AP Round 17

Apologies for delay.

Points Situation

60 Northampton
48 Saracens, Exeter, Wasps
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47 Bath, Leicester
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43 Sale
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35 Gloucester, Harlequins
28 London Irish
24 Newcastle
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1 London Welsh



Fixtures

Fri 6th Mar 15

19:45 BATH RUGBY  v   SALE SHARKS Recreation Ground BT Sport

Bath have failed to win a match since the 6Ns started, and have won just one of their five AP matches in 2015. This bad run of form has led them to drop from a safe 2nd in the table to outside the top 4. While they have perhaps the easiest run in of any of the sides pushing for the play-offs, they need to start winning soon. Would they wish to face Sale, who beat them at the Rec last season? Perhaps not. Sale are at full strength, while Bath have real issues with Ford away. Homer has to start kicking his goals and DeVoto has to give Eastmond time and space. while I look forward to the first collision between Burgess and Leota, it is the back row match up that really interests me. Bath have recalled Garvey and moved Fearns to no8 creating a massive back row. Sale however have countered by recalling Seymour for Beaumont and effectively fielding 3 guys comfortable at openside. Bath should win, Sale with Cipriani looking to impress will not lie down.


Sat 7th Mar 15

15:00 EXETER CHIEFS  v   LONDON WELSH Sandy Park
Chiefs to move back to second in the table.

15:00 HARLEQUINS  v   LONDON IRISH Twickenham Stoop
Irish will really fancy this match. Quins, like bath, have yet to win during the 6Ns. they created plenty of chances last week against Saints but failed to score the points they should and were outmuscled by the table toppers. London Irish have struggled up front at times and certainly in the games against my team lacked fluency behind the scrum. However they do, like Quins, look to play at a high temp and if the conditions are good we may have a free-flowing game with lots of breaks and lots of errors.


15:15 GLOUCESTER RUGBY  v   NORTHAMPTON SAINTS Kingsholm BT Sport Preview
Saints have not been playing well, but have been grinding out wins. Glaws coudl expect to see Hibbard and Laidlaw available and will provide a threat. With Lawes, Corbs and Wood all looking to show form and fitness I just expect Saints to power through this.



Sun 8th Mar 15

14:00 WASPS  v   SARACENS Ricoh Arena BT Sport
Shoudl be fascinating. Simplistically this can be viewed as Wasps attack against Saracens defence. Saracens have not been in great form, and have lost a lot of games away from home. To win this they need to deny Wasps any space and force them, into pushing things from behind the gainline. The tackling of the back row will be crucial as they look to stem Hughes and Johnson. Wasps could have the edge at scrum time, which will make Sarries job even harder, but Sarries need to make this a physical armwrestle. Both teams are proficient at the driving maul, so defensive tactics at line-out time could be intriguing.


15:00 NEWCASTLE FALCONS  v   LEICESTER TIGERS Kingston Park
This is the easiest of Tiger's three remaining away fixtures and one they simply have to win. Falcons are much improved from the team we saw at Welford Road and are now scoring tries against the best defences. I woudl certainly not put Tigers up as among the best defence - yet strangely no team has conceded less tries than them. Scoring tries has been a real issue in theg League, so for me it has been heartening to hear Falcons fans bemoaning their defence. Can Falcons pack provide sufficient platform for their exciting backs to prosper?

Tigers team:

Ayerza, youngs, Mulipola, De Chaves, Parling, Croft, Gibson, Pearce, Harrison, Burns, Thompstone, Bai, goneva, Morris, Tait

Reps: Ghiraldini, Rizzo, Balmain, Crane, Salvi, Mele, Bell, Roberts

Shame Kitch still out. Good to see Salvi featuring again. Tigers will be looking to target the Falcons lineout.

