How's your side fettlin' for the new season - Injuries and RWC commitments etc.?

Once again the RWC affects about 30% of the League season.
And some sides will find that their best players are either knackered or injured after coming home. Which is nice as European competition starts pretty much straight after the plane touches down.

well, the Scarlets forwards are virtually at full strength, only Matthew Rees and Ken Owens missing, our backs division has taken a hammering though and due to injuries we're down to our 4th choice scrumhalf, an 18 year old, sooner the world cup's over the better.

The Tiger (poor, poor s ) have eleven on duty in the RWC and three key squad players out for the majority or all of the season. Hey ho. That's rugby at the sharp end for you...

the dragons only have 5players away for wc duty, however they are a very important 5, two thirds of our dynamic back row, one of our leaders and our top try scorer will hurt us as we usually make ground during international periods,

however i am an optimist and 5 internationals is proof that the region is moving in the right direction and is a selling point for attracting young welsh talent...further more i have confidence in our coach darren edwards and am excited to see the next batch of youngsters attempt to step up to the plate...

Leinster - pretty good, some excellent depth there
Munster - not bad at all, probably wouldn't be using many Ireland players this early in the season anyway.
Ulster - fairly well, looking forward to seeing the youngsters in the back line
Connacht - what world cup?

Tigers First Team;

1.Ayerza - at RWC
2.Chuter
3.Castro - at RWC
4.Deacon - at RWC
5.Parling - long term injury, hopefully back mid Sept
6.Croft - at Rwc
7.Newby - long term injury and will most of the season, on the upside Salvi signed as injury replacement
8.Crane - long term injury, will miss entire season
9.Youngs - at RWC
10.Flood - at RWC
11.A Tuilagi - at RWC
12.Allen
13.Manu - at RWC
14.Hamilton
15.G Murphy - at RWC

16.Stankovitch
17.Hawkins
18.Cole - at RWC
19.Kitchener/Skivington
20.Waldrom
21.Young
22.Staunton - achillies problem not played yet this pre season
23.Smith/Tait - Smith has missed pre season but Tait looks to be coming good

Ulster have nine players at the World Cup. New signing John Afoa is with the All Blacks, new Captain Johann Muller and Ruan Pienaar are with the Boks, Simon Danielli is with Scotland and we have five players with Ireland; Tom Court, Rory Best, Stephen Ferris, Paddy Wallace and Andrew Trimble.

So in many ways we're deprived of a lot of leadership, quality and experience there. Very concerning and it will be a test of our depth.

But we've just had some great news as it looks like Ian Humphreys, Nevin Spence and Dan Tuohy are all match fit aftter various injuries/surgeries. Those guys were all first team players last season and will bring a lot. We'll be relying on other experienced players; Chris Henry, Lewis Stevenson, Pedrie Wannenburg and Darren Cave.

I'm cautious. Waiting to see how strong our opponents are in the absence of their big hitters.

Leinster are missing 13 players to the world cup – I think Kiwireddevil said they were the most represented club at the WC along with a Russian side?
Horgan, D Kearney and Nacewa are injured at the start of the season too.

Haha cool most represented club and all playing for the one country

tigers have 10 i think so do munster any other teams well represented

The Cardiff Blues are looking strong. We mostly have good cover during the WC (unfortunetly we dont play the stronger teams with lots of internationals untill the end of the WC - Leinster, Munster, Ospreys, Scarlets etc).

Its good for us that M.Williams, J.Yapp and Scott Andrews havent gone to the WC as we have less depth in their positions.

tigers have 10

11.
6 for England (Cole, Deacon, Croft, Youngs, Flood, Manu)
2 for Argentina (Agulla, Ayerza)
1 for Italy (Castro)
1 for Samoa (Tuilagi)
1 for Ireland (Geordan Murphy)

Injured: Parling, Newby, Crane, Smith, Staunton, Pienaar.

the Scarlets have 10 players at the WC,
7 for Wales (Priestland, Williams, Davies, Knoyle, Owens, Jones, North)
1 for Scotland (Lamont)
1 for Fiji (Manu)
1 for Tonga (Timani)

injured - Gareth Davies & Arwel Davies
long term injured - Stoddard & Rees

so, 14 players out before the season even starts.

Who will have the strongest team at the start of the year?

Blues must be close,

1. John Yapp
2. TR Thomas
3. Scott Andrews
4. Micheal Paterson
5. Paul Tito
6. Mamma Molitika
7. Martyn Williams
8. Andreus Pretorious
9. Richie Rees
10. Ceri Sweeney
11. Tom James
12. Daffydd Hewitt
13. Casey Laulaula
14. Richard Mustoe
15. Chris Czechaj/Dan Fish (Ben Blair?)

16. Sam Hobbs
17. Nathan Trevett
18. Gareth Williams
19. Deniol Jones
20. James Downs
21. Rhys Downes
22. Gavin Evans
23. Chris Czechaj/Dan Fish

i dunno wales606 i like the look of the ospreys lineup out of the welsh regions

Who will have the strongest team at the start of the year?

