Aviva - Mickey Mouse League, thanks to RFU

30 Nov, 1/2 Dec
Harlequins v Worcester Warriors
Sale Sharks v Northampton Saints
Exeter Chiefs v London Wasps
Leicester Tigers v Bath Rugby
London Welsh v London Irish
Saracens v Gloucester
1 Dec
Eng v New Zealand

Can anybody see who is going to benefit from this disgraceful greed by the RFU to play this fixture? The clubs need to get out of this ludicrous agreement asap, because it has a rancid stranglehold on them, resorting in the top 2 competitions they compete in being compromised.

Disgraceful.

Well played sir

This would be dead dead funny but isn't Chunky Norwich Welsh? So you've taken an article written by a Welsh fan complaining about the WRU deal (much like they did with the Australia game after the world cup) and try and turn it into a dig at England.

Of course this may well be a legitimate article in which case I'll say losing 23 players from 4 teams is a lot harder than losing 23 players from 12 teams. And of course all the sides are under the RFU whereas 8 of the 12 teams aren't involved in this extra fixture.

And none of these fixtures are derbies, well except for Welsh v Irish which doesn't really matter because Welsh won't have any international call ups and no one cares about that game.

None of these are derbies? Tigers vs Bath is a rivalry and a half from back in the days when Bath had a team worth bothering about. Those games are never taken lightly.

Yea but you know what i mean, they aren't local derbies or top 4 derbies

So Tigers likely to be missing

Cole
Parling
Croft
Waldrom
Youngs
Flood
Tuilagi

and Bath missing

Webber

So a game of

Stankovich - Youngs - Castro
Kitchener - Deacon
Mafi - Newby - Crane

Harrison - Ford

Benjamin - Allen / Bowden - Smith -Thompstone
Murphy

Playing

James - Mears - Wilson
Attwood - Caldwell
Skirving - Louw - Taylor

Classens - Donald / Heathcote

Biggs - Barkley - Hipkiss - Banahan
Abendanon

Yep, definitely stay favouring the Tigers there, especially at home. Just got so much depth!

gowales wrote:Yea but you know what i mean, they aren't local derbies or top 4 derbies

This will be a top 4 derby!

Bathite wrote:

gowales wrote:Yea but you know what i mean, they aren't local derbies or top 4 derbies

This will be a top 4 derby!

Stankovich - Youngs - Castro
Kitchener - Deacon
Mafi - Newby - Crane

Harrison - Ford

Benjamin - Allen / Bowden - Smith -Thompstone
Murphy

More likely to be:

Mulipola, Youngs, Castro
Deacon, Kitchener
Mafi, Crane, Salvi
Harrison, Ford
Allen, Goneva
Benjamin, Murphy, Thompstone

Bench: Stanko, Chuter, Brookes, Slater, Newby, Young, Bowden, Smith.

Never said it favours anyone merely that it is a significant rivalry.

Could be a possible upset for Quins with the meaty Worcester pack likely to exert extra pressure with no Marler in the scrum, no Robshaw in the loose and key backs missing. Then again Kvesic vs Wallace, fun times.

Difference is:

All the teams are English.

formerly known as Sam wrote:Could be a possible upset for Quins with the meaty Worcester pack likely to exert extra pressure with no Marler in the scrum, no Robshaw in the loose and key backs missing. Then again Kvesic vs Wallace, fun times.

Quins could struggle if Kohn and Easter aren't fit, but last year Lambert proved himself a decent Premiership loosehead (after years of struggle at tighthead), and as you say, Mo, Wallace, Easter is a very decent back row. Also, let's not forget that Quins will still be able to field James Johnston at tighthead, who's more or less the definition of meaty.

The bigger problem for Quins is likely to be leadership on the pitch. They just aren't the same team without Robshaw. You'd think that Easter and Robson were decent replacements at Captain, but it doesn't work that way.

formerly known as Sam wrote:None of these are derbies? Tigers vs Bath is a rivalry and a half from back in the days when Bath had a team worth bothering about. Those games are never taken lightly.

Gee thanks!

Well we tried to help by turning you team into a retirement home but the drag factor of the Donald/Barkley axis was just too great. That and your inability to purchase props that can scrummage (until James that is).

I'd love for you to tell Belly or Barnes that he couldn't scrummage to their face!

Well in their day they were good solid front rowers but they are both now retired with time not on their side in their last couple of seasons. Barnes went a couple of years back and Bell was far from his best this season or last. Flatman used to be a good prop before his shoulder injury as well. Other than Wilson the Bath front row recruitment before this summer was not the best.

Also I'd happily tell them to their face... if I had Mulipola and Castro to hide behind afterwards.

Belly was the best TH for us the last 2 years when he played, shows how little you know!

Recruitment has been a bit poor, Beech a waste of time, but he was Geech's son in law, so what do you expect! Perenise done a good job in general, so who else is there meant to be that's such a poor buy?

We've been reluctant to spend big because we have Catt and Palmer Newport coming through as solid prospects. You can't win, we went for Jenkins and Jones, said no because too expensive, if we'd said yes, you would have whinged that we were wasting our money and should have relied on the academy!

Hardly, I said James was a good signing and exactly what you needed, I'd have said the same (even more so) if you'd got either of Jones or Jenkins. Front rowers are a good investment and a position where rotation is a very good idea (making sure the big boys stay fresh and the young guns get experience).

Bell might have been your best tighthead but considering the threat offered from the Bath front row that isn't much to boast about and I don't think he was in the top ten AP tightheads (and I like the big guy).