How is your team doing so far? - London Irish are doing ok.

We have had 6 rounds of the Aviva Premiership, and now have a 2 week break for the LV Cup before hostilities resume, so I thought it would be a good point to sit back and take stock of how my team has performed, and invite you to do the same with regards your own teams.

London Irish Results

03.09.11 - Harlequins (h) L 24-29
09.09.11 - Sale Sharks (a) L 29-30
17.09.11 - Northampton Saints (a) W 14-13
24.09.11 - Newcastle Falcons (h) W 46-29
01.10.11 - Gloucester (a) L 30-33
09.10.11 - Worcester Warriors (h) W 42-24

Aviva Premership	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	TF	TA	TBP	LBP	Pts
04 – London Irish	6	3	0	3	185	158	17	14	2	3	17

Now at face value, it's a 50/50 record, however, for me the team has exceeded expectations and I am more optimistic than I was before the season started. Our young backline has proved that they are a potent attacking weapon, securing 2 try bonus points and averaging just under 3 tries per game. A lot of what has been good in the backs has stemmed from Dan Bowden, who looks a class act in the 10 jersey, and has also provided leadership that I hadn't seen in him before. With Shontayne Hape, Delon Armitage, Joe Ansbro and Sailosi Tagicakibau returning from World Cup duty, there is a lot to be confident about, as all four of them will have to fight for their shirts, and the competition for places can only be a good thing for the team.

Up front, it has been more of a mixed bag. Max Lahiff has looked as if he is at home at AP level when playing loosehead, and Alex Gray looks to have a touch of class about him in the back row. The returns from injury of Declan Danaher and Jamie Gibson are a huge positive, and Bryn Evans looks like a class act who will be very influential for us. On the down side, tighthead appears to still be an issue, were Halavatau provides power in the loose but not great scrummaging, as opposed to Rautenbach, who scrummages but lacks mobility and can be picked off in defensive. The return of Paulica Ion should improve things in this position, with Jebb Sinclair's arrival also adding more depth to the back row options.


Now as a comparison, this time last season we had won 5 and lost 1 and were top of the table, but finished 6, and the season before we were 100% at this stage and again only finished 6th. In the 2008/09 season, we had won just twice and lost three times at this stage, yet finished 3rd and made the play off final, narrowly losing to Leicester Tigers. The similarities are already there in this season to that. We had at that time a number of slightly younger, hungry players, who played with real verve and energy, much as the current crop has been doing. In every game that season we secured at least a point, collecting the losing bonus point in all 9 of our defeats, whilst also securing 7 try bonus points. In contrast, in the intervening two seasons, we collected 3 LBP's from 9 defeats and 4 LBP's from 11 defeats.

Whilst the play offs may well eventually prove to be beyond us this season, it does seem clear from the early standings that there could be a lot of teams fighting for them, and bonus points could once again be key.

There seems to be a very positive vibe at the club right now, with a youthful side who are enjoying the game. The challenge for the coaching staff is going to be balancing that with some experience to achieve the consistency required to challenge for trophies. I think they will, and I base this on the fact that after the defeat to Quins on the opening day, they recognised very quickly that there was a fundamental change to the make up of the side that was needed, and they acted on that immediately.

So overall, I am very happy with where we are. I honestly felt after R1 that we may be on 9 points at this stage, and fighting it out with Worcester and Newcastle at the wrong end of the table. This is a team that can only get better, and however the season ends up going for us now, I feel confident that I am going to enjoy the ride.

Anyway, that's my thoughts, I'd love to hear if anyone has any comments about my beloved Exiles, and also about how your team is doing, be they in the AP, RaboDirect, T14, Championship or wherever.

The Scarlets are pants

The Scarlets are missing their players at the World Cup more than some other teams that's for sure Glas.

Yes but what worries me is that our pack is largely untouched, yet that is where we have lost games. The young guns in the backs are doing just fine.

Well that's not completely true Glas. OUr handling in the backs has been utterly awful at times and we've often looked clueless even when the pack have provided us with the ball (which is perhaps understandable when you consider how inexperienced a lot of them are)

Our pack does need to improve though for sure.

