Aviva Premiership Round Eight

Aviva Premiership Round Eight


Sale Sharks (8th) vs. Worcester Warriors (12th)

Exeter Chiefs (4th) vs. Saracens (1st)

Harlequins (5th) vs. Gloucester Rugby (10th)

Leicester Tigers (6th) vs. London Irish (11th)

London Wasps (7th) vs. Bath Rugby (3rd)

Northampton Saints (2nd) vs. Newcastle Falcons (9th)


Aviva Premiership action is back this weekend, and here are the fixtures. I'll give my thoughts a bit later when I have more time, but feel free to discuss how you see these games going!

Are the England squad players back this weekend, or is there a decent chance that some will be rested?

Should be home wins for Sale,Quins,Leicester and Saints in my opinion.

Toughest to call are Exeter vs Sarries and Wasps vs Bath. Bit difficult to predict them till we know what the sides will be.

alasbut100ofus I know why you are asking that question. Pretty sure English players can come straight back in but a decision might be made to give them a rest. Pretty sure Farrell will be given a break for example as he definitely needs one though they might wait for Sale at home instead.

Brown and Taylor will certainly be missing as they are with Scotland. Not sure about Bosch or Johnston. Wyles should be with USA too.

Trying to work out how the team might line up. Possibly....

1.Barrington
2.Brits
3.Stevens
4.Borthwick
5.Kruis
6.Burger
7.Fraser
8.Vunipola

9.Wigglesworth
10.Hodgson
11.Strettle
12.Tompkins
13.Streather
14.Wilson
15.Goode

16.Auterac
17.George
18.Du Plessis
19.Hargreaves
20.Wray
21.De Kock
22.Mordt
23.Ransom

Yarde should be fit for Irish. Jebb Sinclair is with Canada and Ofisa Treviranus is with Samoa.

Imagine Tigers will be missing a few through injury but should still be able to field a very strong side.

beshocked wrote:Should be home wins for Sale,Quins,Leicester and Saints in my opinion.

Toughest to call are Exeter vs Sarries and Wasps vs Bath. Bit difficult to predict them till we know what the sides will be.

alasbut100ofus I know why you are asking that question. Pretty sure English players can come straight back in but a decision might be made to give them a rest. Pretty sure Farrell will be given a break for example as he definitely needs one though they might wait for Sale at home instead.

Brown and Taylor will certainly be missing as they are with Scotland. Not sure about Bosch or Johnston. Wyles should be with USA too.

Trying to work out how the team might line up. Possibly....

1.Barrington
2.Brits
3.Stevens
4.Borthwick
5.Kruis
6.Burger
7.Fraser
8.Vunipola

9.Wigglesworth
10.Hodgson
11.Strettle
12.Tompkins
13.Streather
14.Wilson
15.Goode

16.Auterac
17.George
18.Du Plessis
19.Hargreaves
20.Wray
21.De Kock
22.Mordt
23.Ransom

Yes, indeed, that's exactly what I was getting at!

Vunipola probs deserves a rest too, altho it would be intriguing to see the backrow battle (and within it, Ewers vs B Vunipola). How do you think that centre pairing would fare?

Quins might rest Robshaw (or might have him on the injury list if his eye hasn't recovered - apparently it was slow to respond to treatment), but I am pretty sure that they will play Care, Brown and Marler, all of whom are likely to be pretty fired up.

We should also be able to field Robson and Matthews at lock, and Molenaar and Casson in the centres - which ought to make a big difference.

alasbut100ofus

I would rather rest Billy against Sale than against you though I agree he needs a rest.


I don't have a clue what centre partnership Sarries will go for.

Depends who is available, plus the coaches like to be quite conservative in the centre options.

The thing about that centre partnership - Tompkins-Streather is inexperienced but they have played in the last two LV games together. Looked pretty good too.

In terms of how it would go - tough to say. Exeter away is a significant step up from the LV matches. Could be a masterstroke or an area easily exposed. Certainly defensively I would be a bit worried, especially if Exeter wheel out the big centres.In attack though they could be more threatening though. Neither are big but both add a bit more pace.

Bit of a gamble but I would like to see Ben Ransom at full back too.

stnick88 wrote:Yarde should be fit for Irish. Jebb Sinclair is with Canada and Ofisa Treviranus is with Samoa.

