Gallagher Premiership 2020/21

First topic message reminder :

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

That's a good call from Dickson in my opinion. I don't think there's enough interference there to warrant any penalty.

Some finish though.

king_carlos wrote:That's a good call from Dickson in my opinion. I don't think there's enough interference there to warrant any penalty.

Some finish though.

Agree. But I think Exeter needed that throw on target, was just a hair too high. It shows in Rugby, sometimes the narrowest margins can mean the difference between winning and losing....

Ross is a dirty player, don't thing I saw one tackle below the neck. Pushing players in the back time and time again

Baxter has a point, clear push from 17.

doctor_grey wrote:

king_carlos wrote:That's a good call from Dickson in my opinion. I don't think there's enough interference there to warrant any penalty.

Some finish though.

Agree.  But I think Exeter needed that throw on target, was just a hair too high.  It shows in Rugby, sometimes the narrowest margins can mean the difference between winning and losing....

Chiefs running short of locks again. Longsdale and then Armand into the second row. Not what you need when your biggest weapon is the driving maul.

The perils of international call-ups hitting Chiefs a bit more in the row. Signing Jonny Gray and the improvement of Jonny Hill is terrific at full strength but means they will be depleted for games such as this. A player such as Mitch Lees has a lower ceiling than either but was available for most the season at a consistently high level.

Chiefs are unfortunate to have their first reserves in Kirsten and Witty unavailable at the same time.

Lonsdale looks a good player to me. I think he could develop into the sort of player Harry Wells should be for Tigers. A very reliable and versatile club player who a top side realistically want to be a good reserve player across multiple positions but not starting big games againt playoff contenders. Starting in the row against Lood is a tough challenge for Lonsdale.

It's great seeing Beaumont back playing rugby after his long layoff.

Is the Bristol game not being shown on live TV?

It's on BT Sport Extra 2 Mikey

Means using the red button if you have BT sport through your Sky box.

Should be a good one for a Welsh neutral as a warm pretty much spring day should suit Lloyd and that backline down to the ground.

Yep, red button for me.

I genuinely think Lloyd could be world class if he continues on this trajectory. It would be just him and LRZ in that bracket for us though, I can’t see who else would be there.

I think Costelow certainly could get there but I'm not sure whether the move to Scarlets was a good one. Think that could be the wrong environment for him. A playmaking duo at 10 and 15 of Costelow and Lloyd is the sort of thing Wales could build around for the best part of a decade if they get a couple more years of development first.

I think I might try watching it online so I can watch Ireland v Italy on the TV ... although oddly BT Sport online is claiming it's showing Wasps v Saints at 1:00pm

Arrghh Kini why. Such a good chase as well.

Tigers have started relatively fluidly but that has give Bristol field position.

A silly ruck penalty from Murimurivalu that gave Bristol field position aside Tigers have started OK. Little possession but solid in defence.

Our maul defence was creaking but Bristol are good in that area to be fair.

So frustrating. That try all starts from Jack van Poortvliet hanging an excellent box kick just outside the 22 which has one chaser backing it up. Piutau is good enough to gather and pass at which point most the Tigers defensive line are so disjointed and behind the game they may as well be having a nap.

I try to be positive about the things that are slowly improving at Tigers but employing a kick chase game that frequently lacks competent kicking or a competent kick chase is pretty pathetic.

king_carlos wrote:So frustrating. That try all starts from Jack van Poortvliet hanging an excellent box kick just outside the 22 which has one chaser backing it up. Piutau is good enough to gather and pass at which point most the Tigers defensive line are so disjointed and behind the game they may as well be having a nap.

I try to be positive about the things that are slowly improving at Tigers but employing a kick chase game that frequently lacks competent kicking or a competent kick chase is pretty pathetic.

The second try? Helps that a number of Bristol players start running back to the ball and then stop in unison as a screen. One of the Tigers chasers shoves Joyce out of frustration. Not sure how Bristol managed to get the scrum either that looked like a clear knock on into the Tigers player in contact. Bristol have perhaps benefited from a couple of 50/50s but they are the home team.

Tigers had their chances and Bonilla has often wasted them, his kicking game is awful and his passes inaccurate. There's very little point retaining him. Bristol might have put this game to bed but for Reffell who has been incredible this half, I think three turnovers? Tigers have got to tighten up in the second half, Bristol's discipline is worse but they concede this penalties in less threatening positions and we aren't making much of them.

That Bristol backline is pretty good on the eye and Lloyd is really impressing me with his kicks to touch, he really makes them count and puts Bristol's driving maul in a great position.

