Gallagher Premiership 2019/20

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Table

Pos	Team	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against	Pts Difference	Bonus	Points
1	Northampton Saints	7	5	2	0	194	146	48	3	23
2	Exeter Chiefs	6	4	2	0	142	97	45	4	20
3	Gloucester Rugby	7	3	4	0	149	121	28	6	18
4	Bristol Bears	7	3	3	1	157	165	-8	4	18
5	Bath Rugby	7	4	3	0	139	145	-6	1	17
6	Worcester Warriors	7	4	3	0	122	144	-22	1	17
7	Sale Sharks	7	3	4	0	144	105	39	5	17
8	Harlequins	7	3	3	1	158	169	-11	3	17
9	London Irish	7	2	4	1	128	179	-51	2	12
10	Wasps	7	2	5	0	134	191	-57	3	11
11	Leicester Tigers	7	1	5	1	118	191	-76	0	6
12	Saracens	6	5	1	0	158	87	71	-32	-13

Bath
Last Season - 6th

Players in: Lewis Boyce (Prop), Christian Judge (Prop), Will Stuart (Prop), Mike Williams (Utility Forward), Josh McNally (Second Row), Ollie Fox (Scrum Half)
Promoted from Academy: Miles Reid, Will Vaughan, Sam Nixon, Tom de Glanville, Will Britton, Jack Davies, Tom Doughty, Levi Davis promoted (X Factor permitting)

Players Out: Dave Attwood (Second Row), Paul Grant (Back Row), Luke Charteris (Second Row), James Wilson (Utility Back), Kahn Fotuali'i (Scrum Half), Jacques van Rooyen (Prop), Jack Wilson (Wing), Cooper Vuna (Wing), Anthony Perenise (Prop), Michael van Vuuren (Hooker), Max Lahiff (Prop)


Bristol Bears
Last Season - 9th

Players in: Dave Attwood (Second Row), Nathan Hughes (Back Row), Nicky Thomas (Prop), Max Lahiff (Prop), Tyrese Johnson-Fisher (Wing)
Promoted from Academy: Sam Bedlow, John Hawkins, Toby Fricker

Players out: Nick Haining (Back Row), George Smith (Back Row), Nick Fenton-Wells (Back Row), Joe Latta (Second Row), Tusi Pisi (Fly Half), Sione Faletau (Prop), Jack Lam (Back Row)


Exeter Chiefs
Last Season: Runners Up

Players in: Stuart Hogg (Full Back), Will Witty (Second Row), Tom Price (Second Row), Stan South (Utility Forward), Jannes Kirsten (Utility Forward), Jacques Vermeulen (Utility Forward)

Players out: Santiago Cordero (Wing/FB), Tom Lawday (Back Row), Moray Low (Prop), Ollie Atkins (Second Row), Mitch Lees (Second Row)


Gloucester
Last Season: 3rd

Players in: Joe Simpson (Scrum Half), Jamal Ford-Robinson (Prop), Chris Harris (Centre), Corne Fourie (Prop)
Promoted from Academy: Charlie Chapman, Alex Seville, Alex Craig, Ciaran Knight, Tom Seabrook, Henry Walker

Players out: Paddy McAllister (Prop), Gareth Denman (Prop), Kyle Traynor (Prop) Tom Savage (Second Row), Gareth Evans (Back Row), Ben Vellacott (Scrum Half), Henry Purdy (Centre/Wing)


Harlequins
Last Season 4th

Players in: Santiago Garcias Botta (Prop), Martin Landajo (Scrum Half), Michele Campagnaro (Centre), Scott Baldwin (Hooker), Stephan Lewies (Second Row), Glen Young (Second Row), Will Evans (Flanker), Simon Kerrod (Prop), Tom Lawday (Back Row), Travis Ismaiel (Wing), Veriniki Goneva (Wing), Tevita Cavubati (Second Row)

Players out: Alofa Alofa (Utility Back), George Merrick (Second Row), Lewis Boyce (Prop), James Horwill (Second Row), Josh Ibuanokpe (Prop), Tim Visser (Wing), Charlie Walker(Wing), Demitir Catrakilis (Fly Half), Mat Luamanu (Back Row), Luke Wallace (Flanker), Stan South (Second Row), Dave Ward (Hooker), Dave Lewis (Scrum Half), Ben Glynn (Second Row)