Imagine Tigers will be missing a few through injury but should still be able to field a very strong side.

Possible Tigers side:


Stankovich, Youngs, Cole
Kitchener, Parling
Gibson, Waldrom, Salvi
Youngs, Flood
Bowden, Smith
Thompstone, Morris, Hamilton

Briggs, Bristow, Balmain, Deacon, Crane, Mele, Williams, Benjamin

The following are all still likely to be out: Anthony Allen, Gonzalo Camacho, Tom Croft, Vereniki Goneva, Rob Hawkins, Terrence Hepetema, Ryan Lamb, Logovi'i Mulipola, Scott Steele, Mathew Tait and Manu Tuilagi while Steve Mafi is in Australia on compassionate leave for one more week and Ed Slater has broke a bone in his hand and will be out for 2 weeks. Matera and Ayerza are with Argentina and Scully is with the USA. Can't see Cockers resting any of the England boys.

dont think Cockers has a choice. he has to play them really.

I think we'll start Crane personally as we will look for control at the base of the scrum (we tend to get penalty tries vs LI there) and Waldrom can be iffy in that area. Otherwise I think we'll go for that.

Wish Tait was back, Tait vs O'Connor would have been worth a watch.

Yapp Paice Hala'vatu
Gough Skivington
Sinclair Hala'ufia Cowan
O'Leary Humphreys
Sheridan Armitage
Tagicakibau JOC Yarde

I think that is what we will go with

Pack could struggle, but that back 3 is awesome

Saints may aswell rest their entire 1st team. If we play like we did V Glos in our last game in the LV even saints 2nd team could put a cricket score on us!

Guess Bath might something like

Catt-Webber-Orlandi
Attwood-Day
Garvey-Fearns-Houston

Roberts-Ford
Devoto-JJ
Banahan-Watson-Agulla

questions around Eastmond, Bendy, Roko and Webber with injury

I have a good feeling about this week. If we can cut down the penalties then I think we can turn the Tiggers over. Big if though.

Glad the proper rugby is back this week .

I agree with beshocked's predictions, home wins for all but Chiefs and Wasps which are hard games to call. Just got a feeling that Rob Baxter's men might just sneak a win and that Bath's greater forward power might just prrove enough for an away win.

For Saints I woould be more than happy if Lawes & Wood are given the weekend off completely. No offense to the Falcons but I think the squad has enough cover. Corbisierio def out and Hartley also likely not to be available the team potentially could be pretty similar to the team that won at Irish before the international break. I know Dickson started all 3 games but was always removed so he could be good for the bench, and Foden always seems to start regardless of how much rugby he's played. Be interesting to see who replaces the banned George Pisi, could potentially be Waldouck or Wilson. Maybe JM will try North there after he's done his tour of duty with Wales.

Quins will rest Robshaw and Brown I imagine, we have no need to rush either back with the cover thats there.

B9

Your veterans team would fancy their chances against us at the moment. I dont think you'd miss Lawes, Hartley or Wood to be fair.

B91212 I still believe it's very dependent on who is picked/available.

Not convinced Bath will have that much of an advantage in the forwards if they are missing James,Wilson and Louw.

Certainly if Wasps play the likes of Launchbury,Palmer,Haskell and Mullan.

I've gone all home wins this week with the exception of us turning over the Tiggers at Welford Road!

Wish I was as confident as you Pete.

Even missing so many players Tigers are still very strong, especially at home. Our away form is pretty woeful. I'd take a LBP.

Our away from is woeful, as is our record at Welford Road (1 draw in the past 10 years), so perhaps it's just blind optimism.............








...... but if you look at our backline, in particular our back 3, then as long as our pack fronts up, we will always have a chance. We just need to make sure that we get into them up front.

Sale Sharks (8th) vs. Worcester Warriors (12th) - Wuss to show an improved performance, but Sale to have a bit too much. Sale by 9.

Exeter Chiefs (4th) vs. Saracens (1st) - Exeter to play with their usual intensity in the forwards, matched with slick handling across the park. A lot will depend on Saracens' selection and who they have available. I think Saracens will just steal this one. Saracens by 2.

Harlequins (5th) vs. Gloucester Rugby (10th) - Harlequins to continue to show their pre-Autumn improvement in form with a close win over an adventurous Gloucester side. Harlequins by 5.