Saracens looks pretty damn strong even with their 7 missing.

Tigers can still put out some decent combinations;

1.Stankovitch
2.Chuter
3.Brookes
4.Kitchener
5.Skivington
6.Mafi
7.Salvi
8.Waldrom
9.Young
10.Ford
11.Tait
12.Allen
13.Twelvetrees
14.Hamilton
15.Morris

Subs; Bucknall, Hawkins, White, Slater, Woods, Grindal, Forsyth, Robinson/Lewington.

Scraping the barrel a tad with the backs but Smith should be back soon and maybe Staunton as well. Got some backs on trial as well; Streather from Notts, Rolston and Nama (sp? Namibian age grade international) from Loughborough Uni.

GavinDragon wrote:i dunno wales606 i like the look of the ospreys lineup out of the welsh regions

Really?

Without

Hook
Byrne
Phillips
A.Jones
R.Jones
P.James
R.Bevington
C.Mitchell
H.Bennett
R.Hibbard
and A.W.Jones

The Ospreys look quite weak, they have lost 2 front rows after all, the Blues beat them last year with all the above player , and drew with them away from home.

The Blues have lost

Roberts - Replaced by Hewitt whose on excellent form
Gethin - Replaced by J.Yapp
B.Davies - Replaced by Paterson/D.Jones
S.Warburton - Replaced by M.Williams
L.Halfpenny - Replaced by 'Mr Consistant' R.Mustoe
L.Williams - 2nd choice, R.Rees remains

15 Richard Fussell
14 Kristian Phillips
13 Tom Isaacs
12 Ashley Beck
11 Hanno Dirksen
10 Dan Biggar
9 Rhys Webb
1 Duncan Jones
2 Mefin Davies
3 Cai Griffiths
4 Ian Gough (Capt)
5 Ian Evans
6 Tom Smith
7 James King
8 Joe Bearman

Replacements

16 Matthew Dwyer
17 Ken Dowding
18 Joe Rees
19 James Goode
20 Sam Lewis
21 Morgan Allen
22 Tom Grabham
23 Matthew Morgan
24 Will Price
25 Andrew Bishop
26 Sonny Parker
27 Barry Davies

this was the suad they put out the other nite, they have tuperic and jon thomas to come back into this squad and i rate these youngsters to really fire come start of the season....watch this space, one things for sure on paper your both stronger teams than the dragons ;-)

Ospreys look a bit weak in the centres (im suprised there have been no signings there), there wingers are exciting, but unexperienced and K.Phillips is weak in defence.

They have a strong front 5 unit though, but they must be lacking depth and youth there without Hibbard, Bennett, A.Jones, C.Mitchell, R.Bevington, P.James, A.W.Jones and R.Jones - The players left have experience, but little match practice in recent years.

There backrow doesnt look great, although, Tipuric, Bearman, Stowers and JT may make a difference.

Also, the teams performances next season will very much depend on the man wearing the 10 shirt and his form.

yea i gree with the last comment reading the report from the russia game it seems a certain mr biggar is getting stick even from his own fans now,should be interesting to see how morgan goes this year.....

for you guys watching the blues ponty game was really impressed with the lok downes!

Whilst Sarries have got 8 players out (?) they are all ones that they have decent replacements for, i.e. Wigglesworth and De Kock, Burger and Saull, so they have go to be favourites to be top of the Jeff by the end of the RWC.

Injuries and call ups are effecting Glaws badly in certain roles, especially IC. The best XV we could put out is still pretty decent though:
1. Wood
2. Charles / Cortese
3. Harden / Chistolini
4. James
5. Brown
6. Buxton
7. Hazell
8. Deacon
9. Lewis
10. Burns
11. Simpson-Daniel
12. Mills / May / Vainikolo
13. Trinder
14. Sharples
15. Morgan

Which is also a team of 12 English players and 9 via our academy.

[quote="formerly known as Sam"]

Who will have the strongest team at the start of the year?

15.Morris
quote]

Is that niall morris
how has he been getting on has he played much in pre season

We have a long history of only sending the best to the tigers so i hope he upholds it

GavinDragon wrote:

for you guys watching the blues ponty game was really impressed with the lok downes!

Yeah, I heard that. He was playing well last year untill he got injured, I wouldnt be suprised to see him displace Tito or Deniol Jones to earn a bench place, or if he overtakes both and Paterson plays 6, he could well be starting at 5 in a very young second/back row combination - and who says the Blues have ageing forwards hey

Edinburgh will suffer from losing their front row and Chris Paterson but I think, beyond those guys, we won't really miss Rennie, Blair, De Luca etc too much. That said, the look of some of the Welsh regions with the quality of their NWQ players does scare me a bit.

