JP Morgans - first teams announced

Leicester Tigers (JP MorganAsset Management Premiership Rugby Sevens, Friday, August2,Franklin's Gardens, kick-off 7.15pm) 1 Michael Noone 2 Jake Farnworth 3 Lucas Guillaume 4 Harry Wells 5 Blaine Scully 6 George Catchpole 7 Pasqualle Dunn 8 Henry Purdy 9 George Tresidder 10 Oliver Bryant 11 Scott Steele (c) 12 Perry Humphreys

Northampton Saints: Vasily Artemyev, Tom Collins, Alex Day, Ryan Glynn (c), Will Hooley, Sam Olver, Tom Stephenson, Harry Bett,Paul Diggin, Sam Harry, Buster Lawrence, Olly Robinson

Newcastle Falcons: Harrison Collins, Ben Morris, Richard Mayhew (c), Glen Young, Michael Tait, Tom Catterick, Zach Kibirige, Chris Harris,Andy Davies, Joel Hodgson, Sean Brown, Tom Penny

These are from a article on the Tigers site. Looks like we're taking it slightly more seriously. Purdy, Wells and Catchpole have all appeared for England under 20s, Noone is former Leinster and Ireland age grade, Steele is Scotland under 20s, Scully a trialist American international and 7s player, Guillaume had some France age grade appearances previously and Bryant is the one I'll be interested to see, he's highly rated in the academy and is the 10 and captain. Doubt we'll win the cup but maybe grab a win this time.

Quins are playing:


Jack Clifford

Ross Chisholm

Dave Ward

Ollie Lindsay-Hague

Charlie Walker

Patrice Agunda

Joe Trayfoot

Harry Sloan

Jeremy Manning

Louis Grimoldby

Jordan Burns

James Chisholm


Which doesn't have much experience but plenty of pace and flair. I wonder how similar the World Club sevens squad will be

http://www.saracens.com/ashton-and-short-spearhead-7s-challenge/

Saracens certainly have intentions to win the whole thing.

1 Eoin Sheriff
2 Jack Wilson
3 Scott Spurling
4 Tim Streather
5 Nils Mordt (c)
6 Chris Ashton
7 James Short
8 Ben Ransom
9 Luke Baldwin
10 Michael Tagicakibau
11 Sam Stanley
12 Matt Hankin

JP Morgan 7s all time top try scorer Short and Ashton lead the charge.

You probably don't recognise Jack Wilson but he's played for NZ in 7s so I expect he'll be quite handy. Disappointed no Nick Tompkins though.

Juniors for Exe:

1 Sam Blanchet
2 Stuart Townsend
3 Chris Elder
4 Ben Vellacott
5 Luke Treharne
6 Rob Coote
7 Jack Arnott
8 Rob Langley
9 Tom Dowding
10 Ali Chisholm
11 Jamie Forrester
12 Ollie Claxton

So that'd be 2 Chisolm brothers for Quins and a third for Chiefs?

What position does Ali play?

FB

Studying at Exe Uni

Bath Squad

1. Chris Cook – Scrum-half
2. Anthony Watson – Wing/fullback
3. Ollie Devoto – Fly-half/fullback
4. Nick Koster – Back-row
5. Ollie Evans - Centre
6. Max Clarke - Centre
7. Freddie Clarke – Back-row
8. Ludi Hopkinson – Fly-half/fullback
9. Max Northcote-Green – Back-row
10. Raymond Bishop - Wing
11. Tuvita Tamatawale – Fly-half
12. Alafoti Fa'osiliva – Back-row

London Irish squad
Tom Fowlie, Gerard Ellis, Scott Moore, Ed Hoadley, Georges Berthonneau, George Owen, Juliano Fiori, Will Smith, Ed Tellwright, Geoff Griffiths, Jack Walsh, James Greenwood


Not wanting to defend their title evidently. Looks like the focus will be on the surviving in the AP next season.



London Wasps squad:

Matt Everard

Guy Thompson

Sam Egerton

Jack Moates

Oskar Hirskyj-Douglas

George Eastwell

Tom Howe

Charlie Hayter

Tom Varndell

Will Rowlands

Gus Jones

Liam O’Neill


Varndell is obviously the big name.

Looks like there's a much bigger emphasis on giving young players a chance to shine this season. Still a couple of bigger names around with Varndell, Ashton and Artemyev. A lot of England age grade players and young prospects on show which is a real positive though. I might have to record this as it looks like it should be interesting.

