Premiership round 19

Friday 4th March 19:45
Harlequins v Newcastle Falcons

Saturday 5th March all 15:00
Bath v Bristol
Gloucester v Northampton Saints
London Irish v Worcester Warriors
Saracens v Leicester Tigers

Sunday 6th March 15:00
Exeter Chiefs v Sale

Saracens Leicester looks very tasty.

Quins Falcons

Harlequins: Green, Lynagh, Jones, Esterhuizen, Murley, Allan, Care; Marler, Riley, Louw, Symons, Tizard, Lewies (c), Lawday, White.

Replacements: Walker, Kerrod, Collier, Hammond, Jurevicius, Gjaltema, Edwards, Northmore.

Newcastle: Brown, Penny (c), Wacokecoke, Lucock, Radwan, Haydon-Wood, Nordli-Kelemeti; Davison, McGuigan, Tampin, Peterson, Farrar, Robinson, Basham, Marshall.

Replacements: Maddison, Brocklebank, Palframan, Montgomery, Lockwood, Schreuder, Connon, Wright.

Bench looks a bit sparse for Falcons, second half could get very tough for them. Looks like both sides are struggling for a backrow as well. Hopefully that all means an end to end score-a-thon.

Yes Sam, we have a ton of injuries to be fair. Collett injured now aswell.

Dont get why hes picked Farrar, a 6'3 flanker (Mark Wilson Mk2) in the engine room and Robinson...a lock....on the flank???

Marshall at 8 is another former academy product, former scotland u20 back rower.

Mongtommery is really coming through well now and will do well off the bench another mobile lock / back 5 player.

Palframan joined then got injured so this is his first game for us i think.

Lockwood another back row from the academy...with lots of promise.

Could be a heavy beating, but i just want to see the lads have a go and try to play some rugby. Plenty of youngsters just need to try and show off a bit of what they can offer going forward.

SARACENS XV: 15 Elliot Daly, 14 Sean Maitland, 13 Alex Lozowski, 12 Nick Tompkins, 11 Alex Lewington, 10 Alex Goode, 9 Aled Davies; 1 Mako Vunipola (c), 2 Tom Woolstencroft, 3 Vincent Koch, 4 Callum Hunter-Hill, 5 Tim Swinson, 6 Andy Christie, 7 Jackson Wray, 8 Billy Vunipola

Replacements: 16 Ethan Lewis, 17 Richard Barrington, 18 Sam Wainwright, 19 Theo McFarland, 20 Ben Earl, 21 Ruben de Haas, 22 Duncan Taylor, 23 Rotimi Segun

STARTING XV
15 Freddie Burns [91]
14 Harry Potter [31]
13 Matías Moroni [24]
12 Matt Scott [41]
11 Kini Murimurivalu [32]
10 George Ford (c) [118]
9 Jack van Poortvliet (vc) [39]
1 James Whitcombe [16]
2 Nic Dolly [17]
3 Joe Heyes [90]
4 Eli Snyman [13]
5 Calum Green [80]
6 Ollie Chessum [22]
7 Tommy Reffell [67]
8 George Martin [33]

REPLACEMENTS
16 Charlie Clare [42]
17 Francois van Wyk [11]
18 Nephi Leatigaga [59]
19 Harry Wells [145]
20 Jasper Wiese [33]
21 Richard Wigglesworth [29]
22 Guy Porter [35]
23 Nemani Nadolo [28]

I think Tigers back 5 of the pack could win it for them / be the difference.

Maybe GF, I certainly hope so but it looks pretty close to me. A bit of a bench off as well. I think home advantage might just edge Sarries over the line here but I'm hoping we keep it tight and make them work hard for it. Young Whitcombe will certainly be having a tough time of it up against Koch in the form he is in currently.

Gloucs - Saints

Gloucester: Moyle; Carreras, Seabrook, Twelvetrees, Thorley; Hastings, Meehan; Elrington, Socino, Balmain, Clarke, Alemanno, Reid Clement, Ackermann (capt).

Replacements: Walker, Rapava-Ruskin, Ford-Robinson, Davidson, Craig, Chapman, Barton, Rees-Zammit.

