Premiership Round 26 - The Finale - This Time It's Personal

I am not nearly as eloquent as others here.  Since I am not working this week and just finished reading a couple or articles about the end of the season, I need something productive to do.  

This week has potentially two games with meaning, Saints-Falcons and Gloucester Saracens.  Saints-Falcons is a classic win-and-you're-in for Saints.  There are more permutations in Gloucester-Saracens, but also likely no impact at all if Sarries win.  So here we go for all the marbles:

Saints-Falcons - Saints have to win.  They MUST win.  They can't possibly find a way to mess this up, can they?  

Gloucester-Saracens - Gloucester keep it close for a while, but slowly, ever so slowly, Saracens will exert more control, then game over (and who said, cheaters never prosper).

Leicester-Wasps - These teams going at it used to be must-watch tv.  The past few years?  Not so much.  But Leicester will go out to win and Wasps will not (or not so much).

Sale-Bristol - Two teams which have managed to fail to meet any expectations.  The game probably will as well.

Exeter-Harlequins - to team with absolutely nothing to play for.  Nothing.  I think the game will look like that.

Worcester-Bath - If we still had relegation then this would be the poster child for poor teams fighting poor teams to stay in the Premiership.  Whether or not this game has any meaning, it sill still be harder to watch than watching paint dry.

The last round is normally a try fest due to hard ground and not a lot of play for, for half the teams who just want to finish on a high.

There's still some interesting stories to watch for. Tigers Vs Sarries for top spot, in theory Sarries can still snatch that from Tigers grasp but things would have to go very badly at Welford Road for that to happen. Certainly both teams would prefer to avoid Quins coming to town if possible.

Glaws Vs Saints for the final play off spot. Given Saints are playing (an albeit improved) Falcons side whilst Glaws get Sarries this should only go one way but Saints are unpredictable this season.

Bath Vs Wuss Vs Falcons will all be trying to avoid bottom spot for a) pride and b) to avoid the irritating commentary every game "they finished bottom and would have been relegated if not for blah blah blah".

Just need Tigers to beat Wasps please ...

Heaf wrote:Just need Tigers to beat Wasps please ...

We certainly owe them for the fluked try that won them the game at their place.

Borthwick likes to put out strong teams at home and after being top of the league for practically the entire season, be a shame not to finish the season there.

Come on Leicester. Do the right thing. Full strength and a nice, no drama victory please.

Margin_Walker wrote:Come on Leicester. Do the right thing. Full strength and a nice, no drama victory please.

Montoya probably won't be risked, no news on MVS and Kelly isn't back yet, hopefully for the semi final. Otherwise there's a good selection. Borthwick might look to get Henderson more game time if he wants him as an option for the playoffs, ditto Murimurivalu.

Otherwise something like;

Genge, Clare, Cole
Wells, Green
Liebenburg, Reffell, Weise
Youngs, Ford
Scott, Moroni
Nadolo, Steward, Potter

Vanes, Whitcombe, Heyes, Chessum, Martin, JVP, Burns, Porter.

Well Karl Dickson is reffing the Falcons Saints game so it's a lottery who he will be worse for....

To be fair Karl Dickson is improving as a ref. Still not what I'd call good but at this rate might achieve average soon. No doubt he'll somehow get a semi final to ref, knowing Tigers luck probably ours.

Sam he's shocking and I have no doubt there will be questions over some of his refereeing from both fans on Saturday...

GeordieFalcon wrote:Sam he's shocking and I have no doubt there will be questions over some of his refereeing from both fans on Saturday...

Shocking is still an improvement on previous seasons.

Hes there purely as an ex player. He doesn't seem to know all the laws and is an arrogant tit.

Come on 7.5, tell us what you really think

Quins have named a surprisingly strong side to face the Chiefs. Fabulous to see Tyrone Green back after what looked initially to be a season ending injury.

Harlequins Starting XV

1. Joe Marler
2. Jack Walker
3. Will Collier
4. Matt Symons
5. Hugh Tizard
6. Stephan Lewies – Captain
7. Will Evans
8. Alex Dombrandt
9. Danny Care
10. Marcus Smith
11. Aaron Morris
12. Andre Esterhuizen
13. Joe Marchant
14. Louis Lynagh
15. Tyrone Green

Impact Players

16. Joe Gray
17. Jordan Els
18. Wilco Louw
19. George Hammond
20. James Chisholm
21. Lewis Gjaltema
22. Tommy Allan
23. Luke Northmore

Assuming no-one picks up a knock on Saturday, Quins could be going into the knockout rounds with only Kenningham and Lamb of regular first teamers being injured.

