Newcastle battled to victory over Bristol, Leicester made it five wins from five as they won at Worcester and Exeter secured a bonus point in their victory at Wasps; Bath host Saracens and London Irish play Gloucester on Sunday (both 3pm)
Saturday 16 October 2021 17:48, UK
We round up Saturday's Gallagher Premiership action, which saw Newcastle Falcons pile more misery on Bristol Bears, Leicester Tigers keep up their impressive start with a huge win away to Worcester Warriors, and Exeter Chiefs edge out Wasps in a thriller…
A dogged display from Newcastle Falcons saw them battle their way to a 13-5 win over Bristol Bears at Kingston Park.
In front of a bumper 6,746 home crowd, the Falcons were looking for their third win overall following victories away to Bath and Wasps.
Bristol, meanwhile, headed into the contest a shadow of the side that topped the Premiership last season, having lost three of their opening four matches.
Newcastle managed to crash over for the first score of the game through flanker Callum Chick, with Brett Connon adding the extras on the stroke of half-time.
Connon was then sin-binned after 52 minutes for a deliberate knock-on and the Bears capitalised to hit back with an unconverted try from Alapati Leiua.
But the Falcons fly-half returned to the field to kick two penalties to ensure his side saw out the contest to take the win and inflict more misery on the Bears.
Exeter continued their march up the table with a hard-earned 27-23 victory over injury-ravaged Wasps who were outgunned but not outfought.
It did not look like being as close as it finished at the start of the second quarter when Exeter scored two tries in five minutes after Jimmy Gopperth had landed two penalties to Henry Slade's one.
Dave Ewers cracked the defence and Jack Maunder freed Slade to score Exeter's opening try in the 21st minute with Wasps' Josh Bassett in the sin-bin and the visitors' second came when Harvey Skinner and Stuart Hogg gave wing Facundo Cordero the space to round Marcus Watson.
But the hosts hit back when Dan Frost was driven over following a line-out and then Thomas Young capitalised on a split in the defence. Gopperth gave Wasps a cushion with his third penalty against the run of play, but Sam Simmonds scored from a scrum after 61 minutes as Exeter rallied.
Jonny Hill made up for three handling errors with an acrobatic try in the corner to regain the lead for Exeter who held on after Simmonds's turnover on Francois Hougaard ended Wasps' final attack.
Meanwhile, England forwards coach Richard Cockerill saw hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie hobble from the field after falling awkwardly on his left ankle ahead of Monday's autumn squad announcement.
Premiership leaders Leicester reeled off a fifth successive victory of the season as they demolished Worcester 48-3 at Sixways.
It confirmed Tigers' best start to a Premiership campaign since the competition began in 1997, as well as condemning the Warriors to their fourth-straight defeat.
They opened up a seven-point gap on nearest rivals Harlequins, with Worcester being the latest team to witness at first hand Leicester's continued resurgence under head coach Steve Borthwick.
The Tigers were home and dry by the interval following tries for wing Harry Potter, centre Matias Moroni and hooker Julian Montoya, leaving Worcester reeling.
Fly-half George Ford underlined his claims for an England recall in Eddie Jones' Autumn Nations Series squad which will be announced on Monday, impressing throughout and kicking a penalty and three conversions.
Former England scrum-half Richard Wigglesworth scored a bonus-point try midway through the second period, before hooker Nic Dolly claimed his fifth try of the season, winger Nemani Nadolo powered over, while substitute Freddie Burns also crossed and added two conversions.
