Relegation

Who do you see as being relegated this season in the Aviva Premiership?

Leicester...

now that would be worth seeing

Wasps

im a worcester fan so hope your right lol

will most likely be between Worcester and Newcastle. I hope Exeter dont get dragged down into a relegation battle, anyone think that could happen? Also Sale will be a bit of an unknown so there's always the possibility they could just flop

i think sale will be mid table this year and exeter might get a bit of the 2nd season syndrome

London irish have a very poor squad this season the Lack of investment could send them in to a relegation dog fight.

players have left like s armitage, stowers, and Lamb and have been replaced by ..............................nobody

exileray wrote:London irish have a very poor squad this season the Lack of investment could send them in to a relegation dog fight.

players have left like s armitage, stowers, and Lamb and have been replaced by ..............................nobody

couldnt disagree more. For a start Lamb and Armitage have been replaced by Siggery (ok he's not at steffon's level yet) and Shingler, and yeah we'll miss Stowers but Hala'ufia is marginally better anyway.

Our biggest loss is Mapusua, but Hape (maybe not the best ever international) is still a good player, and Ansbro (replacing Sevs) will be a great addition.

We've also really bolstered our 2nd row with Sandford and Bryn Evans (he's played a couple of times for the allblacks and is still in his prime)

So yeah, we've lost out a bit in the transfers, but we have loads of young players (ie Corbs, Homer, Joseph, etc) who will be even stronger this year.

My only concern is fly half, Bowden was very good last year, but is more of a centre really, whilst Shingler looks promising but is unproven.

Still, we've got far too many quality players (just look at the back 3 options) to be considered relegation candidates, we'll finish closer to the top of the AP than the bottom.

3 tens have left Malone, Lamb, and Lennard and we have bought in one shingler.
the back row declan at 6 if fit enough 7 ? 8 chris (how long before he gets banned) we have no back up here at all except untried/un proven youngsters.
front row tideswell and murphy have left we bring in one (Leo H) from birmingham who were relegated from the championship,and this guy has only been a prop for 2 seasons. we will lose alex and paulica from our front row for the world cup and that leaves us very short.

the players we have bought in are mainly younsters and i take your point about other good young players but toby said at the end of last season i can't keep playing the young guy's and need to blend them in.

Bryn Evans looks a good signing as do ansbro and hape (who will both miss arond 10 games due to the world cup and 6 nations so when you weigh it all up we need arond 6 more signings.

Front and back rows are the issue for us at the MadStad for sure at the moment.

We have no depth there whatsoever and have been exposed by this in each of the past two seasons.

Unless between now and when the season starts this is addressed then I see us being a mid table side fighting to finish 5th or 6th to secure Heineken Cup action for the following season.

Backs are too good for us to be in the relegation dogfight, forwards not quite good enough to get us up into the play offs.

Hopefully toby has a signings that we don't know about as he did say steffon would not be leaving until we have a replacement..?.
i think we will have problems at 10 as dan bowden's kicking is not good enough out of hand and goal kicking . the scrum went backwards last season and can't see it going in any other direction this season rautenbauch should have been replaced not the scrummager he once was and a total waste of time in open play as he is far to slow.
hape and ansbro are good players but we will not see much of them .

i want irish to win every game but i do fear for our safety if we get 3 or 4 injuries early in to the season.

Our first choice XV is as good as anyone in the leagues ray, but you are right, 3-4 injuries, particularly in certain positions and we will struggle.

With Dan at 10 Tom Homer has to play as front line goal kicker (unless Shingler is at 12 which is possible during the World Cup) which maybe isn't such a bad thing, although I much prefer him at full back than on the wing.

One of Exeter (least likely), Worcester (who have quite an old squad) or Newcastle. Newcastle could have gone several times in recent years and I'm not sure how much longer their luck can last.

LI must have run out of money, as they are short of player in several positions. It's a shame, as they have plenty of good players. I also hope we'll see more of Homer at FB this season, JJ at 13, Thompstone at 14, Guy Armitage at 12 and Gibson anywhere in the backrow. I also look forward to my first sighting of Sisi and Anthony Watson.

i can see wasps strugling lots of players in and out new coach with no experience of coaching in the aviva

Newcastle by some distance