Fixtures - 4

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Exeter Chiefs vs. Leicester Tigers

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Exeter Chiefs
Manager – Driver

01. Eiffion Lewis-Roberts	09. Nick Phipps
02. Gary Botha	10. Steven Myler
03. Juan Pablo Orlandi
04. James Hudson	11. Iain Balshaw
05. George Skivington	12. Dan Hipkiss
06. Declan Danaher	13. Regan King
07. Shane Jennings	14. Adam Thompstone
08. Carl Fearns	15. Luke Arscott

16.Benjiman Kayser 17.Brett Sturgess 18.Juan Gomez 19.Simon Shaw 20.Gareth Delve 21.Charlie Pilgrim 22.Derrick Houghard 23.Ollie Smith

Tactics

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Leicester Tigers
Manager – Lukelovesluka

01. Wyatt Crockett	09. Micky Young
02. Sebastien Bruno	10. Dave Walder
03. Census Johnston
04. Jarrad Hoeata	11. Tom Biggs
05. Chris Jack ©	12. Yannick Jauzion
06. Jordan Crane	13. Florian Fritz
07. Magnus Lund	14. Isa Nacewa
08. Ernst Joubert	15. Clement Poitrenaud

16. Clarke Dermody 17. Matt Thompson 18. Jonny Harris 19. Alex Brown 20. Johnathon Poff 21. Scott Mathie 22. Rob Miller 23. Charlie Amesbury

Tactics

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Gloucester vs. London Wasps

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Gloucester
Manager – anonmattyt

01. Nick Wood	09. Dave Lewis
02. Deon Fourie	10. Stephen Donald
03. Rupert Harden
04. James Hanks	11. Joe Rokocoko
05. George Robson	12. Johnny May
06. Mauri Fa’asivalu	13. Matt Horne
07. Andy Saull	14. James Simpson-Daniel
08. Ashley Johnson	15. Charlie Sharples

16. Tim Payne 17. Jamie George 18. Julian White 19. Danie Roussouw 20. Brett Deacon 21. Ryan Lamb 22. Scott Hamilton 23. Lesley Vianikolo

Tactics

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London Wasps
Manager – Arry

01. Perry Freshwater ©	09. Michael Classens
02. Steve Thompson	10. Jimmy Gopperth
03. Carlos Nieto
04. Stuart Hooper	11. Drew Mitchell
05. Mark Chisholm	12. James Downey
06. Deon Stegmann	13. Jon Clarke
07. Tom Johnson	14. Noah Cato
08. Roger Wilson	15. Mike Brown

16. Tatafu Polota-Nau 17. Benn Robinson 18. James Slipper 19. Dan Ward-Smith 20. James Haskell 21. Luke Burgess 22. Rory Clegg 23. Olly Morgan

Tactics

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Harlequins vs. London Irish

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Harlequins
Manager – steven_sharks

01. Joe Marler	09. Byron Kelleher
02. Schalk Brits	10. Freddie Burns
03. Brian Mujati
04. Jerome Thion	11. Jonathan Joseph
05. Tom Donnelly	12. Shaun Berne
06. James Gaskell	13. George Lowe
07. Phil Dowson	14. Peter Hynes
08. Chris Henry	15. Ben Blair

16. Rob Vickers 17. Matias Aguero 18. Kieran Brookes 19. Erik Lund 20. Jamie Gibson 21. Lee Dickson 22. Gareth Steenson 23. Ross Chisholm

Tactics

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London Irish
Manager – stnick88

01. Matias Aguero	09. Julien Dupuy
02. Neil Briggs	10. Juan Martin Hernandez
03. WP Nel
04. Mouritz Botha	11. Paul Sackey
05. Nick Kennedy	12. Dan Bowden
06. Jaques Botes	13. Mathieu Bastareaud
07. Hendre Fourie	14. JP Pietersen
08. Xavier Rush	15. Matthew Tait

16 Tonga Lea'toea 17 James Buckland 18 Duncan Bell 19 Matt Garvey 20 Steffon Armitage 21 Neal De Kock 22 Gonzalo Tiesi 23 Joe Maddock

Tactics

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Saracens vs. Worcester Warriors

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Saracens
Manager – LDCPete

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

16. Tom Cowan-Dickie 17. Alex Waller 18. Tom Mercey 19. Graham Kitchener 20. Jacob Rowan 21. Haydn Thomas 22. Tim Visser 23. Henry Trinder

Tactics
- Saracens will be taking a pragmatic approach to this game and using the boots of Farrell, Twelvetrees and Goode to ensure that we play in the right areas of the field. If it is on93 we will run from deep, but in the main we want to dominate territory and play our offloading game in the Worcester Warriors half of the field.

