1) Obano and Genge stake their claims

Loosehead prop is not a problem position for England with Mako Vunipola backed up by Joe Marler, but Beno Obano and Ellis Genge are World Cup pretenders and rivals for a place in the World Cup squad next year. They stood out at Twickenham in their different ways: Genge was dominant in the scrum, pulverising Shaun Knight to create the platform for Leicester’s victory, while Obano was prominent in the loose, making 15 tackles and carrying hard to make more metres with ball in hand than any other Bath forward on a day when Leicester dominated possession. Genge has an abrasive edge, is rarely quiet and a is a throwback to the ABC club with his relish for confrontation, while Obano is dynamic, a prop by trade but a loose forward by nature. Tight or loose will be the question for England. Paul Rees

• Match report: Bath 19-34 Leicester

2) Quins’ limbo an ominous glimpse into future

Who were the weekend’s great underperformers? Harlequins and Northampton. What do they have in common? Absolutely nothing left for which to play. It did not go unmentioned at the Stoop that if relegation is abolished this is where more and more clubs will find themselves as the season unwinds. Which is a fair point and why, if relegation is to be scrapped, a better bet might be to welcome London Irish and another club to next season’s 12, split the league into two and expand the play-offs. Either way, welcoming Irish is the way to go. How we celebrated the side sure to go down and despaired of the one safe and sound. Strange times. Michael Aylwin

• Match report: Harlequins 5-35 London Irish

3) Saracens show renewed resolve after last year’s misery

Just as Saracens had done against Leinster, Northampton turned down a shot at three points – which would have given them the lead – in pursuit of at least five on the brink of half-time on Saturday and failed. It was a questionable decision but demonstrated how much the Saints had been in the game. But Saracens’ response, in a trying week when they had been eliminated from the Champions Cup and seen their South African co-owners sell their 50% stake in the club, was mightily impressive. Crucially, it gives them a six-point cushion in second place and on course for a home semi-final. Last season Saracens finished third and that ultimately cost them a trip to Twickenham but there is an impetus to avoid that fate again, having relinquished their European title. Gerard Meagher

• Match report: Northampton 13-63 Saracens

4) Yarde’s Sale prove value for money

Wasps’ ambition of earning a home semi-final has been derailed in their past two games and following a second successive defeat by a solitary point they are now looking over their shoulders. For the second game in succession, too, they let slip a lead – this time 17 points. As if that was not enough their fly-half, Danny Cipriani, was knocked out cold late on and departed on a stretcher, although he later tweeted that he was OK. Marland Yarde, revived by his move north, scored in the final seconds for Sale, who have not featured in a semi-final since 2006 but are pushing the teams above them hard with three rounds of the regular season remaining. Claire Tolley

• Match score: Sale 28-27 Wasps

5) Worcester show bottle at the crucial moment

Worcester’s stirring victory against Newcastle – they left a number of points out on the field, too – has strengthened their battle to avoid relegation even if there was the unwelcome news that London Irish had won at Harlequins to narrow the gap between them to nine points. Alan Solomons’ side scored 21 unanswered points in the second half. Newcastle are now bunched with five other clubs likely hunting the final two play-off spots and need – as their director of rugby, Dean Richards admitted – to start playing well again having been winning ugly in recent times. Their final three matches, starting when they host Sale on Saturday, are all against teams challenging for those semi-finals. Claire Tolley

• Match score: Worcester 27-13 Newcastle

6) Exeter’s England contenders get ever more difficult to ignore

Exeter are not England’s champion side by accident and Sunday’s six-try stampede against Gloucester underlined their pedigree. Victories over London Irish (away) and Sale (home) in their next two games will ensure the Chiefs top the regular-season table and they will enter next month’s play-offs knowing they have already beaten all their leading rivals at Sandy Park this season with something to spare. The watching Eddie Jones can hardly fail to have noted the energetic form of several England tour contenders, with Alec Hepburn, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Henry Slade, Don Armand and Sam Simmonds all reinforcing their claims for inclusion in the senior squad to face the Springboks in June. Curiously, almost half of England’s recent first-choice XV play their club rugby for sides – Bath, Harlequins and Northampton – languishing in the league’s bottom half while Exeter’s high fliers have mostly been confined to bench duty. For how much longer will that remain the case? Robert Kitson

• Match report: Exeter 46-10 Gloucester