Premiership Playoff Semi Finals

First topic message reminder :

Team sheets and tactics due by COB Thur
Predictions open Fri. Results due Sat

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Newcastle Falcons v Leicester Tigers
White C;oud, 11 Degrees, 11mph Winds

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Newcastle Falcons
Manager – Sgt Pooly

01. Fabien Barcella	09. Ben Youngs
02. Rory Best	10. Toby Flood
03. Owen Franks
04. Brad Thorn	11. Miles Benjamin
05. Geoff Parling	12. James O’Connor
06. Chris Robshaw	13. Jaques Fourie
07. Richie McCaw(c)	14. Tommy Bowe
08. Kieran Read	15. Adam Ashley-Cooper

16.William Servat 17. Paul Doran-Jones 18. Alex Waller 19. Ed Slater 20.Heinrich Brussow 21. Jonny Arr 22.Nick Evans 23. Brad Barritt

Tactics

HOME ADVANTAGE – HIGH TEMPO, POSSESION, ATTACKING, RUNNING RUGBY

WE’VE WON EVERY GAME AT HOME FOR 2 SEASONS

IT'S THE BUSINESS END OF THE SEASON, WE COME INTO OUR OWN HERE. YOU CANNOT MISTAKE HOW IMPORTANT IT IS TO KNOW HOW TO WIN THESE GAMES. A HEINIKEN CUP AND PREMEIRSHIP TITLE IN LAST 2 SEASONS SPEAKS FOR ITSELF.


Game plan...Fast paced, high intensity, offloading, dynamic rugby. We’ll look to hit the ground running and hit the opposition fast from the off. We’ll be aiming to control possession and go through the phases. Flood who’s in the form of his life will play flat and look to get our backline into the game whenever possible and keep the high tempo going throughout.

Set piece:

Use the set piece and use it as a focal point of attacks (if weakness seen – McCaw to call shots). If we see a slight advantage in the scrum that will be targeted especially in opposition half. We’ll look to get the squeeze on and keep the Tigers back row tied into the scrum giving Youngs, Flood & JOC more space to work in. Parling will marshal the lineout and look to get fast ball off the top with 5 strong jumpers.

If a weakness is seen in the set piece McCaw will go for the jugular. We're not expecting a massive scrum fest in the conditions so will be mainly looking to get the ball out and attack. We will contest on oppostion put in though with Franks/Best looking to get at Jenkins if possible. Thorn will pack down behind Franks and look to really turn the screw here.

Pack & Breakdown:

Look for strong carries from our pack, tying in the Tigers forwards. We’ll be looking to keep the ball alive and look for the offload when on. Our backrow will target the breakdown and look to get in a second tackler to tie up the Tigers carriers. Youngs will wait for the call and look to sweep up any turnover ball getting us on the front foot. We’ll look to win the collision with big our physical pack and dominate the Tigers pack in the contact.

DEFENCE:

Look to neutralise Pocock early on and allow out backrow to dominate affairs. Thorn/Read in particular will look to hit the ruck hard and remove Pocock from the equation allowing us to ruck over the ball control the breakdown. Robshaw will look to target Wilkinson early on and pressure his kicking. Tigers perhaps lack a little pace in the halfbacks/midfield so we’ll look to marshall them along the line with AAC/Bowe/Benjamin expecting the kick. Look to use blitz defence and get in the face of Tigers throughout, Youngs sweeping up behind.

Backs:

Basically get the backs into play whenever possible with Flood & JOC the spark. Fourie will mashall the defensive line and act as go to ball to draw defenses. JOC will go looking for the ball in midfield and AAC will come into the line to give us a direct hard runner and alternative/decoy to Fourie. Youngs will eye the gaps and look for the taps to keep us moving.

Flood will look to play in the right areas and then Evans to come and give us added energy in the second. It's all about high tempo and keeping Tigers on their toes.

