AP Round 21 - Preview

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Table

	Team	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against	Bonus Pts	Points
1	Saracens	20	16	1	3	487	297	6	72
2	Leicester	20	14	1	5	480	298	10	68
3	Harlequins	20	13	0	7	496	408	8	60
4	Northampton	20	13	0	7	435	404	7	59
5	Gloucester	20	11	1	8	448	418	8	54
6	Exeter	20	10	1	9	465	383	8	50
7	Bath	20	9	1	10	411	385	10	48
8	London Wasps	20	9	0	11	467	470	11	47
9	Worcester	20	5	1	14	374	472	11	33
10	Sale	20	6	1	13	349	529	5	31
11	London Irish	20	6	1	13	392	541	4	30
12	London Welsh	20	4	0	16	351	550	7	18

Fixtures

Sat 20th Apr 13
14:15 Bath Rugby v Leicester Tigers ESPN
15:00 Gloucester Rugby v Saracens
15:00 London Irish v London Welsh
15:00 Worcester Warriors v Harlequins
17:45 Northampton Saints v Sale Sharks Sky


Sun 21st Apr 13
14:00 PR London Wasps v Exeter Chiefs ESPN



Preview
Well, with two rounds to go, London Welsh are relegated while Saracens have a guaranteed home play-off semi and Tigers have a guaranteed semi and are one win away from guaranteeing a home fixture. Gloucester, with tricky fixtures to come look unlikely to challenge for Top 4 but should hang on to Top 6. Quins and Saints are probably fighting for 3rd and 4th spot. Exeter and Wasps appear to be duking it out for the final HEC spot, with Bath having to face Saracens and Tigers.

The weekend starts at the Rec where Bath host a Leicester team desperate to secure that home semi-final and put some pressure on Sarries for the top spot. When they are good, Bath can be very good - more often than not though they have seemed lacklustre. Right now they seem to be a team that is less than the sum of the parts. Defeat will consign them to the amlin for another year, even if they win they will probably still need to win in Round 22 - away to Sarries! With a week off next week when the European semi finals are to be played, we can expect Tigers to be at full strength. They should be too good for their former silverware rivals.

Gloucester-Sarries is perhaps the pick of the 3pm fixtures. Can an out of form get their campaign back on track and keep Top 4 hopes alive? It will need an injury/suspension hit front row to really come out firing and Freddie Burns to rediscover his pre-christmas form. Even then you feel that Sarries - even if they have one eye on Toulon the following week - will be too physical in defence, causing the turnovers that their counter-attacking style can thrive on. If we continue to see loopy passing from Glaws scrum-halves and Burns jogging towards his intended pass receiver, all time and space for the Glaws centres will be removed. In those situations Sarries thrive and could well cause the Shed to leave early.

With Dean Ryan's appointment to the Worcester hot seat adding some additional interest we could see a tight game at Sixways. Worcester have little to play for, half the team is leaving, but the half that are staying will be keen to impress against a misfiring Quins team. Quins problems start up front - Johnstone looks completely out of sorts and is shipping penalties by the handfull. Robshaw looks knackered and with Fa'asavalu of form there has been a real lack of grunt in the Quins pack. Slow ball has then been hampering Quins attack, further damaged by ball carriers not having support as close or in the numbers we have come to expect. Worcester are a much stronger team at home, Quins will be thinking about the last round where they face Saints. So of course my gut is telling me we will see a real stellar performance form the reigning champions.

London Irish, another side that appear to be losing half a team, host relegated London Welsh. With nothing to play for we could see a really open match. Whilstthese sides have scored the least tries in the AP, their defences have shipped the most, over 100 between them. London Irish have a lot more class and I would expect them to win an entertaining encounter.

Saints host a resurgent Sale sharks in the last match of the day. Sale looked good against Gloucester last week, but you have to wonder if Northampton have too much power up front. Northampton need the win more and should win with some comfort to set up a cracking final round matchup with Quins.

