Fixtures - 5

First topic message reminder :

This week’s fixtures:

Gloucester v Bath
Harlequins v Northampton Saints
Leicester Tigers v Worcester Warriors
London Irish v London Wasps
Sale Sharks v Newcastle Falcons
Exeter Chiefs v Saracens

Team sheets to be handed in by close of play Thursday.
Predictions open Friday to close Saturday/Sunday

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Gloucester v Bath

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Gloucester
Manager – Anonymatt

01. Nick Wood	09. Dave Lewis
02. Deon Fourie	10. Steven Donald
03. James Johnston
04. George Robson	11. James Simpson Daniels
05. Tom Hanks	12. Berrick Barnes
06. Maure Fasivalu	13. Rob Horne
07. Ashley Johnson	14. Joe Rockoko
08. Brett Deacon	15. Charlie Sharples

16 Tim Payne 17 Jamie George 18 Rupert Harden 19 Danni Roussouw 20 Immanol Harinordoquoy 21 Ryan Lamb 22 Johnny May 23 Sam Tuitiopu

Tactics

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Bath
Manager – 207

01. Salvatore Perugini	09. Fourie Du Preez
02. Kevin Mealamu	10. Charlie Hodgson
03. Davit Kubrashvilli
04. Yoann Maestri	11. Ugo Monye
05. James Cannon	12. Anthony Allen
06. Dan Lydiate	13. David Marty
07. Steffon Armitage	14. Napolioni Nalaga
08. Tom Guest	15. Richard Haughton

16. Golding 17. Tanner 18. PDP 19. Deacon 20. Skuse 21. Wigglesworth 22. Shingler 23. Beale
Tactics

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Harlequins v Northampton Saints

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Harlequins
Manager – SteveSharks

01. Joe Marler	09. Lee Dickson
02. Schalk Brits	10. Gareth Steenson
03. Brian Mujati
04. Jerome Thion	11. Peter Hynes
05. Tom Donnelly	12. Steve Kefu
06. James Gaskell	13. Matt Carraro
07. Phil Dowson	14. Jonathan Joseph
08. Chris Henry	15. Ben Blair

16. Rob Vickers 17. Ceri Jones 18. Kieran Brookes 19. Erik Lund 20. Jamie Gibson 21. Byron Kellaher 22. Freddie Burns 23. George Lowe

Tactics
We have picked a side which will likely come together in the World Cup.

I have deliberately picked a side to play a percentage game. Steenson will look to play in the Northampton half of the pitch and we will look to put immense pressure on the Saints set piece. This is how we will look to play in the world cup with this team.

When we do want to run it will be patient. Our centres will crash the ball up and the pack will keep carrying the ball untill we have space outside or score a try, Steenson will always be looking at the Drop goal to keep the scoreboard ticking over. We will want immaculate discipline as we are all about building pressure..

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Northampton Saints
Manager – Chris

01. Thomas Domingo	09. Mike Phillips
02. Rob Webber	10. Lionel Beauxis
03. Carl Hayman
04. Dave Attwood	11. Siti Siviatu
05. Simon Taylor	12. Luke Eves
06. Calum Clark	13. Casey Lualala
07. Alexandre Lapandry	14. Julian Savea
08. Liam Messam	15. Danny Cipriani

16. Henry Thomas 17. Dave Wilson 18. Rob Batty 19. Joe Launchbury 20. Tom Rees 21. Charlie Davies 22. Willie Mason 23. Manu Tuilagi

Tactics
Be good to see what people make of (i) Simon Taylor packing down in second row (ii) whether Calum Clark is better on flanks on second row (iii) whether I should play Eves at 12 with Lualala and (iii) can people see Mason being a good impact sub e.g. how he played versus Wales for the Baabaas? Think that could be my best use for him?

