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Chiefs and Saracens close in on Wasps

Exeter Chiefs’ James Short

Exeter Chiefs and Saracens kept the pressure on Premiership leaders Wasps with respective wins over Newcastle Falcons and Sale Sharks on Saturday.

With Wasps not in action until Sunday at home to Gloucester, the chasing duo both had the chance to move within a point of the summit – the Chiefs managing to do so thanks to a bonus-point 36-14 win at Sandy Park.

That victory sent them above Saracens, who could not claim the fourth try they needed to secure maximum points in their 29-18 success over the Sharks.

Exeter were only 17-14 ahead at the interval, James Short and Harry Williams responding to scores from the Falcons’ Vereniki Goneva and Rob Vickers.

The second half was all Chiefs, though, as a penalty try and a last-minute score from Short earned them five points and a leap to second place.

At Allianz Park, Duncan Taylor, Chris Ashton and Nathan Earle all touched down for Saracens, with Alex Lozowski adding 14 points with the boot to help assuage the disappointment of back-to-back defeats to Gloucester and Worcester Warriors.

Elsewhere, Northampton Saints defeated the second-bottom Warriors 24-14, Mike Haywood scoring a brace of tries.

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SK 37 minutes ago
Why England's defence of the realm has crumbled without Felix Jones

The way they are defending is sometime pathetic to be honest. Itoje is usually on the inside of the rush and he is paired with a slower tight forward. Unable to keep up with the rush we have seen the line become disconnected on the inside where the big boys are. How many times have we seen Earl rush past the first receiver almost into no mans land covering no attacker. It looks like a system without any guidance. Tome Wright, Ikitau and a number of Wallabies went back to this soft centre as did Williams, Jordan and several others. Also when the line is broken the multiple lines of defence seems to be missing. The rush is predicated on a cover and recovery system with multiple lines of defence but with England you dont see it any more. Fitness and conditioning seems to be off as well as players are struggling to keep up with the intensity of the rush. Felix Jones has left a huge hole. The whole situation was and is a mess. Why they insist on not letting him go and having him work remotely is beyond me. Its leading to massive negative press and is a hot button issue thats distracting from the squad. Also the communication around Jones and his role has been absolute rubbish and is totally disjointed. While some say he is working remotely and playing a role others are saying theres been no contact. His role has not been defined and so people keep asking and keep getting different answers. England need a clean break from him and need to start over. Whatever reason for his leaving its time to cut the rope before the saga drags the whole Borthwick regime down. As for Joe El Abd well good luck to him. He is being made to look like an amateur by the whole saga and he is being asked to coach a system thats not his and which has been perfected and honed since 2017 by Nienaber, Jones, Erasmus and Co and which was first started by White in 2004. He is literally trying to figure out a system pioneered by double world cup winning coaches at the highest level and coach it at the same time. Talk about being on a hiding to nothing.

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