The Ospreys have won six from six with their biggest scalp being Munster away last weekend.
I think their league position flatters them a bit though, 4 of the games have been at home and they haven't won very convincingly in any of the games.
In my opinion, they are putting in gritty and determined displays but seem a bit lacking in creativity in the centre ...too often the ball is passed out in a very predictable pattern which seems to be easily snubbed out by oposition defences. Their opponents have usually been better with ball in hand.
That said though, can't complain, I've been to three of the games with my son so far this year and we've won each time ...he thinks he's my lucky charm now!
On a more positive note, Dan biggars kicking has been exceptional, Tuperics's leadership has been inspired and I've enjoyed watching JT running at the opposition.
I'm looking forward to the rest of the season.

To be fair valleyboy, if you've won 6 from 6 without playing amazingly well, and have players to return from the world cup, then I'm not surprised you are looking forward to the rest of the season.

There seems to have been a real change of approach from the Ospreys this year. What do you reckon to the Samoan boys that will be joining you?

Well we've been pretty bad, pretty bad. Two good games against Cardiff and Glasgow and then we went down the toilet. Injuries have had a major toll on us and our missing internationals mean we've lost the composure and leadership that got us through bad performances previously. Last game was truly humiliating.

Also specifically signing a fullback as that is our main area of weakness then seeing him rupture a tendon after three games and rule himself out for a season... well thats the worst part. We saw our fullback options weren't good enough in the Heineken Cup last year and we made a fantastic signing there, but he won't play a minute of Heineken Cup rugby. And because of his signing we let a few guys who can play fullback move on so we're in an even worse spot. Sickener.

Did you expect to be doing better Notch? As you know I have a bit more than a passing interest in Ulster, and I have to say I did think that they would be faring better than they are. I know they have players missing, but there is still plenty of talent there.

Yeah, we've underperformed massively. Our forwards have been the worst culprits but Paul Marshall and Ian Humphreys have been pretty sub par too.

The thing is, we've been unlucky enough to lose two looseheads to injury at the same time and with Court on international duty, we're down to the barebones with Fitzpatrick having to play out of position. With Afoa not yet available and Fitzpatrick doing a job on the other side, we have the frankly average Cronin. Neither prop offers much if anything around the field when you compare the work done by a Court, McAllister- what we've seen John Afoa do. After one great game, Tuohy has been completely anonymous and the rest of our backrow isn't dynamic enough to cause much problems, The workrate of the back five of the pack is very, very poor. To play the kind of multi-phase game we are trying to play our pack needs to be very dynamic, mobile and play at a high tempo. They look stuck in first gear. Ponderous and underpowered; struggling for any gainline success. We also need our 9 to get a good rhythm into the game and be accurate; Paul Marshall has been a joke. And our midfield has been predictable, with Spence overused on the crashball and Cave and Humphreys struggling to find form in between injuries. Jackson and L. Marshall are young and making mistakes when they've come in.

So all in all, we are way behind where we should be even without the internationals. The good thing is, all the players we have coming back should solve a lot of those problems. Wallace will add composure and variety to the midfield, Court will strengthen the scrum, Ferris and Best will add a huge amount of dynamism and physicality up front, Muller will fill the leadership vacuum and steady the lineout and Pienaar will get us in a rhythm and bring a better game out of whoever plays outhalf. Having Trimble and Danielli looking for work should help us and mean the pressure isn't all on Spence to make yards in the backs.

What's up with Paddy Mac? Rate him very highly, hopefully he's not out with anything serious?

Concussion. Should be alright for our next game, it's just there's a compulsory three-week stand down period or something.

Don't they have to hit their pre season scores on some sort of brain function testing before they can play again after concussion?

Is it? Maybe. I think he will be ok though. Just a precaution.

Ozzy3213 wrote:To be fair valleyboy, if you've won 6 from 6 without playing amazingly well, and have players to return from the world cup, then I'm not surprised you are looking forward to the rest of the season.