Quins look light on experience but big on potential and Sarries have a strong squad. Those two look favourites with Bath possible dark horses.

That'll be "Oskar Douglas" then?!

Gloucester Rugby:
Tom Ailes, Koree Britton, Reece Boughton, Billy Burns, Drew Cheshire, Matt Cox, Gareth Evans, Lewis Ludlow, Rhodri McAtee, Akapusi Qera, Steph Reynolds, Martyn Thomas

I think for us it's about priorities and defending our title simply is not one.  Having said that Fowlie, Hoadley, Berthonneau and Owen should all do quite well in this form of the game given their skillsets, so you never know, srtanger things have happened, and the fixtures favour us in our pool.  We have no back to back games, and play both Quins and Wasps in the second of back to back games for them.

As I recall from The Stoop last year, the teams that had back to backs all lost the second of the two games.

Sarries look like a tough team.

Quins look exciting though, most of those boys have Prem experience and quite a few have played for England age grades. Got to say i've never heard of Patrice Agunda though...

He's a Kenyan international 7s player I think

Good chance for a trialist I suppose. Tigers are doing something similar with the Scully guy from the states. Hope he shines as we need another full back.

Newcastle Falcons: Harrison Collins, Ben Morris, Richard Mayhew (c), Glen Young, Michael Tait, Tom Catterick, Zach Kibirige, Chris Harris,Andy Davies, Joel Hodgson, Sean Brown, Tom Penny

Great to see some of the young ids getting a run out, led by the experienced Richard Mayhew.

Gas galore in Kibirige, Catterick, playmaking with Hodgson..and future 1st team flanker Ben Morris is just a livewire non stop 7 that'll tackle anything that moves.

Whats the TV situation...what are the times of these etc...ill just have to stream them in.

A bit of a run down on the London Irish squad for people.

Tom Fowlie - Academy - current Eng U18 player, back 3 or centre. Pacy and strong.
Gerard Ellis - Academy - looks likely to settle at hooker, but can play anywhere in the pack.  Big and mobile.
Scott Moore - Academy - Wild Geese lock/flanker.
Ed Hoadley - Academy - scrum half. 
Georges Berthonneau - Academy - centre/wing signed from Toulon in the summer. 
George Owen - Academy - young winger who played for the Wild Geese last year. 
Juliano Fiori - 6 or 8 who plays for Richmond and previously played for Bristol. 
Will Smith - Ex Cambridge Uni winger who is apparently pretty pacy.
Ed Tellwright - I think he's now at Coventry, but was at Rotherham and is a pacy winger. 
Geoff Griffiths - Now at Blackheath, formerly of Plymouth Albion and Esher.  Regular Samurai 7's player. 
Jack Walsh - Also at Blackheath, where he si a scrum half, and also a regular for Samurai 7's. 
James Greenwood - Former LI academy player who had spells at Newbury and Cambridge Uni.  Not sure where he plays now.


Although there are none of our senior players, it's actually a pretty decent 7's squad, and will be coached by Peter Richards who has plenty of experience in that form of the game.  I can see us sneaking through to finals again to be honest.

EDIT: Fiore and Greenwood play for Apache 7's and Smith and Tellwright also play for Samurai.

I think sevens is less predictable than 15s anyway, hard to predict who will win this

Bath have 2 army 'guest' players in their squad, it will be interesting to see if either of those find their way into the main squad for the season, as Roko did a year or 2 back. A fairly youthful squad apart from that, it will be interesting to see how the youngsters go.

Guest players? Guess it worked for LW last season but surely that's limiting the exposure of club prospects?

It is a bit, but its no different to a trial period really. If they shine then they might be asked back to train if there are gaps for the LV games etc. In fact looking at the squads I think everyone has players from outside their squad as guests or trialists?

Bathman_in_London wrote:It is a bit, but its no different to a trial period really. If they shine then they might be asked back to train if there are gaps for the LV games etc. In fact looking at the squads I think everyone has players from outside their squad as guests or trialists?

True, no different to Exe basically running out a load of Exeter Uni players under he guise of 'academy' prospects

When I was at uni in Exe (in the 1st division and County Ground days) the younger uni players in the 1st year all played for the Chiefs under the guise of Colts. This was in addition to the sports scholarship people who trained with the full squad. Good for all parties to have a strong connection there I think, glad to here its still going.

Is it just me or does the Quins side look weaker than last season?

Two notable absentees are Wallace and Botica.

Are these games on Sky on friday...or another channel?

I think they are all on the BT Sport channel GF.

