Aviva Premiership Final Round Preview

Table

	Played	Won	Draw	Lost	For	Against	Tries For	Tries Against	TBP	LBP	Points
Saracens	21	16	1	4	510	325	38	23	5	2	73
Leicester Tigers	21	14	1	6	506	325	51	26	6	5	69
Harlequins	21	14	0	7	538	434	49	32	5	4	65
Northampton Saints	21	14	0	7	482	411	52	33	6	2	64
Gloucester Rugby	21	12	1	8	476	441	35	39	1	7	58
Exeter Chiefs	21	11	1	9	502	407	48	38	4	5	55
Bath Rugby	21	10	1	10	438	411	42	26	4	7	53
London Wasps	21	9	0	12	491	507	45	49	4	7	47
London Irish	21	7	1	13	439	569	35	52	2	3	35
Worcester Warriors	21	5	1	15	400	514	32	55	3	8	33
Sale Sharks	21	6	1	14	356	576	35	51	2	3	31
London Welsh	21	4	0	17	379	597	26	64	0	7	18

Fixtures

Sat 4th May 13 14:30
Exeter Chiefs v Gloucester Rugby ESPN Classic
Harlequins v Northampton Saints ESPN
Leicester Tigers v London Irish
London Welsh v Worcester Warriors
Sale Sharks v London Wasps
Saracens v Bath Rugby Sky



Preview
Well we have wound our way to the last weekend of the regular season and for most players their summer holiday starts on Saturday evening. Relegation is sorted and the play-off teams are known, so we are left to sort out the finer details:

Play-Off Semis
Saracens have a home semi-final and will be looking for the win needed to clinch top spot in the table. Tigers need 2pts to guarantee the second home semi or 5pts to have any chance of sneaking the top league spot - though this would still need Sarries to get no points at all at home to Bath. Assuming Tigers do what is needed Quins and Saints meet to see who can avoid the visit to Allianz Park.

HEC Spots
Gloucester have already secured one of the remaining HEC spots, with Exeter and Bath in contention for the remaining place. Exeter have the advantage, 2pts ahead and a home match (with gloucster) while Bath have the unenviable visit to the Aliianz.

Leading Try Scorers
For the last couple of seasons, Leicester have quite comfortably been the leading try scorers. Matters are much closer this season. Entering the final match, Saints are leading this race, Tigers in second 1 behind with Quins and Exeter still in reach.

Match Previews

Shown live on Sky, 2011 Champions Saracens host a Bath team needing a win to have any chance of making HEC. Yesterday's defeat was perhaps the worst thing that could have happened to Bath's chances. In fact it could be the worst thing that could have happened to the other title contenders. Saracens will be hurting and looking to hand out some pain to others. We can expect their defence to be aggressive and always in Bath's face looking to create the errors and turnovers on which they usually thrive. Bath will be looking to bring the scrummaging that caused Tigers trouble to this fixture, but will need to tighten up their line-out as with Borthwick, Saracens have a supreme operator. Saracens have won every AP match at their new ground, while Bath have been poor away from home this season having failed to win on their travels since Round 1. Sarries should win, but expect some nervy moments.

London Irish travel to Welford Rd in the last round for the 2nd time in 3 seasons. A repeat of that last match will leave Tigers fans with short fingernails but ultimately happy (two Ojo interceptions saw Irish leading by 15 points with just 12 minutes remaining - 4 tries in the time remaining saw Tigers take full points and top the table). With nothing to play for and a large number of players leaving the club we can expect a real end of term part feeling from LI - with them throwing the ball around with abandon. Tigers need to avoid getting sucked into the party atmosphere, ensure the basics are done well and secure the points needed to guarantee a home semi-final. That is not to say that tigers should be negative - but need to try not to force issues else we could see yet more interception tries.

With Quins hosting Saints (on ESPN), both teams could finish second. Most likely scenario however is that the winner will finish 3rd and avoid a visit to Saracens. Northampton looked woeful when hosting Tigers in round 19. In two big wins since then, against relegated London Welsh and a Sale team selected to secure RFU funding rather than match points, they have looked powerful. Really though we have learnt little in these two matches. Since beating Tigers in February (at which point they topped the table) Quins have struggled for form and results that saw them slide out of Europe and down the table. A scrappy win over Bath reversed the sequence of loses - and by all accounts they looked good in attack against Worcester last week. Harlequins should be too strong and do everything they can to try and secure a home semi.

In the third televised match, Exeter host Gloucester. The winner will finish in 5th spot. Gloucester broke their bad run with victory over Saracens last time out but Exter need the win more.

