Aviva Round 13

First topic message reminder :

Friday
19.45 - Worcester vs Bath (BT Sport)
Worcester looking much harder to beat now and with Bath on 3 losses in a row they have a lot of work to do if they want to win away.

Saturday
15.00 - Leicester vs London Irish
Good news for Leicester is LI do not look like they are going to get many wins in the 2nd half of the season at home or away, so this would be a good time for Leicester to stop the rot.

15.00 - Saints vs Gloucester (BT Sport)
Gloucester riding high and Saints fallen off the horse. Saints have a lot to put right at home and have to do so against a side full of belief.

15.00 - Sale vs Quins
Sale have started to show the tough nut teams have come to expect. Quins will have to make sure their forwards dominate the collision and keep Sale on the back foot if they are to win.

15.00 - Newcastle vs Exeter
Newcastle enjoying 3 wins in a row and at home, however they face a team with 7 wins in a row and are the champs. Newcastle have a lot of work to do if they want to get it to 4 wins.

Sunday
15.00 - Wasps vs Saracens (BT Sport)
Saracens been looking ordinary by their standards but have got 2 wins on the trot, Wasps are at home and enjoying a winning run that only Exeter can look down on, should be a cracker to watch.

Scrum, yet again, is an absolute shambles. I have no idea what our scrum coach does.

Sgt_Pooly wrote:Scrum, yet again, is an absolute shambles. I have no idea what our scrum coach does.

Waiting for West to arrive

Another try by Chiefs must have got the bum twitching but a pen for Falcons makes it safe again ...

Haha....I can't wait!

28-20 FT

A last minute pen to Falcons see Exeter get nothing from the game for the first time this season!

Super happy with that, never seen it coming. Fantastic first half performance and defensive effort in the 2nd.

Never in doubt

That ref was the most biased one sided ref I have seen in a long time!!

He tried to get Exeter the points and nearly succeeded!!

We got nothing till those 2 turnovers which makes the win even more impressive. Our scrum though......

Great win Sgt...but by god we literally couldn't work out where he was getting those decisions from

Imagine if we had a scrum!!!

Well done Falcons!

Reading above Wade did not cost Wasps in defence but attempted the intercept when clearly out numbered.
Yes the forward was poor execution, though his off load for the try was excellent.
Wasps lost because as a team they were outplayed by a better side on the day, that's all.

Is wing Josh Adams any good? Supposedly he's top try scorer in the Aviva. The WRU may come calling soon as they seek to continue bringing these boyo's home.

Adams seems a good all rounder from memory. He's been pretty good for a couple of seasons but never managed to be better then pretty good.

I haven't really seen this season though so can't say if he's stepped up.

kingelderfield wrote:Reading above Wade did not cost Wasps in defence but attempted the intercept when clearly out numbered.
Yes the forward was poor execution, though his off load for the try was excellent.
Wasps lost because as a team they were outplayed by a better side on the day, that's all.

Yeah that's why they lost, but he jumped far too early on both intercepts, so early that Farrell hadn't even made the pass yet and could pump fake and float over his head. If he had been a little more patient, he would have forced a decision and some hands to continue to overlap

mikey_dragon wrote:Is wing Josh Adams any good? Supposedly he's top try scorer in the Aviva. The WRU may come calling soon as they seek to continue bringing these boyo's home.

Seems to have kicked on this season. He's good at coming off his wing on clever lines at pace, good acceleration and hard worker. Might have a way to go to be international standard but at the minute he's proving a really good finisher and a menace in that Sam Vesty coached backline. Certainly the 9/10/12 combination of Hougaard, Lance and Mills created a lot of chances for him, Lance's loan has finished though so will be a bit tougher for him now.

Bathite wrote:Wade cost 15 points in the first 18 mins. Flew out the line twice and got a pass floated over his head and then butchered a simple 2on1 with a forward pass!

Certainly at fault for the 1st where he rushed out the line. With these defensive issues you can see why he keeps missing the boat with England, he can just switch off and his height doesn't help in some situations.

Really quite irate with Marler.

We weren’t helped by our first half defence (dire) or a couple of ref decisions that to my biased eyes were dodgy (the final disallowed try for example), but in the end we played ourselves into a great position in the second half with good attack and probably would have won that if not for the totally fair red card. Idiot.

Quins remain about as consistent as Gloucester last season. The mid table remains very exciting, and able to knock off the top teams (well done Falcons)

ChequeredJersey wrote:Really quite irate with Marler.

We weren’t helped by our first half defence (dire) or a couple of ref decisions that to my biased eyes were dodgy (the final disallowed try for example), but in the end we played ourselves into a great position in the second half with good attack and probably would have won that if not for the totally fair red card. Idiot.

Quins remain about as consistent as Gloucester last season. The mid table remains very exciting, and able to knock off the top teams (well done Falcons)

Don't worry my biased eyes were going the other way.

Very true

That disallowed try though was very fortunate. Could easily have been given on another day. Ho hum, they're the breaks though.

