Aviva Premiership Round 14(?)

Thought i'd give it a go this week folks

Friday 14th February 2014 Aviva Premiership
Sale v Saracens 19:45
Saturday 15th February 2014Aviva Premiership
Harlequins v Newcastle 15:00
London Wasps v London Irish 15:00
Northampton v Worcester 15:00
Exeter v Bath 15:15
Sunday 16th February 2014Aviva Premiership
Leicester v Gloucester 14:00

Aviva Premiership
Team Played Won Drawn Lost For Against Bonus Pts Points
1 Northampton 13 11 1 1 338 185 5 51
2 Saracens 13 11 0 2 375 193 6 50
3 Bath 13 9 1 3 286 207 2 40
4 Harlequins 13 8 0 5 238 181 4 36
5 Leicester 13 7 2 4 283 270 4 36
6 Sale 13 7 0 6 237 235 6 34
7 London Wasps 13 6 0 7 246 245 8 32
8 Exeter 13 6 0 7 245 240 5 29
9 Gloucester 13 4 0 9 228 309 6 22
10 London Irish 13 4 0 9 213 265 5 21
11 Newcastle 13 3 0 10 107 276 2 14
12 Worcester 13 0 0 13 150 340 4 4

Sale v Saracens
After last weeks shock loss at home Sarries will be in a grim mood. Sale have been on an upward curve of late but Saracens will travel North with only one aim, victory at all costs. I don't think it'll be pretty but expect Sarries big names to step it up this weekend, Hodgson to have a good game and the visitors to win it ugly. Sarries by 5

Harlequins v Newcastle
Quins snuck a win at home against Wasps last week and will know they need a better performance this week. Falcons have looked pretty abject so far and are fortunate that others have turned out even worse. This game could be terrible to watch if Quins don't spark, but I expect them to and to run out comfy winners. Quins by 12

London Wasps v London Irish
Irish got the win of the round last weekend against Saracens. Within that performance they took any chance for points on offer and defended valiently. Wasps as well played a very good game away at Quins before falling in the final minute. If the weather holds then this could be a very entertaining game with home advantage just edging Wasps. Wasps by 2

Northampton v Worcester
Newcastle's new best friends will be hoping to salvage anything from a formidable trip to Franklins Garden's this weekend. Saints even with some key call ups are a colossal team and Worcester have been dire this season although last weekends close loss at Tigers was their best performance so far. I don't think they'll be getting that maiden win on Sat. Saints by 15 with the bp

Exeter v Bath
Exeter will feel they let themselves down last weekend when they lost to Northampton. Bath on the other hand had a fairly comfy win over Newcastle. The away team are missing a few due to injuries but should still have the pack to pressure Exeter. Chiefs will be smarting after their loss though and I expect a very physical performance from them to get the win. Exeter by 5.

Leicester v Gloucester
This is usually a quality game to watch for neutral's but so far both teams have been in terrible form. Glos can't seem to figure out how to mix forwards and backs while Tigers looked uncharacteristically clueless against Worcester last weekend. I expect the home teams pack to dominate this game and grind out a horrible win in poor conditions, with Leicester's marquee player P. Try getting on the score sheet again. Tigers by 10.

Sarries will probably be hurting after last weekend and they surely can't be that bad again? Bizarrely, despite Sale getting a TBP win last week, they actually weren't that good, but the big factor will be the weather and I'd imagine Hodgson has the nous to take advantage of the howling wind to take a close win despite Sarries dominating the game!

Quins should win their game comfortably. Newcastle are doing their best to keep Wuss' hopes alive and it is a good job they started the season with a few wins.

Wasps v Irish will probably be the closest game of all and I agree with Yappy that Wasps will just sneak this.

Saints will win comfortably and bring Wuss back to Earth with a resounding thump! Wuss did play their best game of the season against Tigers, but it is important to factor in just how bad Tigers were too; Saints won't be and they will run away with this game.

I normally go for Chief wins and rarely Bath wins, but Bath have a strangle hold over Exeter and the psychological edge will very much be with Bath. Chiefs shouldn't have lost against Saints and I feel they will be under extra pressure due to their record against Bath and Bath will win by a score.

Tigers were rubbish last week; Glaws were even worse. This has the potential to be a truly dire game, but there is a history of having some pretty hard fought games between the 2 sides. I will live in hope that Youngs has a poor day at the lineout, the one area that is functioning well for us at the moment. Freddie Burns owes the team a decent performance as he's not played well for close to 3 months; given this is against his likely new employers he'll either collapse under the pressure or be sublime... unfortunately I have a horrible feeling it will be the former and Tigers will win comfortably. I really can't wait for this season to be over!!

