Aviva Premiership - Round 2

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Table:




Fixtures:

Friday 9th September

19:45 Worcester Warriors v Gloucester Rugby   BT Sport
20:15 Sale Sharks v Harlequins  

Saturday 10th September

15:00 Bath Rugby v Newcastle Falcons    
15:00 Leicester Tigers v Wasps    BT Sport


Sunday 11th September

15:00 Bristol Rugby v Northampton Saints
15:00 Exeter Chiefs v Saracens    BT Sport



Previews

Yet again Gloucester feature in the Friday night televised fixture. Having capitulated last week, after playing so well for 50 minutes, they will be seeking an 80 minute performance as they take the short trip to near neighbours Worcester. The Warrioirs were game gainst a misfiring Saracens at twickenham last week, but never really threatened and like their visitors ran out of steam in the last 30 minutes. With their absence list unlikely to recede any, the home team will have to rely on spirit and determination against a side with more class - but a fragile core. Gloucester should have too much ability for the Warriors, but it is easy to foresee another implosion. If Warriors can keep this tight they can prey on Glaws nerves - but do they have the firepower to score the points when needed?

Friday evening concludes in Salford as two sides have been castigated by either the coaches or the fans for poor performances meet. Main difference of course is that Sale lost while Harlequins won. Friday nights at home usually see Sale fired up and usually victorious. It will need a much better performance than they saw last week from the forwards, but there is every chance that they will be too organised for a Quins team that seemed strangely lethargic. Quins fans will want to see much more from their backs, starting with skipper Care showing the verve they are used to.

Saturday starts at the wreck where hosts Bath entertain a Falcons team who also won last week. Both teams struggled for attacking fluency last week, and both sides could see major changes in personnel. Todd Blackadder will be looking at the physio's room with some trepidation due to the volume of injuries suffered last week, while Dean Richards is almost famous now for rotating his team for away fixtures. Even short of certain players, and with their issues at 12, on 2015 form Bath would win this game with some ease. That form has not been seen for a while though and Falcons fans will believe they can cause an upset. In the end it coudl well come down to which team has the individual who creates something from nothing. Sinotti v Roku, Joseph v Goneva if you will.

The M69 derby (less sniggering from Saints fans at the back please) will see both teams looking for more of the good stuff they showed last week, and much less of the bad and the ugly.  Leicester spent 50 minutes showing all the frailties of execution that bedeviled them in the big games last season. Not wanting to take anything away from Gloucester who showed exemplary hands and support running in that spell, it could be argued that Tigers gifted 3 of the tries with two interceptions (Tait and Betham) and Manu's crass attempts to charge out of the line. Defence coach Scott Hansen will be drilling the big man all week it is to be hoped. Meanwhile Wasps showed some good invention in the backs but looked a little light of firepower up front, especially at the breakdown. They will need to see a big improvement in that area if they are not to be over-run by tigers, while the home team will need to improve their support running and just play with a little more nous rather than trying to force everything.

On Sunday we will see what may be the first AP match at Ashton Gate, the lastest groundshare for premiership new boys Bristol. Having played about as well as they could have hoped at Twickenham, yet lost, they host a Saints team smarting from a home defeat in Round 1. Unlike Bristol, it would be hard for anyone to say Northampton played well, yet they still managed to secure the LBP and their defence was strong. Saints fans will hope that DoR Mallinder gives them the midfield they desire and that the pack fronts up. They were seriously poor last week. Saints will need to put in a big performance this week and if they play anything close to their ability they will be too strong. Come up short on that though and Bristol will look for the upset.

Sunday's televised game gives us a repeat of last seasons Premiership Final. Exeter looked strong up front at the Ricoh, but seemed to struggle for fluency in the backs. Everything seemed very direct and was meat and drink for the Wasps defence. Chiefs certainly have the forwards to put the champions under pressure, but may need to play a more territorial game if they want their first win of the season. Despite being some way under par against Worcester, Saracens still won easily, demonstrating their strength and overall class across the pitch. Even if Exeter can gain the upper-hand up front they have that fearsome defence that will force errors from even the best teams and enough players who can thrive on the counter-attack to score the tries needed for victory. Exeter will look to use their driving lineout which has worked so well against ?Saracens in the past, Saracens will try and make Exeter run from deep.



Predictions:

Gloucester by 7
Sale by 5
Bath by 10
Wasps by 30
Saints by 7+
Sarries by 6

Main talking points re teams just announced:

Saints restore their favoured midfield
Tigers rest Manu and TV
Bath go with possibly the biggest back row in AP history with the 20stone Sisi at 7
Exeter callup their Aussie recruits, meaning no place for Ewers.

