Premiership round 4

First topic message reminder :

Friday 8 October
19:45 Quins vs Bristol

Saturday 9 October
15:00 Chiefs vs Worcester
15:00 Gloucester vs Sale
15:00 LI vs Tigers
15:00 Saracens vs Falcons

Sunday 10 October
Wasps vs Saints

Bye week for Bath.

I'd expect Quins, Chiefs and Sarries to be too strong at home in their respective fixtures.

Sarries vs Falcons could be interesting if Sarries continue to play without the ball as the Falcons talented outside backs can score tries from nowhere. I'd expect the Sarries power up front to prove too much over the 80 minutes though.

Sale haven't had the best start without Faf and losing MacGinty on top of him has been a big blow. Gloucester aren't the best side either though so Sale will definitely have a good chance there. Rodd and Tuilagi rotating out after the England camp seemed to hurt them against Chiefs. Given Lawes returned last weekend I'd guess that Tom Curry will be close to available as well.

Tigers will fancy an away win against LI but I think it will be a good challenge for Tigers. Whilst Tigers have overall been good in the opening 3 rounds I think it was noticeable that Isiekwe caused so many issues. Witty/Lonsdale, Slater/Davidson, Isiekwe/Swinson aren't the most formidable lock pairings. Isiekwe is by far the best player there and caused a lot of issues. I think Coleman and Simmons with Mafi off the bench will be a good challenge for Tigers locks. I definitely fancy Tigers chances but hope we play with the ball more as we did in rounds 1 and 2 rather than being as conservative as we were against Sarries when realistically both sides played some pretty abysmal rugby for large swathes of the game.

Saints will definitely fancy an away win against Wasps with how each side have started their seasons.

I didn’t expect the win on Sunday given our injury list and the Saints reasonable start to the season.
Although it could have been more comfortable if Jacob had his kicking boots on.
Absolutely gutted for Gaskell picking up what looks like a serious ankle injury at the end of the game, his first game back from injury to.
I think if Wasps can pick up the occasional win up until the end of the year before the cavalry returns we should do well in the New Year.
Our injury list is just ridiculous at the moment.