Sunday sees Wasps host Exeter in a match both sides will be desperate to win. Wasps results have been poor for the last month. Still capable of scoring tries at almost any time, there is a real quality about a lot of their play. Good in the lineout and with a rampaging backrow they are really let down by a lack of grunt in the tight - scrums and mauls being an area they have struggled in. Exeter will look to bash them up front and then move quick ball to try and capitalise on any defensive frailties on the Wasps flanks. Should be a cracking match.

Also, good show Gloucester so far, not been watching it but they are leading Sarries

Fast and loose from both sides at the MadStad. 19-15 at the break, 3 tries for Irish and 2 for Welsh.

Try to Warriors, interesting start to second half

Fasa having a decent match for the first time in a t least 6 months

and there's the TBP

whats the score guys?

But Nev misses another kick and evidently doesn't have his boots with him

Finally gets one

Worcester 26 - Quins 28

Tigers lost so we can say goodbye to the number one spot.

If you want to lose next week and give us 2nd place we'd appreciate it very much. Though actually I think we've been better away than at the Stoop this season...

Knock to Robshaw, hope it's just a knock

Care having a stormer

Would be out of sight if Nev was kicking his points

Beshocked, treat yourself to watching that game today. Pretty average performance from Louw

Bathite wrote:Beshocked, treat yourself to watching that game today. Pretty average performance from Louw

Louw played a blinder, mind you - you only won as the ref bottled it at the end

Another Quins try, Evans catches a clearance kick mid-air and Care dots it down

5 tries now for Irish, 33-21 up.

Another try to Brown and Quins

Yappy, Mo's form is back, that bodes well at least!

40-21 now, Garvey over for a try in his final home game for Irish.

7th try now, 47-21, Guy Armitage over for his second of the game.

Feel bad for Worcester, they've had so many injuries this match and played good rugby and showed heart but they are losing the likes of Mullan, Kvesic and Goode next season

Care, Brown, Pennell, Goode, Fasa all done well, looks like Tomkins and May played well too

Match over, Worcester 26 - Quins 42

Me of little faith. Outstanding performance. Ben Morgan's try was sensational and worth watching. Good luck Sarries for the playoffs

HongKongCherry wrote:Me of little faith. Outstanding performance. Ben Morgan's try was sensational and worth watching. Good luck Sarries for the playoffs

Congrats HKC

Glaws could hypothetically still play Sarries in the playoffs, no?

Looks like sale are going to get whipped!

ChequeredJersey wrote:Glaws could hypothetically still play Sarries in the playoffs, no?

Not the way Saints are going. Big game in a fortnight at the Stoop.

Got tickets, can't wait

LondonTiger wrote:

HongKongCherry wrote:Me of little faith. Outstanding performance. Ben Morgan's try was sensational and worth watching. Good luck Sarries for the playoffs

Congrats HKC

Cheers LT

Commiserations on your lose today, but I feel the underdog tags may suit you when it comes to the playoffs. It's looking odds on it'll be Sarries v Tigers and you could just do it this year.

Robshaw out injured next match at least

At least with Wallace, Guest and as of today an in form Mo our backrow is not weak, but it willbe a big loss. The rest might be good for him though

ChequeredJersey wrote:Robshaw out injured next match at least

As the next match is in 2 weeks, does that put his place in the Semis at risk? What is the injury?

Bathite fair play. I watched the game. Louw was very good. Not the best dive for his try though.

Got to give credit to all the bath forwards. I thought Wilson in particular looked good. He had mulipola in all sorts of trouble and carried well.

Bath need a decent full back back up though - devoto was laughably poor. So leaden footed. Leicester should have targeted him more in my opinion like bath did with tait.

Tigers scored two great tries but didn't seem to keep up the momentum.

Bath squandered far too many points from the boot. 4 tries vs 2 should mean a comfortable win - not a nervy 1 pointer.