Leicester Tigers
Last season 11th

Players in: Jordan Taufua (Back Row), Noel Reid (Fly Half/Centre), Calum Green (Second Row), Jaco Taute (Centre), Tomas Lavanini (Second Row), Nephi Leatigaga (Prop), Charlie Clare (Hooker), Joe Thomas (Centre), Johnny McPhillips (Fly Half), EW Viljoen (Utility Back), Hanro Liebenberg (Back Row), Jordan Coghlan (Back Row)
Promoted from Academy: Tom Hardwicke, Joe Heyes, Sam Lewis, Jordan Olowefela, Tommy Reffell, Sam Aspland Robinson, Harry Simmons, Ben White

Players out: Matt Toomua (Centre), Mike Williams (Utility Forward), Graham Kitchener (Second Row), Mathew Tait (Utility Back), Will Evans (Flanker), Tom Varndell (Winger), James Voss (Second Row), Matt Smith (Centre), Gareth Owen (Centre), Michael Fitzgerald (Second Row), Brendon O'Connor (Back Row), Valentino Mapapalangi (Back Row), Fred Tuilagi (Back Row), Leonardo Sarto (Wing),  Joe Ford (Fly Half), David Feao (Prop), David Denton (Back Row), Ross McMillan (Hooker), Campese Ma'afu (Prop), Charlie Thacker (Centre)


London Irish
Last Season: Promoted

Players in: Allan Dell (Prop), Nick Phipps (Scrum Half), Curtis Rona (Wing), Sean O'Brien (Back Row), Sekope Kepu (Prop), Paddy Jackson (Fly Half), Waisake Naholo (Wing), Adam Coleman (Second Row), Ruan Botha (Second Row), Steve Mafi (Utility Forward), George Nott (Utility Forward)

Players Out: Josh McNally (Second Row), Ian Keatley (Fly Half), Brendan McKibbin (Centre), Mike Coman (Back Row), Tommy Bell (Utility Back), Topsy Ojo (Wing), Fergus Mulchrone (Centre), Luke McLean (Full Back), Sebastian de Chaves (Second Row), Ofisa Treviranus (Back Row), Greig Tonks (Utility Back),  Napolioni Nalaga (Wing), Sam Twomey (Second Row), Filo Paulo (Second Row), Manasa Saulo (Prop)


Northampton Saints
Last Season: 4th

Players in: Matt Proctor (Utility back), Owen Franks (Prop), Ryan Olowofela (Wing), Henry Taylor (Scrum Half), Michael van Vuuren (Hooker)
Promoted from Academy: Ehren Painter, Fraser Dingwall,  James Grayson,  Alex Mitchell,  Alex Moon

Players Out: Luther Burrell (Centre), Jamal Ford-Robinson (Prop), James Craig (Utility Forward), James Haskell (Back Row), Dominic Barrow (Second Row), Nafi Tuitavake (Wing), Ken Pisi (Centre)


Sale Sharks
Last Season: 7th

Players in: Jake Cooper-Woolley (Prop), Robert du Preez (Fly Half), Akker van der Merwe (Hooker), Lood de Jager (Second Row), Coenie Oosthuizen (Prop), Dan du Preez (Utility Forward), Jean-Luc du Preez (Back Row), Simon Hammersley (Full Back), Mark Wilson (Back Row)

Players Out: Andrei Ostrikov (Second Row), Mark Jennings (Centre), Alexandru Țăruș (Prop), Johnny Leota (Centre),  Paolo Odogwu (Wing), James O'Connor (Utility Back), Josh Strauss (Back Row), George Nott (Utility Forward)


Saracens
Last Season: Champions

Players in: Elliot Daly (Utility back), Rhys Carré (Prop), Jack Singleton (Hooker), Josh Ibuanokpe (Prop)
Promoted from Academy: Alistair Crossdale, Dominic Morris

Players out: Christopher Tolofua (Hooker), Sione Vailanu (Back Row), Hayden Thompson-Stringer (Prop), David Strettle (Wing), Henry Taylor (Scrum Half) Dominic Day (Second Row), Marcelo Bosch (Centre), Schalk Burger (Back Row)


Wasps
Last Season: 8th

Players in: Malakai Fekitoa (Centre), Jeffery Toomaga-Allen (Prop), Ben Vellacott (Scrum Half), Matteo Minozzi (Utility back), Sione Vailanu (Back row), Biyi Alo (Prop), Paolo Odogwu (Wing), Zach Kibirige (wing)
Promoted from academy:  Will Porter,  Callum Sirker,  Sam Spink,  Tom Willis,  Tim Cardall,  Gabriel Oghre,  Owain James, Jacob Umaga

