Our first Luke...

Miles Harrison previews a weekend of Premiership rugby when All Black Luke McAlister will make his Sale debut.

The Guinness Premiership is back on the agenda and here on Sky Sports you can watch two matches live this weekend. Miles Harrison is Sky's commentator in Worcester on Friday night when the Warriors host Sale Sharks, and in Leeds on Saturday when the Tigers are the visitors. Here on skysports.com, he looks ahead to both matches... How do you think the English teams will be feeling after two weeks in Europe? MILES: A statistic sent out by the Guinness Premiership this week told us that round two in Europe this week was England's best results for a decade. So you would take from that they are mostly feeling good about life. The Challenge Cup is all England with all five pools topped by English teams and there were some excellent results in the Heineken Cup too with Wasps, Leicester, Gloucester, London Irish and Bristol all winning. Quins drew and Saracens nearly pulled off, and probably should have, a rare victory in Biarritz. There is a better than good chance that they will give Biarritz a run for their money in the return match at Vicarage Road. I am sure the clubs will be very excited to be getting back to the business of the Guinness Premiership. After the World Cup and the Heineken Cup, it is my first time commentating on this tournament this season and I am excited to be getting back to it. We are live in Worcester on Friday night and I always think Sixways is a great place to go. It will be sold out, it was nearly sold out on Monday, and I think they will have had no trouble selling the final few for the arrival of Sale Sharks, and Luke McAlister. What do you think it means for the Premiership, that Sale Sharks can attract players of McAlister's calibre? MILES: It is very exciting to see someone like him here. Gone are the days of imports coming here to pick up pensions at the end of their careers. McAlister might well be putting some of the money he earns here into a pension - that is what we are advised to do - but he isn't here for that, he, as a 24-year-old, is here for real rugby reasons. He could have stayed in New Zealand and been a major part of the All Black side for years, they might have built the side around him and Dan Carter, but he has decided to come here and New Zealand's loss is England's and the Guinness Premiership's gain. This is the biggest of all signings since I started covering this game on Sky Sports. So what about this game, how do you see this one going? MILES: This is a fixture that really sums up the Premiership. Like Gloucester and Ospreys last week, two teams with big ambitions trying to get through pool stages of the Heineken Cup by taking their domestic promise into Europe, Sale and Worcester are two clubs with big ambitions. Sale are the champions of a couple of years ago, getting internationals back fit and looking like a star-studded team again, going to Worcester, a club with big ambitions but at the base of the table because they just can't get a win. It just shows how difficult victories are to come by in this league. The Warriors will be strengthened by their own New Zealand players - Rico Gear when he arrives and Sam Tuitupou when fit. They will be nervous, because they need to get a home win, any win, and home form is crucial. Sale will also be nervous because Worcester is always a difficult place to go. It won't feel like going to the side in 12th place and that is the point about the Premiership. On any given day anyone can beat the other side. That is why this competition is fantastic and long may the evenness of talent continue. On Saturday you are at Leeds Carnegie. With only one win in six it isn't unfair to ask you how you rate their chances of avoiding the drop? MILES: It is going to be tough. They knew that and it has proved to be that way. There will be disappointment at having failed to really cash in during the World Cup. They have one win, one more than Worcester, but they are still down in 11th and only one point better off than the Warriors. It is reality time again at Headingley but there is a lot of good, promising, young talent there. I was up there on Tuesday, watching them train and looking around you see some players who are going to have good Premiership careers and the hope at Leeds is that they have them with Leeds. The issue is experience and that is something that they are going to acquire during the season. They have already had some harsh lessons and there are more to come. The question is: can they get sufficient number of wins to survive? This season is not about Challenge Cup or the EDF - although it is important to get some good wins in Challenge Cup because they reward you with confidence and experience. It is purely about Premiership survival this season, grabbing points when they come along - wins, draws, bonus points for losing narrowly or scoring tries and hopefully for Leeds, at the end of the season they will all tot up to something that keeps them in top flight. Last but not least, Leicester Tigers are Leeds' visitors, with their new coach in charge. What are your thoughts on this piece of recruitment from the Tigers? MILES: I don't think there is any doubt that Marcello Loffreda is one of the top coaches in world rugby, we saw that with his Argentina team at the World Cup. He has built something very solid there. His long tenure as Pumas coach was an impressive effort, right through the eight-year period. The World Cup was no flash in the pan, there were many other good victories on the long road to France and there are clear signs that he was building something on solid foundations. He will do that at Leicester too but comes in with firm foundations already in place. He adds to a more powerful scenario potentially for Tigers. It was a deliberate move made by Leicester to get an outsider with fresh ideas. In a way Pat Howard did that too and they will want to it again with Loffreda. He would have sat and watched the defeat to Leinster and he won't have liked what he saw. Next came the 39-0 win over Edinburgh when he was in charge. That's some statement of intent, not to take anything away from Richard Cockerill, who looked after the team while Loffreda was in France. Everyone spoke highly of Cockerill and the job he did, leading the Tigers in the early stage of the Premiership with many of their big hitters at the World Cup, and he led them well. But he is not a main man at moment, he has time on his side, and he will have benefitted from his time in temporary charge. He will also benefit from working alongside Loffreda - and for the rest of the Premiership, he is a dangerous man to be in charge of Leicester. Leicester don't have a great record against Leeds at Headingley. Can Leeds upset them again? It's the big question of the weekend so tune in to Sky to find out. We have the 12th and 11th placed team against two previous champions. The sides at the bottom are at home and know that, even if they can't find a victory, they can produce a performance that will convince themselves that times will be better at Christmas and in the New Year. This is a great opportunity to give themselves a lift but also a great chance of a slap in the face. It is a pivotal weekend for both teams and any points taken will be crucial come the end of the season.