Missing The Action

The start of the Premiership season is always something to look forward to, and especially the London Double Header at Twickenham. I had tickets for the game but was forced to miss it because I had an accident on Thursday, bashing up my knee and breaking my elbow! Sadly, travelling to HQ wasn't an option, so I had to forgo the fun this year. The accident has given me the excuse to put my feet up and watch lots of World Cup rugby on the telly, but I would much rather be fit to attend games and take photos. No picture-taking for at least a month, since my left arm is in a sling for 4 weeks and I can't drive.

Quins Beat Up Irish
The first game was 7-try fest for fans of Harlequins and London Irish. Full match details here. Below, Quins' Ollie Kohn and Hal Luscombe, and Irish's David Paice all crossed the whitewash.










Sarries Outmuscle Wasps
The second match of the day saw Saracens beat Wasps by 29-19. The three try scorers for Sarries were Hugh Vyvyan, Adam Powell and Neil de Kock [below]










I was also looking forward to seeing Sarries play Gloucester next weekend, but I'll have to make do with reading about it online instead.

Brizzle Top The Table

Newly-promoted Bristol surprised everybody (and themselves!) by beating Wasps at the weekend, to go top of the Guinness Premiership.

And there they will remain for a couple of weeks while the clubs have a fortnight of Anglo-Welsh Cup hiatus during the next two weekends.

Saracens, meanwhile, are floating in 9th place, (a familiar position from last season), after their loss to the Sharks on Friday evening. :-(

They are away to London Irish this coming weekend, then host Cardiff Blues at Vicarage Road on 8th October. I plan to be at both matches, so there should be some new images on rugbypix.com in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, here's a photo from Saracens' home game against Bristol from last season, a bit of a muddy affair from memory.

Andy Gomarsall has also been on the move again, signing with Quins until the end of the season, after being unceremoniously dropped by Worcester, one year into a 3-year contract.

Here's a photo of him at the 2005 Scrum In The Park England training session, with Sevens coach Mike Friday.

And I forgot to add them earlier, but a small selection of my photos from the London Double Header are now on Flickr.

Double The Fun

The season kicked off in style on Saturday at Twickenham, with the London Double Header and 51,000+ fans shouting for their team. That's one thing I love about Rugby - get the fans of say, Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham and West Ham packed together all over a stadium, and there would be chaos. But the four Premiership London rugby clubs can enjoy a day out at HQ with friendly rivalry, banter, singing and some silly mascot challenges on the pitch, without a hint of aggro.

Anyway, on to the games. They were both close. Quins were unlucky to go down by one point to London Irish, 20-19. There seemed to be a lot of kicking going on in that game. The weather had threatened a downpour, but it didn't actually rain much at all. Just very windy - maybe their game plan had been biased for the wet and they were surprised when it stayed dry!

That's a taster for the game, you can see more from the Irish v Quins match on my dedicated rugby photography site.

As for Saracens vs Wasps, Sarries went down by 2 points in the end, after having lead by a point at the break. Another kicking-heavy game, but there were a few tries scored - sadly for me, too many by Wasps!

Saracens played some of our new boys, notably Argentinian Winger Tomas de Vedia and Italian Hooker Fabio Ongaro. Here's a photo of our new-look Fabio Front Row:

There's more from the Sarries vs Wasps match, plus loads of others, at rugbypix.com.

As for the other matches over the weekend, Bristol gave Worcester a walloping. Sarries are away at Bristol next weekend - eek! Newcastle went down to Northampton, and Bath lost to Gloucester. The positive out of that match was Danny Grewcock scoring two tries! He's obviously raring to go this season, which is great news for Bath and England.