Looking at that Bath side with so many missing....we HAVE to really get stuck in to them!

Ewers is injured isn't he LT?

propdavid_london wrote:Ewers is injured isn't he LT?

So he is. A knee injury

Veainu is def injured LT.

The Bath back row may be big, but it's also young and inexperienced.  There is definitely an opportunity there for Falcons.

Groom provides all our attacking play and scores two tries, Dickson starts.

Still insisting on the awful Burrell Pisi combo. Ffs.

Forwards look decent though.

Ozzy3213 wrote:The Bath back row may be big, but it's also young and inexperienced.  There is definitely an opportunity there for Falcons.

Agree, Sales pack was big but it didn't make much difference.

Welch, and Wilson a tough competitors...and Olmstead is a big athletic lump....size wont concern them!

Gloucester by 11
Quins by 8
Falcons by 1
Tigers by 9
Bristol by 3
Chiefs by 6

Veainu limped off but we don't yet know if it's anything that'll keep him away for a couple of weeks or if he's just been left out as a precaution.

Great to see the Williams x2 and Fitzgerald back. Probably harsh on Kitch to not start after how strong he was off the bench last week though.

PS - I was not being positive when I described the Bath back row as big. I thought last weeks was far too large to be balanced, this week even worse. Mund they are missing class players like Louw and Faletau, along with good ones like Garvey, Denton and skipper Mercey

Most people will get their first view of our new pitch tomorrow. Looked good against Ospreys

http://www.leicestertigers.com/fans/multimedia/webcams.php

LT - cant be much worse than last seasons!
This one looks sharp though.

propdavid_london wrote:LT - cant be much worse than last seasons!
This one looks sharp though.

Excluding the In-Goal area down the Clubhouse end, last season was actually better than the year before, if you can believe that!!

LondonTiger wrote:Main talking points re teams just announced:

Saints restore their favoured midfield
Tigers rest Manu and TV
Bath go with possibly the biggest back row in AP history with the 20stone Sisi at 7
Exeter callup their Aussie recruits, meaning no place for Ewers.

Big back row maybe, but also very very green and young. We are missing 6 first choice back rowers.

Bathite wrote:

LondonTiger wrote:Main talking points re teams just announced:

Saints restore their favoured midfield
Tigers rest Manu and TV
Bath go with possibly the biggest back row in AP history with the 20stone Sisi at 7
Exeter callup their Aussie recruits, meaning no place for Ewers.

Big back row maybe, but also very very green and young. We are missing 6 first choice back rowers.

Blackadder's new plan, play two back rows at the same time?

From the Stu Lancaster school of tactics there

yappysnap wrote:From the Stu Lancaster school of tactics there

Ah, but bomber was not smart enough to sneak the second back row on as well as the other 15

LondonTiger wrote:Leicester Tigers (v Wasps, Welford Road, Saturday 3pm)
15 Mathew Tait
14 Adam Thompstone
13 Peter Betham
12 Matt Smith
11 J P Pietersen
10 Freddie Burns
9 Sam Harrison
1 Marcos Ayerza
2 Tom Youngs (c)
3 Dan Cole
4 Ed Slater
5 Mike Fitzgerald
6 Luke Hamilton
7 Brendon O'Connor
8 Lachlan McCaffrey

Replacements
16 George McGuigan
17 Ellis Genge
18 Greg Bateman
19 Graham Kitchener
20 Mike Williams
21 Ben Youngs
22 Owen Williams
23 Jack Roberts

Manu out of the match day squad, interesting. Injured or working on his defence skills. Hopefully Tait has a better showing

Oh apparently he's injured, should of guessed really

nathan wrote:Oh apparently he's injured, should of guessed really

Hopefully it's just precautionary and he can come back in next week. Smith deserved a start after his impact from the bench.

Nasty collision start of sale quins, sale player stretchered off. Ran into Marler and Sinckler and came off badly Seems conscious now though so hopefully ok.

Moriaty Has just been ko'Ed

Usual errors from 36

Mass errors from Glaws. Front row is getting hammered, Laidlaw has thrown air passes and the centres look like they're in world's of their own.

36 is off now, he need to works on his skills

Second Glaws player knocked out. Worcester player led with the forearm and walks because of it. It is a bug bear of mine that players get away with using the forearm instead of a proper hand off. Even so that's a little harsh. If Galarza isn't out cold that's not even looked at.