I was puzzled about that scrum too ..

Anyway 14-3 is nothing - Irish were down 31-6 at one point I think

formerly known as Sam wrote:

king_carlos wrote:So frustrating. That try all starts from Jack van Poortvliet hanging an excellent box kick just outside the 22 which has one chaser backing it up. Piutau is good enough to gather and pass at which point most the Tigers defensive line are so disjointed and behind the game they may as well be having a nap.

I try to be positive about the things that are slowly improving at Tigers but employing a kick chase game that frequently lacks competent kicking or a competent kick chase is pretty pathetic.

The second try? Helps that a number of Bristol players start running back to the ball and then stop in unison as a screen. One of the Tigers chasers shoves Joyce out of frustration. Not sure how Bristol managed to get the scrum either that looked like a clear knock on into the Tigers player in contact. Bristol have perhaps benefited from a couple of 50/50s but they are the home team.

Tigers had their chances and Bonilla has often wasted them, his kicking game is awful and his passes inaccurate. There's very little point retaining him. Bristol might have put this game to bed but for Reffell who has been incredible this half, I think three turnovers? Tigers have got to tighten up in the second half, Bristol's discipline is worse but they concede this penalties in less threatening positions and we aren't making much of them.

That Bristol backline is pretty good on the eye and Lloyd is really impressing me with his kicks to touch, he really makes them count and puts Bristol's driving maul in a great position.

Retreating players blocking is par for the course though. Having no defensive alignment in a chase is not. With a decent chase there's not a 15m gap for Bristol to stroll through.

Reffell has been excellent as always. Ollie Chessum and Guy Porter have also impressed.

Our defensive organisation in the outside backs on phase play is much better with Moroni settling as well. He does a similar job that JJ did with England by using his pace to close down space with the blitz whilst being quick enough to still cover the outside arc. I'd be interested to see a Porter and Moroni midfield at some point.

Bonilla has been poor again. Both he and Henry have lacked game management at Premiership level.

Delighted that Whitcombe is getting 30 minutes. He's a fantastic talent.

Well that was disappointing from Tigers, thought it would be closer than that - how many 5m line-outs did they fail to capitalise on?

Ah well. I'd probably have taken holding Bristol to 2 tries at Ashton Gate before the match but Tigers had chances to do more.

McPhillips had his most assured showing yet for Tigers when he came on.

Ben White seemed to have some of his mojo back as well which was good to see. His form dipped and Jack van Poortvliet has justifiably overtaken him but good to see a brighter performance from another of the youngs scrum-halves.

My Tigers MOM would be between Porter and Reffell with hon mentions for Chessum and Moroni.

I think we might see that ref taken out of rotation for next week. Gives a knock on for a Bristol player flying out the line on a two on one. Play goes on, another knock on Tigers scrum. 

Tom Youngs - " was that a deliberate knock on sir?"
Ref - "I don't know"
TY - "we'll check it then"
Ref - " no you have my answer scrum"

Ref seemed surprised Tom Youngs wasn't happy with that response. Only saw it in real time but looked a lot more yellow than then one the Tigers player went to the bin for. TMO was oddly quiet. She pipped up for a review on the Moroni tackle despite sir saying repeatedly Moroni had brought him to ground safely. Honestly it was like amateur hour.

Tigers had chances and wasted them. Bristol scored all their points whilst Tigers defensive leader was off the park bar one penalty. Yellow card a deciding factor. Tigers choice of backs moves in the 22 were predictable and boring, hit up 12 or spin out the back quite frankly most pub sides can run more than that. Choice to go for the rolling maul at the end was stupid, Bristol were defending them really well and being very cute. Just tap and go, mention to sir before hand about the penalty count and how conceding an offside penalty on your tryline is cynical. You then might get something.

At least the Tigers youngsters looked bright once again.

Clear deliberate knock on by Wasps but no yellow - is there some rule against carding players playing against Irish?

Then Irish give away a dumb pen that leads to a try ... mind you that ultimately came from a non-existent knock-on given against Irish

Jeez another sitter blown by Irish just like the last play last week ...

Irish creating lots of chances but not managing to convert them

Irish should have put this to bed ages ago but keep messing it up at the last minute - so frustrating as they'll probably give away a late try to lose it

Heaf wrote:Clear deliberate knock on by Wasps but no yellow - is there some rule against carding players playing against Irish?

Did they actually review yours?

Not sure as watching two matches as once - ended OK in the end though but much tenser than it should have been.

Just........YES!!!

