Fantasy Aviva Premiership season 4

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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

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Waiting List
1. Sam
2. pullthestrings
3. Bathite

Ford got IRB Under 20 best player recently. He is a very special talent when I've watched him. Have to say he could quite easily overtake Flood in 18 months as he without doubt has the talent. Has shown it everytime I've seen him.

You fancy some action too Steve? Lol

No.

Pooly

Falcons are in talks with Michael Stephenson

Not the big name we were hoping for

First Victor Matfield rejects us and we try and compansate by signing Michael Stephenson!

Who's Michael Stephenson?!?!

He used to play for Falcons! He's a winger who was released by Leeds when they went down. Played for Bath between Us and Leeds and was a try scoring machine and picked up a few England caps.

Was he not scottish driver?? or am I thinking of someone else?

He's English Steve - From Tynemouth

http://www.espnscrum.com/england/rugby/player/13652.html

Seem to remember him at Bath few seasons back, just what we need another average player to go with our squad of average players (bar a few)

cant remember who was after highlights of LV Cup this week, but think they are on here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l913yt9gvkE

Fancy the bet Chris?

thanks chris but wanted the irish v falcons highlights

Nick in the games he has played sharples has been fantastic this year and is the most dangerous wing in England.

Also he has filled out even more and is quite a specimen now. I have always said long term he may end up FB but think wing will be his position now.

The best thing about him is he is a footballer and can start moves and is great under the high ball. Think if england are going to play Ashton who is not much of a footballer then you need a more skillfull winger the other side. Sharples is that man and in some ways i am glad we did not take him to the WC as it couldd have affected him in some ways

Mat how's Jonny May coming along, he seems to be getting a fair bit of gametime for you at the moment - could he be an option for England?

A Ashton, Foden and Sharples back three could be incredible for England, the backline just needs to find a top no10 and 12 and then it could be up there as one of the best in world rugby if everyone continues to develop - all very young players too.

May has been doing exceptionally well and has scored loads and also created tons. has played equally as many games at 12 as 13 for us this year and is more than capable of playing wings.

he is a real footballer again so they have played him 12 and trinder 13 which has worked really well. trinder is not much of a footballer but is an out and out 13 and great at getting through the tackle as is suprisingly strong. May has a decent kicking game also which means has helped us.

Not sure how much game time they will see with Tindall and EFS back and definitely too early for england. would expect trinder and May to be in saxons this year.

Always said May is our biggest hope for many a day if he carries on he is england class.

we have tons of good backs coming through from 9-15. also got some good forwards also who may just be AP class but looking good. young Savage in the second row looks really good when he plays. only started playing 5 years ago and at 20-21 he is pushing hard for first team spot

Sale team Steve:

15 Rob Miller, 14 Tom Brady, 13 Johnny Leota, 12 Sam Tuitupou (c), 11 Mark Cueto, 10 Nick Macleod, 9 Dwayne Peel; 1 Alasdair Dickinson, 2 Marc Jones, 3 Henry Thomas, 4 Fraser McKenzie, 5 Kearnan Myall, 6 James Gaskell, 7 David Seymour, 8 Richie Vernon.
Replacements: 16 Joe Ward, 17 Vadim Cobilas, 18 Tony Buckley, 19 Mark Easter, 20 Andy Powell, 21 Will Cliff, 22 Luther Burrell, 23 Will Addison


The good news for you is Manu is rumoured to be out for 6 weeks, joining, 36, Allen and Tait on the Tigers injury list. Basically no fit centres available.

yeaahh Manu is out but last year I saw him play live v Sale and his brother was 10 x as dangerous. It was one of the reasons I was sure he wouldn't do well for England along with the Ashton punch

Tom Brady vs Alesana could be....um....one sided?

Brady is underrated. He will have Tuilagi on the outside all day given the chance I just wouldn't wanna see Tuilagi run straight at him. I reckon we have far far stronger centres and Peel will give Harrison a lesson at 9.

15 Geordan Murphy (c)
14 Scott Hamilton
13 Horacio Agulla
12 Matt Smith
11 Alesana Tuilagi
10 Toby Flood
9 Sam Harrison
1 Marcos Ayerza
2 George Chuter
3 Dan Cole
4 George Skivington
5 Geoff Parling
6 Tom Croft
7 Julian Salvi
8 Thomas Waldrom

Replacements
16 Tom Youngs
17 Boris Stankovich
18 Martin Castrogiovanni
19 Steve Mafi
20 Ed Slater
21 James Grindal
22 Jeremy Staunton
23 Niall Morris

Harrison has been looking really good the last few weeks.

Suprised Chuiter is starting ahead of Youngs. Youngs looking more and more like the real deal.

Lot of Tigers fans surprised as well as I understand it luke

Harrison is a good prospect but Peel has been the league's best 9 bar none so far and is a lot better than Harrison is now.

A little concerned for our scrum, will depend on whether the World Class destructive Dan Cole turns up or the slightly tamer version is on show.

Peel really makes you tick Steve, look a different side when he's out. Is Micky Young injured?

Yeh Young has been injured for a few weeks.

