Premiership Round 12

First topic message reminder :

Fixtures:
1 Jan
Sale v Wasps 2.00
Exeter v Bristol 4.30

2 Jan
Gloucester v Quins 3pm
Tigers v Falcons 3pm
Saints v Saracens 3pm

3 Jan
London Irish v Bath

Team announcements are starting. Here’s Gloucester:

Team News

Ruan Ackermann will make his 100th Gloucester Rugby appearance when the Cherry and Whites host Harlequins at Kingsholm on Sunday.

George Skivington has made two changes to the starting line up that beat Bath with Billy Twelvetrees coming in to replace Mark Atkinson at inside centre and Fraser Balmain swapping places with Kirill Gotovtsev who is named on the bench.

Lloyd Evans starts at fullback with fellow Academy graduates Louis Rees-Zammit and Ollie Thorley on the wings. Chris Harris keeps his 13 shirt after scoring a brace against Bath and will have Twelvetrees inside him at 12. Adam Hastings and Ben Meehan continue their halfback partnership.

In the forwards, Val Rapava-Ruskin and Jack Singleton will partner Balmain in the front row with Freddie Clarke and Matias Alemanno in the second row. Jordy Reid, Ruan Ackermann and captain, Lewis Ludlow, make up the backrow.

After an impressive try in the Premiership Cup game against Worcester, Tom Seabrook is named on the bench with Charlie Chapman and Kyle Moyle the other back replacements. Santiago Socino and Jamal Ford-Robinson, Kirill Gotovtsev, Andrew Davidson and Jack Clement cover the forwards.

George Skivington is looking forward to hosting the reigning champions.

“Quins are going really well. They’re the reigning champions and they were really good against Saints at Twickenham. They are an outstanding attacking team and there are a lot of guys in there with flare and they obviously have a good connection amongst the group. We know what a threat they are and we know how hard we are going to have to work. It should be an exciting fixture.”

Tickets for the Harlequins game are available here.

Gloucester Rugby

15. Lloyd Evans *

14. Louis Rees-Zammit *

13. Chris Harris

12. Billy Twelvetrees

11. Ollie Thorley *

10. Adam Hastings

9. Ben Meehan



1. Val Rapava-Ruskin

2. Jack Singleton

3. Fraser Balmain

4. Freddie Clarke *

5. Matias Alemanno

6. Jordy Reid

7. Lewis Ludlow (c) *

8. Ruan Ackermann



16. Santiago Socino

17. Jamal Ford-Robinson

18. Kirill Gotovtsev

19. Andrew Davidson

20. Jack Clement *

21. Charlie Chapman *

22. Tom Seabrook *

23. Kyle Moyle

*Denotes Academy player or graduate from the Gloucester Rugby Academy

Tigers weren't great but did enough in awful conditions with a lot of players absent at lock and back row.

Ford gave Brown a really torrid day at the back.

Steward on the other hand dealt with the conditions very well. As did Potter and Porter on either win. The two Sydney Uni lads have been brilliant signings.

Martin wasn't perfect at 8 but his defence was excellent as ever and his carrying keeps getting better. His line for the 3rd try was lovely.

king_carlos wrote:Tigers weren't great but did enough in awful conditions with a lot of players absent at lock and back row.

Ford gave Brown a really torrid day at the back.

Steward on the other hand dealt with the conditions very well. As did Potter and Porter on either win. The two Sydney Uni lads have been brilliant signings.

Martin wasn't perfect at 8 but his defence was excellent as ever and his carrying keeps getting better. His line for the 3rd try was lovely.

Agreed. Martin is a great flanker but your want your 8 to be your primary ball carrier and he isn't ready for that yet. Wells had a really strong game at 6 but he's another one that isn't the greatest carrier, losing Chessum who does carry well just before kick off was definitely a blow. Murimurivalu did a decent job at flanker towards the end, talk about Mr Versatile.


It's these games where you have to love Borthwick's prep. Tigers just had a game plan that Falcons had no answer for. That could have been a really tricky game in testing conditions against a physical if limited Falcons team. Tigers were in control from minute one to minute eighty. For a long time we were less than the sum of our parts but under Borthwick we are more. Lenny actually playing like a 100 test scrum half is rather nice this season and Cole looks like he's in his twenties again though Heyes was very good off the bench.

No issues with the defeat but extremely lackluster from us. Cooper at LH is a crazy experiment that has never worked.

On Wiese.....he's a thug. A real dirty, nasty player......and comes across utterly mince too, I'm not really a fan.

Agree Sgt, Cooper is a failed trial that needs to stop. Apparently he's off to Wuss in the summer.

GeordieFalcon wrote:Agree Sgt, Cooper is a failed trial that needs to stop. Apparently he's off to Wuss in the summer.

Is that basically the same thing?

GeordieFalcon wrote:Agree Sgt, Cooper is a failed trial that needs to stop. Apparently he's off to Wuss in the summer.

Deano really likes a non-scrummaging prop option....crazy.

Sgt_Pooly wrote:

GeordieFalcon wrote:Agree Sgt, Cooper is a failed trial that needs to stop. Apparently he's off to Wuss in the summer.

Deano really likes a non-scrummaging prop option....crazy.