With bugger all to play for, the last two fixtures may well slip under the radar. London Welsh will hope to wave goodbye to the premiership with their first win since 1st December, Warriors will hope to gain their first away win - I favour the latter result. Sale finish a dificult season at home to Wasps. Will Diamond pick a proper team? Will Diamon select a proper team? Are the Sale players who went out on the lash in Leeds last week up for a fight? If the answer to both is yes, then Sale should win. If not then Wasps attacking prowess will hold sway.

Lovely stuff, LT, another excellent preview - you (for the AP), George (for the Rabo) and one or two of our SH friends (for the SXV) are setting v high standards here

Think we will see all home wins this week, big wins for Tigers and Sarries but also we will see Quins back in full flow against Saints. Sexy weather --> sexy rugby

Brilliant analysis LT, grab yourself a pint as congratulations.

I agree with pretty much all of that. I think it'll probably be all home wins but who knows???

Tigers should steam roller Irish, especially after a loss last week. They'll be out to get back on the wagon and in the sunshine against a weak forward unit Tiggers have shown that they can score biiiiiggg.

Saracens should maul Bath now that they only have the Prem to play for, the forwards and Farrel let them down last weekend so I imagine we'll see Hodgson start and the pack put in a proper shift.

Quins will need to play their A game to beat Saints, apparently Big Mo turned up for the first time this season against Wuss so if hes still around and the rest of the forwards turn up it should be close. It'll then just come down to our backs scoring quicker then their revolving door defence leaks points!!

Glaws have a real dilemma on their hands. If we win, we run the risk of aiding our neighbours into the HC; lose and we finish 6th. To be honest, we've achieved what we set out to achieve this year and that's get back into the HC. We are not yet consistent enough for a top 4 side, so our finish is a fair reflection on our season. I do enjoy it down at SP, so as long as we give a good showing I'm not too fussed about the result, but naturally I'd prefer the win. I'd imagine a fair few of the Glaws players are out to prove a point about missing out on the Lions (36 & Morgan) and to show SL they should go to Argentina (May, Sharples, Burns and hopefully Savage).

In terms of the results I agree with LT. I won't pick my SuperBru until after I see the Sale side. I imagine another XV comprising of English players will appear.

Yappy, I think Danny will have a huge game against Saints to show Gatland what an error he has made

I think so too, he did the same while Lancaster wasn't picking him so potentially i'd like to see him carry on not getting picked for various teams that he'd be great in...

Chiefs:
Arscott; Nowell, Dollman, Shoemark, Jess; Steenson, Thomas; Sturgess, Yeandle, Tui; Mumm, Welch; White, Scaysbrook, Baxter (Capt.)

Replacements: Whitehead, Rimmer, Mitchell, Muldowney, Ewers, Chudley, Slade, Whitten.

And Glaws:
Gloucester Rugby:

Rob Cook; Charlie Sharples, Henry Trinder, Billy Twelvetrees, Jonny May; Freddie Burns, Dan Robson; Nick Wood, Koree Britton, Shaun Knight; Tom Savage (capt), Lua Lokotui; Sione Kalamafoni, Akapusi Qera, Ben Morgan

Replacements:

Darren Dawidiuk, Dan Murphy, Yann Thomas, Peter Buxton, Andy Hazell, Dave Lewis, Mike Tindall, Shane Monahan

Harlequins team v Saints

15. Mike Brown, 14. Tom Williams, 13. George Lowe, 12. Tom Casson, 11. Ugo Monye, 10. Nick Evans, 9. Danny Care
1. Joe Marler, 2. Rob Buchanan, 3. James Johnston, 4. Olly Kohn, 5. George Robson, 6. Tom Guest, 7. Luke Wallace, 8. Nick Easter

16. Joe Gray, 17. Mark Lambert, 18. Will Collier, 19. Charlie Matthews, 20. Maurie Fa'asavalu, 21. Karl Dickson, 22. Ben Botica, 23. Ross Chisholm

Warriors v London Welsh

15 Chris Pennell, 14 Josh Drauniniu, 13 Andy Short, 12 Alex Grove, 11 Ben Howard, 10 Andy Goode, 9 Jonny Arr
1 Matt Mullan, 2 Ed Shervington, 3 Euan Murray, 4 James Percival (c), 5 Chris Jones, 6 Neil Best, 7 Sam Betty, 8 Richard de Carpentier

16 Aleki Lutui, 17 Rob O'Donnell, 18 John Andress, 19 Dean Schofield, 20 Jake Abbott, 21 Paul Hodgson, 22 Danny Gray, 23 Max Stelling

