Aviva Premiership - Round 8

Tough one to lose yesterday. I've not seen the second half yet, but that was a massive turnaround. First half was a kicking duel, which we won comfortably, scored two tries off lineouts in their 22 and went in 14-6 ahead.

I am told by those who were there that in the second half they brought on Morgan and Laidlaw and carried more and kicked less and ran out of steam defensively and lost the half 0-21.

Next week is now massive. All the pressure I would say is on us, as we are 2 points behind Falcons now and are at home. If we play as we did in the first halves against both Saints and Gloucester then I think we will be ok, but we seem to have developed a habit of switching off during the first 20 minutes of the second half which if we don't rectify quickly will see us unable to beat the teams around us and will result in us playing in the Championship next season.

Driver wrote:I'm starting too think they might be a rift between players and coaches reading Mike Fords comments and looking at how uninterested Bath where today.

Yes I bet the players are really upset by constantly being subjected to 5* accommodation, Michelin Starred chefs and the chauffeur driven Rolls Royce.

Ozzy3213 wrote:Tough one to lose yesterday.  I've not seen the second half yet, but that was a massive turnaround.  First half was a kicking duel, which we won comfortably, scored two tries off lineouts in their 22 and went in 14-6 ahead.

I am told by those who were there that in the second half they brought on Morgan and Laidlaw and carried more and kicked less and ran out of steam defensively and lost the half 0-21.  

Next week is now massive.  All the pressure I would say is on us, as we are 2 points behind Falcons now and are at home.  If we play as we did in the first halves against both Saints and Gloucester then I think we will be ok, but we seem to have developed a habit of switching off during the first 20 minutes of the second half which if we don't rectify quickly will see us unable to beat the teams around us and will result in us playing in the Championship next season.

Good to hear Morgan may be playing better.

Next week should be a tasty game with Falcons new 10 playing, not sure if LI fans have heard of him but apparently he has a bit of potential...

I imagine he will get a fairly warm reception yappy. I believe one of our supporters has already baked him a pie!

I don't want Goode t play Yappy.

Young Willis is raw but he has huge potential. He needs to play games. They beat bath so give him his game next week as a reward.
Catterick is also a good 10 he just seems to have lost his confidence for whatever reason.

but we seem to have developed a habit of switching off during the first 20 minutes of the second half which if we don't rectify quickly will see us unable to beat the teams around us and will result in us playing in the Championship next season.

Ozzy, that is like us. We cant put in a 80min performance. We won yesterday but we at times switched off too much, and nearly let a poor bath side win.

Nice try by Walker there early in the game.

If only Charlie Walker could do stuff like that every weekend.

The battle between Brown and Pennell is going to be great to watch.

That is dumb by Ward. Why are so many players giving away dumb penalties through blocking this season...

Aerial ping pong at its worst for a minute there.

Lowe off with a yellow.

I'd have been off aswell cos I would have went for that ball

Looked out to me ... and how can Warriors get a scrum penalty when their hooker is crawling along on his knees?  Think Wayne has lost it lately ...

Lowe didn't help himself by going off his feet. The ball is in until it's past the back feet no? The big Fijian had the ball somewhere between his legs. Had Lowe lifted cleanly as opposed to flopping he might have got away with it.

Didn't look like it was between his legs - more like he was standing about a foot or two to the right - but I could be wrong .... the scrum pen was wrong for sure though.

king_carlos wrote:If only Charlie Walker could do stuff like that every weekend.

In attack, when we pick him, he can. But his flaws are in other areas :/

Nick Evans earning his salary today

Another nicely taken try.

Hmmmm, not convinced that was illegal by Roberts...

Not sure Ward was in at the side for that try?

A potentially game changing error by Barnes in my opinion. Legal rip that would have prevented the yellow and the penalty try. Nevermind

Now also rather worried about our scrum vs Sarries

ChequeredJersey wrote:A potentially game changing error by Barnes in my opinion. Legal rip that would have prevented the yellow and the penalty try. Nevermind

Did he have control of the ball before his knee touched the floor? I think he completed the rip only after he was off his feet in which case Barnes is correct. Tough call though Barnes had a great angle from which to make the call.

formerly known as Sam wrote:

ChequeredJersey wrote:A potentially game changing error by Barnes in my opinion. Legal rip that would have prevented the yellow and the penalty try. Nevermind

Did he have control of the ball before his knee touched the floor? I think he completed the rip only after he was off his feet in which case Barnes is correct. Tough call though Barnes had a great angle from which to make the call.

My admittedly biased viewing was that he had completed the rip whilst up

Well Wuss are giving it ago.

ChequeredJersey wrote:Now also rather worried about our scrum vs Sarries

Not so sure, and on today's performance I think it must make you wonder why Jones wasn't initially selected for Wales 31. A fantastic signing.