Is that niall morris
how has he been getting on has he played much in pre season

Played vs Lyon on Saturday. I wasn't at the game but the reports were that he was solid apart from one knock on. Didn't show as much attacking intent as we Leicester fans hoped he would but it is very early days for him. Full back is just about the hardest position for anyone to play at Tigers as the expectations are ridiculously high after years of Geordan Murphy magic moments (drop goal from the half way line whilst on the run still my favourite).

Leinster do like sending players with potential to Tigers, mainly because we send them back much improved. Certainly Jennings and Cullen have been brilliant additions for you. It's only taken us about what 4/5 years to find a fetcher to replace Jennings.

Quins:
Marler
Gray
Johnston
Robson
Kohn
Robshaw
Skinner
Guest
Dickson
Evans
Monye
JTH
Lowe
Smith
Brown

Fairbrother
Cairns
A Lock
York
Bolt
Clegg
Casson/Chisholm/Stegmann/Williams/Smith/Hooper

Very strong team who have all played together a lot already, I expect them to do quite well.

Turkster wrote:the Scarlets have 10 players at the WC,
7 for Wales (Priestland, Williams, Davies, Knoyle, Owens, Jones, North)
1 for Scotland (Lamont)
1 for Fiji (Manu)
1 for Tonga (Timani)

injured - Gareth Davies & Arwel Davies
long term injured - Stoddard & Rees

so, 14 players out before the season even starts.

You forgot Maule is out till end of Sept (i believe).

That said we have a pretty decent side to feild (likely starter / options)

D Evans
L Williams / L Rees
N Reynolds
R Gomer-Davis
A Fenby /I Evans
D Newton / R Jones / J Williams
R Williams

I Thomas / P John / R Jones
E Phillips / K Myhill / C Hawkins
R Thomas / P Edwards / S Gardener
L Reed / V Cooper
D Day / Welch
McCusker / Shingler
Turnbull / Edwards / Pugh
Morgan / Gilbert

And I am sure there are a few others there but I can't remmeber names. So IMO that is a first choice pack (bar hookers) and competant and eager young backs.

yep, forgot all about Maule, apparently the pack were brilliant against Clermont last week too, looking good for the season there, Vernon's retired by the way.

Turkster - I keep forgetting that he aint a player any more.

yappysnap wrote:Quins:
Marler
Gray
Johnston
Robson
Kohn
Robshaw
Skinner
Guest
Dickson
Evans
Monye
JTH
Lowe
Smith
Brown

Fairbrother
Cairns
A Lock
York
Bolt
Clegg
Casson/Chisholm/Stegmann/Williams/Smith/Hooper

Very strong team who have all played together a lot already, I expect them to do quite well.

Yep, I'm hoping we can capitalise on the RWC period to get some valuable wins on the board.

At London Irish we will be missing the following at the start of the season.

At the World Cup
Alex Corbisiero
Shontayne Hape
Delon Armitage
Paulica Ion
Joe Ansbro
Sailosi Tagicakibau
Jebb Sinclair

Currently injured
Clarke Dermody, Bob Casey, Declan Danaher, Chris Hala'ufia, Jonathon Spratt

So that is 12 players unavailable in total. It's not a massive total in comparison to some sides, but we do not have the depth of most of the top sides around either. We will have good players out I would suspect for the first few games, but a real lack of experience, in particular in the back row and in the backs. Difficult to know what our starting XV will be as Toby Booth has tinkered with a few combinations in certain areas in pre season and we don't yet know what he has settled on, in particular in the back row, and at 10 and in the midfield.

Munster away tonight, which will be a real test as they have some good players in the side, and then it begins. I can't wait for next Saturday and the season opener against our old buddies the Hairy Queens! Bring it on!

Newcastle are doing well all things considered. From what I've read, we've picked up a gem in Jamie Helleur who has helped get the backline moving. We've also replaced the useless Tim Ryan with a prop that can scrummage. That doesn't really account for the loss of Brookes though. Will Welch (A player I have and will be banging on about this season) has apparently looked good in pre-season too.

I know most people would have us for the drop, but I am quite excited about this season. I think we are going to surprise a few people!

Am I right in thinking that the Ospreys have 10 players at the WC (would have been more with Hook, Phillips and Byrne)

ScarletSpiderman is Nick Reynolds out as well, you forgot Aled Thomas at 10 and I'm quite interested to see how Rheon James does at centre/wing.

Am very pleased with the scrum, it's a big shame about Maule and G Davies as I think them backs could have held their own and been quite exciting.

SMirnoff - Reynolds is meant to be starting against Exeter this weekend, so hopefully he is on the mend. Considering how many we are missing things don't really look that bad. We have had worse squads for the start of the season.

Ahh thats good news, we really need him after Maules injury. The team def doesn't look as bad as it could have - Just a shame that Rees is injured as the Owens would more than likely be back with us. the only thing I worry about is at 10, if Newton/Thomas can get the backs moving (and whether Dan Evans will feel like upping sticks coz he's not getting a chance at 10)