Jeff Round 8 preview

It's the last weekend before the start of the Norths greatest competition! And here are the upcoming fixtures to look forward to:

Fri 4 Newcastle Falcons v Worcester Warriors, Kingston Park, Newcastle
19:45 local, 19:45 GMT

Sat 5 Bath Rugby v Harlequins, Recreation Ground, Bath
14:15 local, 14:15 GMT

Sat 5 Exeter Chiefs v Gloucester Rugby, Sandy Park
15:00 local, 15:00 GMT

Sat 5 Leicester Tigers v London Irish, Welford Road, Leicester
15:05 local, 15:05 GMT

Sun 6 London Wasps v Northampton Saints, Adams Park, Wycombe
14:15 local, 14:15 GMT

Sun 6 Saracens v Sale Sharks, Vicarage Road, Watford
15:00 local, 15:00 GMT

As a reminder last weekends results see the table currently looking like this:

Harlequins 7 7 0 0 30
Saracens 7 6 0 1 26
Sale Sharks 7 4 0 3 19
Bath Rugby 7 4 0 3 18
London Wasps 7 4 0 3 18
London Irish 7 3 0 4 18
Exeter Chiefs 7 3 0 4 16
Gloucester Rugby 7 3 0 4 15
Northampton Saints 7 3 0 4 14
Leicester Tigers 7 2 0 5 12
Worcester Warriors 7 2 0 5 10
Newcastle Falcons 7 1 0 6 5


My predictions:
Worcester to get their first away win against a struggling Falcons team in the dullest match of the season. Wuss by 3
After their wake up call against the Cheifs last weekend Quins will be well up for Bath away and put in one of their best performances, Quins pack get the advantage against a poor Bath 8. Harlequins by 10
Exeter add to the Gloucester woes as their tough pack man shame the cherry whites at sandy Park. Exeter by 5
Leicester continue to show their true calibre while Irish's frailties are further exposed. Leicester bp win by 15
The game of the weekend, both teams go full pelt at each other with Saints pack winning it for them. Fricking tries everywhere and Northampton by 7
Sale's pack put last weekend behind them and go out to smash Brits and co off the park, with a couple of key turnovers and Peel organising well Sale win by 3

Your thoughts?

Yappysnap do you honestly think Sale will beat Saracens? Seriously?

I can't see it. I know you want us to lose but I just can't.

If it was at Sale possibly....

I would say

Newcastle win by 5
Bath win by 5
Exeter win by 7
Leicester win by 12
Saints win by 15
Saracens win by 10

Beshocked, i honestly can't see Sale coming close to you, The real pressure will be on you boys getting a bp win.

I will be rooting for them though as you're looking far too good at the moment and it's a little worrying for us! I can't see Quins carrying on their form for much longer while I can't see Saracens losing many games unless they are heavily impacted in the future.

Falcons must win and I think they will sneak it.

Normally you would expect Bath to win at home to Quins. However Bath have looked poor in televised wins over Tigers and LI (wins but poor performances). Quins to remain unbeaten.

Chiefs are strong at home, Gloucester not great when travelling. Home win.

Tigers integrating WC players well - 3rd win in a row.

Sarries to win big over Sale.

So to the hardest game to predict. Saints let a young Scarlets team run them far too close, and took a long time to put Falcons away. They should expect to beat Wasps - but I suspect we will se a home win.

To summarise - wins for Falcons/Quins/Chiefs/Tigers/Sarries/Wasps

Fri 4 Newcastle Falcons v Worcester Warriors, Kingston Park, Newcastle - home advantage, plus return of Hudson = Falcons win by less than a score
Sat 5 Bath Rugby v Harlequins, Recreation Ground, Bath - Bath have watched what Exe did to Quins last week, Bath by less than a score
Sat 5 Exeter Chiefs v Gloucester Rugby, Sandy Park - Chiefs keen to put Quins narrow loss behind them, Exe by less than a score
Sat 5 Leicester Tigers v London Irish, Welford Road, Leicester - Leicester step up a gear in prep for HC, Tigers by more than a score
Sun 6 London Wasps v Northampton Saints, Adams Park, Wycombe - Northampton step up a gear in prep for HC, Saints by more than a score
Sun 6 Saracens v Sale Sharks, Vicarage Road, Watford - home advantage, Sarries by more than a score

At 1st glance I thought this week's scores would be relatively easy to predict, but on reflection I feel there are going to be some interesting results here.

Despite Falcons dreadful form I can see them sneaking this.

I initially thought Quins will win the game against Bath, but I can see my lesser neighbours sneaking this too.

Exeter v Glaws is all about revenge!! I had so much grief following last year's loss. It was described as the greatest upset in Jeff history. Of course, within a few weeks we all released what a good team Exeter are. Nevertheless after throwing away last week's game and fueled by last year's result Glaws are going to turn up and get a rare away win!

Tigers are going to stuff Irish! The Irish pack isn't much cop and Tigers will be keen to hit the HC with a run of form.

Wasps v Saints is an interest one and as yappy says I can see this being a high scoring game, but Saints will come out on top.

Sarries will also stuff Sale. Sale's pack is far too underpowered to cope with Sarries.

HKC, so we're agreed, except you've got Chiefs-Glaws the wrong way round

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:HKC, so we're agreed, except you've got Chiefs-Glaws the wrong way round

The main thing I'm worried about is the dirve down the M5!! Last time it us 4 hours to get there and due to the result an hour to get back! Last time we failed at any point to pass the ball backwards, catch the forward pass and kick the ball between the posts - if we can actually do those this time (it's a big if) we shall have our revenge. As I certainly don't want to wait until the next life to have it!

