Pros-

With no cups to distract us any more, or to injure our diminishing squad of players, we are, in the time-honoured phrase, concentrating on the Premiership, so our task is clear.

While the top few clubs in the Premiership are running away from the rest, it’s very tight between 6^th and 11^th places, with just six points covering those six places. We are tucked into the middle of this group, 8^th in the table, on 22 points. We also have a little bit of a cushion over Leeds, the bottom club.

We have a game in hand over everyone except Tigers (we have two games in hand over them, but they have almost twice as many points as us, so that’s not really relevant). Of our 11 games left, six are at home and five away. Saints and Sarries at home, and Irish away, will be tough, but most other games are against the teams around us in the table. 

Over the last three months in the Premiership, we have only once failed to get at least a losing bonus points, and that was at Welford Road, so understandable.

We have had a flirtation with running rugby, and it seemed to pay off, so hopefully we’ll persist with a slightly more adventurous style.

The renewal of Dwayne Peel’s, James Gaskell’s and Marc Jones’s contracts says something positive about our future. Come on, Eifion, you know you can do it too!

Cons-

We have developing injury problems- Sherri is still out, Tuilagi and Abraham are out for the season, Bell's struggling, Kristian Ormsby can’t seem to get through a game, and we are either wrapping Lee Thomas in cotton wool, or he is having difficulties too. We may also possibly have lost three more players after the Bath game.

We are therefore digging deep, with Jets, trialists and short term signings appearing. I have nothing against these players, and I am sure they play their hearts out, but the Premiership is an unforgiving arena in which to gain experience. Hopefully we have enough squad depth to prevent us having to do too much of this in the Premiership, but we are looking a bit thin.

The departures of Wiggy and Deano, both Sale through and through, is unsettling. Hopefully, though, they’ll continue to do their stuff to the end of the season and, with all the changes at the end of last season, their moving on won’t be too disruptive.

All in all-

I’ve always felt mid-table would be a decent performance this season, and that’s very much on the cards. We are still vulnerable to a loss of form, or a couple more injuries to key players, and if Leeds put a run together we could quickly find ourselves under pressure. But it is largely in our hands to finish respectably, and that’ll do me, thank you.

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