Monday 9 November 2015 16:54, UK
Welcome under the posts for week one, post-World Cup.
It's fair to say the atmosphere was not quite the same at the Arms Park on Saturday compared to Twickenham seven days earlier but by full-time it felt like business as usual, the glamour replaced with plenty of grit from the losing home team, Cardiff Blues and a frustrating combination of the fabulous and lousy from the defending PRO12 champions, Glasgow.
First of all though, for the final time.....
1. The will he, won't he saga is over and Sam Burgess has quit union for league, England for Australia, the artificial union family for his real one. It is all very understandable, if disappointing for Bath, but it could - it should - be a hammer in the coffin of this misguided England management team.
The review panel will have to ask why Burgess quit just one year into the union project. The bloke had been selected without any justification whatsoever for England, played in front of a global audience and repaid the blind and infatuated faith of the management team by walking away.
I have heard some people say union let Burgess down....well to take that spurious line is to treat the red rose with contempt. He was picked to play in a World Cup and goes home as an England international. A lot of good players wouldn't mind being let down in such a way.
It was not Sam Burgess' fault England upset many months of preparation and the overly-sensitive players who were not so much tight-knit as interested in protecting their own positions.
If he was 'let down' it must have been the advice he received while still at league, advice telling him he was likely to make the World Cup cut. In a new sport and a new position, don't blame Burgess for having a crack. His self-belief is one of the reasons England gambled on him.
Blame the ludicrous decision to select him when he had no form to his name and no obvious understanding of the complexities involved either at six or 12.
Good luck to the man. He seemed a genuine and decent guy on the few occasions our paths crossed. It was not his fault England upset many months of preparation and the overly-sensitive players who were not so much tight-knit as interested in protecting their own positions. This became clearer and clearer after pronouncements from the likes of Tom Wood.
This team didn't have steel running through it, but jelly. As soon as an external factor like Burgess - or Steffon Armitage - blew through it, the team wobbled. The road to the Wales decision-making fiasco was a straight one, the preparation for the tournament a criss-cross of confusion that the panel, in the light of Burgess' departure, cannot ignore.
2. Remaining on the subject of England, it was notable to see that two-thirds of the front row that crumbled against Australia was struggling to hold their shape in Devon. These are tough times for Dan Cole, while Tom Youngs was outplayed by Exeter's young Luke Cowan-Dickie.
3. Dave Ewers had an exceptional game. At full-time when the man of the match was named as Gareth Steenson, I spilt my cocoa. The fly-half is a good player and had a good game but the Chiefs blindside had been monstrously good throughout. He reminded me of my old Bath mate, Jon Hall, in Hall's tender years. No greater compliment etc...
4. What a wonderful weekend it was for the Rugby Championship with three shock wins on the road.
The second-tier league tends to suffer from too much predictability until the final - always a special occasion - but that criticism could not be levelled at a weekend where Bristol with their Premiership aspirations were beaten by Doncaster at home while two of the country's newer teams to grace the higher echelons, Jersey and Ealing Trailfinders, were winning on the road in the traditional strongholds of London Scottish and Welsh. More shocks please.
5. Are we so obsessed with the Olympics that the women's 15-a-side game in England is being risked for Rio glory? I write about this subject in more detail in Monday's Times but the 11-0 defeat against France on Saturday was a reminder that the professional focus on sevens is doing untold damage to the English women's game at international, and I dare say, club level.
6. On a happier note it was a delight to see the Fijian maestro, Leone Nakarawa, back in action for Glasgow. His American Football-style one-handed lunge for the Blues try line was a priceless piece of Nakarawa initiative.
Nakarawa is only 27 and seems to be getting better with age.
7. Wonderful as he was, Glasgow's dressing room would have been ticked off, post victory; they got away with an unbelievable display of ill-discipline in this PRO12 match but with Racing Metro to come next week in Europe they have to address this issue quickly.
It has been a festering problem for Gregor Townsend's team through the last few years.
8. No sooner is the World Cup over than the England openside is switched to the blindside. Chris Robshaw will struggle to get the No 7 shirt back for his club.
Don't say Conor O'Shea didn't do his bit for Stuart Lancaster [if not England] during the last four years.
9. Yellow cards - I almost saw the best bit of officiating, almost saw the worst and ended up with a disappointing but not dumb call.
The match was Leicester v Exeter. A Leicester player was seen to kick - an irritated, not dangerous kick - at an Exeter player. Greg Garner said 'red'. Geoff Warren, the TMO, told him to look at the provocation to the Leicester man.
Indeed, as ever, an angry act has its reason. This was a Chief hanging onto his leg to stop him doing his job at the breakdown...'yellow cards for both then?' I was heading for the champagne - at last a referee seeing the cause and effect issue in a clear light.
But alas, Geoff couldn't go quite as far with his advice and the red was simply downgraded because of the cause and the cheating Chief escaped with just a ticking-off. Still, it was the nearest we have come to the provocateurs being penalised. We'll get there...
10. Europe next week and Sky Sports are at Saracens v Toulouse on Saturday. The English champions are top of the league and in parsimonious form while Toulouse are second in their league and threatening to throw off the shackles increasingly imposed by the now French national coach, Guy Noves. It's the game of the round.
Gael Fickou, so poorly treated by the former Toulouse coach, scored a hat-trick in the 52-10 rout of Grenoble. I bet you they don't score 50 points on Saturday. I wouldn't be so sure they don't win.
Here is a game to banish those post-World Cup blues. Don't miss it.
