Smith at 15, Roets at 22st and three more Premiership talking points

At the first day of Saracens' pre-season training, the mission-statement speech was delivered by the club's general manager and England coaching target Phil Morrow.

He started by revealing a coaching secret.

"Often you find a way to repackage something to make it feel a little bit different," he said of how he and his staff's annual challenge at the start of a new campaign.

"But, probably for the first time in a long time, this really does feel a little bit different."

The audience was certainly different.

Owen Farrell, Billy Vunipola and brother Mako are all gone. So have stalwarts Alex Lewington and Sean Maitland.

To judge by the season so far though, the aura remains.

Saracens have opened up with three comfortable wins to lead the early standings, with Tobias Elliott the poster boy in black.

Tobias Elliott was part of the England under-20 squad that finished fourth in their 2023 age-grade world championship

The 21-year-old, who was previously featured at centre, full-back and fly-half, was electric once more on the wing against Exeter, cantering in for his third try in as many games.

Elliott made an eye-popping 107m with ball in hand, off only six carries.

Their opponent offers a warning though. This time, last year, 'Exeter 2.0' were on a similar trajectory. They opened up with a 65-10 thrashing of Saracens. After four games they were top of the league.

But, with the experience and quality of Sam Simmonds, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Jack Nowell, Stuart Hogg and Dave Ewers having departed the previous summer, they struggled to maintain that pace, fading to a seventh-place finish.

The Chiefs have lost all three games this season as well.

Saracens and Elliott head on the road to face Harlequins and Bristol away over the next two rounds in stiffer tests of their title credentials.

Smith shines as stop-gap full-back

Marcus Smith dives over for his second try but Harlequins ultimately came up short against Northampton

In the 20th minute at Franklin's Gardens, there was a tantalising glimpse of what could be.

Marcus Smith caught the ball at pace, with the Northampton defence on the hop in front of him.

With a puff of the cheeks, a swish of the hair, Smith jagged off his left foot, leaving England wing Tommy Freeman hopelessly off balance on his way to the tryline.

Out wide, in space, it was a position he wouldn't have been in, but for a switch of position.

With a spate of injuries to contend with, Harlequins head coach Danny Wilson opted to deploy Smith at full-back against the defending champions.

Perversely, while it was Smith's first time at 15 in the Premiership, he has done decent time at full-back at international level, starting there in three of England's France 2023 matches and stepping in for the injured George Furbank against France in the Six Nations in March.

He did well in attack and, an ill-advised dart across his own tryline apart, was solid enough in defence and under the high ball.

Beauden Barrett and Damian McKenzie use their combination of fast-twitch fibres and game-smart grey matter to flip-flop between the two play-making roles down in New Zealand.

“Marcus is a 10, he is our 10 and England’s 10,” said Wilson after his side's 33-29 defeat, emphasising that he saw his star's future at stand-off.

But 15 might be yet be Smith's Test-level trump card.

Pumas back on the Premiership prowl

Santiago Grondona made more carries and more metres than any other back row on show at the Rec

Such was the severity of a July 2023 knee injury and the depth of Pat Lam's faith in the back row that Argentina's Santiago Grondona had earned a contract extension at Bristol before even making his first appearance.

The 26-year-old finally made his Bristol bow against Bath and scored two tries in a 36-26 win, both from clever, sliding lines into space and agile athleticism.

It is something that the Pumas specialise in with Saracens flanker Juan Martin Gonzalez similarly smart and swift with ball in hand.

With their international team-mate Santiago Carreras also now back in contention to pull strings for Gloucester, the end of the Rugby Championship may subtly alter the balance of Premiership power in weeks to come.

6ft 8in, 22st, one big man

Gloucester fly-half Gareth Anscombe prepares to tackle Sale's Le Roux Roets

As packs of prehistoric dimensions prepare for a set-piece, often only the referee offers a sense of human scale.

But, even in the land of giants, Sale's new signing Le Roux Roets stands out. The South African is 6ft 8in tall, weighs in at nearly 22st and is jumbo in all dimensions.

Before the win over Gloucester, Sale's director of rugby Alex Sanderson challenged Roets to step out of the shadow of South African great Eben Etzebeth, with whom he shared the second row at previous club Sharks.

Line him up right though and Roets casts an eclipse across half of Manchester.

Tries galore and Falcons struggle to take off

Premiership matches averaged 6.97 tries a game last season

The product is good.

Under the Friday night lights, Sale v Gloucester and Northampton v Harlequins featured nine tries each and barn-burning finales, with the outcome in doubt as the clock turned red.

On Saturday, at a sold-out Rec, Bristol and Bath produced another nine tries and an upset as the Bears proved too sharp for the bookmakers' title favourites.

For the past two seasons, the Premiership has clocked up an average of seven tries a match, up from five and half five years ago.

With Gloucester throwing the ball around in a change of tactic, it is only Newcastle, battling against salary gap gravity, who are struggling to get in on the fun.

Steve Diamond's men have scored three tries in three defeats so far. Their latest - a 42-10 reverse against Leicester - is also their heaviest.

After confident talk that they would be a good degree stronger than their winless 2023-24, Newcastle have racked up more than double the points deficit (67 to 32) compared to the equivalent fixtures last campaign.

Exeter at home on Friday 18 October needs to be a turning point.