Fantasy Aviva Premiership season 4

First topic message reminder :

Welcome to the Aviva Premiership

---

---

Teams

Bath RFC	InTheFastLane
Exeter Chiefs	Driver - RIP 606
Gloucester	Anonmattyt
Harlequins	Steven_Sharks
Leicester Tigers	LukeLovesLuka
London Irish	stnick88
London Wasps	Arry
Newcastle Falcons	Sgt_Pooly
Northampton Saints	Dammit_Chris
Sale Sharks	SirJohnnyEnglish
Saracens	LDCPete
Worcester Warriors	prop_lyd

---

Links
Rules
Fixtures
Aviva Premiership League Table
European Homepage
LDCPete Cup homepage
Budgets
Domestic Confirmations
Transfer Homepage
Foreign Transfers
Press Releases

---

Waiting List
1. Sam
2. pullthestrings
3. Bathite

Jaque Fourie off to Japan:

http://www.rugby365.com/all_news/sa/news/2813685.htm

they must be paying so much for them to go out there - its an odd league as each club must have 3-4 top quality players and then combined with other guys who would just about get into Championship clubs?

Guys,

Will be tonight when I get a match thread up for this weeks games

Anglo Welsh tables updated.

Japanese league arguably got bigger stars than AP and Pro12 now. Although I suspect the overall quality of each side will be much lower than most sides in the two leagues.

mAY NOT MARK DOWN AS MUCH AS PREVIOUSLY FOR PLAYERS PLAYING IN jAPAN THIS YEAR, AS THE QUALITY DOES SEEM TO HAVE IMPROVED IN THAT LEAGUE A BIT

i'm still going to mark down as overall quality will be like the Championship, as most players are still Japanese - but then you sprinkle in some big named players. Think there will be loads of tries and no defence over there.

must be loads of money persuading everyone to play there though.

A lot of talk of McCaw being gouged by Dusatoir near end of final. McCaw was acting kind of oddly but I can't recall seeing anything:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10761510

I don't recall seeing anything untoward either, and given some of the crap that has been written in the nzherald during this World Cup I shall take it with a pinch of salt until anything official is said.

Prob NZ sour grapes at Dusa winning Player of year, it wouldn't surprise me.

Dusa doesnt seem that type of player at all

They probably mistook McCaw kneeing the Frenchman in the head for an attempted eye gouge - heard that if ROlland was reffing he would have sent off the Frenchman for assaulting McCaw's knee...

Anyone seen the clip of McCaw playing in Super 15 and him getting tackled fairly and the ref gives a penalty for the tackle, I'm sure its someone like Andrew Hore then says something like 'Sir, just want to double check, but are we still not allowed to touch Richie'

There was nothing in that knee Chris, Parra was lying in wrong side of ruck, he was fair game. Read took a similar deserved hit in the first half.

Pooly - I not sure what Knee were on about but if your caught doing it then its a red regardless of where he is

Reckon if a Frenchman did that to McCaw Joubert would have sent him to the War Crimes Tribunal to get sentenced - watched the game again at lunch and Joubert was awful, actually felt sorry for the French and that never happens...

Also just found out my emails have been hacked and I've sent emails to Michael Palin and David Attenborough selling them viagra...not a good evening!

Chris

There both getting on a bit they may appreciate it. They might find it hard to ask about that sort of thing.

That's the knee Steven, nothing in it at all. Though if you were a Frenchman and did that then Joubert would ahve sent you off twice and then awarded NZ a penalty at scrum time just because he can...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Wr8OU3hRiw

That's a good point - I guess that should be more of a concern if they both say yes to me, I'd have to go and find them some I think!

I didn't think it was a knee, more McCaw ran into him when contesting the ruck. Nothing in it for me, guess he'll be cited if deemed intentional

Thing against McCaw is he looks to get him with a knee and a closed fist which could suggest its deliberate. Looks a bit innoccuous though tbh

I'd be praising McCaw if French as it got FTD on at 10 and the backs moving, almost a game changer

didnt realise Fourie was only in Japan for the season, then coming back for the Super 15. That is good news for me ratings wise.

I don't think that's been confirmed Nick. Think he's initially signed for the year with an option for more.

http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,16024_7263969,00.html

says there he's going back to the stormers for S15.

