Aviva Premiership - Round 8

by **Ozzy3213** Wed 30 Dec 2015, 12:44 pm

First topic message reminder :

Friday 1^st January 2016
Northampton Saints (5) vs. Exeter Chiefs (2)
Saints have been struggling for form and results recently, and although they’ll be happy to be back at Franklins Gardens, they’ll be less happy at facing an in form Exeter Chiefs. You would think that Saints will be out to prove a point after being the first AP side to lose to Irish this season, and I suspect they will up their game. Exeter won’t be easy to beat, but I fancy Saints to nick a tight one.

Saturday 2^nd January 2016
Gloucester (6) vs. London Irish (11)
Gloucester had a high scoring draw against Quins last week, but could be counting the cost with a couple of key men picking up injuries. Irish got on the board, and despite a 2nd row injury crisis didn’t pick up any fresh knocks in beating Saints. This game could tell us a fair amount about the respective sides. Irish will fancy this, and be looking to get a good run going. What they don’t want to do is get too fast and loose, with the scrum and maul both having worked well last week. They could be key tools in bagging back to back AP wins for the first time in a year!

Newcastle Falcons (12) vs. Bath Rugby (7)
Bath have not been firing on all cylinders, and Falcons are winless, despite what I am told was a decent showing last time out against Tigers. This for me is a tough game to call. If conditions are good, I fancy Bath to win a high scorer. If it’s wet and windy, I can see Falcons grinding this one out against a Bath pack that has failed to dominate this season.

Saracens (1) vs. Leicester Tigers (3)
Saracens look unbeatable at present. Whoever they rotate in, they are a well oiled machine, who do their basics well and get results. That said, Tigers, whilst not completely firing on all cylinders are getting results, and despite their recent record against Sarries not being great (whose is?), they are the one side that you just wouldn’t back against getting a result. I think this one will be close, and will depend on who both sides put out, but it’s impossible to predict a Saracens defeat right now, home win.

Sale Sharks (9) vs. Wasps (8)
Despite a couple of excellent performances and results, Wasps find themselves down in 8^th in the AP. Sale have yet to convince and after a bright start were distinctly 2^nd best against the Chiefs last time out. On paper I would say Wasps, but at home and with Steve Diamond chewing their backsides, I reckon Sale may well tough this one out for the win.

Sunday 3^rd January 2016
Worcester Warriors (10) vs. Harlequins (4)
Worcester have been in most of their games (Saracens excepted) and will fancy this at home. Quins appear to be rediscovering their mojo, which they had misplaced last season, but will be disappointed with their error count in the draw against Gloucester last week. I can see this being a bit of an open gunfight, which Worcester just lose out on, but it could be one of those losses where they pick up 2 bonus points on the way.

by king_carlos Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:20 pm

George on for Brits. Will be interesting to see how Thacker copes in the scrum against George.

How Cockers uses our front row replacements will very important here. With Fitzgerald and McCaffery already on they will need to provide a real impact.

by Guest Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:20 pm

And that's the game.

by Geordie Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:21 pm

AH slammed back in the scrum again!!!

by yappysnap Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:21 pm

Tigers can't deal with that Sarries maul, otherwise pretty even between the teams

by king_carlos Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:22 pm

Missed conversion means it's still within a try Fuzzy.

Tigers need next score though.

by nathan Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:23 pm

Series get another pushover try, I feel we'll be in that corner alot

by yappysnap Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:23 pm

Sarries committing a lot of players to kicking, falling and generally ruining the rucks for Tigers. All on the legal side of things but I have no idea how Leicester deal with it. They need to get momentum but Sarries can just spoil everything now.

by nathan Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:25 pm

What was that penalty for? How soft is that!

by Geordie Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:27 pm

And ANOTHER penaity.

by yappysnap Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:27 pm

Burns brilliant then terrible, a bit of the Danny Care's there

by Heaf Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:31 pm

GeordieFalcon wrote:And ANOTHER penaity.

Sounds like LI and Falcons doing the same - get ahead and then lose it through penalties ...

by Geordie Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:32 pm

Our scrum is a total shambles

by nathan Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:32 pm

Make or break here

by BamBam Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:32 pm

yappysnap wrote:
nathan wrote:You talking about Ashton yappy?

