Prem Round 3

Harlequins Starting XV

1. Joe Marler
2. Jack Walker - Captain
3. Wilco Louw
4. George Hammond
5. Irne Herbst
6. Jack Kenningham
7. Will Evans
8. Archie White

9. Lewis Gjaltema
10. Marcus Smith
11. Cadan Murley
12. Lennox Anyanwu
13. Joe Marchant
14. Nick David
15. Tyrone Green

Impact Players
16. George Head
17. Santiago Garcia Botta
18. Simon Kerrod
19. Dino Lamb
20. Matas Jurevicius
21. Danny Care
22. Tommy Allan
23. Luke Northmore

Dombrandt is a big loss at 8 and Botta can be a bit up and down while Kerrod is reverting to TH for the first time in a while, but allowing for injury and international absence it's a good team. Sandy Park is always a tough place to visit, though, so at this point I'd be happy to come away with a BP.

Steve Borthwick has named the Leicester Tigers matchday squad for the club’s away game against Northampton Saints this Saturday in Round 3 of the 2022/23 Gallagher Premiership season.

Hanro Liebenberg captains the side, supported by vice-captains Dan Cole and Jack van Poortvliet.

Included in the matchday squad is Freddie Steward, who will make his first appearance of the season after touring Australia with the England senior men’s squad in the summer. The match is also the Tigers Academy graduate’s 50th starting appearance for Leicester.

After missing the Round 2 win over Newcastle Falcons, Freddie Burns returns to partner van Poortvliet as the starting half-backs.

In his first start of the campaign, the scrum-half will make his 50th senior appearance for the club.

STARTING XV:
15 Freddie Steward [56]
14 Harry Potter [43]
13 Guy Porter [46]
12 Jimmy Gopperth [2]
11 Nemani Nadolo [38]
10 Freddie Burns [104]
9 Jack van Poortvliet (vc) [49]
1 James Cronin [2]
2 Charlie Clare [54]
3 Dan Cole (vc) [292]
4 Ollie Chessum [32]
5 Calum Green [92]
6 George Martin [41]
7 Tommy Reffell [80]
8 Hanro Liebenberg (c) [61]

REPLACEMENTS:
16 Joe Taufete’e [1]
17 Francois van Wyk [19]
18 Joe Heyes [102]
19 Harry Wells [158]
20 Olly Cracknell [2]
21 Ben Youngs [284]
22 Phil Cokanasiga [2]
23 Chris Ashton [14]

Saints XV: 15 George Furbank, 14 Tommy Freeman, 13 Fraser Dingwall, 12 Rory Hutchinson, 11 Matt Proctor, 10 Dan Biggar, 9 Alex Mitchell; 1 Emmanuel Iyogun, 2 Sam Matavesi, 3 Alfie Petch, 4 Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, 5 Alex Coles, 6 Courtney Lawes, 7 Lewis Ludlam (c), 8 Juarno Augustus

Saints Replacements: 16 Mike Haywood, 17 Ethan Waller, 18 Paul Hill, 19 Alex Moon, 20 Angus Scott-Young, 21 Tom James, 22 James Grayson, 23 Tom Collins

Can you post Exeter's starting team when it's annoucned, ta.

Exeter Chiefs

15 Joe Simmonds
14 Jack Nowell
13 Henry Slade
12 Ian Whitten
11 Olly Woodburn
10 Harvey Skinner
9 Stu Townsend
1 Alec Hepburn
2 Luke Cowan-Dickie
3 Harry Williams
4 Ruben Van Heerden
5 Jonny Gray
6 Dave Ewers
7 Christ Tshiunza
8 Richard Capstick

Replacements

16 Jack Yeandle
17 James Kenny
18 Patrick Schickerling
19 Daffyd Jenkins
20 Sam Simmonds
21 Sam Maunder
22 Rory O’Loughlin
23 Stuart Hogg

Simmonds has been looking very good at full back, he's never going to keep that place though with Hogg now back surely?