Newcastle Falcons v Northampton Saints (Saturday, 3pm, cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens)

15 Alex Tait, 14 Adam Radwan, 13 Matias Orlando, 12 Luther Burrell, 11 Mateo Carreras, 10 Joel Hodgson, 9 Michael Young; 1 Adam Brocklebank, 2 George McGuigan, 3 Trevor Davison, 4 Greg Peterson, 5 Sean Robinson, 6 Gary Graham, 7 Josh Basham, 8 Callum Chick (captain).

Replacements: 16 Jamie Blamire, 17 Logovi’i Mulipola, 18 Conor Kenny, 19 George Merrick, 20 Carl Fearns, 21 Cameron Nordli-Kelemeti, 22 Will Haydon-Wood, 23 George Wacokecoke.

Northampton Saints: 15 George Furbank, 14 Matt Proctor, 13 Fraser Dingwall, 12 Rory Hutchinson, 11 Tommy Freeman, 10 Dan Biggar, 9 Alex Mitchell; 1 Alex Waller, 2 Sam Matavesi, 3 Paul Hill, 4 Alex Coles, 5 Api Ratuniyarawa, 6 Courtney Lawes, 7 Aaron Hinkley, 8 Lewis Ludlam (captain).

Replacements: 16 Mike Haywood, 17 Emmanuel Iyogun, 18 Ehren Painter, 19 David Ribbans, 20 Brandon Nansen, 21 Juarno Augustus, 22 Tom James, 23 Courtnall Skosan.

Referee: Karl Dickson.

Dickson is poor. There was also a time when Doyle was very poor. And even Barnes before him.

Due to the shortage of refs at lower levels any ref with a semblance of ability gets promoted way too quickly and end up learning on the job. It's a rubbish pathway and someone like Dickson officiating this many high profile games so quickly is indicative of it.

I'd hope that Barnes and Doyle get the playoffs. Given there was a time when both were spoken about similarly to Dickson that sums up how refs can improve just the same as players.

STARTING XV
15 Freddie Steward [53]
14 Chris Ashton [10]
13 Matías Moroni [33]
12 Guy Porter [42]
11 Harry Potter [38]
10 George Ford [126]
9 Ben Youngs [279]
1 Ellis Genge (c) [108]
2 Charlie Clare [49]
3 Dan Cole [287]
4 Ollie Chessum [28]
5 Calum Green [88]
6 George Martin [36]
7 Hanro Liebenberg (vc) [56]
8 Jasper Wiese [42]

REPLACEMENTS
16 Tom Cowan-Dickie [8]
17 Nephi Leatigaga [65]
18 Will Hurd [7]
19 Harry Wells [153]
20 Tommy Reffell [75]
21 Jack van Poortvliet [46]
22 Freddie Burns [100]
23 Nemani Nadolo [35]

WASPS XV: 15 Ali Crossdale, 14 Paolo Odogwu, 13 Sam Spink, 12 Jimmy Gopperth, 11 Josh Bassett, 10 Charlie Atkinson, 9 Dan Robson, 1 Tom West, 2 Gabriel Oghre, 3 Biyi Alo, 4 Joe Launchbury (c), 5 James Gaskell, 6 Brad Shields, 7 Jack Willis, 8 Tom Willis

Replacements: 16 Dan Frost, 17 Robin Hislop, 18 Elliot Millar-Mills, 19 Vaea Fifita, 20 Alfie Barbeary, 21 Will Porter, 22 Rob Miller, 23 Malakai Fekitoa

Lots of breakdown threats in the Wasps pack and brute force for Tigers pack. Should be a fun collision!

Montoya being absent is a big worry. Tigers need him for the playoffs.

Hopefully Heyes is just rotation as Hurd hasn't played much for Tigers this season so he ideally needs minutes before the playoffs in case Cole or Heyes are unavailable.

Nice to see Nephi covering LH.

I'd personally be starting Nadolo ahead of Ashton. Both have defensive weaknesses but I think Nadolo's attacking threat outweighs him being slightly poorer than Ashton in defence.

king_carlos wrote:Dickson is poor. There was also a time when Doyle was very poor. And even Barnes before him.

Due to the shortage of refs at lower levels any ref with a semblance of ability gets promoted way too quickly and end up learning on the job. It's a rubbish pathway and someone like Dickson officiating this many high profile games so quickly is indicative of it.

I'd hope that Barnes and Doyle get the playoffs. Given there was a time when both were spoken about similarly to Dickson that sums up how refs can improve just the same as players.

Isn't Doyle in Scotland now?

Gloucester: Carreras; Rees-Zammit, Harris, Kveseladze, Thorley; Hastings, Meehan; Rapava-Ruskin, Singleton, Gotovtsev, Clarke, Alemanno, Reid, Ludlow (capt), Ackermann

Replacements: Socino, Elrington, Balmain, Davidson, Clement, Chapman, Twelvetrees, May.

