Prem fixtures announced

Opening weekend Premiership fixtures
Friday, 9 September (19:45 BST)

Bristol Bears v Bath

Sale Sharks v Northampton Saints

Saturday, 10 September (15:00)

Exeter Chiefs v Leicester Tigers

London Irish v Worcester Warriors

Newcastle Falcons v Harlequins

Sunday, 11 September (15:00)

Gloucester v Wasps

Bristol Vs Bath should be an interesting game to start things with though Sale Vs Saints is hardly likely to be a dull game. Tough start for Tigers as a revitalised Chiefs could be a bit of an unknown with their rebuild under full swing.

First game away to Falcons could be a really depressing way to start the season, they can be a bit of a banana skin for us and we seem to always play the first 65 mins of these first opening games as if we're still on holidays.

yappysnap wrote:First game away to Falcons could be a really depressing way to start the season, they can be a bit of a banana skin for us and we seem to always play the first 65 mins of these first opening games as if we're still on holidays.

No Care, Smith and Marchant won't help that either. If the Big Book is still with SA that will further hit the backline. Unsure whether Walker will get out of the 10 weeks rest for you guys as he didn't actually play a minute on tour.

Tigers will be heading to Chiefs with no Montoya, Heyes, Chessum, Weise, JVP, Porter and Steward on the first weekend, maybe no Reffell either. So could be a tough weekend that.

Good looking set of fixtures. Presumably the tv picks will be the 2 obvious ones and Exeter Leicester.

No 7&1/2 wrote:Good looking set of fixtures. Presumably the tv picks will be the 2 obvious ones and Exeter Leicester.

Bristol Vs Bath, Chiefs Vs Tigers and Glaws Vs Wasps. Keeping it in the South West for the first weekend.

Saves the environment after the last couple of days.

formerly known as Sam wrote:

yappysnap wrote:First game away to Falcons could be a really depressing way to start the season, they can be a bit of a banana skin for us and we seem to always play the first 65 mins of these first opening games as if we're still on holidays.

No Care, Smith and Marchant won't help that either. If the Big Book is still with SA that will further hit the backline. Unsure whether Walker will get out of the 10 weeks rest for you guys as he didn't actually play a minute on tour.

Tigers will be heading to Chiefs with no Montoya, Heyes, Chessum, Weise, JVP, Porter and Steward on the first weekend, maybe no Reffell either. So could be a tough weekend that.

Yea all good points there, so presumably it might be a poor opening game for us then!

Ditto you guys, having plenty of Int players in the team makes life tricky at these times. Seems a really weird way to start the season with your arguably key players all still on holiday.

yappysnap wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:

yappysnap wrote:First game away to Falcons could be a really depressing way to start the season, they can be a bit of a banana skin for us and we seem to always play the first 65 mins of these first opening games as if we're still on holidays.

No Care, Smith and Marchant won't help that either. If the Big Book is still with SA that will further hit the backline. Unsure whether Walker will get out of the 10 weeks rest for you guys as he didn't actually play a minute on tour.

Tigers will be heading to Chiefs with no Montoya, Heyes, Chessum, Weise, JVP, Porter and Steward on the first weekend, maybe no Reffell either. So could be a tough weekend that.

Yea all good points there, so presumably it might be a poor opening game for us then!

Ditto you guys, having plenty of Int players in the team makes life tricky at these times. Seems a really weird way to start the season with your arguably key players all still on holiday.

Thankfully Borthwick has turned the club from being team focused to being squad focused. Even with a lot of the international players missing we should still have something like;

Cronin, Clare, Cole
Wells, Green
Martin, Liebenburg, Cracknell
Youngs, Burns
Kelly, Scott
Nadolo, Watson, Potter

TCD, Whitcombe, Leatigaga, Henderson, Ilione, Wigglesworth, Gopperth, Murimurivalu/Ashton.

We're a bit short backrow and hooker due to injuries and call ups but we could still move things around a bit depending on how pre season goes. Kelly being back fit will be key. His absence hurt our attack more than Ford's last season. Interesting that Tigers pre season stuff shows the same S&C style stuff we did last year but also a lot more ball in hand bits. Hopefully the sign of an updated attack.

Looking increasingly like Wasps are in deep financial trouble!

And Worcester seem to be late paying players.

I had heard a couple of months ago that a local business was taking Wuss to court over unpaid fees relating to a PR clay pigeon shooting day. I'm guessing Covid has knocked their finances around like so many others.

Wasps and the loan notes, it was a risky move back when they announced them. The rates they offered meant they were taken up quick. They've been a source of issue for a while but Covid (again) seems to have really done them over and they are struggling to find someone to help them refinance. It's likely that they'd lose the stadium and the new training complex (they'd been promising for a decade) rather than go bust though renting both back would be a serious drain on funds and might not be sustainable long term.

According to the Wasps unoffy

Bond holders are now setting up a Facebook page to try and take collective action against Wasps Finance

GeordieFalcon wrote:According to the Wasps unoffy

Bond holders are now setting up a Facebook page to try and take collective action against Wasps Finance

Ouch, this could get very messy for Wasps. They need to refinance and pay people back asap but that might mean having to borrow at an awful rate in the short term and then refinance again later on better terms. Apparently their talks with HSBC fell through.

formerly known as Sam wrote:

yappysnap wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:

yappysnap wrote:First game away to Falcons could be a really depressing way to start the season, they can be a bit of a banana skin for us and we seem to always play the first 65 mins of these first opening games as if we're still on holidays.

