Gallagher Premiership Round 11

First topic message reminder :

Bored at work so thought I would put a post up as it has been a few weeks since the last.

Northampton Saints Vs Exeter - Friday 28th 19.35 BT SPORT

Northampton were impressive away against Worcester away last week, started to see some nice play from them. Exeter quite convincingly beat Saracens to return top of the table and will have taken a lot of encouragement from that result. Could be a tight game but still think Exeter too used to winning and I believe it is an away win, but closer than the beginning of the season would have suggested, losing bonus point to Saints.

Gloucester Vs Sale Sharks - Saturday 29th 15.00

Gloucester been putting in some very strong performances, and have lost only 1 at home in the Premiership this season. Sale are away and have improved but still not looking at their best but still dangerous and have a good defence with only the top 3 conceded more points. For me Gloucester will have to have the foot off the peddle for Sale to win, however a losing bonus point is plausible.

Saracens Vs Worcester - Saturday 29th 15.00

Saracens will be hurting after the loss last week and will be looking to show their stuff again. Worcester will not be thanking Exeter for last week and will be hoping Saracens don't turn up, difficult to see past a home win with a try bonus point looking more likely than a losing bonus point.

Harlequins Vs Wasps - Saturday 29th 16.00 BT SPORT

Quins host Wasps with a lovely pattern of having a loss following a win and visa versa for the last 7 premiership games, so this should be a win as who am I to argue with the gods? Wasps have not look convincing in their last 5 outings in the premiership and will be desperate to turn the tide of will be falling into the dangerously tight midfield. Unless Wasps show better form I think this will be a tight win for Quins.

Bath Vs Leicester - Sunday 30th 15.00 BT SPORT

Bath played well on the road last week and will be hoping to continue that at home on Sunday, they certainly looked a better team than a few weeks ago. Leicester are another team desperate to start recording more wins they got a good win over Quins last week. however doubts still remain of their defence and Bath will be ready to exploit any gaps. I suspect a tight home win.

Bristol Vs Newcastle - Sunday 30th 15.00

Both teams threatening to fall away from the pack and desperately need some good results to drag themselves out of the relegation zone. Newcastle are not looking like last year's team at all so far and Bristol must be seeing this as a chance to gain some very valuable points. Newcastle must be seeing the game the same. Very difficult to say could go either way, going to go against my own Superbru prediction and go 3 point Bristol win.

Yup. Also could have gone with coming off their feet initially. Or not rolling away causing a knock on and possible yellow. On another day bath get their try disallowed for jumping.and tuilagi gets a yellow for playing the ball on the floor After a pretty harsh knock on call. Leicester were not beaten by the ref.

Disagree, they were clearly not tries and it clearly affected the result.

It was a poor performance by JP and the TMO

Yup poor performance. Just not always against Leicester.

I understand that. Your response is a lazy one. It's clear he cocked up with 2 tries.

B8t for one of those probably should have been a pen and a yellow card would you not agree? Knock on clearly caused by not rolling away. A try should have been given to lowe. Tuilagi should have been given a yellow. Yes you're right 2 tries shouldn't hav3 been given. Just go back to it a a bit disingenuous yo suggest it's merely a 12 point switch.
Right decisions you could argue would have resulted in bigger defeat.

Manu did nothing wrong. This was reviewed and a decision reached.

The knock on was because of a counter ruck. The tackled player does not have to roll out the way either. Worth was tackles and the Bath players flopped over and then Chudley knocked on at the base.

Utter utter rubbish

Come off it. You're not allowed to play the ball as tuilagi did. And yes even if it's a ruck the player must attempt to move out of the way as the ball emerges. I can certainly see the complaint about going off their feet but Doyle is lax on it in general. I'm far from saying the ref had a good game buy he was bad for both teams.

Yes you are. The ball has been knocked on and is loose he's allowed to regather it but must then either pass or place the ball or immediately get to his feet. He does neither because a Bath player dives on top of him.

I reiterate my view that JP's performance was average. The TMO's performance shambolic. JP wasn't given the footage to make a decision on either of the two incorrect tries nor the high tackle at the end because the TMO couldn't be bothered to do his job. Blame lies entirely with the TMO.