Careful how you say that. Chris Boyd will get jealous and try to add to Saints list of non-scrummaging props.

doctor_grey wrote:

Sgt_Pooly wrote:

GeordieFalcon wrote:Agree Sgt, Cooper is a failed trial that needs to stop. Apparently he's off to Wuss in the summer.

Deano really likes a non-scrummaging prop option....crazy.

Careful how you say that.  Chris Boyd will get jealous and try to add to Saints list of non-scrummaging props.  

At least you've not got Gareth Denman anymore Doc!

The number of apps he racked up with Premiership sides as a non scrummaging TH is pretty remarkable.

king_carlos wrote:

doctor_grey wrote:

Sgt_Pooly wrote:

GeordieFalcon wrote:Agree Sgt, Cooper is a failed trial that needs to stop. Apparently he's off to Wuss in the summer.

Deano really likes a non-scrummaging prop option....crazy.

Careful how you say that.  Chris Boyd will get jealous and try to add to Saints list of non-scrummaging props.  

At least you've not got Gareth Denman anymore Doc!

The number of apps he racked up with Premiership sides as a non scrummaging TH is pretty remarkable.

Ah yes, the Great Retreating Prop.

Sgt_Pooly wrote:

GeordieFalcon wrote:Agree Sgt, Cooper is a failed trial that needs to stop. Apparently he's off to Wuss in the summer.

Deano really likes a non-scrummaging prop option....crazy.

Actually i can see why Dean tried it. We have 3/4 options at hooker....McGuigan, and Blamire seniors, Smith progressing nicely and now Fletcher in the England u20 squad. Plus Maddison.

Cooper is strong and a beast in the loose...if he could convert, its like signing a new player...

Sadly he just cant scrum like an actual LH...and we now have further options there..and another in the England u20 just announced...Dormer.

Cooper is too small for prop. You think he would have learnt with Vickers (who was also rubbish in the scrum but a 1m specialist) that the conversion doesn't really work.

Nice to see some young props coming through, but there's quite a jump to the men's game. I think it will be a few years till any of these youngsters threaten the main side.

Sgt_Pooly wrote:Cooper is too small for prop. You think he would have learnt with Vickers (who was also rubbish in the scrum but a 1m specialist) that the conversion doesn't really work.

Nice to see some young props coming through, but there's quite a jump to the men's game. I think it will be a few years till any of these youngsters threaten the main side.

As in after the RWC??? We will need some new blood afterwards.

doctor_grey wrote:

Sgt_Pooly wrote:Cooper is too small for prop. You think he would have learnt with Vickers (who was also rubbish in the scrum but a 1m specialist) that the conversion doesn't really work.

Nice to see some young props coming through, but there's quite a jump to the men's game. I think it will be a few years till any of these youngsters threaten the main side.

As in after the RWC???   We will need some new blood afterwards.

No Sgt means for the Premiership...for the Falcons

GeordieFalcon wrote:

doctor_grey wrote:

Sgt_Pooly wrote:Cooper is too small for prop. You think he would have learnt with Vickers (who was also rubbish in the scrum but a 1m specialist) that the conversion doesn't really work.

Nice to see some young props coming through, but there's quite a jump to the men's game. I think it will be a few years till any of these youngsters threaten the main side.

As in after the RWC???   We will need some new blood afterwards.

No Sgt means for the Premiership...for the Falcons

Gotcha.

Ouch. Lucky (or unlucky, depending on how you look at it)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/59881678

lostinwales wrote:Ouch. Lucky (or unlucky, depending on how you look at it)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/59881678

Bloody hell.

So Round 13 starts tonight and still no points awarded from the cancelled LI v Bath game. Not sure why it's taking so long as the precedent has been set to award 4 points to the team able to fulfil the fixture with 2 to the team having to cancel, and it's been well reported that it was Bath that had to cancel, so what's going on? My persecution complex is starting to kick in wondering if 'they' are trying to find a way to inexplicably deny LI the points and gift them to Bath for some odd reason.

Heaf wrote:So Round 13 starts tonight and still no points awarded from the cancelled LI v Bath game.  Not sure why it's taking so long as the precedent has been set to award 4 points to the team able to fulfil the fixture with 2 to the team having to cancel, and it's been well reported that it was Bath that had to cancel, so what's going on?  My persecution complex is starting to kick in wondering if 'they' are trying to find a way to inexplicably deny LI the points and gift them to Bath for some odd reason.

Just noticed Exeter got awarded a 28-0 win over Bath in the PRC

Yep and as far as I recall Falcons were awarded the points from their cancelled fixture with Sale on the same day - so really odd this is taking so long ...

Heaf wrote:Yep and as far as I recall Falcons were awarded the points from their cancelled fixture with Sale on the same day - so really odd this is taking so long ...

Plotting a conspiracy must take time....

Or maybe they are scratching their heads at the prospect of giving Bath the customary 2 points when that would be double the amount they have scored from any match this season and increase their total points by 50%?  

I'd be happy with LI 5 and Bath 0

Another possibility is if they judge the cancellation is not just due to Covid eg Bath unable to field enough front row forwards due to injury etc, then they could award a 20 nil win to LI plus 5 points according to regs apparently, so maybe some investigations are going on which would explain the delay.