Gallagher PREM teams ranked in comparative form table after 5 rounds

Good one year, bad the next seems to be the habit Exeter have been falling into lately.

Hit hard by injuries, especially in the last three, and with new recruits still in bed Bosses are far from the pace compared to last year.

After five rounds last season, Rob Baxter’s men had won 18 points, giving them a foundation to build on and into the Gallagher PREM final.

This time, Exeter have just 10 points, a deficit of eight points, the biggest of all 10 teams when comparing matches like for like to last season.

In the second and third rounds, Exeter equaled the number of points they took last season away at Bath (two) and at home to Newcastle Red Bulls (five), but in other games they are in deficit.

At home to Gloucester, Exeter were awarded a bonus point in 2025/26, but they only managed to drop a point when they met the new Cherry & Whites in the first round.

In the fourth round, Exeter failed to get anything from their 20-7 derby defeat at Bristol, having collected a forfeit bonus point at Ashton Gate in October 2025.

And just two points were scored instead of all five in the fifth-round match at home to Harlequins, a disheartening 31-28 defeat, after beating the same opposition 38-0 12 months earlier.

“The biggest shift, if you just go game by game, is that we lost Gloucester and we lost to Quins,” Chiefs director of rugby Rob Baxter said.

“We got results in these two home games. I think we got two 5-point wins. We picked up three points from those games.

“So instead of picking up 10, we picked up three. That’s the difference.

“I don’t mind saying, I think that Gloucester game caught us off guard because we had a short pre-season.

“And the availability issues we had at the start I think hindered us a bit. We weren’t good enough against Gloucester and they were good.”

“Other than that, we’ve actually been tracking flat for last season in our other results. But then, obviously, with the Quins game, we didn’t get it right at the end.”

“If we turned that into a win and picked up points there, then we pretty much don’t follow where we were, apart from the Gloucester game. But that’s what hurts us are those two games at home. And that’s the part we just have to keep working on.

“Like I said, we’re not far off, but we’re not, we’re not firing individually or collectively, and we’re not quite aligned to the level I’d like. And that’s something we need to work on over the next few weeks.”

Bath, the team that beat Exeter in the play-offs to reach last year’s final, are also well behind where they were in 2025/26 after the first five rounds of the season.

The loss of two of the biggest ball carriers, Alfie Barbeary and Thomas du Toit, hit home Bath difficult, while their long list of injuries hampered continuity.

Bath started with two bonus point wins, matching their maximum return from away games Harlequins and at home to Exeter last season.

However, they have fallen off the pace since then, losing badly to Gloucester, where they won convincingly the year before, and they only picked up one point instead of two in the previous round at Northampton, where they were beaten 71-48.

Bath dropped out of the top four for the first time in three years as a result of these setbacks. But even so, rugby boss Johann van Graan believes they are still in a good position to have a shot at the title.

Speaking to Somerset Live, he said: “We’ve got to make sure we get our five points at home. We’ve played two games at home this block (against Exeter and Sale) and we’ve got 10 points.”

“Look, all things considered, we’re on 16 points, five points from first, and that’s satisfactory.”

While Exeter and Bath were shadows of their former selves, Gloucester and Harlequins were sides transformed.

Comparing the simultaneous matches from last season with this one, both clubs are in ‘profit’ in the amount of seven points.

Playing for a new set of coaches, Harlequins were slow to start and were actually one point behind in the first two rounds.

But since then, Jason Gilmore’s men have picked up two points at Sale, having taken none the year before, and five in bonus-point wins at home to Saracens and away to Exeter, games which have earned them just four points in the 2025/26 season.