Points pile-ups, old-school Saracens and a royal pint - Prem talking points — SkimNews
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- Northampton beat Bath 71-48 in a match featuring 18 tries and a 119-point aggregate — the second-highest in English top-flight rugby history, behind only Northampton's 94-33 win over Bristol in May.
- Five of the ten top-flight games to breach the 100-point barrier have come since the start of the 2023-24 season, with this weekend's five matches producing 50 tries (average 10 per game), up from 4.33 per game in 2017-18.
- Saracens beat previously unbeaten Bristol 30-7, holding the Bears to just seven points in their most impressive defensive display of the season, with Owen Farrell piloting from fly-half alongside a heft pack including Maro Itoje and new signing George Martin.
- Bristol rested three players — Pedro Rubiolo, AJ MacGinty and Steven Luatua — for the artificial surface at Saracens' Stonex Stadium, the oldest of its type in the Prem, citing concerns about their bodies.
- Young scrum-halves Archie McParland (21) and Charlie Bracken (22) face direct competition for game time from British and Irish Lions Alex Mitchell at Northampton and Tomos Williams at Saracens.
- Sale beat Harlequins 28-24, leaving no unbeaten side in the league during the first season operating with both a salary cap and a salary floor.
- Northampton head coach Sam Vesty attributed the scoring surge to 'hotter' offside-line officiating, lower tackle height, faster ball, and teams going out with more attacking intent than in previous seasons.
Why it matters: The Prem averaged 10 tries per match this round — more than double the 4.33 per game from 2017-18 — leaving no unbeaten side and reinforcing Eddie Jones's longstanding view that attack-first club rugby poorly prepares English players for the tighter margins of Test match.
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