Northampton: Hutchinson; Skosan, Proctor, Dingwall (capt), Collins; Bigger, Mitchell; Iyogun, Matavesi, Painter, Ribbans, Ratuniyarawa, Coles, Harrison, Augustus.

Replacements: Haywood, Auterac, Hill, Nansen, Wilkins, James, Grayson, Francis.

Bath Bristol. The hobbit berserker starts

Bath: de Glanville; Rokoduguni, Joseph, Clark, Butt; Cipriani, Spencer; Morozov, Doughty, Rae, Williams, Richards, Bayliss (capt), Underhill, Faletau.

Replacements: du Toit, Boyce, Fia, Spencer, Coetzee, Simpson, Bailey, Cokanasiga.

Bristol: Lloyd; Naulago, Radradra, Frisch, Leiua; Sheedy, Lennon; Woolmore, Thacker, Armstrong, Attwood, Joyce (capt), Vui, Heenan, Jeffries.

Replacements: Byrne, Y Thomas, Challenger, Luatua, D Thomas, Strang, Eden, O'Conor.

Irish - warriors

London Irish: Stokes; Rowe, Rona, van Rensburg, Cinti; Jackson, Phipps (capt); Gigena, Creevy, Hoskins, Munga, Simmons, Cracknell, Gonzalez, O'Brien.

Replacements: Cornish, Dell, van der Merwe, Nott, Tuisue, White, Cokanasiga, Arundell.

Worcester: Heward; Humphreys, Beck, Atkinson, Hearle; Searle, Heinz; Waller, Miller, Judge, Clegg, G Kitchener, Batley, Hill (capt), Vailanu.

Replacements: Cutting, McCallum, Owlet, Forsythe, Kvesic, Simpson, Smith, Hearle.

Exeter Sale

Exeter: Hogg; Woodburn, Whitten, Hendrickson, O'Flaherty; J Simmonds, J Maunder; Hepburn, Yeandle (capt), Street, Kirsten, S Skinner, Ewers, Vermeulen, Capstick.

Replacements: Innard, Kenny, Williams, Witty, Grondona, S Maunder, H Skinner Cordero

Sale: S James; Roebuck, R du Preez, van Rensburg, Reed; MacGinty, Quirke; Rodd, Ashman, Oosthuizen, Wiese, de Jager, JL du Preez, Ross (capt), D du Preez

Replacements: Langdon, McIntyre, Jones, JP du Preez, B Curry, de Klerk, L James, McGuigan

Ref Exeter you have your Maunders mixed up Sam is starting and his brother Jack is on the bench.

lostinwales wrote:Gloucs - Saints

Gloucester: Moyle; Carreras, Seabrook, Twelvetrees, Thorley; Hastings, Meehan; Elrington, Socino, Balmain, Clarke, Alemanno, Reid Clement, Ackermann (capt).

Replacements: Walker, Rapava-Ruskin, Ford-Robinson, Davidson, Craig, Chapman, Barton, Rees-Zammit.

Northampton: Hutchinson; Skosan, Proctor, Dingwall (capt), Collins; Bigger, Mitchell; Iyogun, Matavesi, Painter, Ribbans, Ratuniyarawa, Coles, Harrison, Augustus.

Replacements: Haywood, Auterac, Hill, Nansen, Wilkins, James, Grayson, Francis.

@$%^%$&$

A potentially good Saints squad, but Gloucester will rain more kicks down on Hutchinson than Noah saw in his 40 days/nights boat ride.  Hutchinson is a pretty handy centre, but as a fullback, he is a pretty handy centre.  
Thus endeth the match.  
Farts.

Our attacking ineptitude is breathtaking. We’re playing against 13 men so lets’s go down the crowded blindside. I mean we spent the rest of the evening shuffling aimlessly across the pitch for Christ sake.

Haven’t got a clue what to do with the ball when we have it, it is flipping soul destroying.