Reckon it'll be a close one at Sandy Park, and could go either way - whichever team wants it the most for entire 80 mins will take it, I believe, and there won't be any room for players that take the foot off the gas [do I get a prize for most cliches in an opening sentence?!]

Sale v Saracens. Away win & TBP - think Saracens will take out their LI frustrations from last week on Sale.
Harlequins v Newcastle. Home Win & TBP - No offense to GF and the other Newcastle fans on here but they look pretty poor to me. Shame as I want them to establish themselves in the top flight long term.
London Wasps v London Irish - Home win (maybe, just) - Struggling to call this one. LI must be on a high from last week along with some of their signings for next year but when in doubt I tend to go home win.
Northampton v Worcester. Form says home win & TBP - Always feel nervous when playing the teams who are due a shock and there have been a few signs of improvement by Wuss since Christmas. Hopefully they won't get that first win just yet.....
Exeter v Bath - Home win (again maybe, just). Can't make my mind up so defaulted to home win again. Cheifs seem a bit inconsistent this year to me. Kind of expect them to do well during the 6N due to not having as many players called up as some but they don't seem in good enough form to capitalize.
Leicester v Gloucester - Home win & TBP. If memory serves me Glaws often seem to raise their game against Tigers but don't think the Cherries front five are strong enough if it is a mud bath arm wrestle.

Oh and by the way, thanks for doing this yappy .

Why isn't the Saints-Worcester match being televised this weekend? Surely the match of Round 14, no?
OK, seriously, I am a bit worried because Sarries were upset last weekend and every team has their turn. And I don't think Worcester is so bad as they proved against Leicester last weekend. Saints escaped with a victory last weekend at Sandy Park, although I can't say they were lucky because they were camped on the Exeter line for most of the last 10 minutes. They were where they had to be in crunch time.

I am concerned this will be a tight one.

Indeed, Dr_G, it was our insipid display in the first half that effectively handed Saints the game - we should never have been in a position where a score in the last 10mins would have turned the game

Nev is out injured for 2 weeks at least they are winnable games without him

Here's hoping for Sale, Chiefs and Gloucester to all get humped as we do the same to Wasps and mount our late surge into the top 6!!!                

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:Indeed, Dr_G, it was our insipid display in the first half that effectively handed Saints the game - we should never have been in a position where a score in the last 10mins would have turned the game

I agree - mostly. Yes, Exe were poor (by their standards) in the first half. But, just like England against France the other weekend, Exeter had a lead to defend late on. And their defense was pretty tough to break down. Saints had to work to get that score at the end.

It is hard not to root for Exeter. Good club, good management, and good area. When the weather improves and there is no more snow here (had about 18 inches today) or flooding back home I want to come over and take a road trip to Sandy Park.

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:Reckon it'll be a close one at Sandy Park, and could go either way - whichever team wants it the most for entire 80 mins will take it, I believe, and there won't be any room for players that take the foot off the gas [do I get a prize for most cliches in an opening sentence?!]

:chief:

At the end of the day you gave 110% there lad

Tigers have both Youngs brothers and Slater back from England. Kitchener, Thompstone and Crane are all due back from injury. Should be a pretty strong Tigers team.

doctor_grey wrote:

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:Indeed, Dr_G, it was our insipid display in the first half that effectively handed Saints the game - we should never have been in a position where a score in the last 10mins would have turned the game

I agree - mostly.  Yes, Exe were poor (by their standards) in the first half.  But, just like England against France the other weekend, Exeter had a lead to defend late on.  And their defense was pretty tough to break down.  Saints had to work to get that score at the end.  

It is hard not to root for Exeter.  Good club, good management, and good area.  When the weather improves and there is no more snow here (had about 18 inches today) or flooding back home I want to come over and take a road trip to Sandy Park.  

I will be delighted to host you when you do, sir

formerly known as Sam wrote:Tigers have both Youngs brothers and Slater back from England. Kitchener, Thompstone and Crane are all due back from injury. Should be a pretty strong Tigers team.

Oh no! If he can't winge about missing players what will Cockerills pre match interview consist of? I hope he has a good script writer...   

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:

doctor_grey wrote:

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:Indeed, Dr_G, it was our insipid display in the first half that effectively handed Saints the game - we should never have been in a position where a score in the last 10mins would have turned the game

I agree - mostly.  Yes, Exe were poor (by their standards) in the first half.  But, just like England against France the other weekend, Exeter had a lead to defend late on.  And their defense was pretty tough to break down.  Saints had to work to get that score at the end.  