Win

GeordieFalcon wrote:Just........YES!!!

Win

Well done Falcons. Though there was definitely an assist from the ref at the end there... how did they not at the very least see Burrell’s forearm crashing into Smith’s head for the penalty it so clearly was?

Poorfour wrote:

GeordieFalcon wrote:Just........YES!!!

Win

Well done Falcons. Though there was definitely an assist from the ref at the end there... how did they not at the very least see Burrell’s forearm crashing into Smith’s head for the penalty it so clearly was?

Did you see the abomination refereeing in the England v Wales game ....and not wonder if it exists in the prem?

formerly known as Sam wrote:

Heaf wrote:Clear deliberate knock on by Wasps but no yellow - is there some rule against carding players playing against Irish?

Did they actually review yours?

Looks like they did:

https://streamable.com/xgki8g

Heaf wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:

Heaf wrote:Clear deliberate knock on by Wasps but no yellow - is there some rule against carding players playing against Irish?

Did they actually review yours?

Looks like they did:

https://streamable.com/xgki8g

More effort than was made in the Tigers game then. I suppose that one can be argued he was contesting in the air and momentum took it away from him. Accidental etc. To be honest could have gone either way. I'd have been less annoyed if they'd at least reviewed the Tigers one and it turned out yeah he tried to catch it but after issuing a soft yellow to a Tigers player in the first half to not even check what looked at real speed to be a deliberate knock on was particularly annoying. It's what TMOs are for.

Looked a pretty clear intention to knock it away from the Irish players rather than catch it so it was a deliberate action and due to the direction he was facing was a knock-on, so YC for me. As it happens Irish won anyway but as you say it's really annoying when the TMOs don't do their jobs. The internationals are no better either as we saw today in both matches.

Poorfour wrote:

GeordieFalcon wrote:Just........YES!!!

Win

Well done Falcons. Though there was definitely an assist from the ref at the end there... how did they not at the very least see Burrell’s forearm crashing into Smith’s head for the penalty it so clearly was?

We didn't get a lot all game so I was genuinely surprised with this, it was a close one. We got pinged about 5 times in the opposition 22 for holding on, the game should have been put to bed around 20mins before the end.

Looks like Radwan will be out a while with a knee injury, didn't look good. On Quins, your right winger is electric!

So, let's forget all the emotion about Wales beating England and all the angst that goes with it.
THE match of the weekend kicks off now.....

Sgt_Pooly wrote:Looks like Radwan will be out a while with a knee injury, didn't look good. On Quins, your right winger is electric!

Such a shame. Radwan has rapidly become one of my favourite players in the Premiership. Electric pace and rock solid in defence.

You're racking up donny knights players doc.

Hooper out

What's the point of Eddie Jones being there today. He'll just pick the same old failed international players

The majority of England players attracting criticism aren't failed internationals. Most have won multiple Six Nations including a grand slam, made a RWC final, been involved in successful Lions tours and whitewashed Australia down under. Not failed internationals by any stretch of hyperbole.

Several of them are very out of form and/or lacking match fitness though.

Eddie are you watching Spencer???

Miles better than the failed Young's experiment.

Not sure how Saints managed to lose that ...

TightHEAD wrote:Eddie are you watching Spencer???

Miles better than the failed Young's experiment.

Youngs who scored a try and box kicked well under pressure? Youngs who matched the much talked about Welsh options?

Annoys me Youngs still gets a lot of flak when he's playing well (if he could kindly do that in a Tigers shirt at some point that would be nice). I'd have Spencer on the bench over Robson every day of the week. Spencer has been playing really well for Bath for a while and Robson has shown twice he isn't an international 9. Very good bit of business by Bath signing Spencer.

Young's who passed a ball into touch 4ft above a winger in the rugby world cup final.

He is rubbish and yet is un-droppable.

TightHEAD wrote:Young's who passed a ball into touch 4ft above a winger in the rugby world cup final.

He is rubbish and yet is un-droppable.

The number of England players who turned up in the World Cup Final can be counted on one hand. He's undroppable because the other options aren't as good. We're seeing it with Robson. "Oh Robson's the best scrum half in the Prem, it's ridiculous Youngs is selected of him". Suddenly a lot of people are back tracking on that and it's now Randall or Spencer that's the new chosen one.

Ben Youngs has more than a hundred caps, has been selected for two Lions Tours. You'd don't get the longevity by being rubbish. He might be a bit vanilla but he's operated at a continual high level for England if not Tigers.

Youngs certainly is rubbish, he just has an awful pass. Luckily, passing is that important for a scrum half