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Leicester Tigers v Worcester Warriors

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Leicester Tigers
Manager – Luke

01. Dan Murphy	09. Scott Mathie
02. Stephen Moore	10. David Skrela (k)
03. Faan Rautenbach
04. Tom Denton	11. Charlie Amesbury
05. James Horwill	12. Damien Traille
06. Tom Croft	13. Brian O'Driscoll (c)
07. David Pocock	14. Vincent Clerc
08. Nick Easter	15. Cory Jane

16. Jonny Harris 17. Matt Thompson 18. Dan Cole 19. Jarrad Hoeata 20. Thomas Waldrom 21. Dmitri Yachvilli 22. Toby Flood 23. Aurelien Rougerie

Tactics

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Worcester Warriors
Manager – Prop

01. George Porter	09. Jordi Pasqualin
02. Richardt Strauss	10. Nicky Robinson (k)
03. BJ Botha
04. Jim Hamilton	11. Marcel Garvey
05. Ollie Kohn	12. Jon Clarke
06. Kearnen Myall	13. Lee Thomas
07. Martyn Williams	14. Julien Malzieu
08. Ben Morgan	15. Olly Morgan

16. Koree Britton 17. David Flatman 18. Yann Thomas 19. Hayden Smith 20. Sebastian Chabal 21. Dwayne Peel 22. Sam Vesty 23. Rob Cook

Tactics

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London Irish v London Wasps

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London Irish
Manager – stnick

01. Matias Aguero	09. Julien Dupuy
02. James Buckland	10. Daniel Bowden
03. WP Nel
04. Mouritz Botha	11. Paul Sackey
05. Nick Kennedy	12. Sonny Bill Williams
06. Keegan Daniel	13. Jacque Fourie
07. Hendrie Fourie	14. Joe Maddock
08. Xavier Rush	15. Matthew Tait

16 Tonga Lea'toea 17 Neil Briggs 18 Duncan Bell 19 Matt Garvey 20 Joe Worsley 21 Juan Martin Hernandez 22 Neal De Kock 23 Gonzalo Tiesi

Tactics

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London Wasps
Manager – Arry

01. Benn Robinson	09. Michael Claassens
02. Steve Thompson	10. Jimmy Gopperth
03. Carlos Nieto
04. Dan Ward-Smith	11. Noah Cato
05. Mark Chisholm	12. James Downey
06. Tom Johnson	13. Chris Wyles
07. Deon Stegmann	14. Lachie Turner
08. Roger Wilson	15. Mike Brown

16. Tatafu Polota-Nau 17. Perry Freshwater 18. James Slipper 19. Stuart Hooper 20. James Haskell 21. Martin Roberts 22. Rory Clegg 23. Olly Morgan

Tactics
We will look to build upon an impressive victory last week against Gloucester. In the early stages of the game we will look to our pack to do make the hard yards and cement us a good, solid platform up front. We have plenty of big and powerful ball carriers who will look to get us onto the front foot. We will start with a very high intensity and look to create spaces out wide.

Gopperth will use Downey as a crash ball option and we will look to keep on his feet and drive him over the gain line. Our players will look to keep their hands free out of the contact to offload to the supporting players. We have plenty of exciting runners in our backline that we will look to bring into the game once the hard work has been completed up front.

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Sale Sharks v Newcastle Falcons

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Sale Sharks
Manager – SJE

01. Jerome Schuster	09. Nicholas Bezy
02. David Paice	10. Aaron Cruden
03. Werner Kruger
04. Steven Sykes	11. David Strettle
05. Christian Day	12. Jordan Turner Hall
06. Victor Vito	13. Robbie Freuen
07. Matt Todd	14. Luke Rooney
08. Wycliffe Palu	15. Nick Abendanoon

16. Lee Imolek 17. Brett Sharman 18. Neemia Tialata 19. Chris Jones 20. Andy Powell 21. Shaun Perry 22. Olly Barkley 23. Sam Smith

Tactics
Target the set piece with strong front 5 particularly the scrum. Attacking wise strong ball carrying game working the offloading. Changing the point of attack constantly. Use the exciting halfbacks to inject creativity into the game

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Newcastle Falcons
Manager – Pooly