Saracens: Obatoyinbo; Malins, Lozowski, Taylor, Harris; Manu Vunipola, van Zyl; Mawi, Pifeleti, Clarey, Hunter-Hill, Swinson, Wray (capt), Knight, Venter

Replacements: Dan, Adams-Hale, Wainwright, Boon, Reffell, de Haas, Morris, Hallett

Referee: Wayne Barnes

Be a bit peed off I was a saints fan and saw that Saracens line up!!

Heaf wrote:

king_carlos wrote:Dickson is poor. There was also a time when Doyle was very poor. And even Barnes before him.

Due to the shortage of refs at lower levels any ref with a semblance of ability gets promoted way too quickly and end up learning on the job. It's a rubbish pathway and someone like Dickson officiating this many high profile games so quickly is indicative of it.

I'd hope that Barnes and Doyle get the playoffs. Given there was a time when both were spoken about similarly to Dickson that sums up how refs can improve just the same as players.

Isn't Doyle in Scotland now?

Was thinking Maxwell-Keys in the latter part but typed Doyle for some reason sorry. Probably because I mentioned Doyle (intentionally the first time!) further up and I'm typing on my phone so on autopilot.

CMK is another ref who had some pretty ropey games early on but has improved immensely to be fair. A very good ref they'd days IMO.

GeordieFalcon wrote:Be a bit peed off I was a saints fan and saw that Saracens line up!!

Not really, though I bet a lot of Saints fans are not happy. For me, Saints put themselves in this position with mind-boggling inconsistency, at times very poor defense, and an overly up tempo attack that turned the ball over faster than ever. More than anything, Saints need to win, and for me, if they fail to win a must win game, then they deserve to be at home. And it is that context I am not thinking about any other game.

Besides, Sarries earned their opportunity to rest players before the playoffs. Saints did not.

Gawd, I sound like a grouchy old man....

Your right Doc....you need to win.

You should win to be fair.

Rhe team we have put out is an interesting one...quite a few who are playing their last game and Dean's last game aswell.

Will they go out with a bang or a whimper....

king_carlos wrote:

Heaf wrote:

king_carlos wrote:Dickson is poor. There was also a time when Doyle was very poor. And even Barnes before him.

Due to the shortage of refs at lower levels any ref with a semblance of ability gets promoted way too quickly and end up learning on the job. It's a rubbish pathway and someone like Dickson officiating this many high profile games so quickly is indicative of it.

I'd hope that Barnes and Doyle get the playoffs. Given there was a time when both were spoken about similarly to Dickson that sums up how refs can improve just the same as players.

Isn't Doyle in Scotland now?

Was thinking Maxwell-Keys in the latter part but typed Doyle for some reason sorry. Probably because I mentioned Doyle (intentionally the first time!) further up and I'm typing on my phone so on autopilot.

CMK is another ref who had some pretty ropey games early on but has improved immensely to be fair. A very good ref they'd days IMO.

Pearce has improved massively as well. The growth of the officials at the top level is good. Some of the less prominent officials deserve more recognition Hamish Smales, Adam Leal and Sara Cox are all good and I'm hoping to see them given more games.

doctor_grey wrote:

GeordieFalcon wrote:Be a bit peed off I was a saints fan and saw that Saracens line up!!

Not really, though I bet a lot of Saints fans are not happy.  For me, Saints put themselves in this position with mind-boggling inconsistency, at times very poor defense, and an overly up tempo attack that turned the ball over faster than ever.  More than anything, Saints need to win, and for me, if they fail to win a must win game, then they deserve to be at home.  And it is that context I am not thinking about any other game.  

Besides, Sarries earned their opportunity to rest players before the playoffs.  Saints did not.  

Gawd, I sound like a grouchy old man....

From one grumpy old man to another (or so my wife tells me); it will definitely be true this evening if we blow this chance. We have picked up I think 27 of the possible 30 points in this end of season run, to lose at the last hurdle would make me grumpy for the whole summer.

It is good to see that should we win or Sarries reserves win, we look like getting some of our long term injuries back, both Augustus and Ribbans being on the bench, those two would make a difference to just about any side.

It would be great also to get some silverware in Tom Woods and Api Ratuniyarawa last Saints game/season. Api is in the form of his life at the moment, lets home he can hold it together for 3 more games (hopefully). I wouldn't be surprised to to see Tom Woods back in some coaching capacity in the near future. The guy is a legend at Saints and someone that the academy boys can really look up to aspire to be like.

Is Exeter vs Quins on live TV?

Not sure if there will be a red button option to watch what you like but the main game is Northampton Newcastle.

mikey_dragon wrote:Is Exeter vs Quins on live TV?

Saints Vs Falcons and Gloucester Vs Sarries are the games BT are covering. The other games are available on Prem TV from the Premiership website at a cost of £5 live or free (full game or highlights) from tomorrow.