Christ Tshiunza at 7 again. He's been getting good reviews since the season opening, whilst playing out of position too. He might be that player Wales have been crying out for, a forward good at everything who can cover lock and anywhere in the back-row. I was about to say Daffyd Jenkins might not feature again but I see he's on the bench.

Falcons for Wuss:

Brantingham, McGuigan (c), Davison, Peterson, de Chaves, Robinson, Collett, Chick, Nordli-Kelemeti, Connon, Carreras, Wacokecoke, Stevenson, Radwan, Tait

Bench: Maddison, Brocklebank, Tampin, Merrick, Blamire, Barton, Schoeman, Penny

Warriors:

McCallum, Langdon, Tyack, Batley, Kitchener, Lee-Warner, Nield, Dodd, Simpson, Searle, Van der Merwe, Venter, Lawrence, Hearle, Shillcock

Bench: Faiva, Owen, Owlett, Kitchener, Kvesic, Chudley, Morris, Heward

Nice little dig at Wasps from Walder over Will Haydon-Wood..

“I believe we’ve got a great ethos about doing things the right way, building through our academy and promoting local talent, although yeah, I’ll admit it’s frustrating when you make an offer for a player but you get blown out of the water by clubs who then go on to experience financial difficulty.”

Just watching the Wasps game...big Joe Launchbury is carrying alot of of timber....needs to lose a bit

Yeah, looks like he is picking up a few bad habits from Billy Cheeseburger.
It's funny, he never looked like much of an athlete, but almost always delivered.

Geordie like that quote.

mikey_dragon wrote:Christ Tshiunza at 7 again. He's been getting good reviews since the season opening, whilst playing out of position too. He might be that player Wales have been crying out for, a forward good at everything who can cover lock and anywhere in the back-row. I was about to say Daffyd Jenkins might not feature again but I see he's on the bench.

He doesn't really play how Wales would expect a 7 to play mind. If you're expecting him to play like Reffell or Tipuric etc you'll be rather disappointed. He's better at the breakdown than most big men but Chiefs don't opt for subtlety in the backrow, they prefer big horrible bruisers. He looks like he'll develop into some player sooner rather than later.

doctor_grey wrote:Yeah, looks like he is picking up a few bad habits from Billy Cheeseburger.  
It's funny, he never looked like much of an athlete, but almost always delivered.  

When he first burst onto the scene he was known as a mobile player though, used to get about the park and disrupt the breakdown. After his knee injury that died away but by then he'd gained some skills in the tight, working with Parling certainly helped.

I agree though there's always been a slight old school look about him but he's definitely looking like he's enjoyed his summer holidays.

A long time to make me look the fool, but Bath look such a poor pack at the moment. I was looking forward to seeing their backline play, but they basically haven't had the ball. This could be a serious manshaming, their defence is rubbish.

Jack Willis though....rampaging....

formerly known as Sam wrote:

doctor_grey wrote:Yeah, looks like he is picking up a few bad habits from Billy Cheeseburger.  
It's funny, he never looked like much of an athlete, but almost always delivered.  

When he first burst onto the scene he was known as a mobile player though, used to get about the park and disrupt the breakdown. After his knee injury that died away but by then he'd gained some skills in the tight, working with Parling certainly helped.

I agree though there's always been a slight old school look about him but he's definitely looking like he's enjoyed his summer holidays.

I like the way you described him as having that old school look about him. Fits him like a glove.

By the way, didn't take long for Bath-Wasps to turn into a Waspies training session, eh?

Geordie wrote:Jack Willis though....rampaging....

Aye the Willisi have both looked good.

Ahh generally I don't take much from looks...Thomas Waldrom was heavy yet one of the fittest guys going. That's rugby.

But Launchbury doesn't normally carry that much around his midriff. Doesn't seem to be affecting his performance mind.

Cumbrian wrote:

Geordie wrote:Jack Willis though....rampaging....

Aye the Willisi have both looked good.

Yes...big fan of Tom aswell....cracking player.

When Wasps go under their coming to the falcons

That was class by Bailey!!

A minute ago, the tv broadcast showed a close-up of Jack Willis. He is just a freakin' tough looking guy. Th bruise under his eye makes it even better. Should make the England RWC squad based on looks alone. Maybe use him to balance off Etzebeth...

