The Perfect 11? - The Story Continues...
By Prof
February 28 2007
Last week NEC Harlequins had the second best run of form in the Guinness Premiership with us tied on 7 wins with Tigers and Bristol. This week, after Round 16 we saw the top two teams losing and us being the only team with 8 wins out of 11.
So Leicester lose and we beat Bristol in round 16, so here's the updated table:
| P | W | D | L | F | A | TF | TA | BP | Pts | |
| Leicester Tigers | 11 | 7 | 0 | 4 | 287 | 182 | 32 | 17 | 9 | 37 |
| NEC Harlequins | 11 | 8 | 0 | 3 | 240 | 157 | 22 | 16 | 4 | 36 |
| Bristol Rugby | 10 | 7 | 0 | 4 | 154 | 158 | 13 | 12 | 1 | 30 |
| Saracens | 10 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 222 | 179 | 22 | 15 | 3 | 29 |
| Gloucester Rugby | 10 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 227 | 181 | 21 | 17 | 4 | 28 |
| London Irish | 10 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 172 | 159 | 16 | 16 | 1 | 25 |
| Newcastle Falcons | 10 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 218 | 241 | 23 | 24 | 4 | 24 |
| London Wasps | 11 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 210 | 204 | 20 | 19 | 6 | 24 |
| Bath Rugby | 11 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 182 | 219 | 15 | 21 | 4 | 22 |
| Sale Sharks | 11 | 3 | 0 | 8 | 180 | 236 | 13 | 16 | 5 | 17 |
| Worcester Warriors | 11 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 151 | 220 | 12 | 22 | 5 | 15 |
| Northampton Saints | 10 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 125 | 232 | 12 | 26 | 2 | 14 |
So we're the only team with 8 wins in the last 11 rounds!
We have the fewest points scored against us too!
This time two years ago the state was
| Year | Pos | P | W | D | L | F | A | TF | TA | BP | Pts |
| 2006-7 | 6 | 16 | 8 | 0 | 8 | 338 | 304 | 31 | 32 | 6 | 38 |
| 2004-5 | 11 | 16 | 4 | 1 | 11 | 288 | 330 | 28 | 33 | 8 | 26 |
with us just three points above bottom place Northampton.
Two years ago we were relegated with 38 points after winning six games in the season, this time we have got 38 points from 8 wins and there are still 6 games left to play. Instead of looking down we are certainly looking up towards Heineken Cup and play-off places.
The press have been talking about Brian Ashton picking players on form rather than on reputation so he must be looking very closely at our team at the moment - with Nick Easter and David Strettle both gaining their first caps it certainly looks to be the case.
This weekend we head off to Welford Road, a ground that had been impregnable for a few years in the League, but Northampton pulled off a shock result in a complete slug-fest and put an end to that record.
The Leicester Tigers will be wounded, will be wanting to bounce back with a win in front of their faithful, but, although Leicester are just ahead of us in the table, they have still lost one more game in the last 11 and they have had more points scored against them too.
Our defence will have to be very sound against them, after all they have scored far more tries than anyone else recently, but they have also been giving away a lot of penalities too (what, Leicester, never!) so AJ will have to have his kicking boots on.
If Northampton can go there and win we can too.