Yea he does it a lot and it irritates me

Was it by the hair? Or did he wait for someone else to make the tackle first

by king_carlos Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:33 pm

Good defence by Pearce to hold Vunipola up and a cracking tackle by Thacker to stop Bosch.

by king_carlos Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:33 pm

Ouch. Tigers scrum munched there.

by nathan Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:34 pm

Yeah, scrum going well for sarries

by yappysnap Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:34 pm

No not by the hair. Iirc he made the tackle or assisted then grabbed the player and dragged him a few metres to touch.

2 pen tries conceded now, and that's why you shouldn't send weakened teams to Sarries

by nathan Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:35 pm

Lol, not gone 10 my arse

by yappysnap Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:35 pm

What had happened to Tigers scrum?!

by king_carlos Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:36 pm

Really harsh call on Burns there. I thought that went 10.

Another scrum penalty from it and excellent touch finder by Farrell. This game is looking over with 20 to go.

by king_carlos Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:36 pm

yappysnap wrote:What had happened to Tigers scrum?!

Ayerza went off.

by nathan Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:37 pm

It's not been great for a while now yappy

by nathan Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:38 pm

Was there a punch there by a tigers player?

by nathan Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:39 pm

That's a ban.....

by king_carlos Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:42 pm

I missed the punch nathan. Who was the culprit/idiot?

by nathan Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:43 pm

Pearce was being held down and swung, connected with the back of the head

by king_carlos Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:45 pm

I'd been impressed by Pearce this second half as well.

by nathan Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:46 pm

by king_carlos Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:47 pm

Yes Falcons back in the lead! Some good news at last during this last half hour.

by king_carlos Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:48 pm

Cole lucky that wasn't earlier. It almost feels like the penalty try isn't being awarded because there have already been 2.

Get Youngs on for some more grunt in the scrum.

by king_carlos Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:49 pm

And there it is. 3rd penalty try.

Sarries 26-6 Tigers

by nathan Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:50 pm

And how did sarries get into that position.... Ref incorrectly calling that it hadn't gone 10.

Although series deserve the tries, scrum is well on top

by Geordie Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:50 pm

Its as if the falcons don't actually want to win

by Heaf Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:50 pm

LI thrown away a good HT lead to get nothing by the looks of it Sad

by kingelderfield Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:54 pm

Thacker is too small.

Cockerill projecting his poor judgement across the tiggers. Really how he's still Dor is crazy. probably his last season.

Ref has not helped.

by Geordie Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:55 pm

GET INNNN!!!!!!!!!

by Geordie Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:56 pm

Falcons you beauty!!!

by nathan Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:58 pm

Lol, Ashton is such a man sausage. You can see him shouting at players and then hides behind his team mates

by king_carlos Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:58 pm

Congrats Falcons!

Huge win for their season just there.

by nathan Sat 02 Jan 2016, 4:59 pm

Well done Falcons! What was the final score?

by king_carlos Sat 02 Jan 2016, 5:00 pm

19-14 final score from Kingston.

by Geordie Sat 02 Jan 2016, 5:02 pm

We made it so hard for ourselves though. Bath were poor aside from their scrum.

by Cumbrian Sat 02 Jan 2016, 5:03 pm

We've won... Yahoo

And I've missed it AGAIN! I manage to catch loss after loss and miss the blue moon that we actually win a sodding game! Oh well, nice one lads!

by Geordie Sat 02 Jan 2016, 5:05 pm

Massive game next week...

Away to Irish

by formerly known as Sam Sat 02 Jan 2016, 5:06 pm

kingelderfield wrote:Thacker is to small.

Cockerell projecting his poor judgement across the tiggers. Really how he still dor is crazy. probably his last season.

Ref has not helped.

We did the same vs Chiefs away. Experimented and rested players as opposed to putting out the first fifteen.

He won't be leaving as DOR he has two more years left on his contract.

by Heaf Sat 02 Jan 2016, 5:06 pm

Congrats to Falcons ... cheesed off that LI had an 8 point lead at HT and still managed to come away with nothing ...

by yappysnap Sat 02 Jan 2016, 5:08 pm

Frak I am worried about Sarries visiting The Stoop next week!

by Guest Sat 02 Jan 2016, 5:08 pm

Very much doubt the result would've been any different without a slightly weakened side. Can't see anyone other than Saracens winning the AP this year.

by king_carlos Sat 02 Jan 2016, 5:09 pm

A really impressive second half performance by Sarries showing exactly how to play the conditions.

Both Vunipolas and Kruis were excellent in the forwards. Fraser and Itoje were busy as well. From the backs Goode impressed once again marshaling things well.

From a Tigers perspective I think the most enjoyable moment of the second half was watching Thacker match Ashton for pace chasing the ball down his wing...

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