Fixtures - 6

First topic message reminder :

Matches to be played Friday 29th July

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Saracens vs. Bath Rugby

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Saracens
Manager – LDCPete

01. Matt Mullan	09. Paul Hodgson
02. Gary Botha	10. Iain Humphreys
03. Brok Harris
04. Rynhard Elstadt	11. Rene Ranger
05. Steve Borthwick	12. Owen Farrell
06. Joe van Niekerk	13. Nevin Spence
07. George Smith	14. Tim Visser
08. Rodney So'oialo	15. Alex Goode

16. George Chuter 17. Alex Waller 18. Phil Swainston 19. Graham Kitchener 20. Luke Narraway 21. Haydn Thomas 22. Billy Twelvetrees 23. Tom Homer

Tactics

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Bath Rugby
Manager – inthefastlane

01. Jon Golding	09. Richard Wigglesworth
02. Lee Mears	10. Brock James
03. Petrus du Plessis
04. Louis Deacon	11. Tom Varndell
05. Sam Whitelock	12. Wynand Olivier
06. Sean O’Brien	13. Francois Steyn
07. Beau Robinson	14. Richard Haughton
08. Johnnie Beattie	15. Tim Nanai-Williams

16. Kane Newport 17. Lee Ward 18. James Currie 19. James Cannon 20. Tom Guest 21. Chris Cook 22. Steven Shingler 23. Kurtley Beale

Tactics

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Newcastle Falcons vs. Exeter Chiefs

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Newcastle Falcons
Manager – Sgt Pooly

01. Boris Stankovich	09. Sarel Pretorious
02. William Servat	10. Jonny Wilkinson
03. Owen Franks
04. Dean Schofield	11. Miles Benjamin
05. Paul O’Connell(c)	12. Maxime Mermoz
06. Juan Smith	13. Conrad Smith
07. Heinrich Brussow	14. Topsy Ojo
08. Duane Vermeulen	15. Ben Smith

16. Tom Lindsay 17. Paul Doran-Jones 18. Fabien Barcella 19. Geoff Parling 20. Kieran Read 21. Jonny Arr 22. Colin Slade 23. Tom Catterick

Tactics
Normal Falcons high intensity tactics......compete in pack and target lineout with numerous jumpers. Control breakdown and look to attack with turnover ball.

Pretorious to attack the fringes and Wilko to call the shots in the backline. Smith to marshall backline with Ben Smith coming into the line. Mermoz to attack the line and look to get the flyers into the game whenever possible.

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Exeter Chiefs
Manager – Driver

01. Cian Healy	09. Nick Phipps
02. John Smit(c)	10. Steven Myler(k)
03. Euan Murrey
04. Julien Pierre	11. Adam Thompstone
05. George Skivington	12. Regan King
06. Kelly Brown	13. Max Evans
07. Shane Jennings	14. Iain Balshaw
08. Carl Fearns	15. George Pisi

16. Ben Kayser 17. Tom Mercey 18. Jack Forster 19. Simon Shaw 20. Dave Wallace 21. Charlie Pilgrim 22. Ronan O'Gara 23. Matt Smith

Tactics

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Worcester Warriors vs. Gloucester

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Worcester Warriors
Manager – prop_lyd

01. David Flatman	09. Jordi Pasqualin
02. Richardt Strauss	10. Nicky Robinson
03. BJ Botha
04. Ben Gulliver	11. Marcel Garvey
05. Jim Hamilton	12. Nils Mordt
06. Ryan Jones ©	13. Jon Clarke
07. Scott Higginbotham	14. Julien Malzieu
08. Ben Morgan	15. Olly Morgan

16. Koree Britton 17. George Porter 18. Yann Thomas 19. Peter Short 20. Sebastian Chabal 21. Dwayne Peel 22. Sam Vesty 23. Rob Cook

Tactics

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Gloucester
Manager – anonmattyt

