It made for stirring entertainment and will confirm the belief of Exeter\u2019s director of rugby, Rob Baxter, that his squad are heading in the right direction. He says he can sense the \u201cfoundations of a good side\u201d emerging from the rubble of last season\u2019s disappointing campaign and a revived appetite for the fight was again evident.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a fantastic spirit, haven\u2019t we?\u201d said a delighted Baxter, also praising the impact of the outstanding Wallaby centre Len Ikitau. \u201cWhat you can say is that we\u2019re a team that never goes away. The squad is also the best balanced it\u2019s been for a number of years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saracens, even so, will be kicking themselves having enjoyed a storming start. Slade had a hopeful long pass intercepted by a flying Caluori and Sarries soon had a second try on the board after a neat little blindside move worked Max Malins over in the left corner.<\/p>\n
Quick GuidePrem roundup: Hendy double helps Northampton overwhelm SaleShow![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/3890.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
George Hendy (pictured) scored two tries as Northampton produced an impressive display to defeat Sale 47-21 at Franklin\u2019s Gardens.\u00a0The thumping victory was enough to lift Saints up to second in the table, with just points difference separating them and the new leaders, Exeter, after they ran in seven tries, some of which were spectacular. <\/p>\n
They were also able to welcome back the England winger Tommy Freeman from injury, but Sale , who were well beaten, lost more ground on the top four.<\/p>\n
The Saints’ other tries came from Henry Pollock, Toby Thame, Josh Kemeny, George Furbank and Tom Pearson.\u00a0Tom O\u2019Flaherty (twice) and Arron Reed crossed for Sale.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Geoff Parling was pleased with how his Leicester players kept up the pressure against Gloucester\u00a0on FRiday despite the game being won with something to spare. The Tigers scored seven tries at Welford Road to move level on points with the pre-weekend leaders, Bath, who visit Newcastle tomorrow.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A 20-minute red card for the replacement hooker, Charlie Clare, was their only negative, but there were welcome returns from injury for Ollie Chessum and Jack van Poortvliet in a 45-14 win.<\/p>\n
Parling said: \u201cWe did plenty of good stuff and worked hard for each other. I\u2019m really pleased to get not just the outcome, but to see lads still kick balls into the corner late in the second half, lads still working for each other. We were still hustling, we were still trying to get more points.”<\/p>\n
Scores by James Thompson and Solomone Kata eased Leicester ahead before a penalty try on the stroke of half-time gave them a 19-0 lead.\u00a0A comfortable night was completed by second-half tries by Tom Whiteley, Tommy Reffell, Billy Searle and Chessum, with Josh Hathaway and Jack Clement scoring for Gloucester.<\/p>\n
Gloucester’s director of rugby, George Skivington, said: \u201cI didn\u2019t see that coming. We\u2019ve had a good six weeks and I thought we were in a good spot for it.<\/p>\n
Losing a couple of lads [to injury] early definitely wasn\u2019t helpful, but our accuracy was really poor.” PA Media<\/p>\n
Photograph: David Rogers\/Getty Images Europe<\/p>\n
Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n
With Willis a constant menace on his 50th Saracens appearance and the penalty count mounting, the Chiefs were further discouraged when an apparent close-range score for their Georgian prop Bachuki Tchumbadze was chalked off because of a dangerous clear-out from Tom Hooper, which earned the flanker a yellow card.<\/p>\n
It was a sizeable bonus, therefore, when Chiefs collected 10 unanswered points while down to 14 players. A Slade penalty had already trimmed the deficit when Caluori fumbled a high ball that then ricocheted off the chin of the Exeter debutant Campbell Ridl and bounced loose for the winger to send Stephen Varney clear.<\/p>\n
The question was whether the character Baxter has been trying to rebuild would be sufficient to preserve their 13-12 advantage. Initially, it was more a case of Saracens stepping things up a gear, helped by a 44th-minute penalty try awarded when Ridl, the last defender, was guilty of a knock on with Caluori lurking outside.<\/p>\n
With an accompanying yellow card and the simultaneous arrival of a new home front row, Exeter were further discomforted by a fourth Sarries try, again finished by the athletic Caluori, despite claims of a midfield knock-on in the buildup. From 11 points down something special was going to be required for the Chiefs to crowbar their way back into contention but, remarkably, they did so courtesy of Fisilau\u2019s quick-fire double and the classy Slade\u2019s seasonal encore.<\/p>\n
Henry Slade finishes off an attack to clinch the bonus point for Exeter. Photograph: Garry Bowden\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n
It leaves both sides with plenty to play for in 2026 with the top of the table still highly competitive. Then again a league with 10 teams and no relegation can not afford anything other than a frantic battle for the playoffs.<\/p>\n
As Baxter acknowledges, there is also an increasing realisation across the league that there need to be more clubs involved from a financial perspective. \u201cThe optimum number in the Prem is rising because clubs are seeing they could do with more home games. The finance comes first at the moment, because it has to for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Welcome to club rugby\u2019s festive reality: Christmas is coming and the goose is getting thinner.<\/p>\n
Quick GuideSaracens 24-30 Exeter teams and scorersShow<\/p>\n
Saracens\u00a0Daly; Caluori (Segun, 55), Tompkins, Hartley, Malins; Farrell, Van Zyl (capt); Carr\u00e9 (Mawi, 45), Dan (George, 45), Street (Riccioni, 45), Isiekwe, Tizard, Gonzalez (Onyeama-Christie, 56), Earl, Willis (Wilson, 64). Tries\u00a0Caluori 2, Malins, penalty. Con\u00a0Farrell.
Exeter Woodburn; Feyi-Waboso, Slade, Ikitau, Ridl; Skinner, Varney; Goodrick-Clarke (Sio, 56), Yeandle (Heaven, 56), Tchumbadze (Roots, 56), Jenkins (capt), Zambonin, Hooper (James, 65), Roots, Fisilau.\u00a0Sin-bin\u00a0Hooper 27, Ridl 45.\u00a0Tries\u00a0Varney, Fisilau 2, Slade. Cons\u00a0Slade 2. Pens\u00a0Slade 2.
Referee\u00a0Luke Pearce. Attendance 9,222.<\/p>\n
Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Something had to give in this collision of two teams with, respectively, the best attacking and defensive records…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-360970","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}