OOh was there a tug back by the Wuss player? Should it have been no try.

GeordieFalcon wrote:OOh was there a tug back by the Wuss player? Should it have been no try.

Just a little one.

GeordieFalcon wrote:OOh was there a tug back by the Wuss player? Should it have been no try.

Well, you can probably guess what I think

Seem like the officials are determined to help Warriors out - why can't LI get some this help?

Heaf wrote:Seem like the officials are determined to help Warriors out - why can't LI get some this help?

Would you want to be helped to a win by officials?

I'd like a level playing field but we don't get that either a lot of the time - although I admit I may be biased

I don't speak about the refs much...you play to the ref...however we get some appalling decisions against us.

But in all honesty I think all teams do as the standard of refs in the prem is shockingly bad.
It should be overhauled.

If we lose this it will be our own fault. But those decisions won't have helped much

The problem is it looks like Warriors will come away with at least a LBP today from some questionable officiating and they were also gifted a LBP agains Glaws earlier in the season by some truly shocking decisions - it may not come to it but these points could make a difference later in the season.

I now agree with Yappy that Brown's confidence just isn't there in the air at the moment. We need to shore up our decision making and play much better than this next week to avoid a drubbing

GeordieFalcon wrote:I don't speak about the refs much...you play to the ref...however we get some appalling decisions against us.

But in all honesty I think all teams do as the standard of refs in the prem is shockingly bad.
It should be overhauled.

There's so much riding on all these games, which obviously makes for compelling viewing, but not necessarily great flowing rugby.

promotion/relegation
clubs v's union
the weather

All in all considering I think the refs do ok'ish, though there are some real shockers as I might have mentioned in my own sweet way.

I thought Barnes had a good game with the only decision I felt incorrect the tug on Walker. That did give Wuss an LBP but I thought they played the better rugby. Mills should have been man of the match he dragged his team back into the game with intelligent rugby.

A win is a win, but from looking like a TBP was on within the hour to playing awfully second half and arguably deserving, with Barnes' help, to lose, another match I'm not happy with

Heaf wrote:The problem is it looks like Warriors will come away with at least a LBP today from some questionable officiating and they were also gifted a LBP agains Glaws earlier in the season by some truly shocking decisions - it may not come to it but these points could make a difference later in the season.

Yeah very true mate...it takes them away from our two teams.

The other issue is how can the TMO & Barnes have reviewed that try and not seen the Quins player was clearly held back - it was there for all to see???

formerly known as Sam wrote:I thought Barnes had a good game with the only decision I felt incorrect the tug on Walker. That did give Wuss an LBP but I thought they played the better rugby. Mills should have been man of the match he dragged his team back into the game with intelligent rugby.

I'll watch the Robert's yellow (and a few scrum penalty decisions) again, but if he did take the ball legally, then a pen try and yellow card has enormous impact on the match

Worcester have some real dog in them, I can't see them getting dragged into bottom 2.

Well next week is massive Heaf...

formerly known as Sam wrote:I thought Barnes had a good game with the only decision I felt incorrect the tug on Walker. That did give Wuss an LBP but I thought they played the better rugby. Mills should have been man of the match he dragged his team back into the game with intelligent rugby.

But that was an absolute howler resulting in a team getting a point they shouldn't have ...

GeordieFalcon wrote:Well next week is massive Heaf...

Indeed - let's hope for a fair contest ...

I usually rate Barnes, unlike many others, and to be fair he got the Kvesic turnover last week right, but the difference in outcome between turnover and penalty try plus yellow is almost as great as it could possibly be in a match (red vs interception try I suppose the biggest swing!)

Sgt_Pooly wrote:Worcester have some real dog in them, I can't see them getting dragged into bottom 2.

Not while they keep getting points gifted either ...

ChequeredJersey wrote:I usually rate Barnes, unlike many others, and to be fair he got the Kvesic turnover last week right, but the difference in outcome between turnover and penalty try plus yellow is almost as great as it could possibly be in a match (red vs interception try I suppose the biggest swing!)

Some of his decisions could be debatable but some were just plain wrong ... I think he's lost the plot a bit.  How can you give a scrum penalty to a team when their front row are crawling forwards on their knees and the opposition are on their feet and allow a defender to be clearly pulled back and award a try ... mind boggling

Quins looked very strong in the the first half but I was pleased with the Wuss fight back in the second half. Not sure that I agree that Wuss have had too much help from the refs this season and that little tug back could have gone either way but I was pleased with Barnes' views on it Still very tight at the bottom and there is plenty of rugby left to play yet.

Well at least he made a game of it...........which actually has a lot more going for it than we'd all like to say.

Quins took their foot off giving up the tbp, but still got the win and 4 points, and Wuss gave something to their fans who turned up in numbers plus the paying punters on the telly.

win win I'd say.

Not if you're a LI or Falcons supporter ...