I think Bailey has the potential to be a very good ten in years to come. There seems to be quite a few young tens coming through at the moment and getting a decent amount of gametime.

There's about 5/6 genuine young classy tens who could push for England spots soon....

Jack Willis is dominating as is Tom......however this Bath side are woeful.

Bath really are, well, just poor. Shame.

Big turnaround....nearly did it.

Jack Willis yellow Probably a big reason.

Why is Tom Willis not rated by Eddie Jones

With Underhill out its a great chance for Willis albeit it'll be from the bench due to the ongoing Lawes love. He offers great balance to the bench though. As for the other Willis it's just that there are better players than him at 8, perhaps 10 to 15 years ago he'd have 20 caps by his age.

No 7&1/2 wrote:With Underhill out its a great chance for Willis albeit it'll be from the bench due to the ongoing Lawes love. He offers great balance to the bench though. As for the other Willis it's just that there are better players than him at 8, perhaps 10 to 15 years ago he'd have 20 caps by his age.

I think 8 is one of the England shirts that could change hands again before the world cup. Billy V has taken it back with no one really stepping forward in his absence.

Would like to have had a proper look at that knock into touch ... 2 hands? not so sure ...

It's still Dombrandts shirt in my mind given he had it before injury and was playing well. I wouldn't be surprised should Vunipola not make the autumn squad but then you have guys like simmonds and mercer depending on agreement s, Barbeary who keeps Willis out of the 8 shirt for wasps. Lots of options.

Heaf wrote:Would like to have had a proper look at that knock into touch ... 2 hands? not so sure ...

It's definitely 2 hands...but also a 2 handed slap into touch.

Saints looking pretty sharp ... if they can sort the scrum out they'll be in good shape

Northampton looking dangerous. Mitchell looking class.

Oh and stop getting charged down ...

Another nice try

Mitchell that's lovely.

Saints are class to watch, fair play. Nice to see Biggar get to distribute to decent outside backs.

Saints blew Tigers away a bit there in that first 20. Tigers gradually came back and finally got some points following the resulting pressure. Can't rely on the set piece dominance though as Dickson isn't a ref that rewards that. Need to get Nadolo on the ball more often, he's making Saints backs lives a misery. Poor Dingwall has been roughed up and left on his backside a few times already in defence.

Mitchell looks class, he's started the season in great form. The Saints support lines are a key difference in this game so far. Any half break suddenly becomes real problem for the Tigers defence.

RiscaGame wrote:Saints are class to watch, fair play. Nice to see Biggar get to distribute to decent outside backs.

He's had a good half bar the minute he spent rolling around following a brilliant Reffell hit which led to a another minute of him whining and bleating at Dickson who just kept repeating that the TMO was telling him it was a legal tackle. It was a tad pathetic. He got cut in half as he was releasing the pass I don't know what he was having a tantrum about. Can't have hurt him too much as he made an outstanding try saving tackle shortly after in Gopperth.

Well from the unoffy we are completely indiscipline and giving away ludicrous penalties galore.

Not good.

Had to step out for 20 mins so catching up ... another thing that puzzled me is how being handed the ball 5m out and going through a couple of phase isn't an advantage from a not-straight line-out?

Biggar was asking for a deliberate knock on, not the hit.

I still fancy Tigers to over power them in the end.

Is that not a forward pass from Ludlum

Saints scrum is probably going to cost them ...

Heaf wrote:Saints scrum is probably going to cost them ...

That’s all I think really.

Geordie wrote:Is that not a forward pass from Ludlum

Certainly worth a look ...

On replay hands looked backwards ...

OK so that scrum went the wrong way ... did I imagine the Tigers player fumbling it forwards onto his head?

No ruck - I thought these days any player over the ball created a ruck to avoid that nonsense the Italians did?

Getting hammered by Worcester....pretty alarming.

Heaf wrote:Saints scrum is probably going to cost them ...

Yeah you're right there! To be fair you would rely on the set piece if you were Leicester.