Anyway well done bath. Unlucky tigers. Ultimately that match was far more important for bath than Leicester.

Leicester can well and truly seal their top 2 finish at home vs LI.

ChequeredJersey wrote:Yappy, Mo's form is back, that bodes well at least!

Great to hear! His name pops up all over the Quins match report so sounds like he had a good one, maybe he was being saved for this run in?

Probably the best day I've had at Kingsholm! Sun out, great performance and top atmosphere.

Both teams played well, we finally got the backline going and when that happens speedsters like May are lethal! Rob Cook has been unbelievable all season - one of the most underated AP players IMO. Great to see Ben Morgan carrying like a beast again, wonderful solo try.

Nice to see Kalamafoni win PoS and Robson get YPos, both well deserved. HC now secured, with some decent signings coming in for next season. Can't wait.

I like to see Sale do well (being fellow Northerners), but I think they got what they deserved yesterday.

They cynically loaded their team against Northampton with young and inexperienced EQP in an attempt to get the bonus from the RFU. They sent a lot of those poor young lads out to be slaughtered. Playing a front row with an average age of 21 against the powerful Northampton front row (two of whom were making the their swansong) was just suicide and could have been potentially dangerous.

Really not impressed with the way the club has been run this season.

Cumbrian wrote:I like to see Sale do well (being fellow Northerners), but I think they got what they deserved yesterday.

They cynically loaded their team against Northampton with young and inexperienced EQP in an attempt to get the bonus from the RFU. They sent a lot of those poor young lads out to be slaughtered. Playing a front row with an average age of 21 against the powerful Northampton front row (two of whom were making the their swansong) was just suicide and could have been potentially dangerous.

Really not impressed with the way the club has been run this season.

As they did the same thing at the end of last season - no real surprise that they did it again.

Robshaw has hurt his ankle, hopefully will be good for playoffs but unsure. Think he is being rested against Saints to avoid aggravating it

Well done Chiefs The wheels have really come off at Wasps in the last two months, and Chiefs have been on a decent run. No surprise with that result.

Bath had netter hope Sarries win the HC to open up 7th place for qualification. I can't see Chiefs losing at home to Glaws (who can't make the play offs) or Bath beating Sarries.

Hound of Harrow wrote:Well done Chiefs The wheels have really come off at Wasps in the last two months, and Chiefs have been on a decent run. No surprise with that result.

Bath had netter hope Sarries win the HC to open up 7th place for qualification. I can't see Chiefs losing at home to Glaws (who can't make the play offs) or Bath beating Sarries.

Really disappointed with how Wasps have disintegrated the last 7 games. I was waxing lyrical about them before that. Perhaps they benefitted from the 6Ns more than most, but I still thought they looked good - some creative coaching, excellent basics from the backs, an improving scrum and lineout etc...but the pack seems to have gone backwards alarmingly. Any thoughts from Wasps fans as to why, I'd really like to see them kick on as players like Wade, Haskell and Daly could do with HC experience I think.

Good win for Chiefs, one that surprised me but still an impressive scalp.

Looks like a straight shootout for 5th at Sandy Park in a fortnight. I think we'll give you a game but the last home game often spurs team on, so can see you getting that 5th place.

Hood, Wasps faded badly in the 2nd half of last season too. We don't have a big squad, and with long term injuries to about four players, we could not sustain a final push.

Another learning season from us, and a darn sight better than last term.

Most Wasps fans I know reckoned 8th was about all we could hope for. The dizzy heights of 4th a while back had a few dreaming of a play off place.

The run in was a tough one for a team still growing. Maybe next year.

To be fair to Wasps, I think finishing fourth was never really going to happen. But I think we can all agree the team has played much better than last year and is clearly moving in the right direction. Going from being a hair's breadth from relegation to a solid 8th place is a very good improvement. To me, it appears they are moving in the right direction.