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

Worsley pretty much retired at end of last season, had a really bad neck injury and was sadly never going to play again. Can't be many left playing from the 2003 WC generation now - Thompson, Moody, Tindall are all I can think of, and Balshaw, Wilko - cant see any of them playing for England again.

Real shame about Worsley, deserved to go out in a better way than that.

Driver

Weekend after next (26th Nov) Australia play the Baa Baas, and then the week after is Wales vs. Australia. I presume that because these games fall outside of the recognised international window that all players will still be available for selection in this game???

I think that's how its worked before Pete - with Welsh players they arent picked if they play in England anyway e.g. Peel and I think most Welsh players are now in the English league...

http://www.planet-rugby.co.uk/story/0,25883,16024_7308275,00.html

Driver - how many signings are we making in next foreigns?

1

Boring...:-)

Ozzy3213 wrote:Driver

Weekend after next (26th Nov) Australia play the Baa Baas, and then the week after is Wales vs. Australia. I presume that because these games fall outside of the recognised international window that all players will still be available for selection in this game???

Yeah mate all players are availible


Shawsy confirmed as a Toulon player , him and Bakkies is a fearsome combo

Did Bakkies sign?!?!

Was confirmed the other day , some French lock is injured for them

Hape cited? Seriously? What is going on, what have London Irish done wrong!!

It's a joke stnick. No way was that tackle worthy of a citing. It was right in front of the ref who didn't even award a penalty.

Please tell me that Topsy is going to be fit this week, as if he isn't and Hape gets banned, by my reckoning it means we only have 9 fit backs in the Heino squad to choose from for Friday.

I'll find out later in the week
At least Jamie Roberts is injured and almost certain to miss the game.

I've just been reviewing last seasons ERC citings for similar offences to what Hape and Cox are cited for.

My conclusion from reading them is that Hape will be looking at 4-6 weeks and Cox 2-4 weeks.

The most interesting decision comes from an incident where Saints scrum half Lee Dickson was the victim of the tackle. The referee issued a yellow card whilst Dickson was on the ground recieving treatment. The judicial officer deemed that it should have been red even though the referee and his assistant both stated that they felt the correct decision had been made. The judicial officer stated that the decision was taken before knowing the extent of Dicksons injury and that had a bearing on his decision that it should have been red. Incidently, Dickson finished the game.

Given that Denton went off concussed, I can see Hape getting seriously hammered for this.

Gutted. He's been pretty decent for us the last 2 games.

He is solid in defence and offers a good go to man, him and Bowden look good together.

If he gets less than Cox, then the system is f ucking stupid. Cox blatantly just forearmed him in the face. Hape didnt do a malicious tackle on Denton, was just a big hit.

Lawes put worse tackles in v Wasps and didnt even get cited.

If Hape does get banned, I would go 12 Shingler 13 Ansbro, with Thompstone and Ojo on the wings.

Shame as was looking forward to a Hape/Ansbro combo.

I'd go the same, providing that Topsy is fit, otherwise I would imagine it will mean Ansbro on one wing and Spratt in the centre with Shingler.

Or there is the even more depressing thought of Bowden being moved to 12 with Jarvis at 10. If that does happen, I probably won't watch as it could be painful!!!

Lawes put in 4 late hits versus Wasps and was booed off the pitch because of his tackling - certainly seems something a little off with all these Irish players getting banned...

Wonder if Wasps will have some budget freed up now that Worsley has retired - best disruptive backrower in the AP - think in the Heineken Cup final v Toulouse all those years ago he made something like 36 tackles - good old melon head!

Guys can someone explain to me something about French rugby, in that is there a limit to the number of non-EU players allowed to play in a match day squad? I was speaking to a Toulon fan and they were saying that this stops them picking their best team.

Yes there is a limit, but not sure on the exact figure.

It's no different to here where you can only have 3 'foreign' players in the matchday 23, although Pacific Islanders, Argentinians, any European players and South Africans don't count as foreign!!!

They brought something in last season Chris along with some kind of budget constraint (yea right), again not sure what it is but it was to prevent damage to the national set-up

Ah - that's what it is Pete - didnt know that those countries didn't count as it would explain why Aussies and NZ'ers dont always make a match day squad.

Pooly - I think I read somewhere that within 3 years, 50% of a match day squad has to be a French national. Might be a bit more than 3 years.

Reckon we should do the same here

Why would we want 50% of the matchday squads here to be French Chris!?!?!

We could never bring the English requirement up in this leaqgue, only down. Sides would be at a massive disadvantage as some sides have more quality English players than foreign (Chris lol).