POINTS:

HOME ADVANTAGE - Essential in winning semi finals
SCRUM & LINEOUT – Target throughout, if weakness seen go for the jugular
PHYSICAL PACK – Win the collosion and target rucks to drive through Tigers
BREAKDOWN – McCAw then Brussow to work their magic and Youngs to monitor to attack on turnover ball. McCaw to play the ref early on
FORM – We’ve won every game at home for 2 seasons and have finished top of the pile
BACKS – World class running options and finishers
ROLLING MAUL – With our big front 5 look to get the rolling maul going off selected lineouts and eat up the ground
LEADERS – As Chris often says you can’t have enough leaders in your team and with McCaw, Read, Best we have some of the best
RECENT GAMES: Tigers haven't won here for a few years now (nobody has for that matter), we'll be looking to carry that on

HOME ADVANTAGE – This is massively important in semi finals, we are unbeaten at home in 2 years. KINGSTON PARK IS A FORTRESS

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Leicester Tigers
Manager – LukeLovesLuka

01. Gethin Jenkins	09. Dimitri Yachvili
02. Stephen Moore	10. Jonny Wilkinson (k)
03. Dan Cole
04. Nathan Hines	11. Alesana Tuilagi
05. James Horwill (c)	12. Billy Twelvetrees
06. Tom Croft	13. Brian O'Driscoll
07. David Pocock	14. Cory Jane
08. Thomas Waldrom	15. Rob Miller

16. Andrew Sheridan 17. Tom Youngs 18. Cencus Johnston 19. Pascal Pape 20. Samu Manoa 21. Micky Young 22. Brock James 23. Topsy Ojo


Tactics

We will play a structured game built around tactiacal HB's moving us into the right areas, the strength of our set piece and getting our backline into space.

- Attack the scrum as a weapon - and call when we can if on top as we expect to be. A front five all in great form, and to look to really get the shove on.

- Target the lineout all game with Croft, Hines and Horwill as our main jumpers rotating the target. With Yachvili and Wilkinson, we will look to get the ball deep in Newcastle territory and then contesting all lineouts. We will relentlessly target the opposition's throws.

- Massive line-breakers right throughout the side that will look to tire down Falcons' defence.
The likes of Waldrom and Tuilagi used off the shoulder crashing through the Newcastle 10/12 channel.

- Pocock is the man charged with reaching the breakdown first and look to turnover possession. We will always look to attack quickly off turnover ball. With Pocock, Jenkins and Moore, we feel our breakdown play will be crucial today. McCaw has hardly played for the last 8 months, and we see this an area we can attack.

- In general attacking play, we will play off 9 with Yachvili our general pulling the strings. Our game is built around HB's ability to move us into the right areas of the pitch. We want them in control of the tempo of the game and see this as an area we have an good advantage in.
Box kicks from Yachili and up and unders from Wilkinson to give the opposition problems in the air. We will really test Benjamin with these kicks, and look to Jane to be on him as quickly as possible.

- If the gaps are are there we want to get BOD into space and on the ball as much as we can. And he is to look for opportunities to get our back three on the ball when we can. Croft to look to get into space and join our backs to cause trouble out wide.

- Our back three are encouraged to do what they do best - counter attacking and running the ball back. If isolated all have good kicking games, but the counter is what we ask them to look for.

- Yachvili to kick all penalites.

- Unload our very powerful bench in the last 20/30 minutes.

Key points:

Experience of the big games:
Our starting 15 has an average of 48 caps per player. The likes of Jenkins, Moore, Hines, Horwill, Pocock, Yach, Wilko, BOD and Jane all know what it takes to play in the biggest games. The spine of our side is built around experience and leadership; perfect for a game like this.

Very powerful side:
Our average pack weight is 18st, and we have huge runners in the back line as well as in our pack. With the likes of Waldrom, Moore, Hines, Horwill, Tuialgi and Twelvetrees, we really believe we have the power and carrying options to tire down Falcons' defence which we hope to capitalise on as the game goes on.

