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

Just settling down for Saints match, seen they're stuffing them

Highinbotham should start at 8. Mcalman went well in 2nd row in super 15 and could be a good 4. Aussies struggle when playing horwill and vickerman as both are really 2 jumpers

Another defeat at home Matt, bet yr not happy

Samo is a class act at 8 though

Was looking forward to ba bas game but apparently it wa like a testimonial with poor defence.

Heard tomkins showed glimpses but also showed he had never played union.

Also heard that freuan showed he was no international player by butchering a few and that mortlock looked sharp.

Will still watch it but when score is one sided often not good. Ba bas could soon be a joke soon as since the game went pro and defence is trained and there are systems it's so hard for invitational sides.

I sometimes play for wooden spoon or the samurai side and we lose most games if sides are even on paper or even of we have a slightly better side as we are Invitational and thrown together a week before .

It was a bit of a shambles tbh but worth a watch, they fell apart 60+.

They must be a complete u turn in scrum, first one of game Saints absolutely blitzed them!

To be honest Leicester are the best prem side with sarries.

Their front row is supreme but it's their depth. We
Can barely rotate anyone and have a good 15 but
No depth.

we also have young decision makers and not much leadership. Really miss deacon and EFS.

Dawiduik wood and harden played almost every game
Top sides would have backup.

We are essentially knackered mid season.

I am a realist and have said 7th should be out position but should aim for higher.

We miss brown as will James is and always has been useless

Saints scrum coming strong can see them pull away

Good to see PDJ playing well, we need him firing to give Cole a run. Hartley looking much better than last week!

Brits talisman for sarries and a different side without.

Sarries back 3 offers nowt generally. Strettle a poor side

Lamb is on fire! Pisi and Dickson too, really strong performance so far.

Well I'm up to half time and Saints have smashed every scrum bar one, not sure where the Sarries scrum dominance is?!?!

Saints pack just steam rolling the Sarries lot, Mark Sorenson & Dowson having stormers. PDJ & Tonga battering Nieto & Gill in scrum and loose.

Very impressive half.

Massive win for Saints! They just completly played the Sarries pack of the park at times. Foden and Pisi looked very good but Wood must surely start for England in the 6 nations he was fantastic.

Baabaa-OZ wasnt a great game at all Matt. Baabaa defence really was non existant at times. Wasnt the best way for Matfield to bow out to be honest. Tomkins definately wasnt ready for Union. Positioning was all off and he wasnt great in contact but did show some very good lines. Cips was good in patches but poor in others. Pretty much his usual self. On Freuen he messed up one break with a pass over his support runners head (A chance he created with his own break I might add) and had another one which AAC deliberatly knocked on. Wouldnt particularly call that butchering. He was probably the Baabaas best runner in the 1st half. Came off at halftime as they made a host a changes.

I saw last ten minutes of first half and sarries did well and then fell to pieces. Bloke in pub( what a dreadful source said sarries on top in scrum all first half. Judging by second half find this hard to believe.

Gill is a poor loosehead for me. Tonga gets stronger as game progresses very fit man. Dickson excellent. Dowson also. He is a club player who is dreadful in Heino but always good in ap

Flood never a try in real time. I was literally in front of him and maybe will appear on tv. Replay looked like a try but was not. Tv footage often not clear happens in cricket all time with catches

Yea Saints battered their scrum Matt, two great options in PDJ then Mujati coming on. Sarries went back all night.

Dickson very impressive, got to be involved with Rnglsnd with Youngs and Care.

I think Dickson brings a plan B to england. With Youngs, Care and Simpson you get much of the same, you get pace and flare but if thats not working there isn't a guy who has game management as his strong point.

Haven't seen any of the rugby this weekend. Not amused to see Sale throw away a 20 point lead. Undoing our good work during the WC period.

Wood went so
Much better when cole
Came
On and got on top winning penalties.

May should of started but we are keen to manage him and not play him all the time
Castro is one mean scrummager

Gibson had a very good game today.

dickson is a better version of paul hodgson in some ways, apart from in defence.

Gibson outstanding again today, just reads the game so well

I thought castro was going downhill after seeing Imiolek match him and win a few pens last season at Welford road but he has come back strong.

Glad to so Gibson doing well. Was he 6 or 7 today Nick/Pete?

Wearing 7 Steve, but him and Danaher seem to play more left/right than open/blind.

