Willis wonder show and Smith’s new shooting boots

He may not be the best in his family’s back row, but he is unquestionably the best in the Premiership at the moment.

Tom Willis, whose brother Jack continues to tear up trees for European champions Toulouse, has been in superb form all season.

His display in Saracens ‘ 35-26 win over Bristol was a tour de force.

He scored two tries, gaining 44 metres and beating five defenders from 12 carries, while also making 23 tackles and securing two turnovers.

His first try was a battering pick-and-go from the back of a breakdown. His second came from a further range, where he scorched around Viliame Mata and Noah Heward in the corner.

At one point, he defended Rich Lane, thrust him under his arm like a beach brolly, and unintentionally led the Bears’ full-back back to his own line.

Bristol have a propensity to make the opposition look good, with the exception of Newcastle, who have conceded more points than everyone else.

However, Willis’ campaign has done a lot of serious work.

In the Premiership, he has defeated more defenders than any other player. The top 10 have only one forward in him. He is seventh on metres made, without racking up the ‘ easy ‘ kick receipt yardage. Again, he is the only forward in the top 10.

He is Saracens ‘ leading tackler, third overall in the league, and equal sixth in the division for turnovers.

In a World Cup warm-up defeat by Wales in August 2023, he was the only Englishman to replace him in 54th minute.

The Premiership prides itself on its competitiveness.

There has been something new in the rhythm of recent matches, perhaps as a result of three quick rounds around Christmas, “Twxtmas,” and the New Year.

Last week Sale went to Bristol and dished out 38 unanswered pointsy, while Saracens, albeit down to 14 men for much of the match, went down 68-10 to Bath.

This week the final scorelines were tighter, but there were still big swings in momentum.

After 26 minutes, Gloucester led Sale by 19 points before extending that lead to a 36-20 victory.

Northampton were even faster out of the blocks on Sunday, racing to a 19-0 lead over Bath in only 13 minutes at Franklin’s Gardens.

That turned out to be a see-sawing hum-dinger, with table-topping Bath coming on strong around the hour mark before defending champions Saints eventually edged to victory via Fin Smith’s last-play penalty.

Marcus Smith’s box of ball-in-hand tricks gets most of the attention, but the England fly-half’s kicking has come on substantially this season.

In Harlequins’ 38-14 win over Newcastle on Friday night, he scored all six of his shots from the field, which adds to his 28-game winning streak this season.

His only failure in the Premiership was a conversion attempt following Northampton’s defeat at the beginning of October.

By contrast, Smith was down at the bottom of the Premiership stats last season, landing only 65% of his kicks from the tee.

Smith endured a chastening evening in Dunedin last summer, missing three kicks in England’s 16-15 first-Test defeat by New Zealand. He vowed to take lessons from it.

In January 2024, when Immanuel Feyi-Waboso opted for England over Wales, Warren Gatland name-checked another wing as a cautionary tale.

“England selected Ollie Hassell-Collins, he had one game and now he’s been thrown out a bit like water from a bath”, said the Wales coach, adding a week later that he would have been keen on capping dual-qualified Hassell-Collins in red.

In theory, Gatland may still get his wish.

Hassell-Collins hasn’t played for England since playing for Italy in a Six Nations match in February 2023.

The 25-year-old will be eligible to switch to Wales midway through the 2016 Six Nations unless he plays for England or England A once more (he was a non-playing member of the second-string squad that defeated Portugal in February).

But Hassell-Collins has hit form at an opportune time.

He crossed for a fourth successive match as Leicester beat Exeter, and is now level with Bristol’s Gabriel Ibitoye and Gloucester’s Max Llewellyn at the top of the Premiership’s try-scoring stats.

On Friday, a brand-new claimant for a try assist showed up in Newcastle.

Ben Redshaw was able to score a pass pass for the Falcons’ second try against Harlequins when it pinballed off the corner flag.

It wouldn’t have happened back in the day.

Up until almost 20 years ago, a ball or player’s contact with the corner flag was considered to be in contact.