Sarries rest a few:

Saracens line-up vs Bath

15 Chris Wyles, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Joel Tomkins, 12 Owen Farrell, 11 David Strettle, 10 Charlie Hodgson, 9 Neil de Kock
1 Mako Vunipola, 2 Schalk Brits, 3 Matt Stevens, 4 Steve Borthwick ©, 5 Alistair Hargreaves, 6 Kelly Brown, 7 Andy Saull, 8 Jackson Wray

16 John Smit, 17 Rhys Gill, 18 Carlos Nieto, 19 Mouritz Botha, 20 George Kruis, 21 Richard Wigglesworth, 22 Duncan Taylor, 23 Joe Maddock

NORTHAMPTON SAINTS TEAM TO PLAY HARLEQUINS


15 Ben FODEN, 14 Ken PISI, 13 George PISI, 12 Luther BURRELL, 11 Jamie ELLIOTT, 10 Stephen MYLER, 9 Lee DICKSON
1 Soane TONGA'UIHA, 2 Dylan HARTLEY (capt), 3 Brian MUJATI, 4 Courtney LAWES, 5 Christian DAY, 6 Calum CLARK, 7 Tom WOOD, 8 Samu MANOA

16 Mike HAYWOOD, 17 Alex WALLER, 18 Tom MERCEY, 19 Phil DOWSON, 20 GJ VAN VELZE, 21 Martin ROBERTS, 22 Ryan LAMB, 23 James WILSON

Leicester Tigers (v London Irish, Welford Road, Saturday 2.30pm)
15 Geordan Murphy (c), 14 Niall Morris, 13 Manusamoa Tuilagi, 12 Anthony Allen, 11 Vereniki Goneva, 10 Toby Flood, 9 Ben Youngs,
1 Logovi'i Mulipola, 2 Tom Youngs, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 4 Graham Kitchener, 5 Geoff Parling, 6 Tom Croft, 7 Julian Salvi, 8 Jordan Crane

16 Rob Hawkins, 17 Fraser Balmain, 18 Dan Cole, 19 Steve Mafi, 20 Thomas Waldrom, 21 Sam Harrison, 22 George Ford, 23 Mathew Tait

London Irish
15 Tom Homer, 14 Topsy Ojo, 13 Jonathan Joseph, 12 Guy Armitage, 11 Marland Yarde, 10 Ian Humphreys, 9 Darren Allinson; 1 Alex Corbisiero, 2 Scott Lawson, 3 Halani Aulika, 4 George Skivington (c), 5 Bryn Evans, 6 Matt Garvey, 7 Jamie Gibson, 8 Ofisa Treviranus.
Replacements: 16 David Paice, 17 Jerry Yanuyanutawa, 18 Leo Halavatau, 19 Kieran Low, 20 Jebb Sinclair, 21 Declan Danaher, 22 Shane Geraghty, 23 Jack Moates

For the last game of the season Diamon brings back his NEQs:

Team: Mark Cueto, Will Addison, Johnny Leota, Sam Tuitupou, Tom Brady, Nick Macleod, Dwayne Peel, Alasdair Dickinson, Marc Jones, Henry Thomas, Kearnan Myall, Andrei Ostrikov, Dan Braid, David Seymour Captain, James Gaskell

Replacements: Tommy Taylor, Ross Harrison, Tony Buckley, Tom Holmes, Andy Powell, Nathan Fowles, Sam James, Charlie Amesbury

Bath go with the same line-up that beat Tigers for their trip to Sarries:

Bath Rugby team to face Saracens

15. Ollie Devoto, 14. Horacio Agulla, 13. Ben Williams, 12. Kyle Eastmond, 11. Semesa Rokoduguni, 10. Stephen Donald, 9. Michael Claassens
1. Paul James, 2. Rob Webber, 3. David Wilson, 4. Dominic Day, 5. Dave Attwood, 6. Francois Louw ( c ), 7. Guy Mercer, 8. Simon Taylor

16. Ross Batty, 17. Nathan Catt, 18. Anthony Perenise, 19. Will Spencer, 20. Mat Gilbert, 21. Nick Koster, 22. Peter Stringer, 23. Tom Biggs

London Wasps side to face Sale Sharks
15 Hugo Southwell (captain), 14 Tom Varndell, 13 Elliot Daly, 12 Chris Bell, 11 Christian Wade, 10 Tommy Bell, 9 Joe Simpson
1 Simon McIntyre, 2 Tom Lindsay, 3 Phil Swainston, 4 Tom Palmer, 5 Marco Wentzel, 6 Ashley Johnson, 7 Sam Jones, 8 Billy Vunipola

