The biggest surprise of round one comes from the second match at the London Double Header at Twickenham with London Irish picking up their first win since the 2015/16 season and both teams secured a try bonus point.
Tommy Bell kicked 24 points and one of Irish’s four tries and was joined on the scoresheet by the club’s all-time try-scorer Topsy Ojo, No.8 Ofisa Treviranus and Brendan McKibbin clinched the win.
— London Irish (@LiRFC) 4 September 2017
Quins replied with four tries of their own through Joe Marchant and within a space of 14 minutes trio of quick tries from Marland Yarde, Danny Care and Charlie Walker helped reduce the gap to three points.
Before McKibbin late try sealed the perfect return to Aviva Premiership for Nick Kennedy’s men.
Half-time | Irish lead 21-10 at the London Double Header with Marchant crossing for Quins. #LIRvHAR pic.twitter.com/nw214eMmP8— Harlequins 🃏 (@Harlequins) 2 September 2017
Leicester Tigers 23 – 27 Bath Rugby
The only game where not one team scored more than four tries, but we did see Bath Rugby’s favourite colour yellow three times to the most exciting ending to round one.
It was also a game of lots of handing errors (understandably) by both teams and the nervy game didn’t get into steam until the 20th minute.
It was a welcome return to Aviva Premiership for Manu Tuilagi scoring the first try of the game, but Tigers slim 8-0 lead didn’t last long as Max Clark’s double and Semesa Rokoduguni.
It wasn’t until Bath got their first sin bin, with Kahn Fotuali’i going off for a high tackle, that Leicester got a footing back into the match thanks to Jonny May getting this first try of the match.
Then Bath captain Matt Garvey got the second yellow card for a high tackle and May crossed the whitewash to close the gap to 27-23.
As Fotuali’i finished this sin bin and coming back onto the pitch, Matt Banahan thought Bath did so well with 13 men, he got himself sin binned. With the final lineout of the match, Leicester lost the lineout and Bath were able to secure a critical win.
However, both teams will need to up their games if they want to win next weekend as the Tigers take on Midlands rivals Northampton and Bath are at home to the free scoring Saracens.
Vote 🗳️ | Manu Tuilagi is nominated for the #TryoftheWeek for his score against Bath. Vote for Manu at https://t.co/z043RBPbJi #LEIvBAT pic.twitter.com/jSgWCN8UzT— Leicester Tigers (@LeicesterTigers) 4 September 2017
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