AP Round 15

Fri 20th Feb 15
19:45 NEWCASTLE FALCONS  v   WASPS BT Sport

Newcastle Falcons:
Tait; Sinoti, Powell, Socino, Cato; Catterick, Blair; Vickers, Hawkins, Brookes, Furno, Barrow, Wilson, Welch (capt), Hogg.
Replacements: McGuigan, Orlandia, Wilson, Thompson, Mayhew, Tipuna, Clegg, Tiesi.

Wasps:
Miller; Wade, Daly, Downey, Tagicakibau; Goode, Simpson; Mullan (capt), Festuccia, Cooper-Wooley, Davies, Myall, Johnson, Young, Hughes.
Replacements: Shervington, Yapp, Cittadini, Gaskell, Thompson, Bliss, Lozowski, Masi.



Sat 21st Feb 15

14:00 SALE SHARKS  v   SARACENS

15:00 GLOUCESTER RUGBY  v   LONDON WELSH

15:00 HARLEQUINS  v   EXETER CHIEFS

15:15 BATH RUGBY  v   NORTHAMPTON SAINTS BT Sport


Sun 22nd Feb 15
14:00 LONDON IRISH  v   LEICESTER TIGERS BT Sport

Slightly rushed there LT??

It's a must win game for Quins if we're to have any chance at top 6. Unfortunately Exeter are one of our bogey teams and will be confidant if getting the W themselves this weekend. What's the chiefs form been like anyone?

Aye, too busy during the day to do write-ups.

Huge away matches for Wasps and Tigers. Both need to win. Both could find it hard.

Ideal for me would be home wins on Friday/Saturday with Tigers gaining revenge for the defeat at WR.

Match at Rec could be interesting - both teams struggling to cope with 6Ns call-ups perhgaps.

Huge match for Bath too. After a poor first half against Sarries, we really need a win to prove that we are title challengers. We haven't beaten Saints in a long time

Good to see Barrow back starting for Falcons. A shame it isn't alongside Callum Green though (injury?), I was looking forward to seeing that partnership.

Also surprised that Guy Thompson can't get a start for Wasps with Haskell away. He's a player who impresses me whenever I see him play. Plus he seems a real openside with a nose for a turnover and good link-play with the backs.

I had high hopes for Sam Jones, but he seems to have slid off the pecking order. Dai Young's son gets his first premiership start.

Yes I thought Thompson was being groomed as their next 7, I guess Dai wants to stick with the powerful confrontational backriw dynamic that he's been using with Hask there.

Wasps by 12

HARLEQUINS HAS ANNOUNCED THE SIDE TO PLAY EXETER CHIEFS TOMORROW AT THE SOLD OUT TWICKENHAM STOOP IN ROUND 15 OF THE AVIVA PREMIERSHIP, KICK-OFF 15:00. THIS MATCH WILL BE HARLEQUINS’ FOURTH SELL OUT OF THE SEASON.


There are two changes to the side that played Wasps last week. Dave Ward starts at hooker while Nick Easter, who was released from the England squad this week, captains the side at Number 8.

Among the replacements Matt Shields, who this week signed with the club until 2016, will look to make his first Premiership appearance for the club.

Referee: Mr. Matthew Carley
Assistant Referees: Mr. Ross Campbell and Mr. Roy Maybank
TMO: Mr. Rowan Kitt

Harlequins Team
15. Ugo Monye
14. Marland Yarde
13. Matt Hopper
12. Tom Casson
11. Charlie Walker
10. Nick Evans
9. Danny Care

1. Mark Lambert
2. Dave Ward
3. Kyle Sinckler
4. Charlie Matthews
5. George Robson
6. Jack Clifford
7. Luke Wallace
8. Nick Easter©

16. Rob Buchanan
17. Darryl Marfo
18. Matt Shields
19. Netani Talei
20. Joe Trayfoot
21. Karl Dickson
22. Ben Botica
23. Ollie Lindsay-Hague

Exeter Chiefs
15 Phil Dollman 14 Ian Whitten 13 Jack Nowell 12 Sam Hill 11 Matt Jess 10 Henry Slade 9 Will Chudley 1 Ben Moon 2 Luke Cowan-Dickie 3 Tomas Francis 4 Dean Mumm© 5 Damian Welch 6 Dave Ewers 7 Ben White 8 Thomas Waldrom
Replacements: 16 Jack Yeandle 17 Carl Rimmer 18 Alex Brown 19 Mitch Lees 20 Tom Johnson 21 Dave Lewis 22 Gareth Steenson 23 Byron McGuigan

Jordan Crane will captain Leicester Tigers at London Irish on Sunday in his 200th appearance for the club.