Huge defence:
We know if we are to win this game our defence has to be at it's best. Pocock and co in the pack have been drilled to defend for their lives. We believe that are back line is stronger defensively than Falcons'. Wilko and BOD are famous for their tackling strength, and we believe we can stop runners of Falcons in the midfield.

Bench:
With the likes of Sheridan, Youngs, Cencus, Pape and Manoa to bring on in the pack we want to really turn the screw as the game goes on, and feel as the minutes tick by we will only get stronger and stronger.

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Saracens v Gloucester Rugby
Sunny Intervals, 13 Degrees, 10mph Winds

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Saracens
Manager – Ozzy3213

01. Alex Corbisiero	09. Francois Hougaard
02. Bismarck du Plessis	10. Patric Lambie
03. Adam Jones
04. Rynhardt Elstadt	11. Digby Ioane
05. Steve Borthwick	12. Ma’a Nonu
06. Thierry Dusautoir	13. Jonathon Davies
07. Tom Wood	14. Mark Cueto
08. Joe van Niekerk (c)	15. Alex Goode

16. George Chuter 17. Tendai Mtwarira 18. Jannie du Plessis 19. Dave Attwood 20. Tom Johnson 21. Morgan Parra 22. Owen Farrell 23. Tom Homer

Tactics

Our generic gameplan revolves around a high intensity attacking and defensive game.

In attack our primary gameplan is always to control possession and run the ball, utilising big carriers attacking gaps in the line, and looking to offload to support runners to continue getting over the gainline and keep the ball alive. If running the ball is not on we will uitilise the kicking game of one of our backs to take us into the right area of the pitch.

In defence we will look to blitz, with our scrum half sweeping behind the defensive line. Key for us is line speed, getting up to make the tackle before the ball carrier hits the gainline, and confidence and trust in the man next to you in the defensive line, meaning we will not jump out or get pulled to far away from the next defender leaving gaps that can be exploited.

At the breakdown, we will not overcommit players. If the ball is not there to be won, then we will commit 1 or 2 players to legally slow it down whilst maintaining a strong defensive line across the pitch. If the ball looks like it is there to be won, we will look to get more numbers there quickly, with the first 1 or 2 players immediately rucking past the ball to clear the opposition players who are trying to get hands on it, and the next man in will then look to get it out quickly for us to counter attack on turnover ball.

At the scrum we will look to keep it up and scrummage. Jones will look to take the hit and drop anchor allowing Corbisiero to attack the opposition tighthead. On our ball we will keep our flankers bound in tight and shoving hard behind the props and we will look to get the scrum turning legally to take the Gloucester back row out of the defensive equation before launching attacks. Our flankers will play slightly looser with heads up on Gloucester ball in order to be of quickly to stop any set play attacks.


Game Specific Tactics

• Carry in tight areas of early phases – We have selected a lot of strong carriers in the pack and the backs and will get them carrying close to rucks to tie defenders in create gaps to exploit outside.
  
  
• Scrum half sniping – Hougaard will look to make breaks from the base of rucks any time he sees a gap. Knowing he can and will break will keep the Gloucester defensive line honest and give Lambie more time and space to work in.
  
  
• Control Possession – Obviously we will kick when we absolutely have to, but in the main we are keeping possession and going through the phases. Carrying in close to rucks will allow us to not get isolated and mean that we do not turn the ball over to Gloucester.
  
  
• Breakdown – When Gloucester carry in, unless the player is isolated and a turnover is on, we will only commit enough players to legally slow the ball, instead maintaining a strong defensive line.
  

Key Points

• Experience – We know this territory and how to win these games, having won all three play off semi finals that we have been in so far.
  
  
• Home Advantage - In 4 seasons of AP and HC rugby our home record is P 58 W 53 D 3 L 2. Mat will no doubt point out that one of those two defeats was by Gloucester, however, we have never lost a knockout match at home in any competition, and Gloucester have never beaten us in a knockout game, and that includes an AP semi final and final.
  
