Aviva Premiership - Round 4

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Current Positions

Team	Points
Saracens	13
Leicester	12
Exeter	11
Harlequins	9
Gloucester	9
Sale Sharks	9
Northampton	7
Wasps	5
Bath	5
Worcester	5
London Irish	0
Newcastle	0

Fixtures

Friday 6th November 2015

19:45 Harlequins  v   Sale Sharks Twickenham Stoop BT Sport

Both teams will arrive at the Stoop for the first of four televised fixtures with two wins so far and having beaten playoff teams from last season in round 3. Harlequins away win at the Rec was the more notable (Only two late tries saved Bath from what the commentator was, at 70 minutes, calling a total humiliation.), but Sale's ability to shut down the Saints attack should not be ignored. While not exactly a head-to-head it will be interesting to see how the main playmakers for each side, Care and Cipriani, fare. Care still, to me, looks to be searching for form and we shall see how he responds to his first home start as club captain. Cipriani will delight in thre presence of the TV cameras, and will be out to show that he shoudl have been at the RWC. Equally fascinating will be the back row battle. Sale will probably go with the two opensides as usual, and their experienced pairing will be a good test for whoever O'Shea deigns to select.
I struggle to se any result other than a win for Quins - but probably no TBP.



Saturday 7th November 2015

15:00 London Irish  v   Bath Rugby Madejski Stadium

Misfiring Bath will arrive in Reading desperate to kick start their season against winless Irish. London Irish were handed a terrible start to the season, facing four of last seasons top 5. As the season unfolds this may prove to be a blessing in disguise - probably better to try and bed in new players and methods against teams you expect to lose against rather than against teams youshould be beating. While the attack in general has so far not clicked for Irish, their rolling maul has been hugely effective. Add in players like Maitland (who surely will improve on last week) and Irish have the tools to upset Bath.
Bath are not playing well. Beaten by Quins and Wasps, their only wion was almost gifted to them by Exeter on the first weekend. The set piece is misfiring and they have been second best at the breakdown. Will be interesting to see if Francois Louw is rushed back into the side. they are creating opportunities though. Any number of times in the first half against Quins they worked the ball into the opposition 22 only to fall over when close to the line. A mix of poor hands and white line fever allowed the boys from Surrey to constantly repel them.
Should Bath play to their potential this could be a thumping win, however I have a sneaking feeling that Irish will be scrapping for everything and sneak a victory.



15:00 Worcester Warriors  v   Newcastle Falcons Sixways

Is it too early to call this a relegation match? Worcester will feel that their win over 2014 champs Saints and narrow defeat at Kingsholm should earn them more respect than that. Falcons fans however will be watching through clenched fingers. To call Falcons poor so far would be a serious understatement. We know they have talent - but the application so far this season has been absent. A workmanlike team with great spirit like Worcester should have enough to win this with some ease. Unless Falcons brink more than they have so far it will be yet more depression for our Geordie friends.



15:15 Northampton Saints  v   Saracens Franklin's Gardens BT Sport

Huge fixture with the away team bang in form and looking to enter Euro weeks with a perfect start to the season. Saints are struggling. they seem to have reverted completely to Warrenball and as Wales are oft accused seem to have no plan B. Sarries will not back down from the physical challenge, so can Saints deliver something different on their return to a new, improved Franklin's Gardens?



17:30 Exeter Chiefs  v   Leicester Tigers Sandy Park BT Sport

Can Leicester continue their winning run this season. Having done the double in the AP last season over Exeter, and with some big names likely to be returning to the lineup they will be hopeful. Exeter should however provide a really stern test of the tigers defence. At times last season the Midlanders were over-run by sides willing to put pace and width on the ball - and Exeter are certainly capable of doing that. Baxter and his men will be fully aware that last season they allowed Tigers to drag them into an arm-wrestle at Sandy Park and will be looking to improve their own performance. Will be interesting to see which tigers Old Boys make the lineup for the men from Devon.
Exeter should win, probably denying Leicester an LBP




Sunday 8th November 2015

15:00 Wasps  v   Gloucester Rugby Ricoh Arena BT Sport

Final match of the weekend sees what will be a Gopperth-less (banned for 3 weeks so misses the first two ECC rounds) Wasps host a promising looking Gloucester team. this really could be a crackerjack of a game - though Daly and Wade will need to show more form than they have so far. Wasps could well be without Nathan Hughes following a knee injury at Welford Road. I am looking forward to seeing Kvesic against old master George Smith.
Wasps to win an entertaining match by less than a score.