Not a good day for concussions, it was TJ Ioane that went off on a stretcher for Sale.

9-7 Sale at HT. Scrappy game, poor handling, knock ons from Robshaw, Care. Quins had most of the ball and attcking though nothing great. Yarde looked pretty good so far and Odogbu? for Sale looks electric on the ball, a bit unorthodox, he actually tries to go between players!

It's very harsh, his arm was in when the initial contact was made, he then pushed out.

If the ref had a screen he wouldn't of been sent off, it's just this TMO is Poopie

Nice to see Humphreys doing well.

Tigers academy back 3 playing tonight
11) Purdy
14) Odogwu
15) Humphreys.

There is a small lift away from the body before contact and he has transferred the ball so that the arm is free to make the contact. It's reckless and lazy as opposed to malicious. If he drops his shoulder and uses the proper technique then he doesn't have this problem.

Glaws are third time lucky with Marshall passing a HIA after Galarza and Moriarty had left the field. His temporary replacement set up Glaws only try though.

formerly known as Sam wrote:There is a small lift away from the body before contact and he has transferred the ball so that the arm is free to make the contact. It's reckless and lazy as opposed to malicious. If he drops his shoulder and uses the proper technique then he doesn't have this problem.

Glaws are third time lucky with Marshall passing a HIA after Galarza and Moriarty had left the field. His temporary replacement set up Glaws only try though.

Moving the ball into the other arm means nothing, players are taught to do that when going into contact so shouldn't even be mentioned. 

The tackler went high and got his head into the wrong position which should of been a mitigating reason

Has the glous season peaked at 46 minutes last week?

Maybe not

Just need Odogwu to score and a good night for the ex tigers back 3.

Transferring from two hands to one hand facilitates the forearm follow through that is what gets him sent off. Very true that Galarza's attempted tackle is very poor technique.

formerly known as Sam wrote:Transferring from two hands to one hand facilitates the forearm follow through that is what gets him sent off. Very true that Galarza's attempted tackle is very poor technique.

If that's the case it's wrong then, lots of players transfer the ball. It's basic rugby

Falcons to finish ahead of glous calling it now.

can also see them finishing ahead of Quins

Glous for the drop?

Nah
8) Falcons
9) Quins
10) Glous
11) Bristol/worcs
12) Wuss/Bristol

Well, I think Wuss could/should have nicked that. Not bad with 14 v 15 but feel a bit meh.

Gawd our (quins) kicking game is dreadful.

Want to see Jackson on for Evans.

Glaws dreadful - couldn't finish off Wuss with an extra player - missed a massive overlap at the end for a walk in ...

We look better with two men in the bin, forces us to keep it tight!

Heaf wrote:Glaws dreadful - couldn't finish off Wuss with an extra player - missed a massive overlap at the end for a walk in ...

Wuss did well with many players missing + 1 sent off IMHO.

Not a great game for Eddie to watch Kvesic

stub wrote:

Heaf wrote:Glaws dreadful - couldn't finish off Wuss with an extra player - missed a massive overlap at the end for a walk in ...

Wuss did well with many players missing + 1 sent off IMHO.

I'll give you that

Heaf wrote:

stub wrote:

Heaf wrote:Glaws dreadful - couldn't finish off Wuss with an extra player - missed a massive overlap at the end for a walk in ...

Wuss did well with many players missing + 1 sent off IMHO.

I'll give you that

Very harsh red card at Worcester on the ex Bath player.

Fully expect the Bath forwards in this pack in the match against Falcons to play a tight lineout and mauling game simply due to a lack of breakdown specialists.
If the ball is spun out wide, Banahan and Roko will be doing a fair bit of clear out work along with young Clark, who is not exactly small either.

Newcastle played a smart pressure game last season and Bath were lucky to scrape a win. Looking close again this time.

nathan wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:Transferring from two hands to one hand facilitates the forearm follow through that is what gets him sent off. Very true that Galarza's attempted tackle is very poor technique.

If that's the case it's wrong then, lots of players transfer the ball. It's basic rugby

Lots of players lead with the forearm instead of the shoulder or a proper hand off. He's been sent off purely because of the impact on Galarza.

Very unfortunate for Wuss because that looked to be a bonus point win before that happened.

Straight red to Luamanu for a shoulder charge on Beaumont. Two yellows already and Care very lucky not to get one for a deliberate knockdown.

Despite that, Sale haven't been up to much so we're still in.