It is hard not to root for Exeter.  Good club, good management, and good area.  When the weather improves and there is no more snow here (had about 18 inches today) or flooding back home I want to come over and take a road trip to Sandy Park.  

I will be delighted to host you when you do, sir

muchos gracias, senor.

yappysnap wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:Tigers have both Youngs brothers and Slater back from England. Kitchener, Thompstone and Crane are all due back from injury. Should be a pretty strong Tigers team.

Oh no! If he can't winge about missing players what will Cockerills pre match interview consist of? I hope he has a good script writer...   

Opposition scrums not rolling over and letting Leicester do what they want?

Bathman_in_London wrote:

yappysnap wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:Tigers have both Youngs brothers and Slater back from England. Kitchener, Thompstone and Crane are all due back from injury. Should be a pretty strong Tigers team.

Oh no! If he can't winge about missing players what will Cockerills pre match interview consist of? I hope he has a good script writer...   

Opposition scrums not rolling over and letting Leicester do what they want?

Players have come back from England duty injured.
The ref let the opposition away with murder at the breakdown.

I am sure there are many more   

Bathman_in_London wrote:

yappysnap wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:Tigers have both Youngs brothers and Slater back from England. Kitchener, Thompstone and Crane are all due back from injury. Should be a pretty strong Tigers team.

Oh no! If he can't winge about missing players what will Cockerills pre match interview consist of? I hope he has a good script writer...   

Opposition scrums not rolling over and letting Leicester do what they want?

Leicester don't need help rolling over opposition scrums, it generally happens as a matter of course...

Jimpy wrote:

Bathman_in_London wrote:

yappysnap wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:Tigers have both Youngs brothers and Slater back from England. Kitchener, Thompstone and Crane are all due back from injury. Should be a pretty strong Tigers team.

Oh no! If he can't winge about missing players what will Cockerills pre match interview consist of? I hope he has a good script writer...   

Opposition scrums not rolling over and letting Leicester do what they want?

Leicester don't need help rolling over opposition scrums, it generally happens as a matter of course...

Not recently from what I've seen.

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Harlequins v Newcastle Falcons15th February 201415:00Twickenham StoopAVIVA Premiership RugbyOverviewPreviewMatch Preview::Match Preview by Callum SheppardHarlequins team to play Newcastle FalconsHarlequins have announced the team to play Newcastle Falcons in Round 14 of the Aviva Premiership, at the Twickenham Stoop on Saturday, kick-off 3:00pm.There are three changes to the starting side which beat London Wasps last weekend as Tom Casson is named at outside centre, partnering Jordan Turner-Hall.

The back three combination of Ugo Monye, Sam Smith and Ollie Lindsay-Hague remains unchanged while Ben Botica starts at fly-half in place of Nick Evans who picked up a foot injury last week.

In the forwards, the front five remain unchanged, while Luke Wallace starts at openside flanker and Maurie Fa'asavalu switces to the blindside. Number 8 Nick Easter captains the side.

Among the replacements, Louis Grimoldby will look to make his first Aviva Premiership appearance for the club.

Tickets are still available for Saturday's match and can be purchased by clicking here or by calling the ticket office on 0208 410 6000.

Harlequins Team

15. Ollie Lindsay-Hague
14. Sam Smith
13. Tom Casson
12. Jordan Turner-Hall
11. Ugo Monye
10. Ben Botica
9. Karl Dickson

1. Mark Lambert
2. Dave Ward
3. Paul Doran Jones
4. Nick Kennedy
5. Charlie Matthews
6. Maurie Fa'asavalu
7. Luke Wallace
8. Nick Easter (C)

16. Joe Gray
17. Darryl Marfo
18. Kyle Sinckler
19. Tom Guest
20. Joe Trayfoot
21. Sam Stuart
22. Louis Grimoldby
23. Paul Sackey

Ozzy3213 wrote:

Jimpy wrote:

Bathman_in_London wrote:

yappysnap wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:Tigers have both Youngs brothers and Slater back from England. Kitchener, Thompstone and Crane are all due back from injury. Should be a pretty strong Tigers team.

Oh no! If he can't winge about missing players what will Cockerills pre match interview consist of? I hope he has a good script writer...   

Opposition scrums not rolling over and letting Leicester do what they want?

Leicester don't need help rolling over opposition scrums, it generally happens as a matter of course...

