Will Greenwood's Premiership heroes of the season so far

It has been a thrilling start to the Aviva Premiership season and glory has been heaped onto the headline-grabbers - but these are my four real heroes of the season so far. The ones who do all their work at the coalface, creating platforms for the fancy dans

Will Greenwood's Premiership players of the season so far
Star men: Blair Cowan, Calum Clark, Michael Paterson and Dave Attwood

Blair Cowan, London Irish

I got grief from the Leicester faithful for talking about the quality of his performance at Welford Road. The Leicester mafia felt he should have been sent off for a punch. You cannot condone a punch but this is someone who will not back away from a confrontation. Even though they complained, I think the Welford Road massive would love this sort of fella in their team.

Cowan is a tough operator who does not care for reputations. When it comes to his game, he does not care what number he has on his back: 6, 7 or 8.

Cowan wants the ball and is keen to carry. His hands are OK without being great but physicality is at the heart of his game. Blair wants to pile into things, bone on bone. He is also brilliant in his turnover skills at breakdowns. Head over the ball, he does not mind the boots and elbows.

His finest game this season was at Welford Road, running angles off Chris Noakes his fly-half, putting in defence on men like Vereniki Goneva, stealing turnovers at the breakdown, the man was everywhere. He will surely add to his three caps for Scotland this autumn.

Dave Attwood, Bath

Aside from Sam Burgess, who has not even arrived yet, all the talk at Bath is currently about George Ford, the new wunderkind. Then the chatter focuses on Kyle Eastmond and Jonathan Joseph in the midfield, with Semesa Rokoduguni on the wing who is tearing defences apart. But none of these three-quarters would be shining if Bath had not been able to put together a pack that can stand toe to toe with anyone. Desperate for grunt for a few years now, Bath has shipped them in. But now the grunt has arrived, especially in the front five. They have a cracking front row, and a nice lineout technician and ball player in their second row Stuart Hooper. And then we come to the final member of engine room, Attwood.

Ed Slater had looked to be challenging Atwood for an England squad place, and jostling in behind Joe Launchbury, Courtney Lawes and Geoff Parling. Slater though is injured long-term. Parling is also injured long-term. Attwood, for his part, has put in performances that mean regardless of injuries he would have been involved in the autumn. He has been a charging, imposing physical presence whenever he has played.

He came off the bench on the opening day of the season and has started every game since. He is another whose finest hour was against Leicester in Bath’s 45-0 rout. A second row’s job is to make the breakdown a no-go zone for three-quarters who feel they can play like Brian O’Driscoll and against Leicester the breakdown was a hazardous area to be in when Attwood approached.

Attwood’s most improved area, though, is his line speed in defence and his ability to adapt to different attacking threats. If you run down his channel he will hammer you. Use decoys and outside arcs, he can adjust now and has enough in his tank to shut down flyers. He is no longer just a big lad standing in a back line. He has become a genuine defender. He had to improve in this area if he wanted to compete with Lawes and Launchbury and he definitely has. All the while his bread and butter work at the lineout has been terrific. He has great speed of movement and athleticism, shown brilliantly against Saracens, one of best lineout operating sides in the country, when they beat them last week.

Calum Clark, Northampton

There are rock stars and England certainties scattered throughout this Aviva champions side. Throw in Samu Manoa, George North and Kahn Fotuali’i and you understand why some players never get a mention.

For Clark there is an elephant in the room. He is stigmatised by his 32-week ban for injuring Rob Hawkins in the LV= Cup Final in 2012. For a lot of fans that is tough to ignore. But Clark has served his time. Stuart Lancaster knows a reformed character and Clark is in the mix for this autumn with injury doubts to Tom Croft and Tom Wood.

Clark is one of those unseen gems on a rugby field. You would have to search long and hard to put together a testimonial tape of his free running style and sumptuous passes. They are not in his DNA. But if you want to find 20 rucks or breakdowns where Clark has affected the outcome, either winning a turnover, disrupting opposition ball, or securing 50-50 ball for his own team then you can fill a tape a game. Easily.

He pushes the line at the breakdown – we know he is flexible but supporting his own body weight almost horizontally on his toes would push the limit for some referees. Referees describe this as “too long in the tackle” – and occasionally his penalty count can stack up. But he will not stop going after the ball and he trusts his technique and his coaches trust him to make the right call.

His commitment to get on the ball, to affect turnovers is magnificent. He is a tall man, a big man, but he competes on the deck magnificently. He bounces better than anyone. Putting in a tackle and popping back onto his feet like a surfer, arms released wide to show the referee he has released the tackled person and then back in on the ball to try to nick it. He always has those bits of tape on his ears, which you are never sure if they are actually helping.

He is a lineout operator now, up and down the line, adding versatility to his game.

His defence is hugely aggressive, though his swinging arms and feet and head sometimes look a little awkward and risky. But he commits completely to every hit. He does carry very well and offloads as well as most. But it is his breakdown work where he is quite brilliant. If you give him a sniff of the ball, a sighting of a corner of leather, he is in and it is gone.

If you think that means he does not think about the game – think again. Against London Irish he took a lineout, realised the whole London Irish pack had backed off to buy a penalty from the referee. Immediately Clark sensed it, and dragged an Irishman into the Saints huddle creating a maul. That is great speed of thought. There is more to him than just being a brute.

Michael Paterson, Sale

Paterson is a New Zealand-born lad who has chosen his grandfather’s country of birth, England. I have no doubt in my mind that Sale’s ability to move away from the bottom end of the table and take some big scalps is down in large part to his abilities. He is a fantastic lineout operator and his ability to play in back row or second row has given huge flexibility to Steve Diamond.

Daniel Braid is brilliant for Sale but has regular injury worries. Nathan Hines, the big name signing, is out for three months. Most TV and camera lenses are pointed at Danny Cipriani. But in the blood and guts part of the pitch there is Paterson. Ever present, durable, tough and hugely smart.

He is another great lineout operator, and a top defender with his back-row credentials. But what I admire most about him is his link play. Paterson can get up from a hugely physical confrontation and drop into ball-playing mode almost immediately. The adrenaline is controlled and the possibilities are seen. He was denied a match-winning try against Bath, wrongly in my view, for a forward pass. Yet his ability to see space, to find himself in it and then to run like a galloping giraffe is an asset to any side.

Most forwards like dark spaces and crowds, and while that stereotype is changing it is going to take some time. Paterson leads this team, and not always with the armband on. Against London Welsh, a team that most people expect a handsome win against, key players need to set the tone early. Paterson did just that. Great restart take, first super carry, error free, up and away and the team followed. It may be a step too far to imagine he will be part of England’s World Cup squad next year but he would be a heck of a late call. Sale fans know they have a club rock star. Week in week out he is outstanding, and the sort of man you build a team around.