Players out: Jake Cooper-Woolley (Prop), Nathan Hughes (Back row), Will Stuart (Prop), Elliot Daly (Centre), Joe Simpson (Scrum half), Willie le Roux (Full Back), Michele Campagnaro (Centre), Kearnan Myall (Second Row), Gabiriele Lovobalavu (Centre), Matt Mullan (Prop)


Worcester Warriors
Last Season 10th

Players in: Graham Kitchener (Second Row), Jono Kitto (Scrum Half), Melani Nanai (Wing), Ed Fidow (Wing)
Promoted from Academy: Andrew Kitchener,  Ted Hill

Players out:  Bryce Heem (Wing), Josh Adams (Wing), Darren Barry (Second Row), Wynand Olivier (Centre), Dewald Potgieter (Back row), Jack Singleton (Hooker), Jonny Arr (Scrum half), Carl Kirwan (Back row), Luke Baldwin (Scrum Half), Ben Te'o (Centre), Alafoti Fa'osiliva (Back row)

Wasps away at Sale tonight. Tough assignment. Team:

Minozzi, Kibirige, De Jongh, Gopperth, Odogwu, Sopoaga, Robson;
McIntyre, Taylor, Brookes, Matthews, Rowlands, Shields, Carr, Vailanu
Reps: Cruse, Harris, Toomaga-Allen, Flament, Willis, Wolstenholme, Searle, Le Bourgeois

Great to see Jack back, albeit on the bench, and Billy Searle too. No Fekitoa, nursing a hand injury apparently - so having had the vaunted Sopoaga, Gopperth, Fekitoa axis in action for the first time last week, it's already disrupted again. It's that lack of continuity which hinders understanding and fluency... although De Jongh is by no means a bad replacement.

Lot of bulk in that back row, but perhaps a tad slow?

LondonTiger wrote:Lot of bulk in that back row, but perhaps a tad slow?

You'd think, looking at it, but Nizaam Carr is surprisingly quick. Vailanu certainly isn't but he's right at the top of the tackles broken / metres made stats (or was last time I looked). With Shields doing the "grunt" work, it's surprisingly well balanced.

When everyone is fit we do have an abundance of riches in the back row, with Thomas Young and Jack Willis to come in, along with Tom Willis. Then there's Alex Rieder and Smashley Johnson too.

Difficult to even suggest what a "first choice" back row looks like, but it's a nice problem to have!

Leicester Tigers (v London Irish, away, Sunday 2.30pm)

15 Jonah Holmes
14 Adam Thompstone
13 Andy Forsyth
12 Tom Hardwick
11 Jordan Olowofela
10 Noel Reid
9 Sam Harrison
1 Greg Bateman
2 Tom Youngs (c)
3 Joe Heyes
4 Harry Wells
5 Calum Green
6 Sione Kalamafoni
7 Guy Thompson
8 Jordan Taufua

Replacements

16 Charlie Clare
17 Facundo Gigena
18 Nephi Leatigaga
19 Tomás Lavanini
20 Jordan Coghlan
21 Ben White
22 George Worth
23 Sam Aspland-Robinson

London Irish: 15 Paddy Jackson, 14 Waisake Naholo, 13 Curtis Rona, 12 Terrence Hepetema, 11 Ben Loader, 10 Stephen Myler, 9 Ben Meehan, 1 Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi, 2 Saia Fainga’a, 3 Ollie Hoskins, 4 Ruan Botha, 5 Franco van der Merwe (c), 6 Blair Cowan, 7 TJ Ioane, 8 Albert Tuisue

Replacements: 16 Motu Matu’u, 17 Allan Dell, 18 Lovejoy Chawatama, 19 George Nott, 20 Matt Rogerson, 21 Nick Phipps, 22 Matt Williams, 23 Tom Parton

Unavailable for Tigers;

Internationals on stand down: Genge, Cole, Young's, Ford, Manu, May.

Injured: TPN, Kerr, Spencer, Liebenburg, Reffell, Taute, Viljoen, TV.

formerly known as Sam wrote:Unavailable for Tigers;

Internationals on stand down: Genge, Cole, Young's, Ford, Manu, May.

Injured: TPN, Kerr, Spencer, Liebenburg, Reffell, Taute, Viljoen, TV.

