Gallagher Premiership 2020/21

First topic message reminder :

The new season starts next weekend. What are people's hopes and expectations?

king_carlos wrote:Well taken try by Sale. The difference in quality of kicking this half has been huge.

Difference is the half backs. Sale's are much better than ours.

Leatigaga can't complain with that yellow card at all.

Tempest has made his mind up already. Lavanini has both hands touch the players leg before momentum send him back.

Ah the TMO talks him out of it.

Montoya needs to shift some timber after not playing for a while!

Yep, the halfbacks have been poor for Tigers whilst Faf and MacGinty have been composed.

Montoya looks powerful though. Walters has only had a week or two with him. Give him a couple of months.

Montoya is a fantastic player no doubt. Once fit he should be the best hooker Tigers have had since Kayser.

Literally no patience ball in hand from Tigers. Moroni and Scott have barely touched the ball.

A dire second half from Tigers. We finally moved the ball wider with less than 10 minutes left. First time we score a walk in try and second time we nearly go the length of the field.

Liebenberg, Wiese and Steward were all good. Familiar story for this season.

Our halfbacks without Youngs and Ford were abject. Familiar story in recent seasons.

There was no interplay between our backs until the second try and then none again until the length of the field finale effort. Henry stood flat and panicked throughout. McPhillips called moves that used him as a dummy. We've got to find away of using the backs more. Fair enough we aren't going to run from our own half but we've got to offer more in the opposition's 22. We spent plenty of time in the Sale 22 as well.

Sanderson took Sale back to basics and fair play to them it worked. They were physical and organised and clinical when they got an opportunity.

That was a big win from Bristol. How is Amos ahead of Lloyd...

Bristol did very well. But I have to say Bath looked incredibly disorganised on defense. A number of the Bristol tries were simply Bath committing to the wrong man and leaving gaps a semi could coast through. Bath really didn't look like a professional defense.

doctor_grey wrote:Bristol did very well.  But I have to say Bath looked incredibly disorganised on defense.  A number of the Bristol tries were simply Bath committing to the wrong man and leaving gaps a semi could coast through.  Bath really didn't look like a professional defense.  

Well that’s the thing, Semi did coast through.... He played well but Uren got POTM.

mikey_dragon wrote:

doctor_grey wrote:Bristol did very well.  But I have to say Bath looked incredibly disorganised on defense.  A number of the Bristol tries were simply Bath committing to the wrong man and leaving gaps a semi could coast through.  Bath really didn't look like a professional defense.  

Well that’s the thing, Semi did coast through.... He played well but Uren got POTM.

mikey_dragon wrote:That was a big win from Bristol. How is Amos ahead of Lloyd...

His time will come. Probably very soon as the kid has an impressive skillset and is rapid.

Give it two or three years and then Wales will enjoy dual playmakers at 10 and 15 with Costelow and Lloyd. With the right head coach that will be rather good to watch as a neutral.

formerly known as Sam wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:That was a big win from Bristol. How is Amos ahead of Lloyd...

His time will come. Probably very soon as the kid has an impressive skillset and is rapid.

Give it two or three years and then Wales will enjoy dual playmakers at 10 and 15 with Costelow and Lloyd. With the right head coach that will be rather good to watch as a neutral.

That would be good. I think Protheroe could be another playmaker too. All three are a bit small however, that can often be exposed in international rugby.

mikey_dragon wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:That was a big win from Bristol. How is Amos ahead of Lloyd...

His time will come. Probably very soon as the kid has an impressive skillset and is rapid.

Give it two or three years and then Wales will enjoy dual playmakers at 10 and 15 with Costelow and Lloyd. With the right head coach that will be rather good to watch as a neutral.

That would be good. I think Protheroe could be another playmaker too. All three are a bit small however, that can often be exposed in international rugby.

Lloyd is only 19 and whilst he's not tall he's not short either. He could still fill out a bit, Liam Williams isn't the biggest but is fine physically. Costelow is short but is a little stocky and loves a tackle so his aggressive mentality might make up for his lack of physicality. He too has age on his side and could fill out. If they are the playmakers in the backline at 10 and 15 you could select some hefty options alongside them. Johnny Williams should be a long term asset at 12 and he's good physically and in defence.

Protheroe is 24. He isn't going to naturally fill out anymore so it is down to gym work for him to see what his frame can take whilst he keeps the pace. He never quite made it in the Prem. Not sure he's one that can step up to international rugby though he could still come into his own.