Not recently from what I've seen.

Their recent poor form was attributable to watching coverage of LI matches and being told that such tactics would somehow 'come good' - or so i heard.

Glaws line up for Tigers; we've put out the biggest pack we're capable of and given the opposition and form have wisely dropped Burns to the bench

Rob Cook; Charlie Sharples, Henry Trinder, Mike Tindall (capt), Martyn Thomas; Ryan Mills, Dan Robson; Nick Wood, Darren Dawidiuk, Sila Puafisi; Elliott Stooke, Will James; Sione Kalamafoni, Matt Kvesic, Ben Morgan

Replacements:

Huia Edmonds, Yann Thomas, Rupert Harden, James Hudson, Matt Cox, Jimmy Cowan, Freddie Burns, Shane Monahan

CHIEFS SIDE TO FACE BATH

15 Luke Arscott
14 Matt Jess
13 Ian Whitten
12 Phil Dollman
11 Tom James
10 Gareth Steenson
9 Dave Lewis
1 Ben Moon
2 Jack Yeandle
3 Hoani Tui
4 Dean Mumm (capt)
5 Damian Welch
6 Tom Johnson
7 Ben White
8 Dave Ewers

16 Luke Cowan-Dickie
17 Carl Rimmer
18 Alex Brown
19 Don Armand
20 Kai Horstmann
21 Haydn Thomas
22 Henry Slade
23 Fetu’u Vainikolo

Delighted to see Big H back at tighthead - looks like Craig Mitchell has dropped further down the pecking order

Time to break the duck

Barf:

15. Anthony Watson, 14. Horacio Agulla, 13. Ollie Devoto, 12. Kyle Eastmond, 11. Matt Banahan, 10. George Ford, 9. Micky Young;
1. Paul James, 2. Ross Batty, 3. David Wilson, 4. Stuart Hooper (c), 5. Dave Attwood, 6. Matt Garvey, 7. Francois Louw,
8. Leroy Houston

Replacements: 16. Eusebio Guinazu, 17. Nathan Catt, 18. Anthony Perenise, 19. Dominic Day, 20. Alafoti Fa’osiliva, 21. Peter Stringer, 22. Gavin Henson, 23. Nick Abendanon

It's quite a small midfield from Bath, I'd guess we will be seeing Banners and Agulla coming off their wings a bit to carry. Or having said that, maybe given the recent weather it will be a Ford kicking show. Either way it should be a really interesting backrow battle, some really good players there.

There are very few games that I want Exe to lose, but I'd love to see the anomaly continue!

I have been told that BT sport is available for free this weekend for sky/ free view users, so this game is available to most, also streaming on their website apparently.

I'll be interested to see if Sale can sneak one past Sarries tonight, stranger things have happened...

Hoping for a Glouc-Tigers draw and a bath loss...

Jimpy wrote:

Ozzy3213 wrote:

Jimpy wrote:

Bathman_in_London wrote:

yappysnap wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:Tigers have both Youngs brothers and Slater back from England. Kitchener, Thompstone and Crane are all due back from injury. Should be a pretty strong Tigers team.

Oh no! If he can't winge about missing players what will Cockerills pre match interview consist of? I hope he has a good script writer...   

Opposition scrums not rolling over and letting Leicester do what they want?

Leicester don't need help rolling over opposition scrums, it generally happens as a matter of course...

Not recently from what I've seen.

Their recent poor form was attributable to watching coverage of LI matches and being told that such tactics would somehow 'come good' - or so i heard.

Ooh, cutting, I might even   

If it makes you feel better having a snipe, by all means continue, it's nothing I haven't heard before, being as I don't support one of the top sides. it still doesn't change the fact that Tigers have struggled as much as any other team with the new law interpretations at the scrum, and no longer have that particular set piece as such a strong weapon in their armoury as in the past.   

Think Duncan Taylor might have a career flogging sausages and lamb joints after that miss. Absolutely butchered that try   

Great maul from Sale there.

Come on Sale!!!!!

hmmm, Sarries straight off their feet at that ruck.

evened that one up then!

Tigers have struggled all over the park this season for a number of reasons. Slightly ironic that our only reliably top notch area of play is the lineout given the unfair stick Tom Youngs has had this 6N. With Mulipola injured and Castro gone we have had not really been able to rotate the props as much as previously. Cole has certainly begun to look tired as the season has progressed. Hopefully he'll get a slightly easier time of it with Mulipola back and young Balmain looking increasingly more like a first team option. Briggs hasn't shown much and seemed to weaken our scrum off the bench in the first part of the season.