Leicester Tigers (6th) vs. London Irish (11th) - Irish's backs to cause trouble for Leicester when they get the ball, with a couple of break-away tries on the cards. The Leicester pack will have too much overall though. Leicester by 10.

London Wasps (7th) vs. Bath Rugby (3rd) - Bath pack to just about do the job on an underrated Wasps side. Bath by 3.

Northampton Saints (2nd) vs. Newcastle Falcons (9th) - Northampton, even without several big names, will have enough to do a number on a Newcastle side that don't offer enough away from home. Northampton by 15.

Sale by 10
Exeter by 3
Harlequins by 9
Leicester by 6
Wasps by 5
Northampton by 18

Failure to win against LI at home would be simply inexcusable. It's a must win game given our poor performances vs Wasps and Quins. With pressure from the LV young guns and some internationals annoyed at being overlooked by England we should have a fired up squad. Should target a TBP and look to dominate that pack at the set pieces. Welford Rd has a nice small pitch which should help negate the speed of the LI backline and with Smith at 13 we should have some real steel in defence.

Stop that dynamic LI backrow from getting around by tying them into an arm wrestle up front and the game is ours.

I'm hoping to see:

Brown
Williams
Molenaar
Casson
Monye
Botica (rest Nev, pretty sure fewer games starting was on his contract?!)
Care
Easter (c)
Wallace
Trayfoot
Matthews
Robson
Collier
Ward
Marler

Bench- hopefully PDJ (if not, Marfo or Mayhew), Lambert, hopefully Gray (if not, Allen), hopefully Kennedy (if not, Twomey, Merrick is away on loan which IMO is a good sign for Kennedy!), Guest, Dickson, Nev, Matthews

Really don't think Conor will rest Brown this match, we will be looking for 5 points (doesn't mean we'll get them, I think we might but Gloucester might too, but I haven't looked at the weather)

Other than that I see 5 points to Sale, none to Wuss (sorry Wuss)
4 points to Exeter, 1 to Sarries
4 points to Tigers, 1 to Irish, or 5 and 2
4 points to Wasps, 1 to Bath
5 points to Saints, 0 to Falcons

Five points to Tigers double losing bonus point to LI is a pretty good shout. High scoring game wouldn't surprise me at all given our current defensive

Sale Sharks: Rob Miller, Tom Arscott, Will Addison, Sammy Tuitupou, Mark Cueto, Danny Cipriani, Dwayne Peel, Eifion Lewis Roberts, Marc Jones, Henry Thomas, Jonathan Mills, Michael Paterson, Dan Braid, David Seymour, James Gaskell

Replacements Tommy Taylor, Ross Harrison, Vadim Cobilas, Andrei Ostrikov, Mark Easter, Will Cliff, Nick Macleod, Mark Jennings

Worcester Warriors: Chris Pennell, James Stephenson,Alex Grove, Ravai Fatiaki, Dean Hammond, Ignacio Mieres, Jonny Arr, Ofa Fainga'anuki, Chris Brooker, Rob O'Donnell, James Percival, Mike Williams, Jonathan Thomas (C), Sam Betty, Leonardo Senatore

Replacements Ed Shervington, Jeremy Becasseau, John Andress, Dean Schofield, Richard de Carpentier, Paul Hodgson, Paul Warwick, Josh Matavesi

Wrong place sorry

beshocked wrote:B91212 I still believe it's very dependent on who is picked/available.

Not convinced Bath will have that much of an advantage in the forwards if they are missing James,Wilson and Louw.

Certainly if Wasps play the likes of Launchbury,Palmer,Haskell and Mullan.

Just got a feeling for the Chiefs on this one beshocked, internationals don't effect them much so they will be rested and be just about full strength (injuries permitting), plus they are at home, where as Saracens look like they may be a fair amount of players down and Sandy park isn`t the easiest place to go to. I could be (and often am) wrong but if I had to guess i would go for a LBP for your team.

Valid point about the potential Wasps pack and Bath missing some players. Why will Wilson not be available for Bath? He only started one match during the autumn series and did not see a whole lot of action as a reserve.

B91212 that's a logical way of looking at it no doubt. Exeter will probably start at favourites at home with practically a full strength side but Sarries are a side that can win at any ground in the AP and have beaten Chiefs 2 out of 3 at Sandy Park. It will be very dependent on how replacements for missing players do.