Cumbrian,
Last evening I sat down after dinner and put on a replay of your Quins match.  I thought the first half started off pretty well then slowly helped me ease into a good night's sleep.  Saints matches don't do that because they usually get me annoyed.  I agree Falcons seemed to be just out there playing with no real leadership.  Not really playing to a pattern nor attacking what the defense gave.  Their play against Quins with two men down was pretty mind-boggling.  Professional players, and most recreational players, know to run to the open areas....

On tv, they kept showing Dave Walder.  That can't be good for his future coaching prospects based on yesterday's match.

Well I missed the game due to a 6 hour stint in A&e!!

But judging by alot of the reports...it pretty much states what I've said for years and years...

Tactics and coaching is the issue. The attack is not even amateur level.

How can someone like Radwan get so little decent ball.

The kids in this squad have wonderful potential.

Absolute stupidity from Murrimurivalu

doctor_grey wrote:Cumbrian,
Last evening I sat down after dinner and put on a replay of your Quins match.  I thought the first half started off pretty well then slowly helped me ease into a good night's sleep.  Saints matches don't do that because they usually get me annoyed.  I agree Falcons seemed to be just out there playing with no real leadership.  Not really playing to a pattern nor attacking what the defense gave.  Their play against Quins with two men down was pretty mind-boggling.  Professional players, and most recreational players, know to run to the open areas....

On tv, they kept showing Dave Walder.  That can't be good for his future coaching prospects based on yesterday's match.

I could forgive Haydon-Wood's rush of blood off the resulting scrum, but the generally fecklessness of play was depressing. I understand that Quins are a better team than us and I expected to get beat, but I thought we might manage to just get something out of it when we had two extra men.

GeordieFalcon wrote:Absolute stupidity from Murrimurivalu

You okay marra? A&E ain't a fun place to be.


Agree it was completely needless, probably a result of frustration.

Cumbrian wrote:

GeordieFalcon wrote:Absolute stupidity from Murrimurivalu

You okay marra? A&E ain't a fun place to be.


Agree it was completely needless, probably a result of frustration.

Aye mate 82 yo mother got drunk on wine and headplanted the floor.  Fractured eye socket and fractured wrist....growing old disgracefully lol.

As to the rugby....saeacens scored a "Simple " try just some direct running popping ball out from first phase all at pace.
We couldn't dream of scoring something like that...and thats not something so technical that we can't do it!!

All coaching.

How is Calum Green not carded there!!??

GeordieFalcon wrote:How is Calum Green not carded there!!??

It was exactly the same as one on Nadolo five mins earlier that neither ref nor TMO noticed so I suspect Borthwick would have been annoyed it had been given.

16 Sarries penalties so far but the only card being the one that should have been red.

Tigers looking toothless in attack though.

CMK has been dreadful today. That final try stemmed from at least five Sarries forwards being in front of a box kick that landed on top of them and them being allowed to contest it and win the ball back. So much for retreat from the 10.

Tigers attack was toothless and left far too many scoring opportunities out there whereas Sarries took their chances and bagged five tries. A lesson Tigers need to learn when the rolling maul isn't allowed to rumble on in the 22 there has to be some more invention than one out or pick and go. Was to easy for Sarries to rush up on the obvious ball carrier every time and we struggled to bully our way through like we have done so far this season. We were looking for individual brilliance in the second half or Ford to manipulate something but Wigglesworth was so ponderous Sarries were always aligned.

formerly known as Sam wrote:

GeordieFalcon wrote:How is Calum Green not carded there!!??

It was exactly the same as one on Nadolo five mins earlier that neither ref nor TMO noticed so I suspect Borthwick would have been annoyed it had been given.

16 Sarries penalties so far but the only card being the one that should have been red.

Tigers looking toothless in attack though.

It could be worse:  You could be a Saints fan.  Saints were not toothless in attack at all today  It's just they went from fully toothed to toothless and back again until the end when they had to gum their food.  

To continue the tooth analogy, this match was like having all one's teeth extracted slowly one by one like in the good old days of the Spanish Inquisition.  And yes, I know.  No one escapes the Spanish Inquisition.  Especially effing Saints supporters.

doctor_grey wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:

GeordieFalcon wrote:How is Calum Green not carded there!!??

