Prem Round 5

First topic message reminder :

Friday
Gloucester v Bath - 19.45

Saturday
Bristol v Sale 14.30
Leicester v Quins 15.05

Sunday
Newcastle v Saracens 15.00
Saints v Chiefs 15.00

formerly known as Sam wrote:

No 7&1/2 wrote:

Poorfour wrote:

No 7&1/2 wrote:

Duty281 wrote:Yeah, I think Dombrandt is definitely getting there and Tempest has stopped him playing the ball (not deliberately, of course). Would expect a scrum to be given, but fortunately it didn't have an impact on the result.

Thing is you'd get hauled over the coals as a ref of you started to make up laws be it fair or not. Unfortunate event but not much he can do.

I don't think so. The ref is the ultimate arbiter of the laws on the pitch and the purpose of the laws is to ensure a fair contest. Arguably, taking out a player, affecting the game and letting play continue is preventing a fair contest.

Yes there's that get out but what happened is play on in the law book.

The get out is that he doesn't interfere with either the ball or the ball carrier. Quins also get the ball back via their big ball carrying 12 with the opportunity for him to carry it in and reset. It's not the ref's fault the centre drops the ball. Had Quins not got possession they might have had more of a case.

Yup. It's one of those things where it probably should be a scrum to Harlequins but so rare it's never really been considered as to making into the law book. Just one of those tough luck things.

formerly known as Sam wrote:Good result by Saints. Exeter kicked very badly and Saints really dominated territory. Young Fin Smith was composed and really led the team well.

If Saints are anything to go by, there are going to be a lot of options coming through to challenge the current England squad players.

From Saints perspective, Smith had a good game (player of the match), but so to did a few others. Exeter may have kicked badly, but Hendy caught everything they threw at him and generally ran it back with aplomb. Chunya Munga, another 6'7" 120kg 23 year old, looked the part and will start pushing Coles and Moon. Freeman looked everything that SB wants, defensively sound, chased everything and made a right menace of himself to the receiving defenders, scored one and could probably run in for a second try but unselfishly passed inside to Mitchell.

Coles is only 23/24 and at 6'9" and just under 19 stone suits the Borthwick mould, showed what he could do in loose play with a good run and offload. He could be around as an alternative type to Martin. Better in the lineout, more mobile tackles well if not as hard. If SB wants the smaller mobile back row, Martin is not an option at lock.

It was interesting to watch Saints (relatively) diminutive front row Hill and Waller both around 120kg pack down against the monsters from Chiefs, both Saints giving away about 20kg, over the game chiefs won the pen count 2-1, but in what few scrums there were everything was very even.