16 T Rhys Thomas, 17 Zak Taulafo, 18 Lorenzo Romano, 19 James Cannon, 20 Jonathan Poff, 21 Charlie Davies, 22 Charlie Hayter, 23 Jack Wallace

London Welsh: 15. Tom Arscott, 14. Dan Caprice, 13. Seb Stegmann, 12. James Lewis, 11. Nick Scott, 10. Gordon Ross* (C), 9. Rob Lewis, 1. Tom Bristow, 2. Greg Bateman, 3. Arthur Joly, 4. Kirill Kulemin*, 5. Matt Corker, 6. Daniel Browne, 7. Lee Beach, 8. Alfie To’oala*.

Replacements: 16. Dan George, 17. James Tideswell, 18. Billy Moss, 19. Adam Brown, 20. Julio Cabello Farias*, 21. Mike Denbee, 22. Alex Davies, 23. Joe Ajuwa.

HongKongCherry wrote:Chiefs:
Arscott; Nowell, Dollman, Shoemark, Jess; Steenson, Thomas; Sturgess, Yeandle, Tui; Mumm, Welch; White, Scaysbrook, Baxter (Capt.)

Replacements: Whitehead, Rimmer, Mitchell, Muldowney, Ewers, Chudley, Slade, Whitten.

HKC, you appear to have forgotten the:

ASBO, I still have nightmares about that chant from September 2011

It'll be nice if for once the trip down the M5 doesn't take 5 hours, but as it's a Bank Holiday I'm not holding my breath!

HongKongCherry wrote:ASBO, I still have nightmares about that chant from September 2011

It'll be nice if for once the trip down the M5 doesn't take 5 hours, but as it's a Bank Holiday I'm not holding my breath!

Aye, well travel safely, PM me if you fancy a

Cheers ASBO, I'll drop you a PM in the morning when I know what I'm doing, but I'll be the one in the Cherry & White

I'm another one going for home wins across the board.

Seems that both Saints and Quinn's are putting out their strongest teams bar injury (guessing on Quinn's midfield, never sure what COS preferred pairing is nowadays) so I'm thinking both are playing for form and hoping to avoid a trip to Allinez Park in the playoffs if at all possible.

LondonTiger wrote:London Wasps side to face Sale Sharks
15 Hugo Southwell (captain), 14 Tom Varndell, 13 Elliot Daly, 12 Chris Bell, 11 Christian Wade, 10 Tommy Bell, 9 Joe Simpson
1 Simon McIntyre, 2 Tom Lindsay, 3 Phil Swainston, 4 Tom Palmer, 5 Marco Wentzel, 6 Ashley Johnson, 7 Sam Jones, 8 Billy Vunipola

16 T Rhys Thomas, 17 Zak Taulafo, 18 Lorenzo Romano, 19 James Cannon, 20 Jonathan Poff, 21 Charlie Davies, 22 Charlie Hayter, 23 Jack Wallace

Good to see young Tommy Bell getting a chance at 10. Last game for Billy V who is one of 4 Wasps players to be nominated Premiership Young Player of the Year with Joe Launcbury, Eliott Daly & our own Billy Whizz Christian Wade!

Come on you Saints (erg feel dirty just saying that) and the Tigers (obviously). Midlands derby in the playoffs? Yes, please!

Cockers shuffling the squad round so Geordie and Castro can get the standing ovations they deserve. I've heard rumours Geordie is staying on for one more year though . I'm worried about no Ed Slater we badly need him in the second row and rumours of a triceps tear is a concern, he's been outstanding and was noticeable by his absence from the start vs Bath.

B91212 wrote:I'm another one going for home wins across the board.

Seems that both Saints and Quinn's are putting out their strongest teams bar injury (guessing on Quinn's midfield, never sure what COS preferred pairing is nowadays) so I'm thinking both are playing for form and hoping to avoid a trip to Allinez Park in the playoffs if at all possible.

One of Quins biggest issues this season has been the midfield, we haven't had a chance to let any pairing cement themselves yet and its been a real hindrance.

Quins will def be playing to avoid a trip to Allianz Park, Welford Rd is like a second home now!

yappysnap wrote:

B91212 wrote:I'm another one going for home wins across the board.

Seems that both Saints and Quinn's are putting out their strongest teams bar injury (guessing on Quinn's midfield, never sure what COS preferred pairing is nowadays) so I'm thinking both are playing for form and hoping to avoid a trip to Allinez Park in the playoffs if at all possible.

One of Quins biggest issues this season has been the midfield, we haven't had a chance to let any pairing cement themselves yet and its been a real hindrance.