01. Boris Stankovich	09. Sarel Pretorius
02. William Servat	10. Nick Evans
03. Paul Doran-Jones
04. Dean Schofield	11. Sean Maitland
05. Juandre Kruger	12. Luke McAlister
06. Chris Robshaw(c)	13. Jared Payne
07. Heinrich Brussow	14. Miles Benjamin
08. Duane Vermeulen	15. Ben Smith

16. Tom Lindsay 17. Owen Franks 18. Fabien Barcella 19. Geoff Parling 20. Richie McCaw 21. Jonny Arr 22. Brad Barritt 23. Topsy Ojo

Tactics
Normal Falcons high intensity tactics......compete in pack and target lineout with numerous jumpers. Control breakdown and look to attack with turnover ball.

Pretorious to attack the fringes and Evans to call the shots in the backline. McAlister to offer up second playmaking option with Ben Smith coming into the line. Payne/Maitland to run off Mc/Evans and Benjamin to offer himself aroud the park.

People happy Kruger is back and playing? Just for those who don't watch Currie Cup...

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Exeter Chiefs v Saracens

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Exeter Chiefs
Manager – Driver

01. Brett Sturgess	09. Nick Phipps
02. Neil Clark	10. Ronan O'Gara
03. John Smit
04. Julian Pierre	11. Iain Balshaw
05. George Skivington	12. Regan King
06. Kelly Brown	13. Dan Hipkiss
07. Shane Jennings	14. Max Evans
08. Gareth Delve	15. Lee Byrne

16.Cian Healy 17.Mark Lambert 18.James Hudson 19.Declan Danahar 20.Dave Wallace 21.Tomas O'Leary 22.Steven Myler 23.Luke Arscott

Tactics
Can i have thoughts on

- John Smit's best position
- Max Evans as a winger
- Iain Balshaw in general
- Phipps and ROG as a combo
- Healy , Wallace and O'Leary as impact players
- Pierre and Skivington as post world cup combo

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Saracens
Manager – LDC Pete

01. Matt Mullan	09. Paul Hodgson
02. George Chuter	10. Owen Farrell
03. Jannie du Plessis
04. Rynhard Elstadt	11. Tom Homer
05. Steve Borthwick	12. Billy Twelvetrees
06. Joe van Niekerk	13. Nevin Spence
07. George Smith	14. Henry Trinder
08. Luke Narraway	15. Alex Goode

16. Tom Cowan-Dickie 17. Alex Waller 18. Tom Mercey 19. Graham Kitchener 20. James Scaysbrook 21. Hayden Thomas 22. Rene Ranger 23. Tim Visser

Tactics
Away from home we have selected a backline who all have decent kicking games and we will play the percentages game today and use their boots to play in the right areas. If running the ball from deep is on then of course we will, but we will not play risky rugby in our own half.

We will target the 10/12 channel with runners, and also target Balshaw with the high ball and chasers getting up in his face.

We are basing our away gameplan on solid defence and playing in the right areas.

Comments welcomed on the following point.

- Do these tactics work away from home and can these players execute them well.

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quins 22-18 saints

glos 20-21 bath

sale 18-20 falcons

Irish 20-17 wasps

Exeter 18-15 Saracens

Tigers 35 - 32 Worcester
Sale 31 - 29 Newcastle
Glos 27 - 27 Bath
Irish 22 - 21 Wasps
Exeter 27 - 26 Sarries

Quins 18-17 Saints
tigers 25-21 Warriors
Irish 25-24 Wasps
Sale 16-19 Falcons
Exeter 22-21 Sarries

Exeter 18 18 sarries

quins 23 - 21 saints

glos 18 - 22 bath

sale 19 - 24 falcons

Irish 23 - 26wasps

Exeter 18 - 18 Saracens

With these games are they played at neutral venues????

I had the Sale vs Newcastle game as a sale win if at home but draw if neutral.

want to make sure i get predos right

I have done my all my predictions on the basis that its a neutral ground to try and give everyone the best idea as to where they stand in my eyes. Its up to yourself really though Matt

I done as home/away. Think most did, seen a few mention that our score would be different if neutral Johnny.

No real issue though, more interested in combo's than results. I predo'd on home/away too