Only Five Rounds Left To Fight For The Play Offs

Aviva Premiership Round 17

The Aviva Premiership takes a few weeks off to relax after an action packed round 17 with all eyes looking at the top four, as any team from second all the way down to seventh can make it into the play offs.

It all started on Friday night as Bath got back to winning ways after losing three on the bounce and only getting 10 points from their last six league games to secure a 12 – 3 victory over Sale at the Rec.

Tom Homer kicked all of the host’s points while Danny Cipirani came back from the England camp to add the solitary kick for the visitors in a game so dull watching paint dry would have been a decent alternative.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, champions Northampton scraped a 33 – 33 draw against Gloucester with a late Samu Monoa try and Stephen Myler conversion to keep Saints at the top of the table.

Charlie Sharples and Richard Hibbard crossed the whitewash in the first half for the Cherry and Whites, but James Wilson scored a double either side of Dan Murphy’s score and it looked like Gloucester were on to secure a victory until Monoa ruined the party.

Exeter Chiefs followed up their famous victory over Bath by humiliating London Welsh 74 – 19 to move up to second in the league.

Chiefs gave the Sandy Park faithful a show by scoring ten tries, including two from the league’s top try scorer Tom Waldrom, two penalty tries and a further six from Will Chudley, Tom James, Jack Yeandle, Matt Jess, Henry Slade and Ian Whitten.

At the Stoop, Harlequins finally ended a five match losing streak to hold on for a 26 – 20 win against London Irish.

Both sides scored two tries each as James Short and Tom Fowlie dotted down for Irish, whilst Danny Care and Matt Hooper touched down for Quins with Nick Evans kicking 16 points it keeps their slim chances of progressing to the play offs alive.

The weekend finished off with two tries which will be contenders for try of the season from Wasps Christan Wade and Elliot Daly but sadly it wasn’t enough as Saracens won 26 – 17.

Sarries are the first team to topple Wasps since they’ve moved to the Ricoh Arena as tries from Jackson Wray and Chris Wyles turned things around and they were helped by the returning boot of Alex Goode.

The final game of round 17 saw Tommy Bell steal a late victory for Leicester at Kingston Park, which means Welsh can still call themselves a Premiership team for the time being.

It looked like the Falcons were going to hold on to the win after tries from Scott Lawson and Sinoti Sinoti but the 16 - 12 victory means Tigers moved up to fifth and are on the same number of points as Bath.