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Sarries pounce on Chiefs slip as Saints sink sorry Sharks

Saracens winger David Strettle

Saracens capitalised on Exeter Chiefs’ slip by sealing a late bonus-point win over Leicester Tigers to go top of the Premiership, while Northampton Saints hammered Sale Sharks in Saturday’s action.

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The Chiefs lost for just the third time this season against Gloucester a day earlier and Sarries ran in 28 unanswered second-half points at Allianz Park to defeat the Tigers 33-10 and reach the summit on points difference.

It was not all plain sailing for the home side, who trailed 10-5 at the break, with Jonah Holmes crossing just before the break for the Tigers after Richard Wigglesworth’s score for Sarries.

But the champions stepped up a gear after the break and Tom Woolstencroft went over before late tries from Ben Spencer and David Strettle gave Sarries a full haul.

Northampton, who saw Dan Biggar limp off after 19 minutes, were in rampant mood in their 67-17 rout of Sale, as the Saints ran in nine tries to end the Sharks’ five-match unbeaten Premiership run.

Cobus Reinach had scored twice by the time Tom Wood and Tom Collins dotted down either side of a penalty try for Sale.

And there was little respite after the break as Ahsee Tuala, Taqele Naiyaravoro, George Furbank, Rory Hutchinson and Collins added second-half tries.

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After the match, Northampton boss Chris Boyd said Biggar was taken off as a precaution in welcome news for Wales in their Six Nations bid.

“We removed him and he probably could have played on,” he said in quotes reported by BBC Sport.

“He came back from Italy with a really, really low-grade MCL strain in the knee and was keen to play and he didn’t train on Tuesday and he trained on Thursday and trained really well and felt really comfortable.

“But he just caught it again and that was precautionary.”

Harlequins went back third in the table after defeating struggling Worcester Warriors 47-33 in a high-scoring encounter at The Stoop.

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Quins registered seven tries in total, with Joe Marchant, Gabriel Ibitoye, Mike Brown and Jack Clifford securing the bonus point by half-time, while further scores from Danny Care, Ben Tapuai and James Lang downed the Warriors.

Newcastle Falcons remain rock bottom, though, after going down 30-13 at Bath.

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fl 27 minutes ago
Gloucester respond to complaints over Russian flag

I don't listen to Nigel Farage. Really not sure where you'd be getting that from. Maybe you should stick to responding to what I've actually said, rather than speculating about my sources.


I'm not sure what you think Putin is going to do. He'll probably conquer Ukraine, but its taken him a long time, and cost him a lot of soldiers. Hitler overran France in a matter of weeks and then started bombing Britain. At this rate Putin might make it to Paris by 2080? I think he'll give up long before then!


I don't see what Stalinist language policy has to do with any of what we're talking about. De-Ukrainization took place in the 1930s, but the genocide of Palestine is taking place in 2025. If your argument is that the invasion of Ukraine is part of a longer history of Russian suppression of Ukraine then you might have a point, but that really just underlines the key difference between Hitler and Putin; Hitler wanted to dominate as much area as possible and so posed a threat to all of Europe, whereas Putin wants to force the assimilation of those who have historically been within the Russian sphere of influence, so only poses a threat to eastern europe and central asia.


"Read and think for yourself."

What would you recommend I read? On the genocide of Palestine I've found Patrick Wolfe's "Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native" and Sai Englert's "Settlers, Workers, and the Logic of Accumulation by Dispossession" especially useful - they might disabuse you of the notion that what we are witnessing is an "authoritarian criminal syndicate" fighting a nation! - rather Zionist genocide is a largely democratic process, arising from a structure of settler colonialism which has no analogue in Ukraine.

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Flankly 1 hour ago
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Sloppy piece by Josh. It should be Stormers, obviously.


Also:

David Kriel, who, like Hooker, is comfortable in both the midfield and the back-tree

Being comfortable in trees is kind of a quirky qualification for the Boks Office lads to emphasize.

2 Go to comments
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