Newcastle Falcons v Leicester Tigers 8/3/2015 – KO 15:00

15 Alex Tait, 14 Sinoti Sinoti, 13 Adam Powell, 12 Juan Pablo Socino 11 Alesana Tuilagi 10 Tom Catterick 9 Ruki Tipuna, 1 Rob Vickers 2 Scott Lawson 3 Alex Rogers 4 Kane Thompson 5 Dom Barrow 6 Richard Mayhew 7 Will Welch 8 Mark Wilson

Replacements – 16 Rob Hawkins 17 Mark Irving 18 Rob O’Donnell 19 Josh Furno 20 Andy Saull 21 Sonatane Takulua 22 Gonzalo Tiesi 23 Noah Cato

Glaws
Steve McColl; Charlie Sharples, Bill Meakes, Billy Twelvetrees (capt), Jonny May; James Hook, Greig Laidlaw; Dan Murphy, Richard Hibbard, John Afoa; Tom Savage, Tom Palmer; Sione Kalamafoni, Matt Kvesic, Gareth Evans

Replacements: Darren Dawidiuk, Yann Thomas, Sila Puafisi, Elliott Stooke, Ross Moriarty, Dan Robson, Billy Burns, Henry Purdy


Saints
15 James WILSON
14 Ken PISI
13 George PISI
12 Tom STEPHENSON
11 Jamie ELLIOTT
10 Stephen MYLER
9 Kahn FOTUALI’I
1 Alex CORBISIERO
2 Mike HAYWOOD
3 Salesi MA’AFU
4 Courtney LAWES
5 Christian DAY
6 Tom WOOD (capt)
7 Calum CLARK
8 Samu MANOA

16 Matti WILLIAMS
17 Alex WALLER
18 Gareth DENMAN
19 Sam DICKINSON
20 Phil DOWSON
21 Lee DICKSON
22 Sam OLVER
23 Ahsee TUALA

Bath Rugby team to face Sale Sharks

15 Tom Homer
14 Semesa Rokoduguni
13 Sam Burgess
12 Kyle Eastmond
11 Olly Woodburn
10 Ollie Devoto
9 Chris Cook
1 Nick Auterac
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 Max Lahiff
18 Kane Palma-Newport
19 Alafoti Faosiliva
20 Guy Mercer
21 Micky Young
22 Matt Banahan
23 Luke Arscott



We have really seen the stupidity of only having one 10 in the senior squad in the last few weeks, goodness knows why we let Henson go mid season. Its hard to see much changing against Sale really, Cips will be out to prove a point and Diamonds teams are always good spoilers.

Quins Team

HARLEQUINS HAS ANNOUNCED THE SQUAD TO PLAY LONDON IRISH AT THE STOOP TOMORROW IN ROUND 17 OF THE AVIVA PREMIERSHIP, KICK-OFF 15:00.


There are four changes to the starting team that played Northampton Saints last weekend.

Tighthead prop Matt Shields makes his starting debut in the Aviva Premiership, having made his first Premiership appearance for the club last week. Nick Easter, who was released from the England camp this week, starts at Number 8.

24 year-old openside flanker Luke Wallace will make his 100th senior appearance for the club.

In the backs, Danny Care, who was also released from the England squad, has recovered from a calf strain and starts, with Ross Chisholm named at full-back.

Among the replacements, current England U20 Seb Adeniran-Olule is named.

Referee: JP Doyle
Assistant Referees: Wayne Barnes & Luke Pearce
TMO: Stuart Terheege

Harlequins Team
15. Ross Chisholm
14. Marland Yarde
13. Matt Hopper
12. Harry Sloan
11. Charlie Walker
10. Nick Evans
9. Danny Care


1. Mark Lambert
2. Dave Ward
3. Matt Shields
4. Charlie Matthews
5. George Robson�
6. Jack Clifford
7. Luke Wallace
8. Nick Easter

16. Rob Buchanan
17. Darryl Marfo
18. Seb Adeniran-Olule
19. Netani Talei
20. Joe Trayfoot
21. Karl Dickson
22. Ben Botica
23. Ugo Monye

For once I'm feeling optimistic about a game. I think we should have too much for Irish at home, and with the good weather and the right players in the right positions the boys could put on a good show.