Eastmond injured too.

formerly known as Sam wrote:Leicester Tigers (v London Irish, away, Sunday 2.30pm)

18 Lovejoy Chawatama

Best name in the Premiership..........Ever.

Just one former Tiger in the LI team I see.

Yes shame we lost Lewington last time we went down - still Sarries managed to squeeze him into their budget somehow

They kept Phipps even being in the country pretty quiet, so that's a surprise. Lovejoy's a character. Came over from Zimbabwe in his teens iirc. Took up rugby late, but progressed pretty rapidly to a point where we picked him up from London Welsh when they went under.

Interestingly (or not) Aspland-Robinson was a member of the same school team as Williams, Parton and a few more of the LI squad (Brand & Curtis-Harris). Loader was a year or two younger, but also part of the setup along with Josh Basham who's now with Newcastle

https://www.schoolsrugby.co.uk/newsItem.aspx?NewsID=170&T=RWM

LondonTiger wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:Unavailable for Tigers;

Internationals on stand down: Genge, Cole, Young's, Ford, Manu, May.

Injured: TPN, Kerr, Spencer, Liebenburg, Reffell, Taute, Viljoen, TV.

Eastmond injured too.

I knew I'd forgotten a centre.

Pretty good backline unavailable;

Youngs, Ford
Taute, Manu
May, TV, Viljoen

Much closer to the first choice one than the one we're fielding sadly. Could be a a long afternoon for our backs looking at what LI are fielding, hope the defence is as good as last weekend.

LI looking stronger than I would like up front, don't think we're going to bully then easily.

LondonTiger wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:Leicester Tigers (v London Irish, away, Sunday 2.30pm)

18 Lovejoy Chawatama

Best name in the Premiership..........Ever.

Just one former Tiger in the LI team I see.

With Falcons going down we lost George Wacokecoke. I'm glad to see a suitably fabulous name has come up in the transaction.

Wasps getting away with murder in defence so far.

Regularly offside ...

Debut for Naholo?

Yep - looking forward to seeing him on Sunday ...

Wasps playing like a charity invitational team. Attacking structure I can't see but the off the cuff stuff is good. Defence they are pushing their luck considerably but that's nothing new.

Ref's going to need a new pea in his whistle at this rate ...

Heaf wrote:Ref's going to need a new pea in his whistle at this rate ...

Wasps discipline is appalling, it's like watching Tigers last season. If Rob du Preez had his kicking boots on then they'd be in trouble here.

I was surprised given how blatant the Cruse penalty was that Sale didn't kick for the corner and put some pressure in the ref to produce a yellow card.

Foley having a poor day. First half he could not be arsed to ref Wasps, second half giving Sale everything.

Soft yellow card for the Sale loosehead. If you're going to drop the shoulder in and risk a card you've got to leave the opposition player counting his ribs.

Odogwu going for a red for a really dirty kick to the face.

formerly known as Sam wrote:Soft yellow card for the Sale loosehead. If you're going to drop the shoulder in and risk a card you've got to leave the opposition player counting his ribs.

Odogwu going for a red for a really dirty kick to the face.

Odogwu deserves a second red card for his reaction to being sent off.

Overall Sharks are deserving winners. I was impressed by Ben Curry.

Sale have a lot of players to come back in too.

LondonTiger wrote:Overall Sharks are deserving winners.

Agreed. They had more structure, territory and probably possession. Scrappy game. Wasps looked like a slot of skillful individuals not sure how to play together and the discipline was terrible. Conceding 19 penalties is just awful discipline.

Yep Sharks good for the win ... I had them by 5.

Feck I forgot to predict

Ooops ...

Didn't see the game, was out training. I gather we were pretty dire. Not to say Sharks weren't good, but my intel is that we were "meh". Gave away 19 pens, I heard. Shocking.

I didn't expect us to get anything from it, but to make it so hard for ourselves is a bit galling.

Rinsure wrote:Didn't see the game, was out training. I gather we were pretty dire. Not to say Sharks weren't good, but my intel is that we were "meh". Gave away 19 pens, I heard. Shocking.

I didn't expect us to get anything from it, but to make it so hard for ourselves is a bit galling.

Wasn't all bad. You kept dragging yourselves back into the game. The individual skill in the backline and backrow was evident everytime the game opened up. If the coaches get some coherent structure in place you should be dangerous. The penalties were often quite cynical in your own half because the defensive line was broken.

Looking forward to Gloucester vs Saracens today...

formerly known as Sam wrote: If the coaches get some coherent structure in place you should be dangerous.

