Midweek PRC Games

As predicted Tigers have omitted anyone who you'd expect to be in the starting 23 ordinarily and have gone for a mix of squad players and development/academy players. Great to see Ilione make his senior debut. Young Woodward from the academy is on the bench and he's a player that's been in the England under 18s and is drawing attention.

[size=30]STARTING XV[/size]
[size=43]15 Bryce Hegarty [12][/size]
[size=43]14 Joe Browning *[/size]
[size=43]13 Kini Murimurivalu [34][/size]
[size=43]12 Juan Pablo Socino [7][/size]
[size=43]11 Hosea Saumaki [9][/size]
[size=43]10 Dan Lancaster [3][/size]
[size=43]9 Sam Edwards [2][/size]
[size=43]1 Francois van Wyk [14][/size]
[size=43]2 Charlie Clare [44][/size]
[size=43]3 Will Hurd [5][/size]
[size=43]4 Tomiwa Agbongbon [3][/size]
[size=43]5 Lewis Chessum *[/size]
[size=43]6 Emeka Ilione *[/size]
[size=43]7 Olly Robinson [4][/size]
[size=43]8 Sean Jansen [1][/size]


[size=30]REPLACEMENTS[/size]
[size=43]16 Tom Cowan-Dickie [5][/size]
[size=43]17 Dan Richardson [3][/size]
[size=43]18 Tim Hoyt *[/size]
[size=43]19 Finn Carnduff *[/size]
[size=43]20 Simon Koroiyadi [1][/size]
[size=43]21 Jonny Law [4][/size]
[size=43]22 Joseph Woodward *[/size]
[size=43]23 Jacob Cusick [3][/size]



[size=43]A little bit light at lock with Henderson still out injured.[/size]

The LI team;

London Irish:
15 Henry Arundell, 14 Cillian Redmond, 13 Will Joseph, 12 Phil Cokanasiga, 11 Michael Dykes, 10 Noel Reid, 9 Hugh O’Sullivan, 1 Allan Dell, 2 Mike Willemse, 3 Ciaran Parker, 4 Chandler Cunningham-South, 5 Jack Cooke (c), 6 Ben Donnell, 7 Lucas Brooke, 8 Josh Smart.

Replacements:
16 Tadgh McElroy, 17 Facundo Gigena, 18 Luke Green, 19 Chunya Munga, 20 Ben Atkins, 21 Caolan Englefield, 22 Jacob Atkins, 23 Alex Harmes.

Shame these ones aren't televised.

That's the least experienced team LI have put out in this competition so far, having qualified. I think they still need a point of some sort out of it to guarantee a home draw from memory.

Lots of exciting teenagers in the backline (Joseph, Arundell, Dykes), but it's a scratch team and it really depends on whether the pack can hold their own.

You've got some experience at half back and in the front row. That always helps. Bit of a contrast with Tigers playing a 19 year-old SH and 21 year old flyhalf. Irish have a pretty green backline outside but Tigers have given their halfbacks a squad player backline to help give them experience to work with, well bar Browning who's another young un and has played 7s and Championship rugby this season.

England under 20 teammates clash in the second row and back row with Chessum Vs Cunningham-South and Ilione Vs Brooke.

Bit of a shame no one is bothering to televise this one, what else is on, on a Tuesday evening?

formerly known as Sam wrote:You've got some experience at half back and in the front row. That always helps. Bit of a contrast with Tigers playing a 19 year-old SH and 21 year old flyhalf. Irish have a pretty green backline outside but Tigers have given their halfbacks a squad player backline to help give them experience to work with, well bar Browning who's another young un and has played 7s and Championship rugby this season.

England under 20 teammates clash in the second row and back row with Chessum Vs Cunningham-South and Ilione Vs Brooke.

Bit of a shame no one is bothering to televise this one, what else is on, on a Tuesday evening?

Missed a trick. I'm sure I'm not the only one that would pay a fiver on PRTV to watch it on a Tuesday night. Even without commentary.

Yep, LI experience is certainly all concentrated in the front row and half backs. My slight reservation would be that O'Sullivan has been pretty unimpressive so far in a LI shirt. There's a bit of a chasm between Phipps/White and the rest as far as our 9s go.

Big game back for Donnell after 5 months out. He was going well at the end of last season, but injury and the arrival or Pearson/Gonzales has increased the competition he's facing.

Managed to watch the game. Close first 40 mins and then LI seemed to tire and Tigers turned the screw with the LI forwards discipline getting worse.

The LI centres were the pick for the Exiles and looked dangerous throughout, the LI wingers did little to support them and I was disappointed with how quiet Arundell was, he looked a little shakey under the high ball. The LI attack started to tick more in the second half when Atkins came on at flyhalf but it was a bit too late and the LI forwards couldn't quite give him the platform. A nice passage of play late on was only thwarted by a very good try saving tackle by Saumaki on the LI right winger who had a tough night up against the Tongan who ran round and over him on different occasions.

Tigers had better fitness and once they started to click at the set piece the platform. Ilione once again looked an absolute class act and it's surely a case of when and not if he makes his Prem debut. He did his normal hard carries, big tackles, turnovers and lineout wins. All action. Sam Edwards continues to look like a 19 year old of an early 30s Wigglesworth (before he slowed down), which makes him an interesting proposition with little to no running game but very good passing and kicking skills. Young Will Hurd doing a number on Dell at scrum time was reassuring given Dan Cole is still out injured.

Looks like there'll be a re-match in the semis ...

Another mid week game and with both clubs still eying up the league then quite possibly the same players.

From a LI point of view I'm guessing we'll be trying to ensure we finish top 8.

Would expect a similar team, but perhaps a bit more ballast/experience in the pack. Someone like Nott into the 2nd row and a biggish back row. After conceding a pen on pretty much every scrum on Tuesday, something has to give on that front personnel wise.

Saints put out a very young and inexperienced side against Falcons, only Naiyaravoro (1st half only) and Grayson would be a 50/50 shout for match day 23, the rest Fish apart have only a handful of games between them, so great result. I didn't recognise many of the Falcons players either so I assume they played a similar inexperienced side.

Quite a bit of weight there though for such a young side, Naiyaravoro apart, Willemsen rolls in at around 123kg and playing at 6, Prowse is similar, Hobbs-Awoyemi at 120kg, and Garside (K) another 120kg.

Pleased to see they have continued the form that they showed at Sarries with another high scoring victory.