This has been put up on Twitter;

"Total respect for Manu Tuilagi today. Last man left in @LeicesterTigers dressing room today, swept it clean and placed all rubbish in the bins. Even congratulated @bathrugby on our win! #unseenhero"

https://mobile.twitter.com/stevemiddy1865/status/1079496537745563648

Might dispell some of the rubbish that gets aimed at Manu.

And I did say the harsh knock in call would have saved tuilagi. On another day he's going to the bin for playing the ball on the ground. He's made a tackle to save a try by jumping over a ruck. He needs to move away from the ball and regain his feet before attempting to play the ball.

Trying to rack my brains but the prem isn't running the new tmo system of them only being involved when directly called by the ref are they?

Looks like he's slowly getting back to his best though which is great news for him.

The tissue paper weak defence has rightly taken a beating but Tigers line-out may well take the biscuit as the worst area of their game.

With a strong scrum and three international half-backs at 9/10/12 Tigers should be dominating possession and territory. They do neither and the biggest culprit there is the line-out and especially the mauling.

During the days of Parling, Kitchener, Slater, Croft and Gibson being at the club Geoff Parling was once asked who the best line-out forward was, to which he unhesitatingly answered "Marcos Ayerza". The entire pack need to do better in an area where Tigers are probably worst in the league.

If players were allowed to jump into or over tackles, no tackle would ever be allowed as you cannot tackle a player in the air. Seem to remember this discussion some time ago.

Great game by Saints on Friday really deserved the win, massive defence and clinical when it came to taking the chances they had.

Some of the youngsters coming through look seriously good although Waller looks a shadow of the player he was a couple of seasons ago, he shouldn't really be starting these days. Dingwall has class written all over him, good defender as well for such a slight frame.

The defence worked pretty well. The mail and lineout were as you say a complete shambles. I've seen social sides knock together better rolling mauls with nothing but 5 minutes and a fag pre game. We have enough players with experience at this level and enough lineout options that this should not be happening.

The breakdown was the big area of concern for me. Underhill going off was a game changer. He was pretty much the number one reason why Tigers had no ball to play with, he either slowed it down or stole it (assisted by Louw). The first half we were mullered at the breakdown, second half we got parity and some big turnovers (BOC must have been in Underhill's pocket during the first half because he wasn't doing anything until the second). Once Evans and BOC were on together we looked like we had some actual dynamism.

The reason our international 9/10/12 didn't dominate territory and possession was A) the aforementioned breakdown mullering, B) our international 9 was comprehensively outplayed by the journeyman Bath fielded (and then our development 9 who replaced him), Benny hasn't played well for Tigers for some time, C) Toomua tackled but looks either bereft of confidence or just not fussed in attack. Jamie Roberts is a shadow of his former self and was next to useless, he filed a try thanks to a lazy TMO which hid the fact he'd been held up by George Ford in the tackle, Toomua should have run rings round him. Eastmond will be back next weekend and might well start.

Fordy was a key reason we got the LBP. Our best player again. Worrying where we'd be without him.

WELL-PAST-IT wrote:If players were allowed to jump into or over tackles, no tackle would ever be allowed as you cannot tackle a player in the air. Seem to remember this discussion some time ago.

Great game by Saints on Friday really deserved the win, massive defence and clinical when it came to taking the chances they had.

Some of the youngsters coming through look seriously good although Waller looks a shadow of the player he was a couple of seasons ago, he shouldn't really be starting these days. Dingwall has class written all over him, good defender as well for such a slight frame.

Dingwall has future international written all over him. Wasn't impressed by much of the Saints play but they'd come alive and score from nowhere, clinical with their chances. Very well organised defence which was crucial to the win.

formerly known as Sam wrote:

No 7&1/2 wrote:Lots of mistakes granted. Implying that the refs decusions swung it to bath bit wide of the mark.

Bath should have had 50 points but they didn't because they were no where near clinical enough and Tigers were surprisingly good in defence.

Not down to the ref, down to the TMO. The ref makes decisions. The TMO is there to help him, by not giving JP the chance to review key decisions the TMO is not doing his job. Geordie was apparently very unhappy and has every right to be. Bath got two late Christmas presents.

Have to agree with a lot of this. We had so much possession and territory, it shouldn't have been close. But I also agree that our tries were questionable at best. Those decisions, along with the ruck appeared to be lucky dip. I couldn't see any consistency at all. But i'd had 6 pints!