Sadly I have to say I can see Tigers giving us a complete stuffing this week. Our pack is lacking in power at the moment with no Garvey, Casey or Hala'ufia, and I think they will just grind us down and collect the TBP.

i always struggle with predictions..

worcester to win narrowly, as te falcons have looked poor so far.

bath to bring an end to quins run, home advantage and more players returning from internationals.

gloucester to turn it on, they have great backs and they'll want to react to losing their proud home record.

leicester to win a high scoring game comfortably. irish look vunerable in te set piece and at the breakdown i still expect them to get a couple of tries though.

saints to do the job here, wasps are hard to predict but i dont think they'll have enough up front for the saints.

saracens will beat sale. sarries are clinical they wont lose many this season.
be interesting to see how they go in the HC this year.

Almost time for the team announcements to come flooding in!

Ozzy3213 wrote:Almost time for the team announcements to come flooding in!

Ah but on here, or the individual match threads?

London Irish team to Leicester Tigers:
15. Tom Homer; 14.Topsy Ojo*; 13. Steven Shingler; 12.Shontayne Hape*; 11.Sailosi Tagicakibau*;10. Dan Bowden (Captain); 9. Ross Samson; 1.Alex Corbisiero*; 2. David Paice*; 3.Paulica Ion*; 4. James Sandford; 5. Bryn Evans*; 6. Declan Danaher; 7.Jamie Gibson; 8. Jebb Sinclair*

Replacements: 16. James Buckland; 17. Max Lahiff; 18.Faan Rautenbach*; 19. Matt Garvey; 20. Richard Thorpe; 21. Adam Thompstone; 22. Adrian Jarvis; 23.Darren Allinson

*Denotes International

Chiefs v Glaws is:

CHIEFS
Luke Arscott; Gonzalo Camacho, Sireli Naqelevuki, Jason Shoemark, Matt Jess; Gareth Steenson, Pat Phibbs; Brett Sturgess, Neil Clark, Hoani Tui; Tom Hayes (C), James Hanks; Tom Johnson, James Scaysbrook, Richard Baxter

Replacements: Simon Alcott, Ben Moon, Craig Mitchell, Chris Bentley, Ben White, Kevin Barrett, Ignacio Mieres, Josh Tatupu

GLAWS
Olly Morgan; Charlie Sharples, Mike Tindall, Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu, Tom Voyce; Freddie Burns, Rory Lawson; Nick Wood, Darren Dawidiuk, Rupert Harden; Will James, Jim Hamilton; Alasdair Strokosch, Akapusi Qera, Luke Narraway (C)

Replacements: Scott Lawson, Dan Murphy, Dario Chistolini, Tom Savage, Peter Buxton, Dave Lewis, Tim Taylor, Henry Trinder

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 Martin Castrogiovanni,4 Louis Deacon,5 Geoff Parling,6 Tom Croft,7 Julian Salvi,8 Thomas Waldrom

Replacements
16 Tom Youngs,17 Boris Stankovich,18 Dan Cole,19 George Skivington,20 Ed Slater,21 James Grindal,22 Jeremy Staunton,23 Niall Morris


Ben Youngs, Manu Tuilagi, Mathew Tait, Anthony Allen and Billy Twelvetrees are unavailable due to injury and scrum-half Micky Young played an hour of Monday's Development XV match as he works his way back from a calf problem.

Slightly surprised to see Skivington and Slater on the bench rather than Mafi having a spot.

Saracens vs Sale Sharks



Saracens:

15 Alex Goode
14 David Strettle
13 Owen Farrell
12 Brad Barritt
11 Chris Wyles
10 Charlie Hodgson
9 Neil de Kock
1 Deon Carstens
2 Schalk Brits
3 Carlos Nieto
4 Steve Borthwick (c)
5 Mouritz Botha
6 Kelly Brown
7 Jacques Burger
8 Ernst Joubert

16 Jamie George
17 Rhys Gill
18 Matt Stevens
19 Hayden Smith
20 Andy Saull
21 Ben Spencer
22 Adam Powell
23 James Short

Sale Sharks:

15.Rob Miller, 14.Will Addison, 13.Johnny Leota, 12.Sam Tuitupou (capt.), 11.Mark Cueto, 10.Nick Macleod, 9.Will Cliff, 1.Alasdair Dickinson, 2.Tommy Taylor, 3.Henry Thomas, 4.Fraser McKenzie, 5.James Gaskell, 6.Richie Vernon. 7.David Seymour, 8.Andy Powell,

Replacements 16.Marc Jones, 17.Vadim Cobilas, 18.Tony Buckley, 19.Kearnan Myall, 20.Mark Easter, 21.Cillian Willis, 22.Tasesa Lavea, 23.Tom Brady

Harlequins team to face Bath:

15. Mike Brown
14. Seb Stegmann
13. George Lowe
12. Jordan Turner-Hall
11. Sam Smith
10. Nick Evans
9. Karl Dickson

1. Joe Marler
2. Joe Gray
3. James Jonston
4. Olly Kohn
5. George Robson
6. Maurie Fa'asavalu
7. Chris Robshaw
8. Nick Easter

Replacements

16. Chris Brooker
17. Nic Mayhew
18. Kyle Sickler
19. Tomas Vallejos
20. Luke Wallace
21. Danny Care
22. Rory Clegg
23. Matt Hopper

Care's first game of the Prem season, could also be the most important. Big things are needed.

And the Bath team:

15. Abendanon
14. Woodburn
13. Hipkiss
12. Carraro
11. Biggs
10. Vesty
9. Claassens

1. Catt
2. Mears
3. Wilson
4. Hooper ©,
5. Attwood
6. Skirving
7. Louw
8. Taylor

Subs
16. Batty
17. Beech
18. Perenise
19. Caldwell
20. Mercer
21. Cook
22. Heathcote
23. Cuthbert