The Premiership showed how bright England’s future is – Andy Goode

The Gallagher Premiership may have taken a round of time to get going, but this weekend demonstrated that there is more attacking prowess and young talent in English football than ever before.

The Autumn Nations Series may come too soon for almost all the new names from an international perspective, especially with the England squad on their recent summer trip to New Zealand having been so inexperienced anyway, but it has breathed new life into the league .

The financial situation in the top flight of English rugby compared to that of the Top 14, and the Japanese league to a lesser extent, means that some young players are getting the opportunity sooner than they would have a few years ago and the product on the field has not been diminished .

The fearlessness of young people, combined with an evolution in the way the game is being played in most parts of the world, the decreasing pressure of being at the start of a new World Cup cycle and the fact that most teams are not more worried about relegation, it has led to even more emotions and excitement than usual.

The wetter and colder weather of December and January can test teams’ attacking intent, but there are fewer rounds in the winter months, there are now fewer teams in the league and there is a break for the autumn international period, so we hope this doesn’t happen. happen. a very large effect.

Players like Ollie Lawrence (25), Immanuel Feyi-Waboso (21) and Fin Smith (22) lit up the second round, but they are already England internationals and it was new faces like Tobias Elliott, Cassius Cleaves, Guy Pepper and Afo Fasogbon who raised the excitement levels even further.

The latter dismissing Ellis Genge after seeing the experienced international substituted and getting the better of him at scrum time on a few occasions was undoubtedly the picture of the weekend. After that it was all smiles, but you can be sure Genge has already put a ring in his diary for around March 29th when Bristol face Gloucester in the reverse fixture.

Fasogbon was part of the England under-20 team that won the Under-20 Rugby World Cup for the first time in eight years in the summer and will face the title-winning team’s other prop in Asher Opoku-Fordjour on Friday night, which can be tasty.

This pair look set to wear a white shirt at senior level and England have some veteran props, Joe Marler and Dan Cole, still working, so you would imagine they will be brought into the group gradually, but I can’t see them being released against New Zealand, Australia and South Africa at this stage.

Fin Baxter is still just 22 and has started the season brilliantly for Quins after starting the second test against the All Blacks in Auckland in July, so he will be involved and England will now have a group of front rowers coming through.

It’s a much tougher task for Elliott and Cleaves to force their way to international recognition given Feyi-Waboso, Tommy Freeman, Tom Roebuck and Ollie Sleightholme are all still under 24 and already involved with England, but it’s great to see even more young talent emerging and playing with freedom.

Elliott scored a try and scored one in Saracens’ comprehensive victory over Sale and Cleaves is being talked about by everyone at Harlequins and many others outside the club too.

Sarries were the surprise of the early rounds, which seems odd given their record, but they have scored nine tries, picked up bonus points in both wins and look better than they did at the end of last season.

Maintaining that with Fergus Burke in place of Owen Farrell and without the Vunipola brothers, Sean Maitland and co is a difficult task, of course, but they are off to a flying start.

Bath have been equally impressive, but that’s no surprise given their motivation for losing last season’s final and the level of investment in The Rec. The fact that only two teams have won their opening two games only reinforces how competitive they are the Premiership nowadays.

It’s more of a race than it used to be, but Northampton recovered from early game defeats to win the title last season, so there is still some hope for Exeter fans at the other end of the table.

It doesn’t get any easier for them with a trip to Saracens this Sunday and you can’t help but feel they will struggle to gain enough ground to be in playoff contention come May.

For Newcastle, as much as Steve Diamond has insisted they will not finish bottom, success would be a couple of wins after the campaign they suffered last time out.

The rest will be fighting for places in the play-offs and the Champions Cup, but it was the vibrancy, youthful exuberance and attacking rugby, as much as the competitiveness, that caught the eye in recent days.

Steve Borthwick likes to talk about getting fans excited and now has greater control over players. The competition for the 25 Enhanced EPS places will only intensify in the coming months and years and he must have been licking his lips at the weekend.