Great start at the Gardens. Love Ludlum on the wing, and Matavesi playing like a back....

WELL-PAST-IT wrote:

doctor_grey wrote:

GeordieFalcon wrote:Be a bit peed off I was a saints fan and saw that Saracens line up!!

Not really, though I bet a lot of Saints fans are not happy.  For me, Saints put themselves in this position with mind-boggling inconsistency, at times very poor defense, and an overly up tempo attack that turned the ball over faster than ever.  More than anything, Saints need to win, and for me, if they fail to win a must win game, then they deserve to be at home.  And it is that context I am not thinking about any other game.  

Besides, Sarries earned their opportunity to rest players before the playoffs.  Saints did not.  

Gawd, I sound like a grouchy old man....

From one grumpy old man to another (or so my wife tells me); it will definitely be true this evening if we blow this chance. We have picked up I think 27 of the possible 30 points in this end of season run, to lose at the last hurdle would make me grumpy for the whole summer.

It is good to see that should we win or Sarries reserves win, we look like getting some of our long term injuries back, both Augustus and Ribbans being on the bench, those two would make a difference to just about any side.

It would be great also to get some silverware in Tom Woods and Api Ratuniyarawa last Saints game/season. Api is in the form of his life at the moment, lets home he can hold it together for 3 more games (hopefully).  I wouldn't be surprised to to see Tom Woods back in  some coaching capacity in the near future. The guy is a legend at Saints and someone that the academy boys can really look up to aspire to be like.

Fortunately you're playing Newcastle.

Can't decide if that Chick try is brilliant or just the worst defending off all time. No one lays a hand on him for the initial break, was it Painter just not bothering? Then Furbank is either completely fooled or just doesn't fancy the tackle!

Cheers, got the weekend pass now. I wanted to get a good look at Jenkins.

Just wondering, do Exeter play with left and right in the back-row? It seems like they do.

WELL-PAST-IT wrote:

doctor_grey wrote:

GeordieFalcon wrote:Be a bit peed off I was a saints fan and saw that Saracens line up!!

Not really, though I bet a lot of Saints fans are not happy.  For me, Saints put themselves in this position with mind-boggling inconsistency, at times very poor defense, and an overly up tempo attack that turned the ball over faster than ever.  More than anything, Saints need to win, and for me, if they fail to win a must win game, then they deserve to be at home.  And it is that context I am not thinking about any other game.  

Besides, Sarries earned their opportunity to rest players before the playoffs.  Saints did not.  

Gawd, I sound like a grouchy old man....

From one grumpy old man to another (or so my wife tells me); it will definitely be true this evening if we blow this chance. We have picked up I think 27 of the possible 30 points in this end of season run, to lose at the last hurdle would make me grumpy for the whole summer.

It is good to see that should we win or Sarries reserves win, we look like getting some of our long term injuries back, both Augustus and Ribbans being on the bench, those two would make a difference to just about any side.

It would be great also to get some silverware in Tom Woods and Api Ratuniyarawa last Saints game/season. Api is in the form of his life at the moment, lets home he can hold it together for 3 more games (hopefully).  I wouldn't be surprised to to see Tom Woods back in  some coaching capacity in the near future. The guy is a legend at Saints and someone that the academy boys can really look up to aspire to be like.

Halftime and this is nice.

Well Dean's reign is signing off as its ran its course...

Hopefully new times with new coaching team....

I still can't work out how Falcons didn't score in the corner near the end of the first half - looked like the ball carrier just had to run straight but turned towards a defender instead?

I'm at a wedding heaf just keeping up to date on Twitter and the falcons forum. Sounds standard rugby from us.

Need Walder and Mark Wilson to sort it out next season.

Well Falcons have woken up a bit now ...

Blamire has made an impact.

Bit harsh. Lawes is off his feet and then it's a high clear out that slips.

And a try and a red from the play resulting play.

Oh dear ...

Newcastle are a skip fire sometimes. From brilliance from Blamire again to abject rubbish.

Just end it. No injuries. Saints are clearly better with Augustus and Ribbans on the pitch.

Cheers Tigers

I do not want to call either semi.

Just call them 'semis"

Bye bye Dean....

Haven’t posted for ages, but have to say that as a long suffering Wuss fan, that was a good end to the season. Am hoping that next season sees us kicking on a bit.

And yes, it’s the hope that slowly kills you!!

mikey_dragon wrote:Cheers, got the weekend pass now. I wanted to get a good look at Jenkins.

Just wondering, do Exeter play with left and right in the back-row? It seems like they do.

Pretty much. The jackler tends to play at 8 the flankers are normally both units, at times it's almost like they have four locks. Works well when they are clobbering away at the opposition try line.