01. Coonie Oustehuizen	09. Dave Lewis
02. Deon Fourie	10. Stephen Donald
03. James Johnstone
04. George Robson	11. James Simpson-Daniel
05. James Hanks	12. Berrick Barnes
06. Mauri Fa’asivalu	13. Rob Horne
07. Andy Saull	14. Paul Diggin
08. Brett Deacon	15. Charlie Sharples

16. Nick Wood 17. Adrian Strauss 18. Rupert Harden 19. Peter Buxton 20. Andy Hazell 21. Ryan Lamb 22. Jonny May 23. Scott Hamilton

Tactics

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Harlequins vs. Leicester Tigers

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Harlequins
Manager – Steven_Sharks

01. Joe Marler	09. Lee Dickson
02. Matthew Rees	10. Quade Cooper
03. John Afoa
04. Nathan Sharpe	11. Joe Rokocoko
05. James Gaskell	12. Anthony Faainga
06. Francois Louw	13. Gonzalo Canale
07. Sam Warburton	14. Jonathan Joseph
08. Phil Dowson	15. Rob Kearney

16. Schalk Brits 17. Kieran Brookes 18. Brian Mujati 19. Tom Donnelly 20. Jamie Gibson 21. Ryan Glynn 22. Freddie Burns 23. George Lowe

Tactics
We are going to look to use our strong back line to cause problems straight of the first phase a la the Queensland Reds. We are going to play a fast paced game in attack but we have picked a big pack to make sure we get quick ball. We have also picked a strong back row which we feel will flourish in an open game.

Looking for how people would rate my backline against the other full strength back lines in the league.

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Leicester Tigers
Manager – lukelovesluka

01. Gethin Jenkins	09. Dimitri Yachvilli (k)
02. Matt Thompson	10. Rob Miller
03. Ben Franks
04. Jarrad Hoeata	11. Rupeni Caucaunibuca
05. Chris Jack (c)	12. Yannick Jauzion
06. Johnathan Poff	13. Aurelien Rougerie
07. Magnus Lund	14. Tom Biggs
08. Thomas Waldrom	15. Cory Jane

16. Dan Murphy 17. Tom Youngs 18. Cencus Johnston 19. Tom Denton 20. Jordan Crane 21. Ben Youngs 22. David Skrela 23. Isa Nacewa

Tactics

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London Wasps vs. Northampton Saints

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London Wasps
Manager – ‘Arry

01. Perry Freshwater	09. Michael Classens
02. Steve Thompson ©	10. Jimmy Gopperth
03. Carlos Nieto
04. Stuart Hooper	11. Drew Mitchell
05. Marco Wentzel	12. James Downey
06. Tom Johnson	13. Stirling Mortlock
07. Deon Stegmann	14. Tom Williams
08. Dan Ward-Smith	15. Mike Borwn

16. Tatafu Polota-Nau 17. Benn Robinson 18. James Slipper 19. Mark Chisholm 20. James Haskell 21. Luke Burgess 22. Rory Clegg 23. Noah Cato

Tactics

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Northampton Saints
Manager – Dammit_Chris

01. Dave Wilson	09. Joe Simpson
02. Rob Webber	10. Lionel Beauxis
03. Carl Hayman
04. Dave Attwood	11. Manu Tuilagi
05. Patricio Albacete (c)	12. Willie Mason
06. Simon Taylor ©	13. Casey Lualala
07. Alexandre Lapandry	14. Leigh Halfpenny
08. Ryan Kankowski	15. Danny Cipriani

16. Chris Whitehead 17. Henry Thomas 18. Zak Taulafo 19. Calum Clark 20. Tom Rees 21. Luke Watson 22. Mike Phillips 23. Siti Sivivatu

Tactics

We've picked a more mobile pack than Wasps and have got for a 5-2 split on the bench because we want to move them around the park and play the game at pace. We want to keep the ball in play as much as possible and keep the speed up in order to target a slower and older pack.