I've always thought the HC would be interesting if we could have no limit in terms of EQ's and foreigners. Would make the tournament different as it is in real life. The difference between AP and HC in real life is quality of opposition and perhaps next year we could have no limits on foreign players in eurpean competition. Spice it up a bit.

Personally I think we should all only be allowed to play English players in a match day squad - can anyone get 23 English players that way? Best I could do would probably be...

1. Stevens
2. Hartley
3. Thomas
4. Attwood
5. Lawes
6. Clark
7. Rees
8. Wray
9. Simpson
10. Cipriani
11. Wade
12. Eves
13. Tuilagi
14. Ashton
15. Foden

16. Webber 17. Vunipola 18. Baker 19. Launchbury 20. Abbott 21. Davies 22. Geraghty 23. Jamie Elliot

I could do

1 Marler
2. Vickers
3. Brookes
4. Skivington
5. Gaskell
6. Fearns
7. Seymour
8. Dowson
9. Dickson
10. Burns
11. Chisholm
12. Flutey
13. Lowe
14. Joseph
15. Lindsey-Hague

16. Hayes
17. Croall
18. Collier
19. Gibson
20. Wallace
21. Burgess
22. Mulchrone
23. Cheeseman

Might do alright. very inexperienced. more potential than it has current ability.

1. Dan Murphy
2. Lee Mears
3. Dan Cole
4. Alex Brown
5. Tom Croft
6. Thomas Waldrom
7. Magnus Lund
8. Nick Easter

09. Micky Young
10. Jonny Wilkinson
11. Tom Biggs
12. Dave Walder
13. Billy Twelvetrees
14. Topsy Ojo
15. Rob Miller

16. Jonny Harris
17. Tom Youngs
18. Jason Hobson
19. Tom Denton
20. Jordan Crane
21. Joe Srokowski
22. Mark van Gisbergen
23. Alex Lewington


Walder a bif iffy at 12....

I can do...

15. Tom Homer
14. Mark Cueto
13. Henry Trinder
12. Owen Farrell
11. James Short
10. Alex Goode
9. Paul Hodgson

1. Matt Mullan
2. George Chuter
3. Alex Corbisiero
4. Graham Kitchener
5. Steve Borthwick
6. Tom Wood
7. James Scaysbrook
8. Luke Narraway

16. Harry Allen 17. Alex Waller 18. Max Lahiff 19. George Kruis 20. Will Fraser 21. James Lightfoot-Brown 22. Marcus Watson 23. Ben Ransom

That's 6 full internationals and 1 Saxon in the pack, but the backs are more potential than current stars, with the bench very young indeed.

I could do:

1. Flatman
2. Fortey
3. Thomas
4. Kohn
5. Gulliver
6. Myall
7. Thorpe
8. Morgan
9. Pasqualin
10. Heathcote
11. Garvey
12. Vesty
13. Clarke
14. Drauninui
15. Morgan

16. Britton, 17. Porter, 18. Budgen, 19. Barrell, 20. Barrow, 21. Claxton, 22. Ford, 23. Tonks
Not too bad a backline and back 3!

1.Sheridan
2.Clark
3.Wilson
4.Shaw
5.Hudson
6.Danahar
7.Moody
8.Skirving
9.Thomas
10.Myler
11.Balshaw
12.Powell
13.Bell
14.Thompstone
15.Arscott

16.Kieron Davies 17.Brett Sturgess 18.Tom Mercy 19.Peter Short 20.Michael Stupple 21.Charlie Pilgrim 22.Matt Smith 23.Henry Slade

Some good sides, I don't think mine is as strong as some

1. Stankovich
2. Lindsay
3. Doran-Jones
4. Schofield
5. Parling
6. Robshaw
7. Woods
8. York/Grey

9. Youngs
10. Flood
11. Benjamin
12. Barritt
13. Hipkiss
14. Amesbury
15. Arscott

16. McGuigan 17. Shiells 18. Morris 19. Slater 20. Mayhew 21. Arr 22. Hodgson 23. Catterick

Seriously young bench!!!

heres mine. not shabby with all of them having played AP and quite a decent bench

1 Wood
2 Gray
3 Harden
4 Palmer
5 Hanks
6 Buxton
7 Saull
8 Deacon
9 Lewis
10 Lamb
11 JSD
12 Hape
13 May
14 Vainokolo
15 Sharples
16 Payne
17 George
18 White
19 Savage
20 Hazell
21 Robson
22 Taylor
23 Diggin

I can't even do one!!