Good try, Sale, 16 - 14

Hell of a finish from Sam James. Dunno where's he come from but he looks like he'll be an AP fixture for a while.

Care's box-kicking has been surprisingly not awful

Big missed penalty by Cipriani

Robshaw has been less than impressive tonight.

Show's you something when a 34yo 6 cap NZ openside looks more dynamic and a bigger threat at the breakdown than the England captain.

Sgt_Pooly wrote:Robshaw has been less than impressive tonight.

Show's you something when a 34yo 6 cap NZ openside looks more dynamic and a bigger threat at the breakdown than the England captain.

Yeah not his best. He looked truly utterly depressed after the Bath win last match. Quins have slowed the Sale ball pretty well though, and when Ward and Wallace are on, Robshaw's main aim is not the breakdown

Think that Cips missed penalty will cost Sale the game. He really had to get that.

Bad scrum decision by the referee there

Argh! My Frak feed has gone!

He just looks so slow compared to Braid CJ, possibly too much rugby?

Too close for comfort that. A win is a win, but that I think shows that in the weather today rotating off Horwill and playing Hopper at 12 were big risks that barely paid off.

Sgt_Pooly wrote:He just looks so slow compared to Braid CJ, possibly too much rugby?

Maybe. I'd be tired if I'd just seen the team I captain get embarrassingly knocked out of their own cup

Robshaw was one of those brushed off by James for the second Sale try. Would expect him to have won that collision as James had already had the attention of two Quins shoulders whilst Robshaw had momentum as he ran across to cover.

Cipriani looked tired late on, summed up by that late drop goal.

formerly known as Sam wrote:Robshaw was one of those brushed off by James for the second Sale try. Would expect him to have won that collision as James had already had the attention of two Quins shoulders whilst Robshaw had momentum as he ran across to cover.

Cipriani looked tired late on, summed up by that late drop goal.

The amount of sticking up for him O'Shea is doing in the media, I wouldn't be surprised if Robshaw is a broken man behind doors

Without looking at the exact figures I've felt that Robshaw has been overplayed for a couple of years tbh. His engine is so good it's easy to take him for granted and have him play as much as possible. The same thing happened to Cole until he got injured.

That's the price you pay when you're so important to club and country.

Fuzzy Dunlop wrote:Without looking at the exact figures I've felt that Robshaw has been overplayed for a couple of years tbh. His engine is so good it's easy to take him for granted and have him play as much as possible. The same thing happened to Cole until he got injured.

That's the price you pay when you're so important to club and country.

I think we'll rest him this season in that we'll mostly rotate our 3 flankers so each gets almost 1 in 3 off not starting. Would have rested more but Luamanu and Talei got injured, and big ask for Baby Chis to step up ( think he will)

Can't wait for Roberts to turn up

A win is a win I guess but man we made that hard for our selves!

Fair play to Sale they came to spoil and cause us problems and they did that well, their kicking and game management was far better then ours for the majority of the game too, save that purple patch from 40-60 mins where we woke up.

The team chosen by CoS was always going to struggle, too much like the team of last season that was frankly, gash. And it was a bit of a step up from that, but still lacked direction, power or much real threat.

Mathews was depressingly poor, 3 handling errors in that game and not much else to show except a nice kick. Hopper was on a hiding to nothing, out of position he was trying to put himself about and while he did disrupt Sale attacks with big hits, rushing out of the line like he did kept putting us under pressure too. Brown and Robshaw both look f*cked after their England time, Robshaw mentally as much as physically.

Jones, Horwill, Luamanu and Sloan are so key for this season. Without them we have zero go forward, and Horwill brings a heck of a lot of bite to our pack. Sloan does a lot of quite work in the backs and just stabilises that back line. On a bright note Marler had his best game in a while, Easter and Wallace looked good too. The rest were so so.