There seems to have been a real change of approach from the Ospreys this year. What do you reckon to the Samoan boys that will be joining you?

The Samoan boys will be a great addition by the look of things, they had a good world cup and were arguably Samoa's best players. Much as I don't want to see the local boys ousted by imports, Rhys Webb and JT especially, I can see there's a lot of rugby to be played this season and there's a place for everyone. Strength in depth will be important as the season goes on.

It does look encouraging with 6 wins on the board and players to return from the world cup. We are already more than competing up front and have a number of first choice forwards to return. We also have two world class wings to return in Shane and Tommy Bowe. It's all good but I'm just as excited to see Ashley Beck come back from injury and I'm hoping to get a look at Tom Prydie to see what all the fuss was about - Gatland capped him yet I've hardly seen him play!

When I see Matthew Morgan and Kristian Phillips on the field I sometimes realise what a big step up it is from the premiership to the Pro12 but I hope they find their way and fulfill their talent.

This season should be about consolidation to a certain extent, after the loss of lot of key players.
If we achieve more then great but lets not expect too much too soon.

Ozzy3213 I am very pleased with Saracens' start to the season.

After losing our first game to Wasps at Twickenham we have been unbeaten with 5 out of 5.

We have managed to navigate tough away games at Exeter,Bath and Leicester.

I don't care if it was a 2nd string Leicester or not. To stick 50 points on them at WR is a hell of an achievement.

We might regret the lack of try bonus points vs Worcester and Newcastle but as long as we keep winning.....

We have done this without 8 players at the world cup.


I have been impressed with London Irish. Don't forget you will be getting Corbisierio back too. You have also done well without Mapusua and S.Armitage who were key men for you.

Those are good results because Gloucester at home are very tough and Sale have been good.

Leinster have been decent so far, a disappointing but sadly predictable beating away to the Ospreys in round 1 and a shock defeat to Glasgow at home apart, we’ve won 4 games and we’re sitting 3rd in the table. Our defense has been pretty porous and we’ve let in 10 tries but with 14 players coming back from world cup duty I think that’s to be expected. Really happy with Ian Madigan so far, with Berquist out injured and McKinley being forced into early retirement he’s stepped up to the plate and even bagged 30% of all of our tries so far.

Luke Fitzgerald has been doing well in the center and Fionn Carr and Jamie Hagan are settling in well. I’ve been slightly disappointed with Rhys Ruddock though, he’s been captain in most games but he’s yet to stamp his name on any of them, I expected him to grown into the role a bit more. Still plenty of time for him but with 3 backrows coming back from NZ and McLaughlin, Ryan and the impressive A’uva all in contention he’ll find it hard to settle again this season.

Isa Nacewa is still a legend in all aspects of the game, he’s been like a one man show at times.

Overall, pretty happy with things, bring on November 4th and the fever in the aviva II!

The Ospreys have had a very good start to the Rabo so far. They've won all six of their matches including an important win away last week at Thomond Park keeping them at the top of the table. However, our discipline's questionable - we're currently second from bottom of the fairplay league with six yellow cards We could lose Tipuric through a citing as well. Incidentally, Leinster are top of the fairplay league with no cards. They're good boys

beshocked

I can't see not getting the bonus points mattering so much to you to be honest, as I don't see you losing many games, so you will have enough points just from winning to ensure a top 4 finish.

It's interesting what you say about us losing Maps and Steffon (along with others), as we actually seem to have more depth this season as a result. It is never good to be too heavily reliant on individual players, and I think this year there seems to be more of a team emphasis on things which is great.

Mickado

I would say sitting 3rd is probably exceeded expectations for Leinster given how many players they gave up to the Ireland squad. Will any of the young guys keep the returning internationals out of the side do you think?

Cari

You must be pleased overall with the Ospreys though, and they have some real quality to come back in. As Valleyboy said, the Samoans could give you some real impact as well. I think it could be a good season for the O's.

3rd is far better than I expected and to be honest I didn’t realize we were 3rd until I checked this morning. The last I knew we were 7th!

