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.

If You Can't Beat 'Em...

... get them to join you!

I read with interest that Saracens have signed three London Irish players for the new season - this after they beat us in the last round of the Premiership! The new boys are Paul Gustard (flanker), Rodd Penney (centre) and Ross Laidlaw (fly half). Hopefully it will bode well for the 2006/07 campaign. Plus Saracens' head coach Mike Ford is in talks with the RFU about a possible role coaching England - will have to wait and see what comes of that. Meanwhile, retired back-rower Alex Sanderson is heading down-under to work with Eddie Jones at Queensland Reds for a year, before returning to Saracens at Vicarage Road.

Not a lot of other news to comment on, apart from the imminent recall of good old Catty for the England tour to Australia in June. He has the distinction of being the last player to handle the ball in the 2003 RWC final - kicking it to touch in the 100th minute so that thousands of England fans could go nuts over the win. He's been playing well for London Irish, so its great news that Robbo has decided to give him another shot at international duty.