Aviva Premiership Round Three

by **Ozzy3213** Tue 16 Sep 2014, 8:07 am

First topic message reminder :

So round two carried on pretty much were round one left of, with a couple of on-sided high scorers, and the rest of the games hard fought encounters with plenty for both partisan and neutral fans to enjoy. On Friday night a ruthless Saracens outfit clinically put Harlequins away, leaving Conor O'Shea and co with much to do before this weeks fixtures rolls around. First up on Saturday was the throwaround down at The Rec, where Bath ran in seven tries, and despite losing by over 20 points Welsh managed four of their own to pick up a try bonus point. Gloucester showed the good and the bad of what they've got, all within 80 minutes. Being well behind to a Danny Cipriani inspired Sale at half time they stormed back in the second half to earn themselves the win, with Steve Diamonds men doing enough to stay within seven points and score four tries to pick up two point son their travels. Saturdays final game was even further down in the West country, where Exeter fought hard but ultimately fell short against a Tigers outfit, who whilst not yet quite at their best picked up their second win in the opening two rounds. Sunday saw the biggest surprise of the round, where Wasps held free scoring Saints tryless in the first half before pouncing to score two tries in a minute themselves to pick up what could be a crucial win for them. In the weekends final fixture London Irish travelled to Kingston Park and returned south with a win and four point from a hard fought encounter with Newcastle Falcons.

Prediction wise, I got 4 out of 6 again this week, although it wasn't my boys who let me down this time, it was the jokers from the The Stoop and the Sinners, although I would be amazed if many people had tipped Wasps to win that one. Anyway, here's the table after round two;-

*Pos*	*Team*	P	W	D	L	F	A	PD	TF	TA	*TBP*	*LBP*	*PTS*
1.	Saracens	2	2	0	0	73	28	+45	7	3	1	0	9
2.	Bath Rugby	2	2	0	0	82	46	+36	9	6	1	0	9
3.	Leicester Tigers	2	2	0	0	60	37	+23	6	4	1	0	9
4.	Exeter Chiefs	2	1	0	1	72	24	+48	9	2	1	1	6
5.	Northampton Saints	2	1	0	1	69	26	+43	9	2	1	1	6
6.	Wasps	2	1	0	1	48	50	-2	5	5	0	1	5
7.	London Irish	2	1	0	1	35	38	-3	2	5	0	1	5
8.	Harlequins	2	1	0	1	20	54	-34	2	3	0	0	4
9.	Gloucester	2	1	0	1	40	80	-40	3	12	0	0	4
10.	Sale Sharks	2	0	0	2	47	63	-16	6	5	1	1	2
11.	Newcastle Falcons	2	0	0	2	35	56	-21	5	6	0	1	1
12.	London Welsh	2	0	0	2	26	105	-79	4	14	1	0	1

So on to this weeks fixtures, and here they are:

Friday 19th September 2014 19:45 Gloucester vs. Exeter Chiefs

An interesting and tough to call game first up this weekend. Gloucester will be buoyed by their win over Sale and at home again this week will want to put in a performance that matches their second half one last week. The Chiefs, although beaten, were well in the game against Tigers and I think will go to Kingsholm confident of getting a result. Both teams are likely to finish in that middle of the table group from around 6th to 10th, so points earned from this sort of game will be key to deciding the finishing order. Kingsholm is always a tough place to go though and I can see Gloucester squeaking home again in this one, with the Chiefs picking up another losing bonus point.

Saturday 20th September 2014 14:00 Sale Sharks vs. London Welsh

The last time Welsh were in the Premiership, they lost their first two games and went to Sale Sharks in round three and promptly picked up their first win of the campaign. Both of these sides are winless so far this season, and will be desperate to get of the mark in this fixture. Welsh will need to tighten up in defence considerably if they are to get anything, having conceded 14 tries and over 100 points already. Sale showed against Gloucester that they have not become a bad side overnight, and if Danny Cipriani performs as he did last week they will have too much for Welsh this time around. I've got this down as five points for Sale and Welsh heading home with nothing.