No8 Crane made his debut for Tigers in 2006 and becomes the 91st player to reach the 200 mark since the club's formation in 1880.

Hooker Tom Youngs and flanker Tom Croft return to Tigers colours at the Madejski Stadium after being among the England replacements for the victories over Wales and Italy in the opening weeks of the RBS 6 Nations.

Jack Roberts earns a first Premiership start at centre after some eye-catching form in recent weeks, while Miles Benjamin returns on the wing.

Ben Youngs and Dan Cole are unavailable as they are retained in the England squad after starting both Six Nations fixtures, while Robert Barbieri and Leonardo Ghiraldini are ruled out by injuries suffered on international duty with Italy in recent weeks. Julian Salvi is also sidelined by injury this week.

Leicester Tigers (vs London Irish, away, Sunday 2pm)
15 Mathew Tait
14 Vereniki Goneva
13 George Catchpole
12 Jack Roberts
11 Miles Benjamin
10 Freddie Burns
9 Sam Harrison
1 Marcos Ayerza
2 Tom Youngs
3 Logovi'i Mulipola
4 Sebastian De Chaves
5 Graham Kitchener
6 Tom Croft
7 Jamie Gibson
8 Jordan Crane (c)

Replacements
16 Neil Briggs
17 Michele Rizzo
18 Fraser Balmain
19 Jack Whetton
20 Laurence Pearce
21 David Mele
22 Seremaia Bai
23 Niall Morris

We will miss Jules, but a lot of lineout options and some reall pace in the side.

So the Quins team worries me a little. The pack is looking pretty good although it's lack of experience and "niggle" may mean it suffers against the Exeter packs aggression.

It's the backs that are a worry though.

12-15 are all similar sorts of players this season at Quins, flaky, off form and fairly unreliable. None of those players will add dynamism or straighten the line like we need at times, Ugo last week was terrible at fb, Casson has been anonymous at 12 and Hopper looks out of his depth at 13 when not partnered with Lowe.

Don't want to be all negative so I'll say that if our pack can dominate Exeter, if we can score early and go into the break ahead then I think we'll win. It'll be because of 1-9 though if we do

I'm a bundle of joy today

Bath Rugby team to face Northampton Saints

15. Tom Homer
14. Semesa Rokoduguni
13. Sam Burgess
12. Kyle Eastmond
11. Olly Woodburn
10. Ollie Devoto
9. Micky Young
1. Paul James
2. Rob Webber
3. Henry Thomas
4. Stuart Hooper ( c )
5. Dominic Day
6. Matt Garvey
7. Francois Louw
8. Carl Fearns

Replacements

16. Ross Batty
17. Nick Auterac
18. Kane Palma-Newport
19. Alafoti Faosiliva
20. Leroy Houston
21. Peter Stringer
22. Rory Jennings
23. Luke Arscott


Not a bad team considering. The first half at Sarries was awful, another start like that and we have no chance. I'm not feeling that confident though, Devoto is a good 12 but I am not entirely convinced by his ability to control a game. Hopefully Eastmond will be taking the pressure off him.

yappysnap wrote:I'm a bundle of joy today

With Ugo at FB - not surprised.

Saracens team to face Sale Sharks

15 Alex Goode
14 Chris Ashton
13 Marcelo Bosch
12 Brad Barritt
11 David Strettle
10 Charlie Hodgson
9 Richard Wigglesworth
1 Mako Vunipola
2 Jamie George
3 Petrus du Plessis
4 Maro Itoje
5 Alistair Hargreaves ©
6 Ernst Joubert
7 Jacques Burger
8 Jackson Wray

16 Brett Sharman
17 Richard Barrington
18 Juan Figallo
19 Hayden Smith
20 Matt Hankin
21 Neil de Kock
22 Nick Tompkins
23 Chris Wyles


It's a nice team. I am glad the coaches have at last taken my advice and not gone with Wyles in the centres.....

