Aviva Premiership Round 15 - Preview

With a whole host of extremely exciting transfer news off the field, as well as some outstanding rugby on it, the Aviva Premiership really is the competition that just keeps on giving.

Due to the RBS 6 Nations in Round 15 kick off times have moved around slightly and all six of the Aviva Premiership matches will be played on either Saturday or Sunday – as the Friday Night Lights are saved for the Millennium Stadium.

The action starts with the club who have had their fair share of headlines this week – Bath, as they host London Wasps at The Rec. Wasps will be looking for revenge over the West Country side after they comprehensively swept them aside the last time that they met in Round 8. However, they have lost their last 3 games in all competitions and will need to put in a much stronger performance than they did in Round 14.

In contrast, Bath really don’t need to change a lot in terms of their performance as they have won their last 11 home games and, no doubt, will have an extra bit of fire power this weekend thanks to their exciting mid-week signing news.

The next stop on the Aviva Premiership tour is at Kingsholm where Gloucester welcome Harlequins to town. Gloucester’s home record isn’t too sparkling as they have won only two out of their seven home matches this season; unsurprisingly only Newcastle and Worcester have worse records.

Harlequins, on the other hand, won the hard way once again last weekend and will want to amend the fact that they haven’t won at Kingsholm in the Premiership since February 1999.

In the final Saturday fixture Worcester welcome Sale Sharks to Sixways and will certainly be looking to their 16^th man to help them to gain that elusive first Premiership victory.

Sale have been enjoying a won one, lost one, pattern for the last eight rounds and if that pattern continues then they will be just fine on Saturday afternoon!

On Sunday the fixtures start at the Madjeski Stadium where London Irish take on the Leicester Tigers. Irish will look to continue their strong run of form having won their last seven fixtures in all competitions.

Leicester’s focus is likely to be on their own performance, because whilst they have been winning in the competition, in many cases these wins have been less than pretty ones!

At Kingston Park the Newcastle Falcons welcome the Northampton Saints - where the Falcons will be searching for their first win in the Premiership since October.

In contrast, Northampton haven’t lost in the Premiership since the end of September and take with them to Kingston Park a superb away from home record having won their last eight away fixtures in all tournaments.

The final match of the weekend is at Allianz Park between Saracens and the Exeter Chiefs. Saracens haven’t lost successive home games in the Premiership in the same season since February 2006 and will wish to bounce back from that surprise defeat to London Irish two weeks ago in style.

 The Chiefs continue to end up on the wrong side of the score sheet and are still searching for their first Premiership victory in 2014.