Saturday 20th September 2014 15:00 Harlequins vs. Wasps

Quins would say they have genuine ambitions to finish in the top 4 this season, and having played two of last seasons top 4 so far this term and not been outclassed, Wasps have to be aiming to break into that group as well. If they're going to, this is precisely the sort of game they need to win, and potentially stop their rivals from picking up any points against them. Quins will have a point to prove though, and will be wounded by what happened on Friday night. Their attacking game needs to click, as Wasps will score points against them and they will need to ensure that they aren't leaving three pointers out there as they have been. This I think will be a real ding dong affair with the lead changing hands a couple of times, but I'm backing Quins to bounce back and pinch it, with Wasps picking up a losing bonus point.

Saturday 20th September 2014 15:00 London Irish vs. Saracens

On paper this is a comfortable away win. Saracens haven't hit top gear yet, despite what the scoreline against Quins may suggest, and are two from two. Irish won ugly on Sunday, and will take some confidence from getting off the mark with that win. To stand any chance in this one Irish will need to counter the driving maul better than they did on Sunday, and will need the scrum to go well as it has done in their two games so far. Irish have won 2 of the last 3 fixtures between the sides, so will take confidence from that. As you can probably tell I am searching for crumbs of comfort here, but the reality is that the head says Saracens comfortably, the heart says we'll dig one out again and sneak the win.

Saturday 20th September 2014 15:15 Bath Rugby vs. Leicester Tigers

Two of the three teams with 100% records go head to head in Saturdays televised fixture. Both have genuine title ambitions, and both will want to lay down a marker here in their first big test of the season. Bath will need to be tighter defensively than they were against Welsh, although it's hard to imagine that they won't be as it looked like they just switched off with the game already won. Tigers haven't hit top gear yet, and will be looking to go up a notch in this one, but are missing a few key guys in the pack, which is where the strength of this Bath team is. This will be a right old battle, and I'm tipping Bath top hold their nerve at home and come through for the win. Losing bonus point for the Tigers.

Sunday 21st September 2014 14:00 Newcastle Falcons vs. Northampton Saints

As with last week the round winds up at Kingston Park. Falcons could have done with an easier game here, but instead face a wounded Northampton saints who you suspect will have a point to prove this weekend. It's one of those games though, where Newcastle have nothing to lose, as there is no weight of expectation on them to get anything here and they could well throw the shackles of and spring a surprise. They will need to get their team selection right though, and tactics, and I still have a question mark over Dean Richards and whether his tactics and selection are what is holding them back. I want to be brave and go with the upset here, but I also want to be right, so am going with the odds and predicting a try bonus point win for Saints.

Ozzy's predicited table after round three:

Saracens 14, Bath Rugby 13, Northampton Saints 11, Leicester Tigers 10, Harlequins 8, Gloucester 8, Exeter Chiefs 7, Sale Sharks 7, Wasps 6, London Irish 5, Newcastle Falcons 1, London Welsh 1.

by beshocked Tue 23 Sep 2014, 12:55 pm

Ok bathite maybe I am being unfair - you are probably right about it being a real tan - it's just when I have seen him he's looked awfully orange - perhaps not Gavin colour but not far off.

Good answers. No owner is as prominent as Bruce Craig in the media.

For example I have never seen Johann Rupert or his family at any of the Saracens games.

I know he's a billionaire who lives in South Africa but not seeing him once in over 4 years is surprising.

by **Ozzy3213** Tue 23 Sep 2014, 1:22 pm

Have just watched our game.

Tough one to lose, but credit to Saracens, they are relentless. The referee was appalling, but both ways generally. He guessed at every scrum, I was completely baffled by his decisions there, even the ones that went our way.

For us, we have to stick with 9. Steele 10. Noakes 12. Geraghty as from an attacking point of view this is our best option. We had noticeably slower ball into the back line when O'Leary replaced Steele. Defensively we have to defend mauls better, although having said that the one at the end where Saracens scored the winning try was nigh on impossible to have defended. They executed it perfectly and with massive intensity.

I suspect our players will feel that this is one that got away, as we did enough to win, but so did Saracens, and whoever won the losers would feel disappointed.

Overall it's a good performance with areas to work on for us, but we've set a benchmark for ourselves that we have to try to maintain across the season now.

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Aviva Premiership Round Three

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