Strange words to write for anyone who has covered this competition for any length of time, but we kind of know who the Prem semi-finalists are going to be.And there’s still six rounds to go.Saracens had to win here at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium against the league leaders to maintain any realistic chance of taking their customary place in the playoffs.This is the last season at the helm for Mark McCall, the man who has guided them through their glory years, before he “moves upstairs”, but it is looking increasingly likely that his era will draw to a close without further silverware.Saracens are mathematically still in it, of course, but, 12 points adrift of fourth spot with those six rounds to play, they will need to call on more than their own prowess to make it.

Someone else is going to have to implode.Normally, by this stage of the season, we have made the observation at least 20 times how the teams in second and eighth are separated by five points, or whatever, but no such breathlessness this time, alas.Northampton pull six points clear at the top, with Bath to play at Sale on Sunday, and Exeter in fourth are seven points clear of Bristol in fifth, who are 22 points clear of Gloucester in eighth.Roll on the playoffs.Northampton consolidated their lead in a match that hardly lived up to its magnificent surroundings.

The stadium gleamed under a clear moon, under that cockerel on a football, lit from below in a golden light atop the largest single-tier stand in the country, full and raucous.A crowd of 45,700 did their bit, but on the field the action was fitful and fractious, fisticuffs breaking out a couple of times as the game ticked down to a last 10 minutes that did, at least, provide its fair share of drama.Northampton bookended the game with about 15 minutes of excellence, Archie McParland’s first try, in the 13th minute, Northampton’s second, was followed by his second, the Saints’ third, in the 78th.In between, 65 long minutes of Saintly labour.Saracens seemed to need those 15 minutes to acclimatise to a stadium that the promotional material made clear they have played in five times before, this being “The Showdown VI”.

But in those next 65 minutes, their team, which is undoubtedly in transition, showed character and some aplomb, clawing back the 14-point deficit they conceded in fewer minutes at the start of the game, crossing twice themselves, before taking the lead at just the most poignant point of proceedings, Fergus Burke landing a penalty with a little more than five minutes to play.If their season was teetering on the brink at that point, the destiny of the match was back in their hands.Tobias Elliott reminded us of his skill, one of a few richly talented wings coming through in north London, barging his way through two tackles to score Saracens’ first, early in the second quarter, and generally creating havoc with his punchy changes of direction and light-touch skills.Meanwhile, at the base, Charlie Bracken kept Saracens moving with a bullet pass as quickfire as a machine gun, which is starting to look as fast as any really since, well, that of his father, Kyran.If he could develop his dad’s running game too, he will be quite the player.

For a touch of that, he need look no further than the man opposite him here.McParland is a deadly support player, at the heart of Northampton’s periods of ascendancy at either end of the match.He was on Fin Smith’s shoulder to run in that try in the 13th minute, for a 14-0 lead, the England fly-half striding through Saracens’ defence like an emperor to put him away, and there he was again on Tom Litchfield’s at the death to run home the winner.Litchfield had opened the scoring in the seventh minute, Northampton not allowing Saracens any chance to work that hiding at Bath last weekend out of their system.More England players back from the Six Nations made their mark, but George Furbank was another international, if not one to feature in this year’s championship, to look a million dollars, playing a key role in the buildup to Litchfield’s opener.

He stood up to play fly-half, after Smith failed his HIA at the end of the first quarter,Worrying injuries also cost Saints two props, Manny Iyogun and England tighthead Trevor Davison,George Skivington was angry with parts of his Gloucester side’s performance after seeing them comfortably beaten 36-17 by in-form Leicester at Villa Park,It was Gloucester’s first visit to the Premier League football ground but they blew any chance of making it a fruitful one by conceding 22 points in the opening 16 minutes and were never able to recover,They did show some spirit to score three times as Leicester became careless and disjointed with the Slater Cup already safely in the bag.

Jamie Blamire, with two, Will Wand, Gabriel Hamer-Webb, Orlando Bailey and Harry Wells were Leicester’s try-scorers, with Billy Searle adding two conversions and James O’Connor one.Matias Alemanno, Will Joseph and Dian Bleuler scored Gloucester’s tries, one of which Charlie Atkinson converted.Skivington said: “I’m trying to calm down but if I was picking a team now for next week, there would certainly be some changes in it.It was a disastrous first 20 minutes with a couple of key moments whereby individual players chose not to be more challenging in the tackle.There was also an issue at scrum time.

"The Slater Cup is played for between the two clubs in honour of their former player Ed Slater (pictured with Ollie Chessum), who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 2022,The Exeter forwards coach Ross McMillan said his side executed their gameplan very well in Friday's 38-14 win at Newcastle,In a ruthless opening 25 minutes  at at Kingston Park Paul Brown-Bampoe scored twice either side of Campbell Ridl’s effort before Olly Woodburn bagged the bonus point,Ridl scored his second try before the break and Stephen Varney struck immediately after the restart,McMillan said: “Especially in games that start the way that they did, you have ebbs and flows in the game and it’s hard to maintain that.

It’s probably an area we want to make sure we get right again if we get the opportunity to do that.The start of the game looked exactly how we wanted it to go.Fair play to our players, they executed the plan very well.”Newcastle's head coach, Stephen Jones, was disappointed by the start but hoped his side could see it as a lesson.“We’ve got some really good learnings as a group tonight.

We’re blooding some young players,” he said,“Our group will be better for this experience,From a coaching perspective I’ll be better for it as well,I know some areas we can push, especially for next week,” PA Media“It’s absolutely gutting to lose,” said McCall.

“But I’m not gutted about the way we lost,To go 14-0 down so early after losing by 60 points last week, the way we fought back was magnificent, really,I know there’s something good to build on from tonight, and I think if we go like that for the next few weeks, we’ll actually enjoy it,”After this weird two weeks of Prem after the Six Nations, minds turn to Europe for the next two,Saracens are still in that and, as it happens, return to the scene of that thrashing last weekend for a last-16 tie against Bath.

Northampton have the rather more forgiving assignment of Castres at home.So, there’s much for the English still to play for.It’s just that the Prem for now is virtually a dead rubber.