Saracens team to face Wasps:

1 Mako Vunipola
2 Jamie George
3 Petrus Du Plessis
4 Jim Hamilton
5 Alistair Hargreaves ©
6 Maro Itoje
7 Jacques Burger
8 Jackson Wray
9 Richard Wigglesworth
10 Alex Goode
11 Chris Wyles
12 Brad Barritt
13 Marcelo Bosch
14 Chris Ashton
15 Ben Ransom

16 Jared Saunders
17 Rhys Gill
18 Juan Figallo
19 Ernst Joubert
20 Matt Hankin
21 Ben Spencer
22 Nils Mordt
23 Tim Streather


Saracens have been in patchy form this season but this team is a lot stronger than the one that faced Newcastle - 5 players who didn't start vs Newcastle - Ashton,Wigglesworth,Goode,Hamilton and Mako

Clash of the Goodes......

Wasps will start favourites but I believe Saracens can win.

Sale holding firm ATM.

Bath look rudderless. Neither Devoto nor Eastmond are fly halves.

That pen should of gone to sale, Lowe took out a player about 3 meters to the side of a ruck. It must of had some very big gates

I see Homer has a new kicking coach.

Bath getting away with a lot on the floor

Bath are certainly enjoying home field advantage.

Feel sorry for Sale they need some cash to invest in a prop or two and they desperately need another ball carrier up front. What Diamond et al could do with Bath's budget!

formerly known as Sam wrote:Bath are certainly enjoying home field advantage.

Feel sorry for Sale they need some cash to invest in a prop or two and they desperately need another ball carrier up front. What Diamond et al could do with Bath's budget!

What anyone else in the league could do with baths budget!

formerly known as Sam wrote:Bath are certainly enjoying home field advantage.

Feel sorry for Sale they need some cash to invest in a prop or two and they desperately need another ball carrier up front. What Diamond et al could do with Bath's budget!

Diamond had Henry Thomas and did nothing with him whatsoever. His scrummaging was a laughing stock at Sale and now he's a real force. Not really sure that Diamond warrants a reputation as a good coach

nathan wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:Bath are certainly enjoying home field advantage.

Feel sorry for Sale they need some cash to invest in a prop or two and they desperately need another ball carrier up front. What Diamond et al could do with Bath's budget!

What anyone else in the league could do with baths budget! ;)

Its the same budget as everyone else. Until proven otherwise!

Hasn't Diamond said previously Sale are struggling to get up to the cap because they need to break even? I think it's fairly obvious that Sale lack the spending power of the other top six contenders. The big signings being Hines and Lund last summer compared to Burgess at Bath or Figallo and Hamilton at Sarries.

I'm not sure how good Thomas is. He's always been good ball in hand but at the scrum he's not much better than average even when paired up with that Bath monsters. I think Sale struggle in that department due to a) lack of depth and b) there options in the tight five rarely seem to compliment each other. The whole pack looks a bit thrown together.

Thought Barnes was poor tonight ... used to think he was good but he seems to have lost it a bit lately.

Bathite wrote:

nathan wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:Bath are certainly enjoying home field advantage.

Feel sorry for Sale they need some cash to invest in a prop or two and they desperately need another ball carrier up front. What Diamond et al could do with Bath's budget!

What anyone else in the league could do with baths budget!

Its the same budget as everyone else. Until proven otherwise!

Exactly, Priestlands just coming to play for the fun if it right...

Heaf wrote:Thought Barnes was poor tonight ... used to think he was good but he seems to have lost it a bit lately.

Welcome back to sanity.

Exeter had better pull their finger out. Losing to London Welsh at the minute

Actually, there above us... Continue losing

Northampton look knackered

Well, this isn't fun.

Best part so far is the commentators use of coruscating.

Does sharples ever pass?