Noone has pulled out from the Tigers squad which is a major blow as he was only one of two players over 21 and would have offered much needed power. He's replaced by a 17 year old wing/fb called David Williams.

We've only the one trialist who's there because we need another fullback as we're a touch short there. As a 25 year old international with 7s and RWC experience Murphy may well have a good platform to develop him from.

Beshocked, I'm guessing that Botica and Wallace are considered too key to risk in this tournament.

Yeah Sam its interesting to see some of the make ups of some of the teams - mostly academy / developmental players with a sprinkling of senior players...Mayhew, Varndell, Ashton etc.

Of our team i wouldnt say anyone was a first choice 1st team starter...but the higlighted certainly played in a high number of 1st team games last season....

Newcastle Falcons: Harrison Collins, Ben Morris, Richard Mayhew (c), Glen Young, Michael Tait, Tom Catterick, Zach Kibirige, Chris Harris,Andy Davies, Joel Hodgson, Sean Brown, Tom Penny

Nice to see that most sides entered the spirit of the 7's and are playing their academy + 1 or 2 experienced guys.
Not like Lon Welsh's team of mercenaries of last season.

Jeremy Manning in the Quins squad? that's not the Jeremy Manning formerly of Munster and Falcons is it?

Just seen this - Quins are fielding 2 guest players from their overseas franchises -

In addition Harlequins have included two guest players from two of the club's affiliate sides in Kenya and Abu Dhabi. Patrice Agunda is an experienced 23 year old 7s player from Kenya Harlequins who has been involved in the Kenyan 7s squad for the last two seasons in the 7s World Series.

Jeremy Manning, the former NZ Maori,is the second guest player and will be known to Harlequins supporters from his time at Munster and Newcastle Falcons. He now plays his rugby in the United Arab Emirates with the Abu Dhabi Harlequins.

Would we ever call up players from related franchises

I'm looking forward to seeing the multi-positional Dave Ward turn out for Quins. He's a hooker who sometimes plays flanker, but in the Floodlit Sevens back in May he seemed to be playing fly half most of the time and put in an outrageous cross field kick that created a try.

From the rest of our squad, I think only OLH and Ross Chisholm have seen 1st XV action, but I'm excited to see Charlie Walker (who's considerably faster than the really-quite-fast Chis) and Jordan Burns (who is apparently even faster than Walker). With Trayfoot withdrawing, we may be a bit light on forwards, though.

What's the matter with Trayfoot?

They are dropping like flies. Following Noone's withdrawl (replaced by a 17 year old wing for the least like for like replacement going) we've now lost academy captain and playmaker Olly Bryant who is replaced by Tahir El Mahdi the 19 year old flyer.

yappysnap wrote:What's the matter with Trayfoot?

Quins haven't said, just that he's being replaced by 17 yr old scrum half Sam Arnold. At least we've still got Clifford and Chisholm minor.

Its becoming more like the Daily Mail schools 7's comp...

GeordieFalcon wrote:Its becoming more like the Daily Mail schools 7's comp...

A move to Rosslyn Park could be on the cards...

Surprised not to see Alex Gray in the LI squad? Are contractual agreements with England 7s getting in the way?

Isn't Alex Grey now fulltime with England 7s? Thought he was doing that for a year before trying to convert to centre back at Irish?

He is fully contracted to England 7's now and I suspect will be for some time.  I am pretty sure that he is aiming to make the Olympic team in 2016.  Whether he comes back to the 15-a-side game after that is anyones guess.

I knew he had a contract offer, but didn't know he'd gone full time. Converting to centre is news to me! Where did you read that Sam?

He did an interview in the rugby paper a while back.

Really can't see him becoming much of a centre to be honest.

Mind you, he could be the ying to Tom Youngs' yang. A forward making a move into the backs.

Fair enough. Don't reckon he'd get capped at the top level with the back rowers we have and Olympic Gold is important to me too so as far as I see it everyone wins!

Indeed! I do really feel for him though. Cracking U20s player, and looked to be a serious player for the future, but let down seemingly by his own genetics. I really hope he proves me wrong and comes back to the premiership with vengeance.

He's quick, a poweful runner and has a good skill base. Some sevens time to increase his footballing skills followed by a lot of positional training and he could be a decent 13. Not sure he'll reach international level but it could work.

Apparently we hae made 3 changes to the squad for tomorrow night.  Berthonneau, Owen and Fiori are out and replaced by Gerhard Wessles, David Treharne and Tom Rees.  The only one I know anything about is Wessels who is the captain of the Army 7's team.