I can see Hagan being rotated with Ross all season, I think we’re going to have a class front row going into the HC. Madigan will get plenty of gametime too, I could even see him starting against Munster with Sexton on the bench. Other than that I think the rest of the squad will be pretty much as of last year, with Sykes replacing Hines and Toner being put back on the bench. Not sure what our midfield is going to be like though, McFadden got one game in the world cup and that was on the wing, I would hope that he’ll be primed as Darcy’s long term replacement as we’ve a lot of back 3 players now. Horgan and Conway are still to come back from injury so we’ll be getting 16/17 players back into the squad soon, exciting times!

Don't they have to hit their pre season scores on some sort of brain function testing before they can play again after concussion?.

There's software that measures the players cognitive reactions and they take the software test before the season and then must reach a certain level in relation to that score in order to return to action. Not always a given it's a swift return, Tigers have missed Skivington for the last two games because of a bump on the head he received against Falcons

Tigers have had an awful start to the season and have been missing roughly 20 players for most of the season so far. Normally three of those have been tightheads which has really seen our scrum struggle. The lack of a natural 8 with some level of experience has also not helped. The defence has been a complete mess and the only positives stem from the young half backs Harrison and Ford who have been excellent, Ed Slater who has forced himself up the second row pecking order (a really mobile unit and still only 23) and Tom Youngs who looks every bit the best hooker at the club. The defecit of players should now be halfed with the RWC crew returning but we cannot allow any further slip ups if we want a top 4 finish.

Well Notch the HEC should be intersting then, both teams not close to their best form and full of returning RWC trying to bed back in. I'd better apologise to the Scarlets fans in advance because Tigers are likely to break with convention and name a strong team for the LV Cup and with you boys missing so many players it won't be the normal gimmy drawing Tigers in the Low Value you would normally expect.

Ozzy3213 London Irish are one of the sides we seem to have struggled with in the last two seasons.

The other three are Gloucester,Sale and Wasps.

I see you as dangerous because you are unpredictable. Leicester and Saints are strong but familiar foes so we know how to deal with them.

We have a hold over numerous teams in the AP but not those four.

As I have said before I think London Irish are the wild card. The joker in the pack. I think this could be a good season for you.

The AP looks really competitive this season especially with the world cup in full swing. It is refreshing to see 3 of the top 4 not being the usual suspects of the last two seasons.

Remind me what does your HC cup group look like?

I have to say I am hoping that Tigers don't find any form prior to our visit to Welford Road on 5th November, as we normally get stuffed up there and I am kind of hoping to avoid that this season!

We have Edinburgh, Cardiff Blues and RM92. It's a group that we could qualify from, but part of me says it would be better if we almost wrote of the HC this season and really threw everything at the AP.

Hate to tell you Ozzy but Cockerill will have brought all the internationals back into action before that game so Tigers should be near to full strength as possible. No more losses can be allowed (including away from home) if Tigers want to finish in the top 2 so I'd expect a full battle. You'll have your new midfield of Hape and Ansbro to utilise though, after the start the young guns have made to those players still seem value for money?

To be fair Sam do you think Hape will ever be value for money?

Ozzy that is a group you are well capable of topping though Racing Metro will obviously be tough. Throwing every at the AP is a good strategy.

I really want Saracens to throw everything at both though. We have a pool we are definitely capable of topping and in the AP we are in a decent enough position.

Sam I know this might be a silly question but do you see Leicester simply focussing on the AP or will you go for broke in the HC?

Hape may get the 12 shirt to add some ballast to the midfield, but Ansbro will have a real fight to get the 13 shirt of JJ. Likewise Delon is going to have to put some work in to displace Tom Homer, although a wing spot may be available as I understand that Losi is injured again.

I just hope some of the Tigers still have a bit of a World Cup hangover when we arrive, as it would be nice to come back from Leicester with something for a change.

Ozzy3213 I don't think the WR crowd would allow another Leicester loss at WR!

If you won you would probably be lynched along with the Leicester players.