Manoa please stay

Lovely tries in this game

BT's love affair with Matt Kvesic shows no sign of abating!

Got to say as a neutral watching the last two games the scrums are killing me, Bath and Saints in particular have no interest in completing scrums and just look to win endless penalties.

Right now games seem to be a case of scrum. Pen. Kick. Maul. Pen kick. Scrum. Pen. Kick. Maul. Pen. Kick. Repeat

A negative way of looking at this particular game for sure. Plenty of good running plays.

yappysnap wrote:BT's love affair with Matt Kvesic shows no sign of abating!

Got to say as a neutral watching the last two games the scrums are killing me, Bath and Saints in particular have no interest in completing scrums and just look to win endless penalties.

Right now games seem to be a case of scrum. Pen. Kick. Maul. Pen kick. Scrum. Pen. Kick. Maul. Pen. Kick. Repeat

This is a great game, kvesic is having a good game to be honest

Saints-Irish was exactly like that though, thank god it wasn't on TV.

Didn't think that should of been a penalty in the line out.

Hook didn't knock the ball on from the restart either that led to the scrum penalty that set up the position ... Mr Garner righting a wrong by Mr Fox last year ...

Finally a win!

Looks like Exeter managed to get something out of the game with LW after being behind early on

lostinwales wrote:Looks like Exeter managed to get something out of the game with LW after being behind early on

Yeah took them a bit to get going, but they certainly got going

I hope LW refund their fans for their tickets after that game. To ship 74 points is unacceptable for a professional team. Fifty points is one thing but when you are nearing on conceding a point a minute that's just woeful. Any team with a spine could organise a defence and put their bodies on the line to keep it below fifty.

It's good that Hibbard had a game this week and got on the scoresheet. That's 3 hookers in action and match fit with one remaining in the Wales squad. How did he go then? Looks more of a super sub these days if I'm honest.

Frustrating day at The Stoop yesterday. Some ill discipline early on really cost us as we were always playing catch up from the penalties we conceded. There were some real positives from the game, but we just made errors at key moments, in particular Shane Geraghty whose kicking from hand and passing were both really poor. One really poorly executed kick led eventually to their second try which was the game killer in reality. Hard to be to critical of him though as he's been good for us this season and was probably due an off day.

On the Quins forum there was a lot of talk that Geraghty out played Nev yesterday Ozzy, especially with his kicking and tactics.

Never in a million years yappy. Tactically Geraghty was fine, took the right option of when to kick, run or pass, but it was the execution that was off. A number of passes from him were either behind the intended recipient or hit the deck before getting there, and his kicks regularly found a Quins back three player rather than the masses of open space in behind them.

I did see the criticism of Evans on there and thought it was overly harsh. He kept you in the right areas of the pitch. I'm not sure what the penalty count in the game was, but I think it was pretty even, but you had 4 kicks at goal as a result and we had 2, all of which were scored. That was largely because of where the penalties were conceded, and most were in our half, as a result of Evans keeping you there with his boot.

What happened to Noakes Ozzy? He was supposed to be adding the tactical play to compliment Geraghty's attacking skills. He seems to have vanished and Goode is being brought in instead.

Yes the Quins fans tbh just love a good whinge, I always take their comments with a pinch of salt.

Well if the tigers are wise today they should scrum, scrum and scrum again....our front row is appalling....

If they let the game open up we'll have a chance....

Two great tries by Wasps.

HammerofThunor wrote:Two great tries by Wasps.

Just about to write the same. Wonderful to watch.

GeordieFalcon wrote:Well if the tigers are wise today they should scrum, scrum and scrum again....our front row is appalling....

If they let the game open up we'll have a chance....

Wonder if we can get 4 penalty tries.

Falcons backs have been a lot more dangerous than ours, so we need to strangle you guys.

First scrum and penalty tigers

Second scrum, tigers take against the head.


We are trying perhaps to play with too much width. Keep the ball tight at first and build scores. Some good play by Falcons.