The areas that Exeter will inevitably look to get the upperhand are the scrum and the centres battle.

I only said Wilson might be missing because of what Bathite thought the team would be.

Tough game for us, James is always a big miss, but we've had our forward dominance all season without Louw, so not too concerned. If Wilson and Webber don't play though, the root of the dominance will be lost at the set piece. Attwood, Garvey, Fearns will all be key.

LEICESTER TIGERS (v London Irish, Welford Road, Saturday 3pm) 15 Scott Hamilton 14 Niall Morris 13 Matt Smith 12 Dan Bowden 11 Miles Benjamin 10 Toby Flood (c) 9 Ben Youngs 1 Boris Stankovich 2 Tom Youngs 3 Fraser Balmain 4 Louis Deacon 5 Graham Kitchener 6 Jamie Gibson 7 Julian Salvi 8 Jordan Crane

Replacements 16 Neil Briggs 17 Tom Bristow 18 Dan Cole 19 Sebastian De Chaves 20 Thomas Waldrom 21 David Mélé 22 Owen Williams 23 Adam Thompstone

London Irish: 15 James O'Connor,14TopsyOjo,13 Fergus Mulchrone, 12 Eamonn Sheridan, 11 Marland Yarde, 10 Shane Geraghty, 9 Tomás O'Leary; 1 John Yapp, 2David Paice, 3 Leo Halavatau, 4 Ian Gough, 5 George Skivington (c); 6 Jebb Sinclair, 7 Blair Cowan, 8 Chris Hala'ufia Replacements: 16 JimmyStevens,17 Matt Parr, 18 Jamie Hagan, 19 Nic Rouse, 20 Danny Kenny, 21 Guy Armitage, 22 Myles Dorrian, 23Darren Allinson

Dan Cole given a little rest with Balmain getting a start following some good LV form, the 22 year old needs to show some form tomorrow as Mulipola will return to the bench and It's whether he covers Ayerza at loosehead or Cole at tighthead that will be the question. The better of Stankovitch or Balmain will decide which. Balmain isn't as technically strong but he is a 20 stone monster in the loose.

Parling is out for 3 months following shoulder surgery. Slater is out for an additional 2 weeks after chipping a bone in his hand.

Glaws team:
Rob Cook; Charlie Sharples, Mike Tindall, Billy Twelvetrees, Jonny May; Freddie Burns, Jimmy Cowan; Nick Wood, Huia Edmonds, Shaun Knight; Elliott Stooke, James Hudson; Tom Savage (capt), Matt Kvesic, Ben Morgan

Replacements:

Darren Dawidiuk, Yann Thomas, Rupert Harden, Will James, Matt Cox, Dan Robson, Billy Burns, Martyn Thomas


I'd have liked James to start ahead of Hudson, but other than that it's as expected. The Stoop has not been a nice venue for us in recent years. We grabbed a LBP last year and I'd be quite happy with that again this time round.

Saturday will be an historic day for the Club as it marks the 50th Anniversary of the first Harlequins match played at The Twickenham Stoop.

Full-back Mike Brown and loose head prop Joe Marler return from international duty with England, while Chris Robshaw is rested following the Autumn International campaign.

In the forwards, Nick Easter captains the side from the second row and partners George Robson. Tom Guest is named at number 8, as Luke Wallace and Joe Trayfoot complete the back row.

In the backs, Matt Hopper and Tom Casson start in the centres while Nick Evans and Danny Care are named at fly-half and scrum-half respectively.

Scrum-half Sam Stuart will look to make an impact from the bench in place of Karl Dickson who picked up a knock last week.

Harlequins Team to play Gloucester Rugby

15. Mike Brown
14. Tom Williams
13. Matt Hopper
12. Tom Casson
11. Ugo Monye
10. Nick Evans
9. Danny Care

1. Joe Marler
2. Dave Ward
3. Will Collier
4. Nick Easter (C)
5. George Robson
6. Joe Trayfoot
7. Luke Wallace
8. Tom Guest

16. Harry Allen
17. Mark Lambert
18. Nic Mayhew
19. Charlie Matthews
20. George Merrick
21. Sam Stuart
22. Ben Botica
23. Charlie Walker