Gibson excellent at the breakdown though, and also the lineout. Very intelligent, always seems to pick the right option.

Ba bas awful rabeni misses so many and defence dreadful by all. Cant judge anyone in that Horne Barnes Joc AAC pocock all looked good but meaningless game.

Matfields last game and what a player

Just releasing:

PR Juan Gomez (TH) (Argentina)

Will take 2m if anyone interested in a TH

Can't remember losing 3 consecutive games at home in my lifetime. At least it's to good sides. Leicester looked very good today and flood was great. Their midfield is all wrong but pack so good apart from skivs

What's happened to Skivs?

Parling out 3-5 weeks

Didn't know Nonu went to Japan too!

http://www.allblacks.com/news/18161/Stanley-gets-a-head-start-on-Japanese-based-Nonu

Gary speed news is so shocking.

Terrible news in deed Luke , one of my all time sporting Heros and childhood icons. I'm guttered to say the least

One of my fav football players growing up, used to love his perm. Very sad and very odd. Can't imagine what would bring a person to do such a thing.

Gray not starting today for Quins. Has been rotating with Brooker all season. Needs to nail that shirt before he is seriously considered for England 2 shirt. it's not like he's competing with a top class hooker at Quins.

Good to see Falcons getting destroyed again, will Tait ever be sacked?!?!

Bring back Rob Andrew!

Great idea driver !!

Seen Jake
White talking about the England job. Would love him to get the job.

Dean Ryan could also be a contender

Did anyone read the times today ? Big interview with robshaw but also an excellent dissection of the England situation and what happened at Wc.

Haskell has had his contract offer from the reds taken away now only has the Otago offer

I thought it was Chiefs he'd signed with?

Can't see White fancying it with Brumbies commitments tbh

Apparently he had an offer from reds but now only has highlanders to go to. Also lots of talk of Haskell as captain which I don't get

I would be disgusted if haskell was the England captain. Would rather give the arm band to Aroola Erinle

who did the article on Haskell Mat, was it Stephen Jones? That man wants Haskell's children. He loves him.

Would like Haskell to become our long term no8, if only somehow the RFU could use some of the £8m plus profit they make to insert some brain cells into the lad. No rugby intelligence, all on brute strength and gym conditioning. If he could control the base of the scrum well then we could do with him there. So for X-mas I think Haskell needs to ask for some intelligence and handling skills.

Graham Henry has made some interesting comments on Cipriani today, says he shouldnt be judged on one game, had impossible task etc, etc but the talent he has seen in training makes him think he will pull on the England shirt again when he comes home. Was easily the worst I have ever seen the BaaBaas peform, who on earth was the revolving door pacific islander they had in the second half in the backs and it just didnt say anyone cared at all with the game.

League table updated.

Going to be one almighty scramble for the play off spots this season I think looking at it.

Seru Rabeni come on at half time. Barbarians realistically were never going to win that as they played it as a good bye party for Matfield they just turned up for the day out.

Agree with you there Driver, on paper it was a cracking team but no one wanted it - left the half backs shuffling s hi te all afternoon. Although have to say thought the BaaBaas try was brilliant - only seen it once as was leaving the house, but whoever passed it to the winger had some great hands for the pick up and then pass across. Was it Tomkins who scored?

It was Tomkins great finish aswell

I thought a few of there big name players struggled to be honest. Kevin Mealamu played out a stinker of a 40 minutes and that saffer they bought on was even worse. Matfield's work rate in defense is immense think he's tackle count was about 23???

Lost a lot of grunt when they took Shawsy off aswell , highlight of the game was Stringer took the ball off the kicking tee.

See that Thompson is going to be announcing his retirement shortly? He's crocked his neck again and has also damaged his toe, has arthritis and is pretty much beyond repair!

Good use of a marque signing that by Wasps...

Jeez the league is tight. Lots to play for. I have Newcastle and sarries away in the next 3 away games which can be tough.

Weather will play a part in the next few months.

Meant to urine down this week in Exeter ahead of our big game with Worcester

Mat - think your team will be ok with the weather! Biggest pack in the league surely?

Hopefully my luck will change a bit soon as have tried to select a team that is ideal for the wet weather.

To be fair Chris I have a good enough squad
To play any style but when the rain comes down I have the option of a gargantuan pack and plenty kicking options

Be interesting the next few months as there are lot of teams that have some great running threats in dry weather, but not so sure if they can cope when the weather getrs a bit wet!