  
• Defensive Strength – Defensively we are solid through the team. In the pack and backs we have tackle machines who rarely if ever get beaten one on one. Unless Gloucester have 70%+ possession then I cannot see how they score enough points against this defence to win.
  
  
• Physicality – One of Gloucesters biggest strengths is usually their physicality and they can bully teams up front. We have a pack with enough physicality not to be bullied.
  
  
• Pack Balance – We have a perfectly balanced pack. A tighthead who is a rock in the scrum and a loosehead who attacks well when the scrum is locked, but is also a tackle machine in the loose. A hooker who is like an openside at the breakdown enabling us not to have to select a specialist 7, and two flankers who tackle like tanks, along with an 8 who carries brilliantly. We also have the archetypal enforcer/lineout specialist pairing at lock. Our pack complements each other fantastically and can give us a platform in all aspects of the game.
  
  
• Form/Momentum – We have a number of players who are in excellent real life form. In game we have huge momentum coming into the play offs whereas Gloucester are off the back of a potentially damaging defeat to London Irish last week.
  
  
• Bench – We have impact players to come of the bench, such as Beast, Jannie and Johnson, as well as key decision makers such as Parra and Farrell who can come on to see out a game.
  

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Gloucester

Manager – Matt

01. Coenie Oosthuizen	09. Will Genia
02. Joe Gray	10. Dan Carter
03. Julian White
04. Bakkies Botha	11. Johnny May
05. George Robson	12. Berrick Barnes
06. Stephen Ferris	13. Richard Kahui
07. Andy Saull	14. Hosea Gear
08. Imaniol Harinordoquy	15. Israel Dagg

16. Nick Wood 17. Darren Dawidulk 18. Nicolas Mas 19. Tom Palmer 20. Willam Alberts 21. James Simpson-Daniel 22. Connor Murray 23. Charlie Sharples

Tactics

Glos travel to vicarage road safe in the knowledge they have beaten sarries home and away
In the league this year in similar conditions.

There certainly is no mystique attached to winning here to our players.

Very few of our players played last week against Irish as we were preparing for this game.

Weather is perfect and we have come to play a tempo game and get it wide. Think Leinster

Pack

Scrum

We have picked a front row of balance white is their to anchor the scrum for 30 minutes max and get after corbs where as coonie and grey are there for scrummaging and ball carrying. Mas to come on before halftime

We see our engine room as being much more abrasive and powerful and think this will give us the nudge scrum time.

We want the ball In to the scrum and away. We want to make sarries play our game.

Lineout

We have 5 jumpers and will look to target sarries. Hari is lineout leader.
On our ball we will mix up driving and off top in our own half but in our half the majority of time we will go off the top.

General

Forwards will look to get us on front foot And carry it up into sarries. We will be employing an offloading game to get In behind sarries.

We see ourselves as having more dynamic ball carriers and being able to win this area.

Saull is in the team to be a pure link man between backs and forwards we are aiming to play high tempo and he is our link. Being up against a 6.5 who has not been playing helps.

Alberts, wood, palmer all to come on to continue the high tempo.

Backs.

Our 8,9,10 are the best in the game and this core will dictate te game. We are looking to play tempo and these are the key.

The forwards aim
Is to make quick back 9 and 10 aim to use it.

We will be kicking infrequently and looking to move sarries around and
Look
For
Holes.

We see ourselves as having more craft, guile and gas in the backs.

Carter will look to use Barnes as a distributing option and also use gear coming off his Wing to occupy sarries centres.

The aim is to keep increasing the tempo and utilising quick throws and making most of conditions.

We are going to blitz in defence and put pressure on sarries fairly new 9 and 10 combo. We also think this will force nonu to distribute which is his weak point.
We will also look where possible to flood ruck and affect turnover think our back 5s physicality can shake them here

Key points

Play high tempo
Impact bench
8,9,10 experience
Form we lost last week due to resting apart from
That best in league form wise
Won here in league this year already
More ball players and creativity

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Just SJE to predict. Think he said earlier he'd be back on after 6.

