Fantasy Aviva Premiership season 4

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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

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Waiting List
1. Sam
2. pullthestrings
3. Bathite

Did anybody know George Pisi had signed for Northampton? great player for them! Clarke on his way down the pecking order?


Chris it was my idea

I love rugby tours!

Slightly off topic but my rugby clubs tour this year they are 3 possible destinations and you get a vote when you pay your deposit. So what i want to know is have any of you guys been to any of these destinations and what did you make of them?

Manchester
Sheffield
Cleethorps

Manchester all the way....

Been to Manchester on a rugby tour and it was good fun as its a good city.

Sheffield is a bit grim ie full of yorkshire folk but also good fun and with a dreadful standard of rugby that way you will win your matches.


Why cleethorps???

I'm not 100% sure why they picked Cleethorps as an option. Last year was a mystery tour where you wern't meant to know where we were going till we got there but i found out it was Leeds a few weeks before and spread the rumours and was trialed by the 'kangaroo' court on the sunday of tour.

Got home and fell asleep outside my garden........


Also with it being a new comitee last year we had a revolution and tried to overthrow them by hanging a dummy from the club balcony which said tour comittie on the vest along with a giant banner which said in large white writing on a black sheet 'Viva la revolution!'


Not bad for a tour virgin

We are off to prague this year which should be pretty dangerous.

Cleethorpes or Prague.....mmmmmm

You behave yourself out there Matthew

I fancy going abroad for one but we get about 40 people touring every year and 20 of them won't go.

When i was 16 playing for West Hartlepool U18s i got offered along with the rest of the team to play in the Benidorm 7s which is meant to be cracking! But the rents put the foot down

We were originally going to do the benidorm 7s this year but in the end Prague won on account of cheaper beer

We've jsut done benidorm twice...great fun but not really for me!! Think Germany this year

Best tour I've been on was when I was 18, we went to Paris and in and around that area, played Stade and Racing and won both games - they were the dirtiest games I have ever played in, eye gouging, stamping, raking and ball grabbing - Driver I think you'd like Paris...

Very funny story

http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,16024_7265350,00.html

interesting poll


http://www.planetrugby.com/poll/results/0,26151,307847,00.html

Full-back: Israel Dagg No arguments here. Izzy Dagg at full-back was as close to a unanimous choice as you could hope for. 87 percent of you agreed with Graham Henry's decision to go with the young flyer instead of Mils Muliaina. He was the most selected player in any position at the world cup

It was obvious Dagg should have started the WC as FB, Mils has slipped massivley over the last year. I don't think he should have went to WC myself. He's been a great but was living off reputation.

dammit_chris wrote:Best tour I've been on was when I was 18, we went to Paris and in and around that area, played Stade and Racing and won both games - they were the dirtiest games I have ever played in, eye gouging, stamping, raking and ball grabbing - Driver I think you'd like Paris...

Develop on this Chris?

On the ball grabbing part Driver?

I always used to find the Welsh teams the dirtiest to play against, every two minutes you'd get punched by someone when you werent looking or have your balls tweaked in the middle of a ruck or maul, but then I went to France, whole different kettle of fish...

We toured around Paris in I think in 2000, so I must have just turned 17 - got banned from three French towns for having firework fights in hotels, discovering how much absinthe you could drink for breakfast and generally being rugby boys abroad.

The rugby was horrible, some of the worst games I played in as the French youth teams didnt really have the same age grades, so as a 17 year old you played against 19-20 year olds (though we played u18s v Stade and Racing) - and we had 4 games and the violence was unreal.

One game a massive fight broke out after 20 seconds because we tackled one of their players into touch from a kick off and then it just went downhill - the last game I got injured and was out for about 3 months as picked the ball up from the scrum and made a break and their number 8 tripped me up and smashed my knee to pieces. After that game decided to move from 9 to the centres to get further away from those bas tards in the pack. Enjoyed my rugby a lot more after that!

Ah but we're so welcoming to the opposition here Chris now you should have played Lydney at Regentsholme....so accomodation when I played for Lyd there

I never got through a rugby game against a Welsh club without getting an affectionate nut squeeze during a game - made me feel wanted and loved...

I'll remember to do that if i ever meet you then

Will you do me too Prop! Lol

If you want Pooly...i'll squeeze extra hard!!

Cheeky lol

Prop I will never take to the rugby field if I know a Welshman is on the opposition. I believe that they refer to that sort of welcome as a 'handshake'.

I didnt like it one bit...although I might have been playing Gareth Thomas...

Ah but it's more affectionate than a shake of the hand :p i can remember the first tiem it happenned to me vs penarth and then their 2nd row decided to place his boot towards my temple = one knocked out prop who came to and finished the match!!

I'v had my nuts squezzed once playing for my old collage team against the Scarlets academy ironically! I was the one who got binned as well! last time i use my left knee in retaliation!

Apart from the Welsh and the French games the worst ones I played was when I finished University and then worked ridiculous hours in London - turned up on a Saturday to play rugby for any team that would have me - usually meant a game for the 3rds or 4ths and found that people who play that level normally do it because they love a good punch up.

