bath

Exeter reached last season’s Prem final, where they lost to Northampton at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham.

But they have yet to record a win this season after a surprising loss at home to Gloucester last week.

However Baxter says his side’s loss at Bath, and their sticky start to the season, should not cause too much concern yet:

“I just don’t think we need to be so worried that we’ve got to get five points away at that to be competitive at the end of this season,” he said.

“In a way, I’ll be worried that we think we have to get five points second game of the season to be competitive.

“What I want us to do is go, ‘We play really well every week, we build our points score’, that’s what gets us where we need to be.

“We saw that last year – that’s what we’ve got to do again.”

Bath director of rugby Johann van Graan told BBC Radio Somerset:

“It was a crazy game of rugby once again, Bath versus Exeter. We started the game really well but then they came out punching after half-time and scored three unanswered tries.

“But then that’s why this game is a 23-man effort as we then came back with the impact of our eight (subs) who made a really good difference, so I’m really happy with the five points.

“We’re very proud of our bench and numbers 16 to 23 at this club are just as important as numbers one to 15.”

Exeter Chiefs director of rugby Rob Baxter told BBC Radio Devon:

“The important emotion is I’m walking away going ‘we’ve got a team here and we’ve got something to work with’.

“Last week was such a patchy performance (losing 45-24 to Gloucester) but today we showed a lot of good qualities.

“The qualities of being in a fight to the death, that’s what Exeter Chiefs are about. Do you want to be perfect or do you want to be in a fight every single week? Well we’ll be in a fight every single week.

“I’m quite happy with that, that’s what we’re good at and I saw that today.”

Bath: Donoghue; Cokanasiga, Lawrence, Redpath, de Glanville; Russell, van der Linde; Obano, Dunn, Stuart, Roux, Ewels (capt), Richards, Pepper, du Preez.

Replacements: Frost, Kirk, Griffin, Hill, Reid, Carr-Smith, Ojomoh, Coetzee.

Exeter: Woodburn; Feyi-Waboso, Slade, Butt, Wyatt; Skinner, Varney; Burger, Yeandle, Iosefa-Scott, Wilson, Jenkins (capt), E Roots, James, Fisilau.

Replacements: Gulley, Goodrick-Clarke, Tchumbadze, Beckerleg, Worley Brady, Wolstenholme, Haydon-Wood, Wimbush.

Sin-bin: Varney (61)

Referee: Luke Pearce

The Prem

Harlequins (10) 17

Tries: Porter, Cunningham-South, Delgado Cons: Slevin

Bath (28) 33

Tries: Du Preez, Cokanasiga, Carreras, Frost, Richards Cons: Russell 4

A terrific try from full-back Santiago Carreras was the highlight of Bath’s opening night 33-17 bonus-point victory over Harlequins.

The Argentina international intercepted a Tyrone Green pass with his boot, kicking the ball into the air before collecting it one-handed before it went out of play and smoothly accelerating away to score under the posts in a real moment of magic.

Dan du Preez, Joe Cokanasiga and Dan Frost added first-half tries for Bath who led 28-10 at the break, with Will Porter and Chandler Cunningham-South replying for Quins.

Pedro Delgado reduced the gap to 11 points early in the second half but Ewan Richards’ late try ensured it would be Bath who started the new season with a win.

More to follow.

Harlequins: Green; Anderson, Beard, Bradley, Murley (c); Slevin, Porter; Hobson, Walker, Delgado, Dun, Browne, Kenningham, Evans, Cunningham-South.

Replacements: Riley, Wenger, Johnson-Holmes, Treadwell, Petti, Friday, Bellamy, Isgro.

Sin-bin: Riley (53)

Bath: Carreras; Cokanasiga, Lawrence, Ojomoh, De Glanville; Russell, Carr-Smith; Obano, Frost, Stuart, Hill, Ewels (c), Bayliss, Underhill, Du Preez.

Replacements: Tuipulotu, Kirk, Griffin, Richards, Pepper, Van der Linde, Redpath, Reid.

Referee: Karl Dickson

The city has been highlighted by Tripadvisor Travelers’ Choice Awards: Best of the Best Restaurants for 2026, which is based on first-hand reviews from millions of travellers over the last year

A charming UK city with medieval streets and a towering minster is also home to the country’s best restaurants.

While the silver-spoon-holding residents of foodie capitals London, Manchester, and Edinburgh may consider themselves to live in the UK’s culinary epicentre, they’re wrong.