It's a nice looking team that should hopefully pick up another win vs Sale.

It's great to see super Maro get his 2nd start of the season.

Gloucester Rugby:
Billy Burns; Charlie Sharples, Henry Trinder, Bill Meakes, Henry Purdy; James Hook, Callum Braley; Dan Murphy, Aleki Lutui, John Afoa; Tom Savage (capt), James Hudson; Ross Moriarty, Matt Kvesic, Sione Kalamafoni

Replacements:
Darren Dawidiuk, Yann Thomas, Sila Puafisi, Elliott Stooke, Gareth Evans, Dan Robson, Mark Atkinson, Jacob Rowan

London Welsh team:
London Welsh: 15. Elliot Kear*, 14. Seb Stegmann, 13. Nic Reynolds, 12. James Tincknell, 11. Alan Awcock, 10. Will Robinson, 9. Piri Weepu*, 1. Eddie Aholelei*, 2. Rob Elloway, 3. Taione Vea*, 4. Dean Schofield*, 5. James Down, 6. Ben West, 7. Carl Kirwan (C), 8. Ben Pienaar.

Replacements: 16. Nathan Morris, 17. Nathan Trevett, 18. Jack Gilding, 19. Matt Corker, 20. Lachlan McCaffrey, 21. Rob Lewis, 22. Olly Barkley*, 23. James Lewis.

London Irish:
15. Andrew Fenby; 14. Topsy Ojo*; 13. Fergus Mulchrone; 12. Eamonn Sheridan; 11. Tom Fowlie; 10. Shane Geraghty*; 9. Scott Steele; 1. Tom Court*; 2. David Paice*; 3. Geoff Cross*; 4. George Skivington; 5. Jebb Sinclair*; 6. Ofisa Treviranus*; 7. Conor Gilsenan; 8. Tom Guest
Replacements: 16. Jimmy Stevens; 17. Matt Parr; 18. Leo Halavatau; 19. Nic Rouse; 20. Luke Narraway*; 21. Darren Allinson; 22. Chris Noakes; 23. Alex Lewington

Saints team to face Bath:

15 James WILSON
14 Ken PISI
13 George PISI
12 Tom STEPHENSON
11 Jamie ELLIOTT
10 Stephen MYLER
9 Lee DICKSON (capt)
1 Alex WALLER
2 Mike HAYWOOD
3 Gareth DENMAN
4 James CRAIG
5 Christian DAY
6 Samu MANOA
7 Calum CLARK
8 Sam DICKINSON

Replacements
16 Matti WILLIAMS
17 Alex CORBISIERO
18 Tom MERCEY
19 Teimana HARRISON
20 Phil DOWSON
21 Kahn FOTUALI’I
22 Sam OLVER
23 Ahsee TUALA

That is two very big backrows.

LondonTiger wrote:

yappysnap wrote:I'm a bundle of joy today

With Ugo at FB - not surprised.

Yea I'm really struggling to see what CoS can see with that selection.

C'mon Falcons!!!

Arse

Nice tries though ...

LondonTiger wrote:Match at Rec could be interesting - both teams struggling to cope with 6Ns call-ups perhaps.

Bathite wrote:Huge match for Bath too. After a poor first half against Sarries, we really need a win to prove that we are title challengers. We haven't beaten Saints in a long time

Saints are clearly struggling, and this dates back to matches just after the fun-runs against Treviso. Not sure the root cause, but there is something amiss. It will be interesting to see how the Burgess and George Pisi collision goes.

Saints are HUGE underdogs, monumentally HUGE underdogs. Cripe, this is even worse than England as underdogs to Ireland.

Enjoyable game at Kingston Park

Nice to see both teams throw the ball around and go for the tries.

Never thought i would say this but......perhaps we should install a pitch like that.

Better than the last result.

Cockers view on plastic pitches
http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Leicester-Tigers-chief-Richard-Cockerill-puts/story-26057936-detail/story.html

Sounds about right. I doubt the Cardiff pitch is as lethal as the antique Desso pitch at Oval Park though. Having played on that I can tell you it's awful.