He has won us points on his own this season. Was brilliant v Irish and Saints.

To be honest if we win tomorrow I will be over the moon. Home wins v Leicester, Gloucester, Irish and Saints would be a dream start. Wonder how many sides will do that this season. Especially considering we lost about 10 world cup players as well

Shame, he'd really add to that Leicester backline.

Think Tigers will have too much in the pack myself, Flood looked in good form last week 7/7 too I think so big game for Macleod

I can see Tigers just edging it, but it's not going to be pretty that is for sure. I would imagine that given their centre pairing we will see the ball with their forwards for long periods of the game.

Seymour v Salvi will also be a huge battle. leicester's pack is better than ours on paper but that has been true for most games this season. A lot of young talent there. I suspect McKenzie will be capped by Scotland at some stage.

Friday night at Sale, think home win for me. close game but home win. Hopefully anyway, the longer Tigers are down the bottom the better.

http://www.espnscrum.com/premiership-2011-12/rugby/story/153228.html

Do we all have to wait for this, or are playing with the assumption they are now back with our squads?

I think we are working on the assumption that all World Cup players are now back mate, but I personally will be marking down for any of the AB or France players if they appear in anyones matchday squads this week as they would be seriously jet lagged.

Yeh was thinking more of next week.

Don't think hardly anyone has included players from any of the 4 semi finals. They'd be way too jet-lagged IMO.

I've seen Rob Simmons and Berrick Barnes on peoples benches so far, but that's it.

They better be back!

I guess they're only carrying on as there's no major comps for the players to return too.

SJE's chucked Palu straight in. Apparently he is s too tired to train....the team seem to have lost faith in their manager....So I heard

To be fair i have put Berrick on the Bench. In all honesty he would have been back in the country for 5-6 days and would have maybe had a brief run out today. 24 hour flight no problemo.


Look at the amount of players who have had to fly over for the autumn internationals due to Injury and then played straight away/

would not have played NZ or France players as they would not have been back in time even for bench but aussie and welsh players 1 on the bench would have been fine.

Palu has barely played for a year and is now out injured again anyone know how bad his injury is??? to be fair he did leave the ausssie side about 3 weeks ago so should be french

Didn't you only sign Barnes in the summer Mat, so he's never actually trained with beofre his 1 day run around this week and barely even knows his team amtes either????

6 games in to the AP, real life not this game, how do people see the league shaping up come end of season? I think Quins will start to tail off around Xmas, much like Irish did last year.

Off the bench Pete. He will have been observing training all week anyhow and getting a rubdown.

world class player will not lose sleep over Spence and Farrell who are a pretty damn new combo anyhow.

In all honesty don't think we will need Berrick but he is there for that oh so reassuring comfort factor of having a world class performer if needed. also he is super fresh after only playing in the last 2 world cup games.

Also he knows Sarries inside out from his lengthy time playing under your tutelage. he has passed on all Sarries secrets.

In all seriousness, I would love to still have Barnes, fantastic footballer and showed how much Australia have missed him when he bossed the semi final against Wales. Still only young as well. Deans should be building his backline around him, not Cooper.

stnick

I think the AP is really hard to call this season. May become a little clearer by Christmas. The middle of the table is really congested with I think something like 5 or 6 teams having won three and lost three. Bonus points are going to be crucial come the end of the season I think.

where do you see Barnes best position. i like him at 12 but one of those rare players who can play either position

I like him at 12 as well, as long as he is used correctly there. You want him in the game as much as possible really, so you don't want a 10 who either kicks the ball away a lot or spends the whole game trying to win it on his own inside of him.

Much better at 12. Remember him having full season at 10 for Tahs and not playing well, I had him and generally got slated for playing him.

Big fan of Barnes, clever player. Plays really well with a hard straight running 13. The few games he's played with AAC have been some of the best I've seen from a centre combo. The Aus/France game last year the pair of them absolutely dismantled France.

Anyone seen this video - amazing - the beast pretty much stops Keegan Daniel from breaking his neck. Amazing power.

http://www.rugbydump.com/2011/10/2221/beast-mtawarira-prevents-keegan-daniel-from-flipping-head-first

good work beast, keeping my blindside fit!
didnt realise daniel was sharks captain. final this weekend isnt it?

Yeah, they have the Lions at Ellis Park, should be a cracker.

Guys,

We hit the limit on post length this week on the match thread

I have created a 2nd match day page with the Sale-Leicester game on it. Please make sure to predict on this game as well (You have to predict all games for the weekly bonus!!)

All teams and tactics are up so predictions can start away

Anyone watching Leicester v Sale?? Leicester getting the slight upperhand in the scrums but the penalty and free kick counts are about even. leicester doninating both lineouts.

Sale though are dominating collisions. besides one great Tuilagi rampage not one leicester player has won the contact. Peel, Brady, Samoan centres and Seymour be great. Geordan Murphy is having a mare. Wait untill you see the chance he gifted to Brady which he was very very lucky to get away with.

Have to watch it when I get on. Tough place to go on a Friday night, thought it was tomorrow

Leicester looking up for this in the 2nd