I would hope the RWC hangover has been blown away by then. We need the next couple of AP games to make a statement and really could do with a TBP against LI at Welford Rd. Make teams realise they've had a gift so far this season and now it's time for them to remember Welford Rd is a fortress and Tigers back. The crowd have been pretty understanding so far this season they know there's been about 2 guarenteed first team players in the starting line up (Parling and Salvi) and the rest is a mixture of squad, fringe and youth players. That understanding will become expectation again now.

I would have though the Bowden/Shingler combination would have been extended. Not the most physical partnership but they are extremely creative and I've always thought Hape was a poor replacement for Mapasua. Homer has been exception for you guys so far, I'm hoping he continues to get game time as I'd like to see him progress up to the Saxons as he's got a good all round skill set and a massive boot.

Glasgow are 4th in the Pro 12, which is about six positions better than I thought we would be at the end of the World Cup break. Considering we have the 2nd smallest playing budgets in top tier Rugby, losing 13 players (almost all starters) to injury and the World cup is always going to be a challenge.

Surprisingly we have won three games, including two very good wins away from home. Unsurprisingly we lost the only game on paper at the start of the season that looked a banker win for us!

Big bonuses for us have been the continuing good performance of Rob Harley, who although being awarded the captaincy, has found himself at times the old head in the back row and has lead by example. Tom Ryder has enjoyed a long run in the 2nd Row and continues to play well, I would not be surprised if Kellock or Gray is benched in the short term as Ryder has earned a starting role and it’s his to lose.

You Gillies as 4th choice Hooker and in his first real run of games, has done relatively well and Chris Fusaro has put in some promising displays. In the backs new signing Troy Nathan has not been spectacular but has given us some desperately needed experience, Seymour has looked like he can hold down a starting spot and the young Full back Hogg has not looked out place in any of his six games this season.

I still don't think we will make the playoffs this season, but I do think that we can mount a far better challenge than we did last season.

Pete, Exe set themselves a simple goal of just improving on last season, and thus far in the opening block of six matches I would say that they have achieved that (aside from the last performance against Saints). Three wins from 6, and 5th place, is pretty good for a team that most folks predicted would suffer from second season syndrome.

Specifically, wins away against Leics (narrow defeat last season), at home against Falcons (more assured than last year's scrappy win), at home against Wasps (last year we destroyed an utterly dispirited Wasps at SP in the last game of the season, but Dai Young has imbued them with much more steel and guile), are all improvements. Likewise, an LBP away to Bath in a game that we had to keep fighting right till the drop, and not getting creamed by a superb Sarries display (where they took us to te cleaners last year) are better outcomes. The loss to Saints was disappointing but they came out with a massive point to prove and put on a dynamic display, unlike anything they had managed thus far this season.

In the words of the level-headed Rob Baxter: "We have got some difficult fixtures out of the way, we have been to Bath, Northampton and Leicester and played Saracens at home, so there are still a lot of fixtures that we really want to attack and get something out of. I have said to the players that we are a second-year Premiership side, and we are going to have to keep learning. Obviously, we would like to say that we are a finished article, but we are not and that is the truth, and we have just got to keep working hard to make ourselves the finished article."

Overall, our game plan remains fairly simply, but effective - we have a strong pack, although front row injuries and absences have taken their toll latterly, a sturdy/stingy defence, although I'd like to see us vary our attacking options a little more. The players continue to look like they want to play for each other, and never seem to leave anything on the pitch - can't really ask for much more than that!

I couldn't of imagined such a good start for Quins this season, 6 from 6 so far and we've finally conquered our nemesis the Tigers and at WR to boot! 14 years and it eclipsed the stupid WC for me!

6 from 6, 2 try bp's and top of the league with 26 points is a nice place to be at the moment. But we have to be at our very best if the Black and Red Glacier is not going to catch us up and overhaul us.

Even ignoring the actual wins themselves what's more heartening is the buzz around the squad, every one is happy, there's a lot of banter and the players seem to trust each other a lot more then they have in the past.