Quins will def be playing to avoid a trip to Allianz Park, Welford Rd is like a second home now!

haha, you wish!

To be fair Nathan they have won on the last two visits. Offset that though against our record in semi-finals and you would rather be facing us in a final.

Off course lose today and we could be travelling to the Stoop

Can't tell you how much excitement and anticipation is building in the south-west for the game at Sandy Park this afternoon - a big game in its own right, but with the 5 retirals (including liginds Richie Baxter and Budgie), not to mention a number of other crowd favourites moving on, there is going to be one hell of an atmosphere!

nathan wrote:

yappysnap wrote:

B91212 wrote:I'm another one going for home wins across the board.

Seems that both Saints and Quinn's are putting out their strongest teams bar injury (guessing on Quinn's midfield, never sure what COS preferred pairing is nowadays) so I'm thinking both are playing for form and hoping to avoid a trip to Allinez Park in the playoffs if at all possible.

One of Quins biggest issues this season has been the midfield, we haven't had a chance to let any pairing cement themselves yet and its been a real hindrance.

Quins will def be playing to avoid a trip to Allianz Park, Welford Rd is like a second home now!

haha, you wish!

It's not at Welford Road yet... Do us a favour and lose so you can come down here!

I'd prefer it at Welford Rd but let's face it, if Wayne Barnes refs Tigers vs Quins then Tigers are stuffed. Barnes interprets the breakdown in such a way that Quins end up with a sizeable penalty advantage. Tigers have asked for clarification from the refs union after two of last three games against Quins following Barnes officiating and have received very little if you believe Cockers. A different ref and it could go either way.

Wow, what a game!! It summed up Glaws perfectly - 20 minutes of ineptitude, woeful defence and no set piece to call of; then we see 3 outstanding tries showing how good we are in broken field play. A fabulous game that Chiefs deserved to win, just, but I'm pleased with the 5th place finish via our BPs.

HKC, an insane game, such adventure from both sides, lucky to snatch it at the end. Oiled

ASBO, have one on me

Incredibly physical game at The Stoop and Quins come away with the win to stay third in the league and travel to The Stoop cough Welford Rd.

Care and Wallace looked quality, Marler had a stand out game and we looked at about 65% for most of it. Did enough power and control wise to win the game when Saints madea come back.

Well done s A great game of rugby played in the right spirit. ASBO can we get a loan of Steenson for next Saturday in Dublin?

Am sure that can be arranged, altho Rhubarb was surprisingly good in the wesht? And Hoggy did well when he cAme on for his brief 20min cameo

ASBO,

yes mate both Hoggy and Jacko were ok in horrrific conditions (esp for a kicker -even Parks missed one) in Galway but Steenson held his nerve at the end - esp after missing one just before from a similar angle if not distance. Great game to watch. Well done s. Glasgow Warriors in the Heino is back on then ASBs ?

That would be ideal, buddy, plus maybe Perpignan and Ulster - think that works

Grudgingly. Very grudgingly, I tip my hat to the Sarries on the League title.

How they can afford that squad is a mystery to me though.

Sarries ability to come up with results is outstanding, they are not a great watch but they are the best team this season.

They seemed to creak under the pressure of the Bath rolling maul and at the scrum though. The other playoff contenders will have noted that with interest.

greytiger wrote:Grudgingly. Very grudgingly, I tip my hat to the Sarries on the League title.

How they can afford that squad is a mystery to me though.

Perhaps they've all been bought Italian restaurants

Tigers didn't buy Geordan and Castro a restaurant. Castro's mates ran one which he came in on and then he and Geordan joined in on financing the new one. I doubt they own the property and given how the economy is going I doubt the restaurant would be much of a cash generator.

Two more tries for Christian Wade now neck and neck with Tom Varndell with 13 tries a piece 4 ahead of their nearest rivals.

But neither good enough for international duties let alone Oz. Wade would have been unplayable in Australia.

Wade will go to Argentina in the summer. Him and May on the wings would be nice to see.

Shame the try of the season list has been finalised. Some crackers yesterday! May has done well with his 8 in 13 after injury, only Wade and Varndell have better percentages in the jeff this season.

...and May would be top if not tripped against warriors

I'd say that all three of Wade. May and Varndell are required Argentine tourists.

They need to be tested on current form against a fellow-T1 Nation.
However it's Farrell(A) that really needs to prove his suitability.

Definitely the best 3 wingers in England, and Wade is arguably even better than that...

I'd like to see a breakdown of May's tries - and the defences he got them against. But when he scores, it stays scored - that's for sure.