It was exactly the same as one on Nadolo five mins earlier that neither ref nor TMO noticed so I suspect Borthwick would have been annoyed it had been given.

16 Sarries penalties so far but the only card being the one that should have been red.

Tigers looking toothless in attack though.

It could be worse:  You could be a Saints fan.  Saints were not toothless in attack at all today  It's just they went from fully toothed to toothless and back again until the end when they had to gum their food.  

To continue the tooth analogy, this match was like having all one's teeth extracted slowly one by one like in the good old days of the Spanish Inquisition.  And yes, I know.  No one escapes the Spanish Inquisition.  Especially effing Saints supporters.

Cumbrian wrote:

GeordieFalcon wrote:Absolute stupidity from Murrimurivalu

You okay marra? A&E ain't a fun place to be.

Agree it was completely needless, probably a result of frustration.

Glad to hear your mum's OK, Geordie. Eye socket could be close to retinal issues. Be careful....

But, I do agree, A&E is not All Bar One. All day and night ungrateful people come in and complain, complain, complain. (Almost) No one ever pops in just to say hi. Or bring me a Boddington's. And everyone rags at me if I even try to light a cigar. Terrible place, mate.

Another good win for Irish. Pushing hard for the top 4

westisbest wrote:Another good win for Irish. Pushing hard for the top 4

Yeah and they've got a couple of stellar back three options to come back from injury. Some savvy recruitment in the tight five has really kicked them on.

Are we ever going to be able to close out a game we are winning with 10 minutes to go?

I have lost track of the number of games we have lost in the final minutes this season, we seem to reverted back to how we were last year, we got better but seem to reversed the improvement.

I know we are struggling with injuries and international call ups, we had only one first choice player in the back row yesterday, and 13 at 15. But they were good enough to be 13 points up with 20 to go. I haven't seen the game but giving a penalty try away cynically is just stupid, you gain nothing and lose a man, so why do it. They might make a mistake and not score, but any maul that drops in front of the line is going to be looked at by the TMO and the referee, you are going to get caught, so why do it.

WELL-PAST-IT wrote:Are we ever going to be able to close out a game we are winning with 10 minutes to go?

No

WELL-PAST-IT wrote:I have lost track of the number of games we have lost in the final minutes this season, we seem to reverted back to how we were last year, we got better but seem to reversed the improvement.

You can't keep track because you don't own a Super Computer.

WELL-PAST-IT wrote:I know we are struggling with injuries and international call ups, we had only one first choice player in the back row yesterday, and 13 at 15. But they were good enough to be 13 points up with 20 to go.

Exactly why Mr. Boyd has earned his all expense paid one way trip to the Antipodes.

WELL-PAST-IT wrote:I haven't seen the game

Don't do it, mate.  Protect your sanity.

To be fair the try finished off by Tom Collins was one of the best scores of this season or any season.  Which, of course makes it all so confounding.

Sarries vs Tigers was a frustrating watch for a Tigers fan. Every chance to win it with Sarries penalty count but we simply lacked attacking threat until Nadolo came on. Once Sarries defended the lineout better we offered nothing from a lot of opportunities for large spells of the game.

I thought Maxwell-Keys was fine. The Sarries penalty count was very high but Tigers failed to apply pressure when needed in the red zone. They probably should have had a warning after 2 lineout infringements in quick succession but Tigers just weren't accurate enough to punish their indiscipline.

We've won a few games this season whilst playing pretty poorly. Yesterday we lost one whilst playing pretty poorly.

There were absentees of course with Genge, Montoya, Cole, Wells, Liebenberg and van Staden representing 6 of the first choice pack. Wiese was also on the bench. Then Youngs, Kelly and Steward absent in the backs. Nadolo again starting off on the bench.

We need to make more of the platform we have, develop the attack further and cut out the silly cards to turn the great position in the table and European knockouts into silverware though.

I think my sanity is just about safe now. My understanding of how professional rugby players can continually throw away games in the last 10 minutes isn't however.

Agree about the Collins try, that one was a bit special.