Different article to the one I read, said he had option. Back in March/April isn't too bad then.

Interesting team of the tournament.

Agree with a lot of the calls

http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,16016_7264663,00.html

It's not the worst I've seen but not far off. Think the Independant is winning that contest.

Had Ledesma at hook, AAC at 13(started 1 game there), Fa'asuvitu at 7. It was like they'd never watched a game

Thing is for me. Its easy to judge players on the early rounds or when they have been doiing well against dross.

The knockout phases and the key pool games are the ones that really matter.

for example Mas did not play until the Qf against england but destroyed stevens and then did a number on Gethin and then a number on woodcock so in all the big games was the best tight head for me.


Hard to judge people like fasivalu as samoa went out in the group stages even though he was fantastic in every game i watched. same with Gorgodze the georgian

Rougierie gouge on McCaw - Looks pretty intent!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hneJ8Ws8Yuc

Fasivalu was great in the WC - still gutted that I didnt bid more than £5m for him and you got him Mat - for me he was best forward in the AP last season.

I didn't think Mas had as much dominance as you, played well but I'd have others above him.

I think the teams we've put out are better than most of the press tbh. I've seen some awful calls.

Looks pretty nasty that Driver, think it's past the citing time frame now!?!?

Hi Guys,

Anyone here footie fans too?

Furious Association has a vacancy going with Lazio in my league section. We are in the first season with only 3 games played so everything to play for.

The format is a first of anything I have seen since playing these leagues. We have 3 leagues with matches and domestic cup, top teams this season qualify for euro comps where you will end up playing the top teams from the other leagues.
Also as to make sure you are not playing the same teams season in season out the leagues will be randomly mixed at the end of each season meaning if you didnt qualify for a euro comp you could end up in a league with max 5 other teams who didnt giving you the chance too or if you did you could end up with max 5 team that did meaning theres a chance you will miss out etc.
Other features such as sponsorship deals with bonus' for achieving targets will be added as the league progresses.

We have a good mix of managers, days and night, weekends are usually quite quiet.

So if you are interested please come and have a look.

Big thanks to Driver for letting me advertise, thank you.

Just watching Tiger-Quins game. Really impressed with Marlers scrummaging, he matched White for the majority of the game, looks like he's really worked on this side of his game.

Quins TH is pretty terrible though. Wallace looking a good prospect also, seriously needs to lose that hair though

JTH looking sharpe too

Is that one from a while ago??? if so Marler was struggling big time in the game. Steven and I were discussing it on here a while ago.

JTH has looked sharp for a while. good pairing at quins in the centres. Also helps them playing alongside evans

Evans would make Goode look world class at 12...

I'd like to see how JTH goes without him, see if he's got the brains to play a better role. Are Quins a team that England overlooks though? Off top of my head was it just Easter who made it to the WC from them?

Danny Care....

Yea Matt it's a few weeks old, just catching up on a few AP games.

Really haven't seen Marler struggle once tbh, fronting up really well. Although Stankovich looks much better alongside White and is destroying Quins TH, got about 5 pens in a row. Maybe pressure from TH side is allowing Stanks to get at TH.

Pooly recommend dl ASM vs Clermount from the weekend , Clermount look quality through out!

Will do mate, can't beat a good bit of T14.

Who did they play?

Perpinguan - absolutely blew them away


Also see Max Evans is set to be locked up for assault!

http://www.espnscrum.com/scotland/rugby/story/153125.html

Good job I have Manu then! Hasnt been in the papers much at all, so hopefully he will be proven innocent, as he's saying he's not guilty.

bit of a discipline issue at saints chris?? hartley, Ashton, Manu and Evans. you need to crack the whip a bit

Will they be able to focus on this weeks game!

We're copying the example set by Ryan Lamb and Lesley V at Gloucester mate...

And besides I never saw what the big deal was about throwing a midget about in a pub, seems like a great Saturday night!

I still can't believe they done that to poor Ben Youngs

You should get them to take a leaf out of Bakkies Botha's book. guy is a saint

Driver I'm surprised you werent there with them given some of the stories you come out with!

We've just given the Saints lads a copy of Bakkies Guide to Behaviour - its an inspiration...