It may have been missed, but TJ Ioane has been banned for two weeks for striking Marler 5 minutes before the Quin was sent off.

Mention has been made that Marlers action was a form of retaliation and, not wanting to detract from Marler's personal responsibility here as he is the man to blame for his red card, I have some thoughts:

1) Did Marler's team-mates try and calm him down?
2) Did the officials miss the incident that saw Ioane cited and banned?
3) Would Marler have been sent off if action had been taken at the time against Ioane?
4) Would Sale still have won if Ioane was removed from the pitch at 53 minutes?
5) What difference will this make at the end of the season?

LondonTiger wrote:It may have been missed, but TJ Ioane has been banned for two weeks for striking Marler 5 minutes before the Quin was sent off.

Mention has been made that Marlers action was a form of retaliation and, not wanting to detract from Marler's personal responsibility here as he is the man to blame for his red card, I have some thoughts:

1) Did Marler's team-mates try and calm him down?
2) Did the officials miss the incident that saw Ioane cited and banned?
3) Would Marler have been sent off if action had been taken at the time against Ioane?
4) Would Sale still have won if Ioane was removed from the pitch at 53 minutes?
5) What difference will this make at the end of the season?

Team mates were probably keeping both eyes on Sinkler......forgot that Marler has a tendency to go a bit mental too.

Must be laugh a minute sharing a pitch with Marler/Sinkler every game, both seem mad as a box of frogs.

Most frontrowers are a bit edgy....
Some more than others.....Genge looks to be a bit gnarly too.

propdavid_london wrote:Most frontrowers are a bit edgy....
Some more than others.....Genge looks to be a bit gnarly too.

He is. The key thing for him will be keeping the edge without straying too much into actions that interest the officials.

Marler seems to have gotten sillier again recently. The idiot. But he is also playing well. It’s quite annoying.

On CAW they’d noticed the elbow, which should have been a red, but it’s not one the ref could really have caught tone fair, and doesn’t exonerate Marler one bit

Marler does seem on the road to becoming truly unhinged. Perhaps he is taking Sinkler under his wing and teaching him how to be nuts? When Sinkler starts with the Marler hair styles which remind me of displays in the Natural History Museum, we will know for sure.

doctor_grey wrote:Marler does seem on the road to becoming truly unhinged.  Perhaps he is taking Sinkler under his wing and teaching him how to  be nuts?  When Sinkler starts with the Marler hair styles which remind me of displays in the Natural History Museum, we will know for sure.  

doctor_grey wrote:Marler does seem on the road to becoming truly unhinged.  Perhaps he is taking Sinkler under his wing and teaching him how to  be nuts?  When Sinkler starts with the Marler hair styles which remind me of displays in the Natural History Museum, we will know for sure.  

Take it you mean the Oxford Natural History museum? (or rather the Pitt Rivers museum)

Marler appeared to be bleeding on the side of the head near the ear after an elbow from Ioane ..I think that's what riled him.

As LT said above...if the ref had dealt with that appropriately the whole situation might not have happened..

However Marler was a bit silly doing that right in front of the ref.

GeordieFalcon wrote:Marler appeared to be bleeding on the side of the head near the ear after an elbow from Ioane ..I think that's what riled him.

As LT said above...if the ref had dealt with that appropriately the whole situation might not have happened..

However Marler was a bit silly doing that right in front of the ref.

Appears that was actually from a contact later on, not from Ioane.

He did get elbowed in the head, just didn't bleed. Still it did the job and peed him off enough to be an idiot. His psychiatrist must be shaking his head

http://www.allblacks.com/News/31918/lima-sopoaga-to-leave-new-zealand-rugby

Wasps fans must be excited about this one!!

bsando wrote:http://www.allblacks.com/News/31918/lima-sopoaga-to-leave-new-zealand-rugby

Wasps fans must be excited about this one!!

Is he replacing the aging and increasingly injured Gopperth or Cipriani because he's going to France?

Oh Danny boy the euro's, the euro's are calling.....
All things come to pass and all that....the one that got away....He'll probably go and win the Euro millions Cup now with Jonny at his side guruing him along.

formerly known as Sam wrote:

bsando wrote:http://www.allblacks.com/News/31918/lima-sopoaga-to-leave-new-zealand-rugby

Wasps fans must be excited about this one!!

Is he replacing the aging and increasingly injured Gopperth or Cipriani because he's going to France?

Be interesting seeing how his goal kicking compares with the local sides, as hes easily our best.

lostinwales wrote:

doctor_grey wrote:Marler does seem on the road to becoming truly unhinged.  Perhaps he is taking Sinkler under his wing and teaching him how to  be nuts?  When Sinkler starts with the Marler hair styles which remind me of displays in the Natural History Museum, we will know for sure.  

Take it you mean the Oxford Natural History museum? (or rather the Pitt Rivers museum)

Works for me.  Pitt Rivers???  Of course...........