Wasps squad to face Quins

(First-team appearances)

15 Lima Sopoaga (51)
14 Zach Kibirige (32)
13 Malakai Fekitoa (23)
12 Jimmy Gopperth (114)
11 Matteo Minozzi (22)
10 Jacob Umaga (35)
9 Will Porter (25)

1 Simon McIntyre (177)
2 Tom Cruse (90)
3 Jeff Toomaga-Allen (29)
4 Will Rowlands (98)
5 James Gaskell (128)
6 Brad Shields (36)
7 Thomas Young (128)
8 Tom Willis (28)

Replacements

16 Tommy Taylor (77)
17 Ben Harris (67)
18 Kieran Brookes (48)
19 Tim Cardall (24)
20 Ben Morris (35)
21 Sam Wolstenholme (14)
22 Michael Le Bourgeois (43)
23 Rob Miller (114)


Harlequins Starting XV



1. Joe Marler (208)
2. Scott Baldwin (25)
3. Wilco Louw (11)
4. Matt Symons (47)
5. Stephan Lewies (21) - Captain
6. Archie White (32)
7. Will Evans (28)
8. Alex Dombrandt (59)

9. Danny Care (289)
10. Marcus Smith (93)
11. Aaron Morris (54)
12. Andre Esterhuizen (8)
13. Joe Marchant (96)
14. Louis Lynagh (4)
15. Mike Brown (340)

Impact Players

16. Elia Elia (59)
17. Jordan Els (8)
18. Simon Kerrod (33)
19. Glen Young (27)
20. Richard de Carpentier (1)
21. Martin Landajo (22)
22. James Lang (73)
23. Tyrone Green (3)

Timely returns for Fekitoa, Miller, Kibirige
& Minnozi.
Academy product Will Porter starts at fly half.
A decent squad considering players missing through injury & call ups.
Quins will still believe it’s a good time to play us I suspect.

Late change for LI today with Hassell-Collins dropping out and being replaced by James Stokes. Loader switches to the left wing.

Has the commentator even seen ths Falcons. Stating several times that Van der walt has had a sensational start to his prem career...erm hardly.

He needs a massive game todsy

Irish really hitting our scrum...

They've come out on fire...and aggressive

Margin_Walker wrote:Late change for LI today with Hassell-Collins dropping out and being replaced by James Stokes. Loader switches to the left wing.

Any news on why?

Was Creevy and Antonio Banderas separated at birth?

107 cap Australian takes the lineout and 89 capped Argentinian hooker scores...

Says it all,

Nice turnover completely wasted by a shocker of a kick

Creevy is definitely one of our best signings of late

let's hope Irish can keep this going ...

How can you field so many foreigners? I thought there was a limit of two?

I'm counting 5 Aussies, 1 Argentinian, I kiwi, 1 Zimbabwean, I fijian...etc

Nice one young Ben.

GeordieFalcon wrote:How can you field so many foreigners?  I thought there was a limit of two?

I'm counting 5 Aussies,  1 Argentinian,  I kiwi, 1 Zimbabwean, I fijian...etc

I'm not really sure but I think some of them are covered by KOLPAK or whatever it's called and one is actually EQ - MW probably knows more ...

And you can't blame LI as Bath tend to nick most of our home-grown prospects

Just curious to know Heaf. That's some lineup you have , 100 cap players all over...

Heaf wrote:And you can't blame LI as Bath tend to nick most of our home-grown prospects

trust me I know how it feels a falcon...

Blimey just seen the Wasps score - what's going on there?

Passports I guess. Creevy and either Phipps or Simmons will be our 'foreigners'. Zimbabwe and Fiji are Kolpak, so fine. The Most of the Ozzies and Kiwis are likely playing on Pacific Island (Rona, Coleman, Kepu etc) or English (in the case of Meakes and Meehan) passports .

Frustrating end to the half from us, gifting that last 3 points.

Forgot about Mafi of Tonga aswell

Better end for us. But our kicking from the Tee is s huge issue.

We need a rocket up our backsides and need to sort the breakdown out. Maybe time for De walt to go off and Hardie or Collett to come in.

Disappointing to see our highly capped prop off injured again ...

Indeed heaf

Aahhh Penny...

Bit of a coach killer that. Just glad it's the opposition offending for a change

GeordieFalcon wrote:Indeed heaf

It's the injuries that have been killing us - this is the first time we've managed to get anything like this team on the field at the same time.

Good to see Coleman back

Damb - wasted a good position there but Falcons did well to get out of it

We could do with getting more that 3 points out of this period

and just as I say that ...

Quins with a very good first half performance. Their scrum with Marler, Baldwin and Louw actually firing and Marcus Smith definitely winning the head to head with Umaga at 10.

Not sure why we're taking Creevy off

Daft pen to give away to release the pressure ....

Not sure all the Falcons got out of the 10 yard area when that kick went straight up in the air - but Irish giving too many pens away now. Need to get a bit of control back.

That deliberate knock on call was ridiculous - especially when you see it from the reverse angle

That call could cost Irish the match