No Care, Smith and Marchant won't help that either. If the Big Book is still with SA that will further hit the backline. Unsure whether Walker will get out of the 10 weeks rest for you guys as he didn't actually play a minute on tour.

Tigers will be heading to Chiefs with no Montoya, Heyes, Chessum, Weise, JVP, Porter and Steward on the first weekend, maybe no Reffell either. So could be a tough weekend that.

Yea all good points there, so presumably it might be a poor opening game for us then!

Ditto you guys, having plenty of Int players in the team makes life tricky at these times. Seems a really weird way to start the season with your arguably key players all still on holiday.

Thankfully Borthwick has turned the club from being team focused to being squad focused. Even with a lot of the international players missing we should still have something like;

Cronin, Clare, Cole
Wells, Green
Martin, Liebenburg, Cracknell
Youngs, Burns
Kelly, Scott
Nadolo, Watson, Potter

TCD, Whitcombe, Leatigaga, Henderson, Ilione, Wigglesworth, Gopperth, Murimurivalu/Ashton.

We're a bit short backrow and hooker due to injuries and call ups but we could still move things around a bit depending on how pre season goes. Kelly being back fit will be key. His absence hurt our attack more than Ford's last season. Interesting that Tigers pre season stuff shows the same S&C style stuff we did last year but also a lot more ball in hand bits. Hopefully the sign of an updated attack.

I was more just thinking that from a marketing perspective you'd think the league would want all the Int players and biggest names available for the kick off to the season, not to dribble in over the next month.

Can't really move the start date of the season back two weeks when you've already agreed to shorten it so that the England team has more prep time for the world cup.

formerly known as Sam wrote:

yappysnap wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:

yappysnap wrote:First game away to Falcons could be a really depressing way to start the season, they can be a bit of a banana skin for us and we seem to always play the first 65 mins of these first opening games as if we're still on holidays.

No Care, Smith and Marchant won't help that either. If the Big Book is still with SA that will further hit the backline. Unsure whether Walker will get out of the 10 weeks rest for you guys as he didn't actually play a minute on tour.

Tigers will be heading to Chiefs with no Montoya, Heyes, Chessum, Weise, JVP, Porter and Steward on the first weekend, maybe no Reffell either. So could be a tough weekend that.

Yea all good points there, so presumably it might be a poor opening game for us then!

Ditto you guys, having plenty of Int players in the team makes life tricky at these times. Seems a really weird way to start the season with your arguably key players all still on holiday.

Thankfully Borthwick has turned the club from being team focused to being squad focused. Even with a lot of the international players missing we should still have something like;

Cronin, Clare, Cole
Wells, Green
Martin, Liebenburg, Cracknell
Youngs, Burns
Kelly, Scott
Nadolo, Watson, Potter

TCD, Whitcombe, Leatigaga, Henderson, Ilione, Wigglesworth, Gopperth, Murimurivalu/Ashton.

We're a bit short backrow and hooker due to injuries and call ups but we could still move things around a bit depending on how pre season goes. Kelly being back fit will be key. His absence hurt our attack more than Ford's last season. Interesting that Tigers pre season stuff shows the same S&C style stuff we did last year but also a lot more ball in hand bits. Hopefully the sign of an updated attack.

Would you not get Reffell? I am sure I read somewhere in an article about when the Welsh regions can expect their internationals to be available, it said the likes of Biggar will be at their clubs disposal from the 1st game.

Wales Online wrote:CThose based in the Gallagher Premiership will not be managed as carefully and will likely be required for duty on day one of the Gallagher Premiership season, if selected.

That contingent includes captain Dan Biggar (Northampton), Louis Rees-Zammit (Gloucester), Tommy Reffell (Leicester), Nick Tompkins and Sam Wainwright (Saracens).

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-news/wales-best-rugby-players-play-24544097

Reffell might be available but think Borthwick might opt to gradually reintroduce him. Last season we rotated the team for a lot of the away games, ensuring everyone got game time and rest. Still sent strong teams but one or two would be rotated out. With that in mind and the fact Chiefs like to go big up front I can see us going with Liebenburg or Cracknell at 7 for that one and meeting fire with fire (last season at Sandy Park we went with Chessum/Liebenburg/Weise with Reffell on the bench). Second game is Newcastle at home where he might get a run off the bench.

A lot depends on what injuries we have during pre season and how well Ilione shows up. If Ilione has a stormer in pre season I can see him getting a bit of game time in the first two weeks which will benefit Reffell.

Rumours wasps are going for a CVA...

Apparently it would mean a 35 point reduction from the Prem immediately.

Surely that would also affect players wages etc...could be some good players up for grabs

GeordieFalcon wrote:Rumours wasps are going for a CVA...

Apparently it would mean a 35 point reduction from the Prem immediately.

Surely that would also affect players wages etc...could be some good players up for grabs

Is there going to be relegation this season?

No i think this is the last season of no relegations isnt it?

GeordieFalcon wrote:Rumours wasps are going for a CVA...

Apparently it would mean a 35 point reduction from the Prem immediately.

Surely that would also affect players wages etc...could be some good players up for grabs

There would have to be a salary cap adjustment for anyone to afford them. Can't imagine the likes of Koch or Launchbury fancy being paid third choice squad player money which is probably what teams have left to spend.