Hello everyone, happy new year and welcome back to the Ruck, the journalist's rugby podcast from The Times. Hope you all had a great Christmas and enjoyed our World 15 pod from last week, even if you didn't agree with every single pick we made. We're back properly now with much to discuss. Alex Lowe's alongside me, did you have a nice Christmas New Year? Yeah, really, really nice. Thank you. Egypt for a few days.

Oh, yeah?

Yeah, pyramids, tombs.

Is that why you walked like that when you came in, like in Egyptian?

So quad biking through the desert, yeah.

So nice few days away.

And now back right into the meat of the season and the rugby news cycle, which never ends.

Yeah, exactly.

I mean, Alex and I were lucky enough to both have a little bit of time off,

although you did Lester against Saracens yesterday on Sunday.

But a lot keeps happening, doesn't it?

There's like some clubs in crisis, some clubs storming to the top of the table. Newcastle have won a game, a prem game, great result against Gloucester, who they now are in a bit of a mode where they're issuing, we must do better type statements and things like that. It's been a mad old couple of weeks, hasn't it, really, over the festive period. It feels like the league is starting, we're at the halfway point,

starting to take shape.

Like the top four Exeter have had their struggles.

But with a new coaching team,

they're into the top four.

It feels like Northampton Bath,

Exeter Bristol,

they all really understand who they are,

what they're about,

and understand how they think they can go and win the league. They're the pace set. As Leicester are keeping pace with them, that win

against Saracens, it was seriously impressive for the first half in particular. On the flip side,

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