I did hear a rumour that the club would love to ditch that pitch though and bring a modern Desso pitch to WR.

We have to do something though. The pitch at WR is a disgrace - and hinders us.

Biggest thing for me was the quality of scrums, the pitch seemed to make a massive difference there. Very refreshing to watch.

Predictions....

Falcons and Wasps to play out an entertaining draw.
Sale to upset Sarries in a close one.
Gloucester to hump Welsh.
Chiefs to have too much for a misfiring Quins.
Bath to nick it against Saints.

I refuse to call the Irish vs. Tigers game as I know it will be bad luck to do so.

That said I am fascinated by the centre battle. Mulchrone has been excellent for us all seaosn and rarely makes mistakes, but the 12 jersey has been a problem all season. Geraghty was doing well there, but has been needed at 10 and nobody has really filled it. I know very little about the Tigers pairing, save for the fact that they are both youngsters and therefore it's an area that we should be looking to target.

Roberts Tigers inside centre does a streamlined impersonation of Tom Youngs. Catchpole has a step and an outside break. They seem okay physically and worked well as a partnership in the LV. Testing their positioning would be a good ploy as would pressuring Burns in our half as neither centre has a notable kicking game.

Have Croft and Gibson played together on the flanks before fkas? Gives you excellent lineout options but neither are big carriers in tight areas, will be an interesting watch as well.

I think they have but never regularly. Both locks tend towards the line out type as well (though Kitch is a 19 stone monster). Line out should be a strength. We have Pearce on the bench who is a big ball carrier to come on. Certainly going to be leaning on our front five to do the carrying in the tight exchanges though all day Jordan Crane always puts in a shift.

Going back to the centres a second that selection is a win win for Cockers. If they go well he can say he does develop youngsters. If they don't go well then he can say that's why he backs experience normally.

I think we got away with this one & Dai was is normal honest self post match.
I thought Deano was a bit disingenuous stating that Falcons gifted 3 trys to us.
It was down to 2 pieces of Daly magic & pace for a couple of the tries.

Daly was very good last night.

I still can't see him making it in the England set up though, he's just not big enough and suffers from a few defensive issues.

Any of you Tiggers fans coming down for the game tomorrow?

Ozzy3213 wrote:Any of you Tiggers fans coming down for the game tomorrow?

Sorry no. Last visit to Madj took forever to get out of the place. So TV for me

LondonTiger wrote:

Ozzy3213 wrote:Any of you Tiggers fans coming down for the game tomorrow?

Sorry no. Last visit to Madj took forever to get out of the place. So TV for me

Yeah, trying to get out of the main car parks, or trying to get on the bus to the train station can take a while. i always park in one of the unofficial car parks a bit further from the ground as it makes for a quicker getaway.

Sorry Ozzy. Injured knee means travelling all that way and then sitting in the cold before travelling back would be a touch more than uncomfortable.

TV for me as well.

I'm gutted to be missing tomorrow as I have to fly out to Switzerland

Went a couple years ago with some Irish mates.

Parked at a pub a while away.

The swan.

Really nice atmosphere the wolfhounds were at the back. Really enjoyed myself good talk.

Wanted to go this year but busy.

Only got the radio commentary but it sounds like Sale are competing well against Saracens. It's 14-3 to Sale, and Saracens will start the second half down to 13 men. Burger will be back on soon, but Strettle has only just started his ten minutes. Alex Goode is at fly half for Saracens after Charlie Hodgson had to cry off just as the teams warmed up.

EDIT: Commentator said Wrigglesworth, not Strettle, is in the bin.

Hmm, could have sworn that Homer's pass was a yard forward

Great response from Saints - from 10-0 down to 12-10 up with Myler making ot 3rd time lucky with kicks.

Good game so far. Sale winning is great. I'd rather Saints, Quins and Irish to win the other games.

LW score a try.

Despite having two players binned Chiefs pulling away from Quins

Bath disappointing today

5 teams within 5 points of 2nd. If Leicester win tomorrow it'll be 6.

HammerofThunor wrote:5 teams within 5 points of 2nd. If Leicester win tomorrow it'll be 6.

Going to be tight right to the end of the season.