2nd week in a row Sarries benefit from some shocking officiating. Glaws were poor but had a non existent pen given against them gifting Sarries a try and then Sarries give about about 8 pens in a row in the red zone with no card ... jeez.

If you give a team warning and then they infringe again it should be yellow whether the other team score or not.

Agree. Maxwell-Keys should have gone to his pocket even after the try. To be honest their should have been a card before then, you don't have to give a warning if you are constantly giving new advantages you can just give a card the defending team know what they are doing.

Yep - Sarries were taking the p*ss and should have had someone in the bin about 5 minutes before Glaws eventually scored.

Heaf wrote:Yep - Sarries were taking the p*ss and should have had someone in the bin about 5 minutes before Glaws eventually scored.  

There is a certain skill to pushing the ref right up to his limit and then backing off. Not sure Sarries were that good mind, very lucky Glaws scored when they did. Sarries are pretty good at playing with 14 anyway (plenty of practice).

Anyone else find Sandersons post match comments about the fine etc pretty classless? He comes across badly there and seems petulant about being caught. Definitely not displaying the clubs core virtues...

yappysnap wrote:Anyone else find Sandersons post match comments about the fine etc pretty classless? He comes across badly there and seems petulant about being caught. Definitely not displaying the clubs core virtues...

I did not hang around for the post match analysis.

OK, just found it on the BT Sports App. He could certainly have reacted in a better way.

Margin_Walker wrote:Taufua likely to feature then? Looking forward to seeing how he goes in the GP

Holmes will score against us. He always does.

Well he left it late, but told you.

Reasonably happy with that result

Not sure how Exeter managed to lose that, but they managed it!

Yeah - bloody annoying - I was on 2.5 points when the match went into extra time and ended up with zero ...

Well that was a depressing game to listen to. I'm not looking forward to watching it but I've said that many times over the last 3 seasons and I always seem to watch out of curiosity.

Sounded like yet another second half where Ben White started showing some spark and tempo but only once the game was gone.

Bottom line is we don't have a squad to weather the absence of Youngs, Ford, Manu, Taute, May and Veainu from the back line. It's no excuse for the lack of structure at this level though. Other sides manage it, Tigers should be able to with their resources.

To top things off Taufua failed a HIA as well.

Thankfully we have two weeks of Challenge Cup to integrate some of the returnees before travelling to Saints.

LondonTiger wrote:OK, just found it on the BT Sports App. He could certainly have reacted in a better way.

Yea I know he wants to stick up for his club, and he probably does feel under attack. But it's for a bloody good reason and him responding like that will just fuel the "haters".

Tbh Sarries still getting to use their full squad this season leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

Also, what is happening at Quins? A home loss to Wuss when we were well in front is just terrible. Especially with so many big name players in the team.

Great response from the Gloucester fans at the weekend, waving fake £50 notes at Sarries players, Bath fans would have waved real £50s though!

yappysnap wrote:Also, what is happening at Quins? A home loss to Wuss when we were well in front is just terrible. Especially with so many big name players in the team.

Apparently the lead flattered Quins.

TightHEAD wrote:Great response from the Gloucester fans at the weekend, waving fake £50 notes at Sarries players, Bath fans would have waved real £50s though!

Given to them by Bruce Craig to throw on the pitch for the players - circumventing the cap.

LondonTiger wrote:

TightHEAD wrote:Great response from the Gloucester fans at the weekend, waving fake £50 notes at Sarries players, Bath fans would have waved real £50s though!

Given to them by Bruce Craig to throw on the pitch for the players - circumventing the cap.

Why not, always ways around little problems like Salary Caps.

yappysnap wrote:Anyone else find Sandersons post match comments about the fine etc pretty classless? He comes across badly there and seems petulant about being caught. Definitely not displaying the clubs core virtues...

Sanderson is wrong, we do not hate Sarries as a club and we do not hate their players.

Rugby players have a short career and they took advantage of someone offering them more money and some security for their futures. I accept that.

But rugby fans cannot 'Respect' Sarries ever again, they are cheats, they have cheated rugby fans up and down the country. We all pay good money to watch our teams play in the hope that we can lift the final prize when in truth many of those hopes and dreams were not realistic because they were cheating.

TBH I suspect that most premiership fans should check they are not in a glass house before throwing any stones.

Main issue is that Saracens were so much better at cheating than the rest, not that they were/are the only ones to have cheated the cap.