Feyi-Waboso sparkles, trash-talking Searle and Quirke conundrum – Prem talking points

In terms of entertainment, Prem Rugby compiles a number of charts to compare it to other rugby competitions each year at the back of the annual salary cap report.

The scorelines’ closeness, the number of attempts, and the variety of title winners are all plotted.

In recent years, in some respects, the Prem has slipped back.

In Prem games that were played between 2021 and 2022, 46% of those games ended with the two teams within seven points of each other.

Eight tries per game was the all-time high for the previous season, but more scores were achieved with fewer close games.

Less than 32% of were decided by seven points or fewer.

Three out of the five matches this weekend met that standard.

However, perhaps the report from the following year’s edition should only include a photo of Bath owner Bruce Craig yelling in delight from the comfortable seats.

Thrilling entertainment.

There might be more cheer for the Chiefs than the champions when they are split apart in the cold light of the team’s analysts.

An early blitz was the foundation of Bath’s victory.

Four tries inside the first 20 minutes gave them the earliest attacking bonus point of the season by some distance. All of those scores came against 14 men, but Exeter’s Campbell Ridl received a 20-minute red card for kicking opposite number Henry Arundell in the air.

Comeback specialists Exeter were the better team when it switched to 15 v 15 and recovered from 26 points down to win.

Immanuel Feyi-Waboso looked particularly impressive.

Even though the 23-year-old is third in the league in metres made (530) and joint top in line breaks (17) going into the game, it seems like there is more to come from him.

It arrived on Saturday. He successfully chased down Harvey Skinner’s kick-off at the start of the game and went on to beat 12 defenders and make 72 metres from his 12 carries. No one in the league has more power, pace, determination, or footwork than they do in a league game.

Henry Slade, Tom Hooper and Greg Fisilau, and Tom Hooper and Greg Fisilau were the highlight of a strong visiting pack elsewhere in the visiting ranks.

It was a first defeat after five straight top-flight wins for Exeter, but there were plenty of positives before Bristol arrive at Sandy Park on 24 January in the next round of Prem action.

There is a corner of Mattioli Woods Welford Road – where the East Stand meets the Crumbie Stand – that photographers keep their lenses trained on.

His top-dive finish on the same spot on Sunday summed up the differences between the teams.

It came at the end of a first-phase move that began on Tigers ‘ own 22-metre line and cut through a pedestrian Saracens ‘ side with disarming ease.

At home, Leicester have now won five out of five games. Billy Searle summed up their resolve and quality.

The 29-year-old was signed from second-tier French side Agen in the summer as Tigers hunted a replacement for Handre Pollard. The South African hasn’t been missed out on so far thanks to him and Australia’s veteran James O’Connor.

With clever grubber kicks and a ball in hand, Searle was a threat all the way up to Radwan and Freddie Steward.

Late on Searle riled Elliot Daly, who had earlier been sin-binned for a late shot on the fly-half, by taunting him for a poor pass. When the retaliation arrived, Lewis was properly punished. Searle’s smile remained unmoved.

“I’m loving life, I feel like I have really fitted in well here”, he told BBC Sport afterwards.

One of the keys to South Africa’s seven-one bench split has been the ability of a pacey scrum-half – either Cobus Reinach or Grant Williams – to cover wing from among the replacements.

Raffi Quirke of Sale had a chance to demonstrate his ability to defeat Bristol in a similar way.

Instead of calling on specialist wing Gurshwin Wehr from the bench when Alex Wills was completely wiped out by a Bill Mata tackle in the closing seconds, Sale chose to move Quirke wide.

For 50 minutes or so it worked. As you would expect from a quarterback with his passing speed, Quickie was quick, powerful, and had a fantastic relationship with Joe Carpenter at fullback.

Another trademark late run into the play-off spots now seems vanishingly unlikely for Sale.

The path back into Test rugby seems tense for Quirke, whose last appearance for England, a try-scoring cameo in a win over South Africa, was more than four years ago.

With a deserved 25-19 victory over Gloucester on Friday night, the Newcastle Red Bulls ended a year-plus, 19-game losing streak.

However, a few cards played a role in the outcome.

With a quarter of an hour gone and the hosts seven points ahead, Gloucester’s Arthur Clark tackled opposite number Jamie Hodgson. Hodgson appeared to hit Clark in the head on the ground. Clark reacted by retaliating with a forearm and wrestling his way into Hodgson’s face.

A difficult decision was made. But the scoreline quickly got loose.

The lead reached 12 points when Brett Connon kicked to the corner and Tom Christie burrowed over from the line-out that followed.

Ollie Thorley’s overly eager kick-off chase in the second half resulted in an unintentional head-curling fight with Alex Hearle from Newcastle. Thorley was shown a 20-minute red card.

Gloucester opened the scoring with two tries before it was too late when the gap was filled once more when it was restored to its full complement.

What transpired on the Harlequins website turned out to be a club hierarchy vote of no confidence in the team.

“Some elements of change will take a relatively short period of time to implement”, was one particularly foreboding line.

Under the direction of Jason Gilmore, their team has only won once this season and has already scored 40 points in three games.

The latest underappreciative sight of a soft-centred season was Edoardo Todaro, a young wing from Northampton who shrugged off four tacklers on his way to the line as Saints won with a 10-try victory.