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Well well.  Let’s hope England do as well, eh?

What a day.  I can’t say much, being one of the many people who consigned Northern Hemisphere rugby to certain failure this World Cup.  But oh my God, I’ve never been happier to be so so wrong.  France beat the All Blacks and England beat Australia in two thrilling matches.  Suddenly the World Cup has come alive.

So. England get humiliated by the South Africans 36-0 and a reasonable amount of blame is placed at the door of ex-League superstar, Andy Farrell. The question is asked (yet again) can players change code and continue their careers at the same level?

At the same time, rather overshadowed by the farce of the World Cup, the Guinness Premiership kicked off this weekend, and another code switcher made rather a different debut. Start, as they say, as you mean to go on.

(I’m glad my South African colleague doesn’t care so much for sport. Any other South African I’ve met would be making my life hell all week after both the rugby and the cricket)

Glaws looked pretty much the best we have all season. Twickenham here we come. Leicester in the final, which should make for an interesting match.

Some quotes from the BBC commentary:

The Gloucester loose-forwards swarm all over a discordant Saracens pack

The game is opening right up as Gloucester indulge in a bit of showboating and Saracens try desperately to salvage some pride.

Gloucester are rampant…

Marvellous. A right royal thrashing.

This is the second time since the creation of Premiership Rugby ™ that Gloucester have finished the regular season at the top of the table. Last time (the first year of the competition) we got spanked by Wasps in the final. This time there’s a real chance we could actually claim the title as well as the moral victory.

It’s been a phenomenal season that really lived up to the promise that we showed last year - how much that’s been helped by an early exit from Europe and a very heavy Six Nations schedule I can’t comment. Regardless here’s hoping that we cement the success in the final two matches.

Glaws take their rightful position at the top of the table. And it was a fairy tale game for Jake Boer in his last appearance at Kingsholm (and wearing the armband too).

So - Glos have maintained their unbeaten record in the Premiership, and against the old enemy at that (perhaps the one match that secretly we all worried we would lose). Glos 27 Wasps 21. What’s particularly heartening is Dean Ryan’s comments about Anthony Allen:

…the conversations we had with England were that if they were going to pick him they had to stick with him and they haven’t…

The appalling performance of England over these last few weeks wasn’t made any better by today’s extremely scrappy and very fortunate win over South Africa. Robinson has to go, and the Gloucester boys (Richards, Forrester, Hazel, Allen, Vickery, Balshaw and so on) have made a very good fist of being stuck in a messed up dressing room that Rob Andrew has to sort ASAFP. Anthony Allen shouldn’t worry about being dropped - there’s a change a-coming, and it’s not going to kill his career, but it should stop a few others.