What a blip this is turning out to be for Saracens. Before Christmas, they were the strongest outfit in the Guinness Premiership. Northampton Saints and Leicester Tigers looked distinctly off the pace at times and must have been concerned that a shift in power was imminent.
Two days after Christmas, though, London Irish pulled off one of the results of the season at the Madejski Stadium with a brilliant 23-19 victory over Brendan Venter’s in-form side.
It was undoubtedly the turning point of the season.
A sign of potential champions are a squad that can bounce back from defeat, learn from the experience and continue to grow stronger as a team. But instead, this defeat proved to be the beginning of their descent down the league table.
Saracens’ 19-12 defeat against bottom side Leeds Carnegie on Saturday was their fifth from six matches; and any faint hopes they still held, before the weekend had started, of lifting the Premiership trophy have now been well and truly extinguished.
Leeds and Saracens have experienced vastly contrasting fortunes in 2010. It’s been a remarkable few weeks for Leeds, who have now won three consecutive matches in the top-flight to haul themselves off the foot of the league table. But Saracens, like a marathon runner that exerted too much energy in the opening miles, now have the look of a tired and spent force at this stage of the campaign.
Leicester Tigers must be looking on with glee at their rivals’ demise. They are a side who so rarely falter when the going gets tough and their 35-19 victory against London Irish on Saturday keeps them two points clear at the top of the table.
It now seems inevitable that the climax to this season will involve a two-horse race between Leicester and Northampton Saints.
Unlike Saracens, Northampton have showcased their ability to pick themselves up after defeats this season. But right now, they are very much the in-form side in the Guinness Premiership; and fresh from beating the Tigers last weekend at Franklin’s Gardens, they followed up that result with a routine 15-7 win against Sale Sharks at Edgeley Park.
Sale now find themselves rock bottom of the pack. With just two months of the season remaining, it will take a monumental effort for them to transform their league form in time and steer themselves away from bottom spot.
Worcester Warriors, who are the other side locked in the relegation battle, had looked an entirely different team last weekend as they beat Newcastle Falcons 13-0.
However, normal service was resumed on Saturday afternoon at the Stoop as Harlequins beat them 14-11. Quins’ stand-in fly-half Rory Clegg inflicted the damage on the relegation-threatened side by scoring three second-half penalties. The scoreline reflected a tightly-contested 80 minutes; but for all Worcesters’ efforts, they came up against a well organised Quins unit that deserved the points on the balance of play.
Another side who have been dragged into the relegation mire after the weekend’s action are Newcastle Falcons. They are now just a single point above Leeds in ninth place after a disappointing 17-13 home defeat against Bath on Sunday.
With several teams in danger of dropping out of the Guinness Premiership, this season’s race for survival promises to be even more intriguing than events at the top-half of the table. Newcastle, Leeds, Worcester and Sale will all be fighting for their place in the top-flight over the forthcoming weeks and it would take a brave individual to predict the favourites for that dreaded bottom position.
Meanwhile, London Wasps are looking to capitalise on Saracens capitulation by leapfrogging them into third place, and they went a step closer to doing just that on Sunday with a 24-19 victory against mid-table Gloucester.
The result was significant because of how well Wasps coped without their Melbourne-bound fly-half Danny Cipriani, who had to make do with a place on the bench at Adams Park. His replacement, Dave Walder scored a try and racked up 14 more points to suggest that they may not Cipriani when he departs as much as they first thought.
So, as we approach the business end of the season, everything is still up in the air and very little has been decided.
One thing that has been decided, though, is that Saracens have been responsible for ending their own dream of lifting this season’s Guinness Premiership trophy.
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