Prem Round 4

First topic message reminder :

Friday
Falcons v Bristol – 19.45

Sat – All 15.00 Pm
L. Irish v Bath
Sale v Exeter
Saracens v Leicester
Gloucester v Worcester - Postponed

Sun
Quins v Saints – 15.00

Wow - what a finish

oooo - thought he might have clipped the touchline with his last step ...

Or maybe not from the reverse angle

Well Saints are making their way up the hill ... I have Quins by 1 so an unconverted try will do nicely

backwards facing forward pass missed there

That was a nailbiter.

Not sure how Northampton lost that.

Well that ended up closer than expected - or given the way other matches have gone not so unexpected .... it's the season of comebacks or near-comebacks ...

No 7&1/2 wrote:Not sure how Northampton lost that.

Not taking their chances - they had loads more than Quins ...

Heaf wrote:

No 7&1/2 wrote:Not sure how Northampton lost that.

Not taking their chances - they had loads more than Quins ...

Quins defensive intensity really fell off towards the end as well.

Saints really did shoot themselves in the foot, repeatedly.

Not sure I agree with that. The tackle intensity seemed to be there right til the end, but chances to compete at the breakdown declined as sealing off stopped being reffed

Manu watch....any idea why he was subbed yesterday? Another injury?

The good thing for Quins at the moment is that there are a lot of youngsters getting game time - either starting or getting finisher spots.

With guys like, Eusterhezen, Dombrandt, J.Chisholm, Lynagh, Lewies, Collier all to come back in - they will make a big difference.

Lenox Anyanwu, will be an excellent backup to Eusterhezen when he is back
Dino Lamb, Archie White have all been stepping up
MArchant can move back to the centres when Lynagh is back and ying-yang with Northmore who is on fire at the moment.
David covers 15 well for Tyrone Green.

So while Quins have had a few off games - I feel that those missing players could make a big impact and some of our current starters will become excellent finishers (we stand a chance of playing a decent game for the full 80mins).

Main worry at the moment is our understudy no.9 (Galtema) - seems to be pretty slow to the breakdown and decision making, passing is a bit variable too. Felt more comfortable with Steele, but he is currently out with injury.

I'm not even sure I'd say we had a few off games. We lost narrowly to Saracens when they had far more of their first team out than we did, and we lost away at Exeter to a try that probably shouldn't have been given.

Neither of those were games I expected to win going into the season, and that we got so close in both while missing a raft of first team players is actually pretty encouraging.

Quins are also showing a new enthusiasm for defence, and forcing mistakes from it. I don't think this squad will ever be a "keep the score low and grind it out" sort of team, but some of the hits and defensive choices on Sunday were as good as I have seen from them. Green's defence for the Saints breakaway near the end of the first half was an aspect of his game I'd not seen before.

I agree Poorfour - but there is defiantly room for improvement, and that will come as those more experienced guys come back and the youngsters get more exposure.
Squad depth is starting to build out more than recent years and thats a real positive.
Greens defence was very solid yesterday - so too I thought was Marchant.

Poorfour wrote:I'm not even sure I'd say we had a few off games. We lost narrowly to Saracens when they had far more of their first team out than we did, and we lost away at Exeter to a try that probably shouldn't have been given.

Neither of those were games I expected to win going into the season, and that we got so close in both while missing a raft of first team players is actually pretty encouraging.

Quins are also showing a new enthusiasm for defence, and forcing mistakes from it. I don't think this squad will ever be a "keep the score low and grind it out" sort of team, but some of the hits and defensive choices on Sunday were as good as I have seen from them. Green's defence for the Saints breakaway near the end of the first half was an aspect of his game I'd not seen before.

It's interesting becuase i've only seen highlights but it looked like our defense was extremely soft at times. Saints first try seemed like they barely got out of first gear and powered over. The media as well seem very critical of us switching off and letting them in for soft scores. The fact they played themselves back into it from being down suggests are defence really isn't great at times.

yappysnap wrote:
It's interesting becuase i've only seen highlights but it looked like our defense was extremely soft at times. Saints first try seemed like they barely got out of first gear and powered over. The media as well seem very critical of us switching off and letting them in for soft scores. The fact they played themselves back into it from being down suggests are defence really isn't great at times.