In attack we will alternate with Beauxis and Cipriani to attack in the 10 channel, we have picked Mason and Lualala as the midfield axis to provide hard running options through the middle and picked Manu Tuilagi to play opposite Tom Williams, mainly so I can see repeats of...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnJUhpGvkaI

talk about whiplash...

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Sale Sharks vs. London Irish

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Sale Sharks
Manager – SJE

01. Jerome Schuster	09. Nicholas Bezy
02. David Paice	10. Aaron Cruden
03. Neemia Tialata
04. Steven Sykes	11. Lelia Masaga
05. Andries Bekker	12. Jordan Turner Hall
06. Victor Vito	13. Robbie Freuen
07. Michael Lipman	14. Luke Rooney
08. Wycliffe Palu	15. Nick Abendanoon

16. Lee Imolek 17. Brett Sharman 18. Werner Kruger 19. Christian Day 20. Andy Powell 21. Shaun Perry 22. Olly Barkley 23. Sam Smith

Tactics
Target the set piece with strong front 5. Attacking wise strong ball carrying game working the offloading. Changing the point of attack constantly. Use the exciting halfbacks to inject creativity into the game

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London Irish
Manager – stnick88

01. Matias Aguero	09. Julien Dupuy
02. James Buckland	10. Daniel Bowden
03. WP Nel
04. Mouritz Botha	11. Paul Sackey
05. Nick Kennedy	12. Mathieu Bastareaud
06. Keegan Daniel	13. Matthew Tait
07. Hendre Fourie	14. JP Pietersen
08. Xavier Rush	15. Joe Maddock

16. Tonga Lea'atoea 17. Neil Briggs 18. Duncan Bell 19. Matt Garvey 20. Joe Worsley 21. Neal De Kock 22. Gonzalo Tiesi 23. Juan Martin Hernandez

Tactics

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When i see him his defence is pretty laughable

Sarries 20-22 Bath

Newcastle 32-28 Exeter

Quins 25-20 Leicester

Wasps 18-15 Saints

Sale 24-22 Irish

not so sure steven, he's solid under the highball and tackles as well as most fbs in league - watching him versus the Aussies and he stopped us getting an absolute mauling with his tackling.

I'm not convinced with league converts, for every Ashton/Robinson we have about 20 players that don't cut the mustard. Robinson was special, amazing talent. Doubt we'll see anybody like him again.

You could split the RL converts into 3 catergories.

The World Class: Your looking at Jason Robinson, Brad Thorn, Berrick Barnes, Lote Tuquiri, Matt Rogers, SBW.

Decent rugby union players: Andy Farrell, Wendell Sailor, Iestyn Harris, Ryan Cross, Lesley Vainikolo, Andrew Walker, Alan Tait. Craig Gower, Shontayne Hape, Steven Myler

Then the flops: Mark Gasnier, Chev Walker, Lee Smith, Karl Pryce, Brian Carney

Farrell was more a flop for me, never looked comftable. Big Les is another hovering between.

I never knew Barnes was a league boy

Had one run on starts for the Brisbane Broncos (9 appearances overall).

Farrell is open to debate but for me Lesley Vainikolo goes down as a decent AP player even if he wasn't great in international level. On the similar level to Myler

Farrell came too late, could have been a great BS but never a centre.

He should have stayed with League. One of the greats.

I may have said this before but the conditioning guy who used to work with us at Chester was told that they had a bench press contest when farrell first went to sarries as they had heard he was a unit, and the best sarries player did 34 reps of 100kg or something like that

Farrell strolled up and did 50 lots of 100kg and could have done more. Phenominally strong man

Him coming to league probably lead to Owen playing Union though which England will likely be grateful for in 10 years time

RESULTS

Saracens 20 Bath Rugby 26
Newcastle Falcons 35 Exeter Chiefs 22
Worcester Warriors 23 Gloucester 22
Harlequins 30 Leicester Tigers 21
London Wasps 31 Northampton saints 25
Sale Sharks 26 London Irish 21

Am guessing you're pleased with that result then prop! lol

Just a little bit