The newly released Tripadvisor Travelers’ Choice Awards: Best of the Best Restaurants for 2026, which is based on first-hand reviews from millions of travellers over the last year, shows there is one UK city with a far higher concentration of great eateries than anywhere else, despite having a population almost 50 times smaller than London.

The standout is York in North Yorkshire.

The city of 200,000 had the highest-ranked restaurants of anywhere in the UK, with Brazilian joint Casa Brazilian Rodizio ranking eighth worldwide. The family-run, authentic Brazilian rodizio-style restaurant aims to “provide an unforgettable authentic taste, service and experience for an unbeatable set price!” By all accounts, it has succeeded.

“Went out for a family meal yesterday, the food was absolutely amazing, the place was astonishing. The meat tasted rich, and the buffet had so many amazing options,” wrote one of Casa Brazilian Rodizio’s reviewers among the thousands awarding it 4.9/5 stars.

Other York restaurants performed really well in the UK rankings, with Buongiorno, Enoteca By L’uva and Damastique making the top 25 in the ‘best casual dining’ list. Legacy At The Grand also found itself at number seven in a rundown of the UK’s best date-night restaurants, and Melton’s reached the same spot on the ‘best fine dining’ rundown. And finally, the family-run Turkish outfit Kapadokya 50 was named one of the UK’s best hidden gems.

York’s rise to become the country’s premier gastronomy spot is an interesting one. The medieval city has always tempted in history buffs with its minster, Jorvik Centre and Quilt Museum, and it’s long boasted of having more pubs than days of the year to drink in them, a fact that seemed suspect when I lived there a decade ago and is almost certainly not true now. But the foodie revolution that’s taken place there is a more recent and quiet phenomenon.

A new crop of young chefs has been putting the city’s food in the spotlight, in backstreets from Micklegate to The Shambles. Among the gang is Tommy Banks, one of the youngest chefs in the UK to win a Michelin star, who leads Roots York in the city centre. His cooking relies heavily on homegrown produce, farm-to-table tasting menus, and unique preservation techniques.

Another is Ahmed Abdalla, head chef at Legacy inside The Grand hotel, who creates modern British tasting menus with classic Yorkshire ingredients. And Joshua and Victoria Overington run Restaurant Mýse, a place that specialises in local Anglo-Saxon culinary heritage.

The Michelin Guide lists 16 restaurants in York and its surroundings, three with stars and a Michelin Green Star, including Roots and Mýse.

Eduardo Caetano, owner of Casa Brazilian Rodizio, opened the restaurant 11 years ago. “The philosophy of the restaurant is casa, which means home. When you come in, you come into our home. You are my guest. If the food is not good enough for me, it’s not good enough for me,” he told the Mirror.

“The offering in York is an extremely competitive market, there are loads of places to eat. I love that there are so many family businesses here. For me, York is the only place in the world that feels like home.”

In terms of places in York he loves to eat, Eduardo recommended Delrio’s Italian Restaurant. “I love going there,” he added.

It’s not just in high-end restaurants that York is excelling; its casual dining scene is also strong. Recent additions doing well locally include authentic Neapolitan pizzeria Cresci Pizzeria, which has become a citywide favourite, while the gut-busting sandwiches of Browns in Heslington remain a cheap, filling option.

This all sits against a backdrop of the Shambles Market, York’s main daily open-air market, located at Silver Street in the heart of the city. Come early November, it is joined by the Christmas Market, with Alpine chalets filling up Parliament Street and St Sampson’s Square. Whether you find festive fare charming or a logistical impediment, stallholders not only bring a real buzz to the city, but plenty of gastro-delights.

You can get loaded on artisanal hot cocoa, locally made gin, scratchings, high-end crumble and much more.

Similarly, the long-term culinary heritage of York is evident in its fantastic pubs, many of which also serve up delicious food. The House of Trembling Madness is a wonderfully wonky pub that pairs cheese boards and yards of ale, while Valhalla York on Patrick Pool is a Viking-themed ale house serving hearty meat and cheese boards alongside local mead and ales.

The success of York as a food city is no accident. The city has actively invested in growing this reputation through events such as York Restaurant Week, now one of the UK’s biggest events of its kind since its 2019 launch, with the most recent edition doubling to two weeks and featuring over 100 participating venues. The previous October’s event saw over 22,000 vouchers downloaded, bringing in nearly £400,000 for local businesses, a 70% jump from the year before.