Bath Rugby team to face London Wasps

15. Nick Abendanon
14. Semesa Rokoduguni
13. Jonathan Joseph
12. Ollie Devoto
11. Matt Banahan
10. George Ford
9. Peter Stringer
1. Nathan Catt
2. Rob Webber
3. David Wilson
4. Stuart Hooper ( c )
5. Dave Attwood
6. Matt Garvey
7. Carl Fearns
8. Leroy Houston

Replacements

16. Ross Batty
17. Charlie Beech
18. Juan Pablo Orlandi
19. Dominic Day
20. Mat Gilbert
21. Martin Roberts
22. Tom Heathcote
23. Anthony Watson


A pretty strong team there, still no sign of Eastmond I see. Hopefully that pack will have enough to sneak an away victory, something we have struggled with in recent seasons!

Rob Baxter has largely kept faith with the side that was going well in the league, with just Jack Nowell breaking thru from the the LV= side:

CHIEFS SIDE TO FACE SARACENS

15 Phil Dollman
14 Jack Nowell
13 Ian Whitten
12 Sam Hill
11 Matt Jess
10 Gareth Steenson
9 Dave Lewis
1 Brett Sturgess
2 Jack Yeandle
3 Hoani Tui
4 Dean Mumm (capt)
5 Damian Welch
6 Tom Johnson
7 Ben White
8 Dave Ewers

16 Chris Whitehead
17 Ben Moon
18 Alex Brown
19 Don Armand
20 Kai Horstmann
21 Haydn Thomas
22 Henry Slade
23 Luke Arscott

The other lot:

15. Alex Goode;
14. Chris Ashton,
13. Tim Streather,
12. Marcelo Bosch,
11. David Strettle;
10. Charlie Hodgson,
9. Richard Wigglesworth;

1. Richard Barrington,
2. Jamie George,
3. Matt Stevens,
4. Steve Borthwick ©,
5. Alastair Hargreaves,
6. Jackson Wray,
7. Jacques Burger,
8. Billy Vunipola.

Replacements;

16. Schalk Brits,
17. Jared Saunders,
18. Petrus Du Plessis,
19. George Kruis,
20. Will Fraser,
21. Ben Spencer,
22. Michael Tagicakibau,
23. Ben Ransom.

Genuinely think we have a decent chance of a very rare victory at Welford Road. Tigers are nowhere near full strength, and if we are ever going to do it then this is as good a chance as any. We have a competitive starting pack, and having Skivs back from injury and Jebb from international duty is huge for us. If we can front up I reckon our backs can really hurt them.

LIke the look of that Quins team. We SHOULD have too much for Sale at home, but then we've thought that about a few other games so far this season and it's all come undone.

Only concerns are Hopper at 13 and the Ugo/Williams combo. Just don't think they offer enough in attack and won't cause the big hitting Sale defenders much trouble. Hopefully Walker will get on fairly early.

I think we'll win, but we need to score early to settle our nerves. If it's tight going in to the final quarter then that's when we're most likely to come undone.

yappysnap wrote:LIke the look of that Quins team. We SHOULD have too much for Sale at home, but then we've thought that about a few other games so far this season and it's all come undone.

Only concerns are Hopper at 13 and the Ugo/Williams combo. Just don't think they offer enough in attack and won't cause the big hitting Sale defenders much trouble. Hopefully Walker will get on fairly early.

I think we'll win, but we need to score early to settle our nerves. If it's tight going in to the final quarter then that's when we're most likely to come undone.

We're playing Glos, aren't we?

Yes...but if we were playing Sale then I don't think Ugo and Monye would trouble their defence. Doesn't everyone use Sale as a barometer for effective attack...  

Pennell seems to be the only decent thing about Worcester.

Sale seemingly have a much better game plan and flair. They don't seem to be really ticking though, if Wuss get a try and their heads go up then they could pose a problem.

Brooker is playing fairly well for Wuss, Pennell is easily their best player. Can't understand why the young lad Stelling (sp?) who looked so electric vs Tigers has been dropped.

Is Richard De Carpentier (or whatever his name is) the ex-Tiger?

Brooker does seem to have come back strong.

Certainly is. I think we picked him up after he captained England students. He had no luck with injuries, nasty knee injury limited his opportunities.

Hopefully he'll be able to get a run of games with Worcester, in the championship it increasingly looks like.