I just hope we can show a little bit of cohesion and look like we have a game plan the players actually understand as we made Pennell look brilliant with all the balk we kicked down his throat last week.

surely that was in at the side?

evened up again lol

starting to cut own on the sealing off, could this be a kick for the sticks?

I'm only supporting Sale as it steals points that hopefully Tigers can make up on. Is this a strong Sarries team what with last week too.

Leicester Tigers (vs Gloucester Rugby, Welford Road, Sunday 2pm)
15 Mathew Tait
14 Vereniki Goneva
13 Matt Smith
12 Anthony Allen
11 Adam Thompstone
10 Toby Flood (c)
9 Ben Youngs
1 Marcos Ayerza
2 Tom Youngs
3 Logovi'i Mulipola
4 Ed Slater
5 Graham Kitchener
6 Jamie Gibson
7 Julian Salvi
8 Jordan Crane

Replacements
16 Rob Hawkins
17 Boris Stankovich
18 Fraser Balmain
19 Louis Deacon
20 Thomas Waldrom
21 David Mele
22 Owen Williams
23 Blaine Scully

Great to have Kitchener back who has been immense so far this season. Strong Tigers team out and hopefully a home win

Would it be fair to say there aren't many lessons to learn about England players from that Sale vs Saracens game?

Ashton looked reasonably sharp on a couple of occasions but the weather didn't really let anyone in the backs shine on either side. Vunipola carried a lot but we know he can do that anyway.

It would have been interesting to see whether Cipriani could have nailed that Sale penalty which would have given them the lead again towards the end of the game.

Cipriani made a tackle........

Saints Worcester sounds closer than their respective positions would indicate. On the BBC site, I'm seeing 9-6 to Northampton so far.

Well that wasn't a great win. A win will do though, hope the team picks up with the England lads and the injured Nev, TW and Collier and Robson back and that the weather improves. No Robshaw, you can see how the team is less dynamic without his leadership and play, no Care and no Nev leaves us with neither control nor playmaking and no Brown too means we lose our 3 biggest individual threats (and as Walker is the next in line, that's not good)

Well done Newcastle, could be important bonus points

                                            

Irish on a roll, Ozzy! Who is it next week? If you'd like to beat Tigers or Bath we'd appreciate it...

Cj - We have Tigers so no worries

Irish didn't have to do much to win that. Wasps were a shadow of the side that should have won at Quins last week.

Elliot Daly was charged down for the first try, and another poor kick led to the 2nd Irish try.

Short replied for Wasps before the break.

O'Leary got a straight red for a stamp on Haskell's head, but despite playing against 14 men and with the wind at our backs, we blew numerous chances to take the game.

Summed up by Carlisle missing a penalty to the corner with about 1m left. Ojo gathered, Irish went through several phases and that was that.

Geraghty dropped a goal with the game 20 all for the winning score.

ChequeredJersey wrote:Irish on a roll, Ozzy! Who is it next week? If you'd like to beat Tigers or Bath we'd appreciate it...

Bring on the Tiggers next week.  Will be a tough test, but there is a feel good factor around the club right now, and I am confident that we can keep the momentum going with another win.

Terrible performance from Quins but we'll take the W. Could have been a lot worse if not for Sam Smith (and that's the second week running that we can say that!).

The team is a shadow of itself without Robshaw, Robson and Care. Those three with their huge workload and low error count add far more then any of the other big names in the side and without them we have too many players hanging about at the side of rucks, running laterally with the ball or throwing dodgy passes to no one.

I've been really dissapointed with OLH this season as well. Seems to be struggling to switch from 7's to the full 15 game.

I'm really looking forward to Tigers/Glawsta today; two sides whose seasons are marginally on the up, both struggling for form and both respecting each other selecting their best available teams (Burns on the bench is interesting).

I'm keen to see how the Young’s boys go against their similar respective counterparts; Robson and Dawidiuk. Robson has been a bright spark when he's been rightly selected as first choice and Dawidiuk has always offered good nuggety fare.

It looks a really exciting match and with the weather appearing to behave we might actually see Glawsta front up in a big game - which is only an occasional thing this season.

How much Twelvetrees and May are missed(?) and Burns not starting, might be the difference(?), however all in all Glawsta have put out, at least on paper, a good side.

Let’s hope rugby's the winner and all involved are treated by the occasion.

King, Burns being on the bench is a good thing; he has been woefully out of form since October so deserves to be dropped.