‘Rugby has got to be better than this’
SALFORD STADIUM — When Danny Care and Marcus Smith were warming up as Harlequins’ substitutes during half-time of their away match at Sale on Sunday, and the scoreline was a stultifying 9-8 to the Sharks, you could huddle into your jacket against the swirling drizzle and confidently predict an opening up of the game to come. Wrong.
It was 12-11 to Sale by the end, and all the illustrious Care and Smith did when they came on was kick the ball like everyone else and watch the knock-ons and breakdown penalties pile up.
One mitigating explanation for England stars like Smith is they had either played 40 minutes or none at all in pre-season.
And then there was the weather… although it is not impossible to produce great stuff in the sloshing wet, and the Salford Stadium was no mudbath.
On the day of the autumn equinox, Sale’s director of rugby Alex Sanderson said if he had his time again he would favour summer rugby. “We’ve got to be better, the sport’s got to be better,” said Sanderson, with the crowd of 7,754 in mind. “A gritty, hard-fought win, with ‘win’ being the operative word. A slugfest stalemate. A bit scratchy, a bit tentative.”
The interesting bit for Quins followers is whether it was overall a step forward, using a tighter approach at a venue where they rarely win. They will surely be more daring at home to Newcastle next Saturday.
Curry’s unfulfilling comeback
It is becoming tempting to watch Tom Curry’s every appearance through your fingers, the same way Manu Tuilagi’s horror injury rate became a matter of trepidation on his behalf each time he played.
Curry lasted only 28 minutes of his first club start for Sale since the 2022-23 season – the England flanker featured in the World Cup a year ago, was then told he may have to retire due to a chronic hip injury, and eventually returned for a half-hour substitute appearance in Sale’s losing Premiership semi-final at Bath in June, followed by three more of the same on England’s summer tour.
On Sunday, Sanderson speculated Curry’s timing in making a tackle might have been naturally awry as his head struck Harlequins centre Lennox Anwanyu’s hip in the seventh minute. Curry flopped face-first to the floor – an action the independent match doctor must have assessed closely in deciding whether he could carry on – but after a 12-minute break Curry re-took the field.
At half-time Sale decided to withdraw him permanently. The 26-year-old Curry, who has taken a battering from head to toe in an excellent career, was smiling in the winning team huddle at the end, alongside his twin brother Ben.
But it was an unfulfilling comeback, even if Sanderson was predicting more England caps in November if Curry can play in three of the next four Sale matches. “He is surpassing all expectations, post-surgery. We just want to be really positive and believe the best-case scenario; the better truth.”
Saracens’ new wing stars
Saracens’ wings Rotimi Segun and Tobias Elliott took up where the retired Alex Lewington and Sean Maitland left off, with tries in an emphatic away win to disappointing Gloucester.
The departures of Owen Farrell and the Vunipola brothers from Sarries have been more widely noted, and i understands Saracens’ bosses are working to extend the contracts of Mark McCall and the other coaches to 2028, as part of the next phase of succession planning.
But the set-piece was working all right at Kingsholm to bring two tries for Andy Onyeama-Christie. When combined with the Scotland flanker’s strong pre-season showing, he is set to corner increased media coverage and not just because he has let it be known he would prefer us to use his full surname.
Leicester’s new look… and familiar Newcastle
Leicester scrum-half Ben Youngs said of the late, late win at Exeter: “It had Cheika’s personality in a nutshell, which is plenty of fight.” And Olly Cracknell played in the Leicester back row, despite the recent death of his father. “He called me up and said that his family wanted him to play, that that’s what his dad would have wanted,” new Tigers head coach Cheika said.
For last season’s Premiership bottom-feeders Newcastle Falcons there was a familiar feeling in the 24-3 home loss to Bristol: plenty of pressure, and by choosing to play for line-outs over kicks at goal, they had four good positions in the Bristol 22 in the opening quarter or so, but no points scored as they either dropped the ball or were snuffed out by tackles from Ellis Genge and co.
The Bristol boss Pat Lam thinks his Newcastle counterpart is onto something. “You can see what Steve Diamond is trying to do here,” Lam said. But three points in a home match is grim, and while Genge melted Callum Chick from close range with one memorable hit, it helps when the opposition are obvious in what they’re going to do.
England’s scrum-half battle hots up
Not all the runners and riders in the England scrum-half stakes were saddled up – there was no place for the injured Alex Mitchell for Northampton in their opening loss at Bath.
So Ben Spencer took the chance to nose ahead in the race to start against New Zealand in November. Spencer amazingly has just five Test caps for England, but he showed all his strengths in front of watching head coach Steve Borthwick at The Rec, which contrary to some tropes, extend way beyond hoofing the ball downfield.
Spencer scored a smart try through a gap left by Northampton around a maul he said he’d spotted in pre-season – some good research there, considering Saints played just twice, with a variety of players, against Leinster and Bedford.
Mitchell has been superb for the last couple of seasons and will want to hit the ground running when he makes his delayed debut. As it stands, there would be nothing wrong with Spencer starting for England and Mitchell on the bench, with Danny Care out of the picture, and Harry Randall and Gus Warr among those in reserve – though not Sale’s Raffi Quirke, sadly, as he is injured again.
Spencer is a mucker-inner, happy to lay hands on his forwards to make a point, and always alert to the percentage run-pass-kick option.
Ollie Lawrence’s crucial second-half try for Bath had some fans on X grumbling about the officials missing an offside but referee Luke Pearce confirmed to i, after a post-match review, that all had been fine, due to a Northampton knock-on.
Northampton’s attack coach Sam Vesty bemoaned his team being slow to grasp the new version of the so-called “Dupont law”, saying “it was talked about all through pre-season and we have been penalised twice which is pretty dumb”.
Players can no longer loiter with intent under a high ball, as the new interpretation demands a retreat before they can approach the receiving team. The hunch is Saints and others will quickly adjust, after a painful midweek review.
Wallabies in decline… and a famous win for Los Pumas
Amid calls in some quarters for Australia to be stripped of next year’s Lions tour and send it to South Africa instead, the Wallabies showed grit in holding the All Blacks to a 31-28 scoreline in the latest round of The Rugby Championship in Sydney.
But the Australians’ low ebb was emphasised as Fiji beat Eddie Jones’s Japan 41-17 in Hanazono to win the Pacific Nations Cup and climb above the Wallabies at ninth in the men’s world rankings.
And meanwhile Argentina beat South Africa 29-28, so the Pumas have now beaten the Springboks, All Blacks and Wallabies in the same Rugby Championship, and there are pundits who would like to see Argentina included as a future Lions destination.
The truth much more often is retrenchment over expansion – see the new “old style” tours agreed between South Africa and New Zealand from 2026, knackering the Rugby Championship every two years.
Nail-biters in the URC
A weekend of close scorelines in the URC, with only one margin of more than two points, as Cardiff, Dragons, Leinster, Munster and Ulster made winning starts, and Scarlets drew away to Treviso.
ITV’s highlights overhaul
Topsy Ojo and David Flatman bade an online farewell to fans of the ITV Premiership highlights show on Sunday, with the broadcaster now showing an hour-long show Gallagher Premiership Unleashed, said to be putting TikTok stars front and centre, instead of “Flats and Topsy”’s wit and wisdom from playing for England.
The first airing is from 11.45am on Wednesday, so aimed at students and home birds, maybe, although of course no TV programme is pegged to a time, in reality, and the nod is to trying to find a new audience. “It was a great run, so thank you @premrugby for the memories and the sandwiches,” Flatman tweeted. “Now it’s onwards with the kings and queens of @rugbyontnt – chuffed to be on the team x.”