How did young Twomey do at lock?

Wuss 7-0 Falcons

First bit of possesion, try for Pennell in the corner.

Wuss 7-7 Falcons

Try from Young after being camped in the Wuss half.

anyone got a stream for the Saracens saints game?

Bet365 has all AP games

21-7 to Wuss

Way too easy, our defence dreadful again. Catterick has to start as we need to score points to keep up.

Saracens Saints is free to view.

http://sport.bt.com/rugby-union-hub/rugby-union/aviva-premiership/aviva-premiership-news/bt-sport-to-show-northampton-saints-v-saracens-free-to-air-S11364014647238

Wuss 28-10 Falcons

Another TBP before halftime, absolute disgrace.

28-17

Falcons comeback!

If you want to see an inexperienced ref completely losing control of a game and two teams absolutely trying to take liberties as a result, watch our game with Bath later. It's an absolute shocker from everyone. If I'd actually paid for my tickets today I would want my money back.

Fuzzy Dunlop wrote:Saracens Saints is free to view.

http://sport.bt.com/rugby-union-hub/rugby-union/aviva-premiership/aviva-premiership-news/bt-sport-to-show-northampton-saints-v-saracens-free-to-air-S11364014647238

Amazing- thank you Fuzzy!

Ozzy3213 wrote:If you want to see an inexperienced ref completely losing control of a game and two teams absolutely trying to take liberties as a result, watch our game with Bath later.  It's an absolute shocker from everyone.  If I'd actually paid for my tickets today I would want my money back.

I saw it start to fall apart. Not pretty.

Just switched onto your game, bad tackle by Devoto

Two appalling decisions by ref Pearce gifts 6 points to Saracens. Farrell gets away with retaliation on a tackle that was not late at full speed, while Burger clears out a ruck with a flying headbutt as Saints penalised for holding on.

JP Doyle having a strong game, really letting the game flow

LondonTiger wrote:Two appalling decisions by ref Pearce gifts 6 points to Saracens. Farrell gets away with retaliation on a tackle that was not late at full speed, while Burger clears out a ruck with a flying headbutt as Saints penalised for holding on.

This. After slating Sarries for the last few weeks I went in to this game trying to have an open mind on them, the actions of a few Sarries players though, Farrell, Burger and Hargreaves have soured that. Can't think of a team more difficult to like.

Wuss 28-20 Falcons

Gutted to get nothing again. Out 1st half defence was woeful allowing Wuss to get too far ahead. Much better 2nd half with Vea getting at least 3 turnovers in our 22. Things are looking slightly better, we've gone from dire to grim.

Saints though have been their own worst enemies, just too many static forwards taking slow ball in to the face of the opposition defence, Sarries can deal with that all day.

What a horrible game all in all.

Kruis MoM?

WTF

BT are getting worse then the RWC MoM picks! Last night it's a random winger who's done nothing for 65 mins then carried a few times at the death.

Now Kruis gets it who's done bugger all except the gameplan, like every other Saracens player.

Much as it pains me Farrell should be getting MoM as it was his acting out that got them the key 3 pointer and his smart kicking that eventually won it.

I worry more and more about Ben Kay...

Is it just me or has this season started off at an incredibly ugly tempo?

Every game plays out like two tired drunks fighting in a bar, neither side managing to land a decisive blow and both just seeming to go through the motions with little skill or thought about their actions.

Ones that buck that trend seem to involve one team forgetting how to play and doing their best to act like a pub side for 80 mins while the other team just about scores a tbp if their lucky.

Cant see Tigers winning this game will be lucky to get a losing bonus point IMO.

I'm stuck at my nephews 360 play party, can folks keep us updated with the tigers score - feel free to mention the inevitable thrashing we'll get though

7 -0 Exeter.

Bugger

Exe cutting us to shreds ATM.

Really like the new tongan signing.

I hope LT is watching Ewers performance, been very good so far...

Thompstone with a beauty finish.

why have a ref?

That Tigers 15 is out standing

yappysnap wrote:That Tigers 15 is out standing

an excellent pick up.