I think we're going to pens at this rate?!?!

Depends which way SJE goes. Not sure how we'll do pens this time as we did it on things like tries/points scored/conceded last time, which I'm not sure is fair this time as we already know the answers as they are on the league table.

If we go to pens maybe nominate our takers and people predict who scores/misses.

Saracens 38-35 Gloucester

Not much give in the packs still with the benches in but Parra and Farrell should pull the strings and see Sarries through

My god

This is a hard one to call....who is on the pitch and who isn't??

How about each manager selecting 10 players from their 23 to carry out pen kicks?

We'll then predict on who we think will score

That's crazy!! Never seen anything go down to pens on one of these games!! I'd say name kickers and we say yes or no as to who'd score!

I think that's the way forward, unless Pete doesn't agree.

Can each manager name 10 kickers from their 23 matchday squad.

This has a feeling of de ja vu about it.

Right, last time this happened and we went to penalties it was decided along these lines.

10 deciders, point to the winner of each.

1. Result in league game one between the sides
2. Result in league game two between the sides
3. Most tries scored
4. Fewest tries conceded
5. Most points scored
6. Fewest points conceded
7. Most wins
8. Fewest defeats
9. Most bonus points
10. Fewest bonus points conceded.

Final decider if a draw was highest league position wins.

This was in the days when the table was less detailed and these things had to be tallied up as nobody knew the answers. That is not the case with most of these now as a quick glance at the table gives the answer so am not sure of the fairness of this.

Only other way I can see to do it is nominate 5 kickers each and people predict if they score or miss.

What are people thoughts?

Mat?

I think if we are going to kickers, then we need to say what our 15 on the pitch at the final whistle was then nominate 5 each from that. If that doesn't produce a result, then it's one at a time sudden death.

Whats the decision then?

I reckon the 10 point decider is the fairer option. The sides are clearly deadlocked so would be better to use the season stats to split the two of you plus personally I'd feel like I was doing one of ye over picking player x, player y etc to miss a kick. Too random for me

Me, Mat and Pooly have a bit of a vested interest in this and waiting for a total group decision will take forever. SJE, prop and Luke are shown online, majority decision from them as to how we decide the match and we'll go with that system.

Well Im for the 10 point decider

Matt needs a voice. Kickers is what they do IRL no?

Need a decision making. SJE wants 10 point decider and luke is for kickers. Whoever is online, next person to post decides how we decide. (as I recall we tried to get a group decision last time and this went on for days)!

10 pointer, kickers prob a little daft tbh.

10 pointer it is then.

SJE, are you in a position to do the honours? Most of the things are easy to find out off the league table but fewest bonus points conceded will need all of Saracens and Gloucesters results checked to see if our opponents picked up bonus points.

I'll get on it now Pete

Cheers bud.

1. Result in league game one between the sides = Gloucester
2. Result in league game two between the sides = Gloucester
3. Most tries scored = Saracens
4. Fewest tries conceded = Saracens
5. Most points scored = Gloucester
6. Fewest points conceded = Saracens
7. Most wins = Saracens
8. Fewest defeats = Saracens
9. Most bonus points = Tie
10. Fewest bonus points conceded. = Gloucester

Total Saracens 5.5-4.5 Gloucester

Congratulations Pete and commiserations to Matt! Don’t think we will ever see a game as close as that again!

Good work SJE

Should be a great final guys.

That was incredibly close!!!!

Such a shame to lose that way, no thoughts on how to do it in future?

Return of last year Pete....fancy your chances?

Relieved to win but just doesn't feel right somehow. Any suggestions as to how to avoid this situation in future will be readily accepted.

In junior games I've played, the away side wins if there is a draw.

Perhaps for future semi's that might work as there is a considerable home advantage, but doesn't help for finals.

Just seen this result. Mental !! Well done pete

Just seen your comment Mat. cheers mate. All of our knockout games seem to go mental.