Premiership Rugby Cup: Five key talking points of the weekend
By Charlie Elliott
The final round of the Premiership Rugby Cup pool stage took place over the weekend, with teams battling it out to secure qualification, a home quarter-final or to simply restore some pride.
Championship sides may have had a tough week, with stronger than usual Premiership teams being played, but the second tier can be proud of having a representative in the next round.
Here are five of the key talking points after a topsy-turvy weekend of cup action.
Alex Dombrandt position change
A recent call-up to the England setup, Alex Dombrandt had the chance to play for Harlequins before heading off to join Steve Borthwick and co.
In his 150th appearance for Quins, he ran the show against Saracens despite the narrow defeat to their London rivals.
Usually operated as a number eight, he was switched to a back for this game, playing at inside centre.
He looked natural and showed very good hands with his typical powerful running, which proved too much to handle for Sarries.
Possibly, Dombrandt could be utilised here in the future, which would be a real spot from his head coach.
It seems as if this performance was directly rewarded with his call-up, showing players what can happen if you succeed in the Prem Rugby Cup.
Strong teams all over
Due to the ruling that only players who have played a pool stage game can play in the knockouts, many teams used this round as an opportunity to field some very strong squads to bolster their eligibility in future.
While Premiership teams Newcastle Falcons and Exeter Chiefs have taken this competition seriously throughout the year, this forced others to do the same.
It has raised questions as to whether there should be rules put in place that forces teams to field a certain number of players from Prem squads, as this weekend saw by far the highest standard of rugby in the competition.
Although it meant that there was less chance of shocks, with no Championship sides beating Premiership opposition, it allowed clubs from the second tier to properly test themselves, instead of facing a second-string lineup.
Quarter-finalists confirmed
Plenty of teams had a lot to play for going into the final round, but now we know for definite who is playing who.
A late Sale Sharks winner shuffled the order and left many fans confused as to who they would be playing against.
Here are the fixtures:
Newcastle Falcons v Gloucester
Bath v Harlequins
Exeter Chiefs v Sale Sharks
Northampton Saints v Ealing Trailfinders
The only team from outside the Prem who qualified for the next round were Ealing Trailfinders, who sneaked through a group that contained Harlequins and Saracens after confirming their spot with a convincing win over London Scottish.
It also meant that they were the highest ranked second place team, earning themselves a big tie away at Franklin Gardens against Northampton Saints.
Nayacalevu nightmare
It has been a torrid time at Sale Sharks recently for Fiji international Waisea Nayacalevu, who appears to be off to France in the summer.
He had a good game overall in Sale’s narrow victory against Newcastle Falcons, but he made an inexcusable error that could be one of his last in the blue shirt.
Nayacalevu ran beyond the try line and went inside to try and get the ball down between the posts but was way too casual about it and the ball got swatted away by a Falcons defender.
Attempting to put it down with one hand in this style is always risky and this time the showboating (or Fijian flair depending on how you look at it) did not pay off at all.
Luckily, it ended up not costing their team as they scraped through.
Sweden international makes Leicester Tigers debut
Swedish prop Ale Loman made a slice of history this weekend, becoming the first-ever player from his country to feature for Leicester Tigers and for a Premiership team.
It seems like only a matter of time before he goes one step further and becomes the first Swede to play not only in the Premiership itself, but in any top-flight major European league.
He put in a solid performance in a dominant win away to Coventry and could convince Tigers to make the move permanent, as he is currently only on loan from Nottingham.
Despite not being enough for Leicester to qualify after a late Sale winner dashed their hopes, Loman can be proud of him and his team in this game at least.
With under 20 senior club appearances to his name in England, he is quickly making a name for himself and could go down as a tier-two legend.
A hidden talent that was playing in Sweden as recently as 2023, it shows the breadth of untapped talent outside of the top nations.
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