Looking through the lists there are so many good young players coming through at the moment, but it seems as though there is a real lack in quality at no8 and the 12 shirt.

Only no8s that look like they have potential and coming through for me are Jackson Wray at Sarries and Billy Vunipola at Wasps, but neither start for their clubs at all, so would imagine they are 2-3 years away from being first choice.

Other position in 12 - started liking the idea that some of you said in the week about Tuilagi being moved to that position to allow another youngster to push on there - but Im not sure whether Leicester would ever move him there as they have Allen, 36 etc there.

Farrell's the other obvious choice, great kicking game, my only doubt about him is whether he has the pace to play 12 or whether he'd be better suited learning how to be an out and out 10.

Anyone seen why there is talk about Wilkinson and Guscott? Has something happened with them recently?

Think he had a dig at Guscott in his book? Just read Chris Ashton's splash down - it's awful

Interestingly, just been told that tne Eng u20's have apparently asked Saints to start playing Ben Nutley as a no8.

Does anyone go and watch 'A' League games, you get some cracking matches and its pretty much 15 English players in each team - Saints seem to be hammering everyone at the moment, I'm wanting to go and watch them versus Wasps, as should be a good game and its free!

May has played a lot of times at 12 this year for gloucester although i think he is a 13. Has a great set of basics and a kiucking game also

"Only no8s that look like they have potential and coming through for me are Jackson Wray at Sarries and Billy Vunipola at Wasps, but neither start for their clubs at all, so would imagine they are 2-3 years away from being first choice. "

Chris York at Quins looks well ahead of those two, was excellent in his run for Quins. Got Gray coming through as well who looks like he has a bit more of an all round game than either of those two although he needs to bulk up a little.

Would have it as Wray, York and then Vunipola - though Im biased as coached Wray at my old club.

I dont think Gray will be a no8, can see him being moved on the flanks.

Think as long as Gray bulks up he will be an 8.
Very intelligent player just needs to imrpove his carrying.

Think York is well ahead of Wray Chris, the others are a bit Holly Wilaboobie for tat. Not seen much to suggest Billy isn't just a clueless lump and would have him well behind Gray and Wray.

Gray will def play 8, he's all round game is very good (Hari mould) but lacks a bit of physicality a bit like Gaskell. Still a young boy though and at a good club to bring him through.

Was unsure of York but him and Wallace looked very classy. Could be a future England combo there with Gibson at 6.

Every time I've seen Wray I've been very impressed with his perfromances, very good control and game management - trouble is no8 is a very hard position to judge due to none of the players mentioned being properly developed just yet.

Vunipola could be a very good player - he's only 18/19 at the moment, so the youngest of the bunch, but physically the most imposing and dynamic player.

It's all going to depend upon who else we have coming through as when Guest is fit I'd imagine York would drop back to 3rd choice at Quins, whilst Wray is 2nd choice when everyone is fit and Vunipola could well be starting for Wasps from next year.

None of them have massively stood out for me TBH. Including Gray. Gray has been decent enough for Irish this season when I've seen him but needs time.

Nick I think at this age a no8 would just get bashed back - its very hard for a young no8 to come through the AP as its so physical and most can get bullied out.

Wray doesnt get picked in bad weather because of that reason, can see a few being given game time at no6 before moving back as they get more experience.

Similar to how Wasps are building up game time for Launchbury so he can then play second row in a season or twos time.

Gray won't flourish at 8 at the moment for Irish, as he is not physical enough there yet. He is intelligent though and could get away with it if we had big ball carriers at 6 and 7, but we don't. I can see him getting more gametime at 6 or 7 this season than at 8 once the Hoff is back, but I think ultimately he will end up at 8 and be very very good there.

Hope so as we could do with a number 8 who isnt banned for half a season!

Reckon we're gonna let Delon go at the end of the season and concentrate on tying Bowden up for a couple more years. Which I'm more than happy with. No point paying a player huge wages if he is banned for a load of matches.
And we have the ginger ninja (aka poolys best mate) Homer to play 15.

Yeah, I did suspect that Delon would be off to France at the end of the season. Realistically we need to also be letting big Faan go, and using the pair of thems salaries to sign a top tighthead and back row forward.

Pooly is just jealous that he doesn't have a little ginger goatee like Tom

Lol....I like his goatee, its his most redeeming rugby asset after his goal kicking!

You need to watch him a bit more often if you genuinely think that all he has to his game is his goalkicking Pooly, the boy's a decent player who is getting better and better with getting gametime in his best position at 15.