By Charlie Elliott
The Premiership goes into the fifth round with fixtures as varied as they come, with the top two teams facing each other and the bottom two teams battling it out all in one gameweek.
From transfer speculation to player homecomings, here are 5 things to look out for this weekend:
1) A big defeat on the cards for Gloucester?
Gloucester have had a somewhat unexpectedly positive start to the season, with George Skivington implementing a very attacking-minded way of playing.
They have outscored their opponents Leicester this season, but a lack of defensive structure has cost them, resulting in one win out of four compared to Tigers’ three.
With key injuries to Gareth Anscombe and Christian Wade this week, they will lose a lot of their attacking quality and as a result, could potentially be at the wrong end of a big defeat away at Welford Road in the Slater Cup.
Unless they don’t continue to leak points then it could turn out to be a long day for the Cherry and Whites.
Anscombe has been replaced by Charlie Atkinson, who will come up against his former side for the first time since leaving at the back end of 2023.
2) Dan Du Preez starts amongst transfer speculation:
Sale number 8 Dan Du Preez has been at the centre of plenty of transfer talk linking him to Top 14 side Bordeaux.
Despite this, Alex Sanderson has trusted him to start away at champions Northampton.
It will be his first start since January following issues with injuries and he will potentially be looking to put in a performance that convinces his potential suitors that he is worthy of the likely boosted contract he would get in France.
Could him starting be a final roll of the dice by Sanderson to try and convince him to stay?
If he is to go it will be very interesting to see whether Sale will replace him in-house or sign someone else to directly replace DDP, in order to keep with the family theme in the squad they may have to do some digging on Ancestry.com
3) The wooden spoon derby:
Although derby weekend was last week, there is still some heated battles going on this week. In this case it is between the two sides at the bottom of the table, and can be considered the ‘Wooden spoon derby’ at this stage of the season.
Youthful Exeter have had a very disappointing start to the season, and find themselves without a win so far, although they have picked up four bonus points.
They face hapless Newcastle who are yet to get a single point and are the lowest scorers in the league (but Gloucester have conceded more points).
This game is less of a David vs Goliath and more a David vs David.
The Chiefs do however have the highest scorer in the league so far, with Josh Hodge amassing 42 points so far, who is one of the few Exeter players who can hold their head high this season.
The main issue for the Chiefs has been taking their foot off the pedal when it matters, shown by their late implosion against Bristol, losing after being 32-12 up after 65 minutes.
Newcastle will hope to stay within touching distance and potentially strike on this weak mentality, but with the lack of quality that they possess it still may be a step too far.
Falcons will be hoping it is 26th time lucky, following 25 league defeats in a row.
4) England vs Scotland fly-half battle:
England international Marcus Smith will face Scotland international Finn Russell in a battle of the fly-half’s when Bath travel to London to face Quins.
Last season both went toe to toe with each other, with Smith getting 22 points in the two games between the two sides, and Russell doing slightly poorer with 18.
It will be a spectacle this year too, with both players eager to get one-up on the other, and get bragging rights in a miniature version of the Calcutta Cup.
5) England hopeful Obano back home:
Bath prop Beno Obano showed last week that he is letting his omission from the England squad motivate him, scoring two tries in the West-Country Derby win over Gloucester.
Facing Harlequins away also means that Obano is back in his hometown of London, and with this extra motivation, it is likely that he will put in a very strong performance to show Steve Borthwick exactly what he is missing.
Beno has been a man on a mission since his red card in the Premiership final last year and will be hoping him and his side make amends for their defeat by going one better this year.
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