I'm under no illusions that post LV the matches will be getting tougher as players return. But with Care, Easter, Valajos, Guest and Fa'Asavalu coming back I expect us to compete well against anyone.

My worries for the season are mainly player burn out, we have a history of trying to play the starting team or close to the starting team every game and tieing with that trying to compete on too many fronts.

I'd want the boys to ignore the LV cup and play a proper academy team (even more then the usual team!) and then only wheel the big guns out for the Prem and HC. Brown has only missed 1 game since Nov '09 and a few other guys are getting close to that.

Are White, Chuter, Skivington, Stankovich, Slater, Twelvetrees, Tate, Grindal, Staunton, Tuilagi, and Allan not first team players?

That's 11 players to me.

Sale have had an absolute dream of a start. Only game which disappointed me was Worcester away. Considering our position in last years league, having 10 or so players at the WC and having essentially a new squad this has been an unbelievable start to the season.

It's unlikely most of them would start if everyone is available, I'd forgotten about Allen because of his injury and Chuter is only maintaining his position in the team because he was made temporary captain his performances have been poor compared to Hawkins and Youngs. Not like Tait has actually played much either. To be fair the defence has been so woeful that the amount of players missing is currently only one of two major problems because irrespective of who is available a better line speed and better commitment to contact is needed.

White is 4th choice TH
Chuter is currently 1st choice but the smart money is on that to change now everyone is back
Satnkovitch is 2nd choice LH and normally plays the last 10 mins of games
Skivington and Slater wouldn't start with Deacon and Parling available
Twelvetrees/Allen one would start
Grinall seems to now have been demoted to 3rd/4th choice
Staunton normally watches every game from the bench
Tuilagi has had one game against Quins which was our strongest team so far this season

I'd hope/expect this team for the next AP game;

Ayerza, Youngs, Castro
Deacon, Parling
Croft, Waldrom, Salvi
Youngs, Flood
Allen, Manu
Tuilagi, Murphy, Tait

Bench; Stanko, Hawkins, Cole, Slater, Woods, Young, Twelvetrees, Morris

Any news on Taits injury? Will he be playing this weekend?

On going issues with a groin injury. No news on availability as of yet. We should be alright for back three players though as with Geordan and Agulla both returning to join Hamilton, Alesana and Morris that's more than we need. Will be an interesting squad selection this weekend with the LV Cup normally being left to the academy plus some experienced players but also the need for Tigers to re-intergrate 10 first teamers (not including Castro and Alesana).

Hoping young Sam Harrison gets another run at 9 as he played well against you boys and had he had an attacking fly half to whip the ball too Tigers might have looked more threatening in attack.

Sam Harrison looks a good prospect for Tigers, they certainly seem to have a fair amount of depth at 9.

It's going to be interesting to see what sort of sides the AP and Welsh Rabo teams put out for the LV Cup over the next fortnight. I would imagine that the AP sides may give some of their returning players at least a little time off the bench, whereas the Welsh will not have any returners.

Harrison can also step in at ten, he got rave reviews on the offy board when he played the second half of the friendly against Nottingham there. Hopefully we'll get rid of Grindal at the end of the season and just keep Youngs, Young and Harrison to fight it out between them.

It may be a tough couple of weeks for the Rabo sides with their internationals away against some pretty strong AP teams who will be looking to bed their internationals back in.

I'm deliriously happy with the Ospreys to be honest, they have played 6 and won 6.
Our squad looks united and on form.

Players who had simply given up last season like Dan Biggar, are firing on all cylinders now, young players have come in and stepped up to the challenge like King, and Dirksen,and many players like Duncan Jones and Ian Evans who were in danger of crashing and burning have rediscovered their form and look hungry again.

Edinburgh are already doing a super job of flushing their season down the crapper with four defeats out of six so far.

Dorothy has done a job above describing Glasgow's season and I agree completely that placing in the top half of the table was slightly more than I hoped for. Hopefully Weir can just get more consistent with his goalkicking and Lineen can find a way of getting Jackson and Weir on the pitch at the same time (Jackson at 10 and Weir at 12 could work very well).