Not many positives that we can draw from defeat

RUGBY'S intensity shifted up a gear over the weekend as the game entered the business end of the season.

- CHRIS BENTLEY

In front of 37,573 supporters at the Allianz Stadium England, women hung on for a nail-biting 43-42 win over France to retain the Woman's 6 Nations title.

In the Premiership, Sale thumped Saracens 25-7; Bath romped to a 59-19 drubbing of 'up for Sale for a pound' Newcastle Falcons, while Michael Cheika's Leicester put Quins to the sword with a 40-7 hiding at Welford Road.

Elsewhere, Northampton beat Pat Lams Bristol 48-31 in a try-fest at Franklins Gardens leaving only Gloucester v Chiefs in the Premiership to report on.

There are not many positives to draw from Chiefs woeful 79-17 humiliation at Kingsholm other than to say: maintain the faith, hold firm to the belief that Gloucester are not 62 points better than us. We will recover!

Unfortunately, Sunday's score suggests different but Chiefs, with nothing other than pride to play for and Gloucester gunning for the play offs the difference in mindset was clear from the outset.

Chiefs did throw a few punches in defiance with Josh Hodge giving his all to fire up our flagging troops. There were others doing their best to front up an ebullient Cherry and White onslaught together with taunting banter from the Shed, but in truth we were never at the races in this one.

I've been on the end of tough defeats on the road with the Chiefs and sometimes you do have to take your medicine, but there were a couple of gripes around the game that lingered after the dust settled.