Remember my first game like that, when I finished university and accidentally knocked someone out cold when I took the ball into contact (15 stone centre versus a 10 stone 17 year old) - smashed him miles and his bl oody dad and his two cousins were in the same team and they then spent the next 35 minutes of the half punching and stamping on me - I kept telling the ref what was happening but he wouldnt do anything as he was a sodding uncle of the kid I knocked out...it sucked so much as had one black eye, a cut on my forehead and my shirt was ripped in about 10 pieces because of the shoeings I was taking.

Got so hacked off in the second half that I just lined each one up and dump tackled them and gradually got rid of each player - at the end of the game one of our subs went and got in his car and I got told as soon as the final whistle went to sprint into his car and get out of there as the whole family was waiting to give me a kick in as soon as the 80th minute went...

The moral of the story dont play rugby in Basildon...ever.

I LOVE that story Chris!!

Lol - I've got loads of those mate, all the games I play down here are in East London where every single player you look at had a skin head and looked like they'd come from the job centre. Was pretty much playing against thugs every week, I always had the trouble of being a little bit lippy to the opposition and got punched so many times it was unreal.

Always remember getting a uni mate down for the weekend and got him a game - one of the opposition kept hold of the ball after a penalty and I went and shall we say 'grabbed the ball off him' - arguably by pushing him over - he got up to punch me (thoroughly deserved) and my mate was jogging back to take the quick tap from me and jogged right into the path of the punch, got caught square on the jaw and was floored - I ran in and grabbed hold of the bloke and to this day my friend still thinks I saved him from getting a kick in on the floor, have had about 20 pints off him over the years and still can't bring myself to tell him that he saved me from getting punched!

Can't remember what club it was but their is a ground in Essex that was on a driving range, so you have hundreds of golf balls on the pitch, was so dangerous it was untrue - ankles dislocated all over the place. We took the tactic of kicking it back to their fullback letting them run, twist their ankles on a ball - they lost 5 players in that game and we won by default as they only had 12 players at the start of the second half.

Anyone see that Richard Cockerill is slating the England management because Ben Youngs has had a recurrence of his knee injury? Not saying how long he will be out for...

hope he is not another harry ellis. Such a talent but already picking up lots of injuries

You have to wonder if he never should have gone to the World Cup, and whether Danny Care's injury ultimately forced him into it as MJ clearly didn't trust Wigglesworth or Simpson to do the job.

W'Worth himself has done something to his ACL and will be out for a while

Danny Care getting injured was such a huge blow for us.

Care was in such great form pre world cup and youngs was rushed back which may be the reason he was not great at the world cup.

http://willgreenwood.co.uk/willslatest/?p=633

good read

anyone know if there is any websites with LV highlights on? Wanna see the irish tries and the itv4 show didnt show them on sunday nighhtt

I like Greenwood as a player and he is decent as a pundit however him and Austin Healy know less than Zero about forward play.

Most forwards know a bit about backs but most backs no zero about forward play. They even say on the tv out loud they have very little interest in what goes on in the forwards and Austin Healey is the biggest offender in this respect.

find it weird

Part time players in WC refreshed for the AP:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/15459527.stm

He should be refreshed to be honest, had very little gametime and has been back a couple of weeks now. Just hope that if he plays for us on Saturday he gives a performance of a man who is fit and fired up.

what do you think our backline should be pete?

9 Allinson
10 Bowden
11 Ojo / Tagicakibau
12 Hape / Shingler
13 Joseph
14 Armitage / Thompstone
15 Homer / Armitage

for me, 9 10 and 13 are nailed on. rest up for grabs. ojo also deserves his spot.

Don't think Losi should come straight back in and start to be honest. I like the look of Shingler so far this season, but defensively him and JJ could be a little bit light against a midfield that is likely to have Banahan at 12 running hard, straight lines. I would go

15. Homer
14. Ojo
13. Joseph
12. Hape
11. Armitage
10. Bowden
9. Allinson

21. Hodgson 22. Shingler 23. Tagicakibau

Homer's Goal kicking is really going to cause some issues selection wise. If you drop him you lose a really reliable kickier.

Ansbro also covers quite a few positions so could be a good bench option

Is Bowden's kicking that bad you need to start Homer?

Think Ansbro is injured Mat.

We have to play Homer or Shingler as goal kicker as Bowden is too hit and miss there. Apart from his kicking Homer is also in really good form with his all round game.

Losi not having played since arriving back simplifies things this week a bit, as it's easy to have him on the bench, but there is real competition across the backline now which is good.

Can't Armitage kick?

Regardless of the kicking Homer has been one of our best players so far this season so I'll be surprised if he gets left out.

Armitage is a 60% kicker and Homer is a 85% kicker. his kicking will win more matches than armitages better attacking play will. the percentages were estimates by the way!!

Armitage's kicking is average. definitely a much better player than Homer, but Homer has played well to be fair to him and his goal kicking is second to none.

Bowden's kicking is OK but in a tight game you need someone to nail their kicks which Homer does every game. Such a shame Bowden cant kick like Homer as a backline of

9 Allinson
10 Bowden
11 Tagicakibau
12 Hape
13 Joseph
14 Ojo
15 Armitage

is pretty dam good

Matt i would say homers is more like 90%, so accurate. Armitage and Bowden probably around the 60% though I agree.

It's a shame for Homer, his kicking is preventing him having a prospering career on the dole!