That's not how it felt in the stadium. Both teams did score off first phase possession - but then both teams have the kind of backline that can do that.

But the broader Saints comeback was really a result of repreated penalties that put them in the Quins half - and they then spent a lot of time there and were turned over several times for each time they scored. I haven't seen the possession and territory stats, but I'd expect them to favour Saints by the sort of margin that would normally indicate an easy victory.

Ah fair enough, as mentioned i've only watched the highlights which skews my perception certainly. It does seem a bit of a trend of ours to allow soft scores late in games, the same happened against Exeter (yes with the help of a forward pass).

So far we've conceded 30pts to Sarries, 43 against Exeter and now 29 against Saints. Obviously our style buys into an open game, but that doesn't seem like a really solid defence on paper.

Overall really happy with the start of the season though, like you said I expected some losses and we've come a lot closer then I hoped. Onwards and upwards.

yappysnap wrote:

Poorfour wrote:I'm not even sure I'd say we had a few off games. We lost narrowly to Saracens when they had far more of their first team out than we did, and we lost away at Exeter to a try that probably shouldn't have been given.

Neither of those were games I expected to win going into the season, and that we got so close in both while missing a raft of first team players is actually pretty encouraging.

Quins are also showing a new enthusiasm for defence, and forcing mistakes from it. I don't think this squad will ever be a "keep the score low and grind it out" sort of team, but some of the hits and defensive choices on Sunday were as good as I have seen from them. Green's defence for the Saints breakaway near the end of the first half was an aspect of his game I'd not seen before.

It's interesting becuase i've only seen highlights but it looked like our defense was extremely soft at times. Saints first try seemed like they barely got out of first gear and powered over. The media as well seem very critical of us switching off and letting them in for soft scores. The fact they played themselves back into it from being down suggests are defence really isn't great at times.

Saints.....aargh. Saints spent more time dropping balls than actually trying to play Rugby. I think Quins spent too much time on the same pitch as Saints and learned how to concede easy scores.

I know it's only the prem cup but some score in the Northampton Saracens game yesterday; 58 - 34. Northampton had more readily known names playing, any youngsters to keep an eye on? Saw that a young lad came on at 9 for Saracens called Bracken...

No 7&1/2 wrote:I know it's only the prem cup but some score in the Northampton Saracens game yesterday; 58 - 34. Northampton had more readily known names playing, any youngsters to keep an eye on? Saw that a young lad came on at 9 for Saracens called Bracken...

From a Saints point of view, there is another Sleightholme coming through and looking the real McCoy. Pollock who scored two tries from the back row is still playing under 18s rugby, Joel Matavesi also looks very good, as if Saints needed any more centres. I can't see him staying much longer if he carries on improving like he done.

WELL-PAST-IT wrote:

No 7&1/2 wrote:I know it's only the prem cup but some score in the Northampton Saracens game yesterday; 58 - 34. Northampton had more readily known names playing, any youngsters to keep an eye on? Saw that a young lad came on at 9 for Saracens called Bracken...

From a Saints point of view, there is another Sleightholme coming through and looking the real McCoy. Pollock who scored two tries from the back row is still playing under 18s rugby, Joel Matavesi also looks very good, as if Saints needed any more centres. I can't see him staying much longer if he carries on improving like he done.

You know, mate, I think there must be something in the water at the Gardens. We do seem to have lots of promising younguns.

By the way, are any of these Premiership Rugby Cup games televised? Streamed?

doctor_grey wrote:

WELL-PAST-IT wrote:

No 7&1/2 wrote:I know it's only the prem cup but some score in the Northampton Saracens game yesterday; 58 - 34. Northampton had more readily known names playing, any youngsters to keep an eye on? Saw that a young lad came on at 9 for Saracens called Bracken...

From a Saints point of view, there is another Sleightholme coming through and looking the real McCoy. Pollock who scored two tries from the back row is still playing under 18s rugby, Joel Matavesi also looks very good, as if Saints needed any more centres. I can't see him staying much longer if he carries on improving like he done.

You know, mate, I think there must be something in the water at the Gardens.  We do seem to have lots of promising younguns.  

By the way, are any of these Premiership Rugby Cup games televised?  Streamed?  

BT cover some when they don't clash with European Football. You can stream the games from the Prem Cup website though there's no commentary and just ref mic.