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Worcester Warriors
Manager – prop_lyd

01. George Porter	09. Jordi Pasqualin
02. Richard Strauss	10. Nicky Robinson ©
03. BJ Botha
04. Ollie Kohn	11. Phil Chesters
05. Marco Wentzel ©	12. Lee Thomas
06. Kearnan Myall	13. Stirling Mortlock
07. Martyn Williams	14. Leila Masaga
08. Sebastien Chabal	15. Rob Cook

16. Koree Britton 17. John Andress 18. Yann Thomas 19. Hayden Smith 20. Ben Morgan 21. Dan White 22. Julien Malzieu 23. Greig Tonks

Tactics

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Sale Sharks vs. Northampton Saints

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Sale Sharks
Manager – SirJohnnyEnglish

01. Jerome Schuster	09. Nicholas Bezy
02. David Paice	10. Aaron Cruden
03. Werner Kruger
04. Steven Sykes	11. Nick Abendanon
05. Christian Day	12. Jordan Turner-Hall
06. Matt Todd	13. Robbie Freuan
07. Michael Lipman	14. Tom Brady
08. Victor Vito	15. Luke Rooney

16. Lee Imolek 17. Guilleme Guirado 18. Luc Ducalcon 19. Andries Bekker 20. Matt Kvesic 21. Danny Care 22. James Hook 23. Keith Earls

Tactics
Come in to this one with a very strong front 5 and will look to target the set piece to build ourselves a base to attack from. Gone with a very mobile front 5 who will look to get around the park as well working the fringes. We will look to the target the breakdown with the front 5 clearing the rucks and our 2 specialist opensides getting in there and poaching the ball. On attacking play we will look to the speed and creativity of our half backs to open up the opposition and the power and offloading of our in form midfield unit to burst through the opposition

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Northampton Saints
Manager – Dammit_Chris

01. Thomas Domingo	09. Joe Simpson
02. Rob Webber	10. Danny Cipriani
03. Carl Hayman
04. Dave Attwood	11. Sitiveni Sivivatu
05. Patricio Albacete	12. Willie Mason
06. Calum Clark	13. Manu Tuilagi
07. Alexandre Lapandry	14. Leigh Halfpenny
08. Simon Taylor	15. Lionel Beauxis

16. Dylan Hartley 17. Dave Wilson 18. Matt Stevens 19. Joe Launchbury 20. Liam Messam 21. Ryan Kankowski 22. Mike Phillips 23. Casey Lualala

Tactics

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Newcastle Falcons vs. Bath Rugby

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Newcastle Falcons
Manager – Sgt Pooly

01. Boris Stankovich	09. Sarel Pretorious
02. William Servat	10. Nick Evans
03. Paul Doran-Jones
04. Dean Schofield	11. Topsy Ojo
05. Geoff Parling	12. Luke McAlister
06. Chris Robshaw	13. Jared Payne
07. Heinrich Brussow	14. Miles Benjamin
08. Duane Vermeulen	15. Sean Maitland

16. Tom Lindsay 17. Owen Franks 18. Fabien Barcella 19. Juandre Kruger 20. Chris York 21. Jonny Arr 22. Brad Barritt 23. Ben Smith

Tactics
Tactics as per last week....contest in set piece and attack with pace with Pretorious/Evans pulling the strings.

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Bath Rugby
Manager – Inthefastlane

01. Salvatore Perugini	09. Fourie du Preez
02. Keven Mealamu	10. Steve Shingler
03. Aaron Jarvis
04. Louis Deacon	11. Ugo Monye
05. Isaac Ross	12. Anthony Allen
06. Sean O’Brien	13. David Marty
07. Steffon Armitage	14. Maxime Medard
08. Tom Guest	15. Tim Nanai-Williams

Kane Newport, Joe Ward, Petrus Du Plessis, James Cannon, Will Skuse, Richard Wigglesworth, Dominic Waldouck, Kurtley Beale

Tactics

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Exeter 18-22 Tigers - Forwards to tigers, dont like crane at 6 but joubert will lead by example at 8. young/walder no best combo but strong and experienced backline. hipkiss more of a 13 for me driver.

gloucester 20-24 wasps - wassp edge the set piece and gain good ball. gopperth is steady and will kick goals and get enough good ball out to backs to score. prefer AJ at 7 for glos and may/horne not best combo.

saracens 18-15 worcester - strong sarries forwards win the battle with warriors. not the biggest fan of farrell and can see warriors runners getting some joy with sarries defence. farrell will kick goals though and the forwards will grind them the win.

sale 22-22 saints - tough to pick a winner. two good teams, even battle upfront and ups and downs in the backs. big strong center battles with alot of big clashes. much prefer saints back 3, but sale more control at half backs.

newcastle 27-23 bath - good falcons combos, quite like pretorius and evans and mac and payne is decent blues combo. prefer maitland on the wing. strong backs from bath but shingler is young and needs game time at irish to prove himself.

Quins 25-29 Irish

Prefer Quins front 3 and engine room, but both nice combo's. Bit more for Irish in the backrow, no fan of Gaskell at 6 but 7/8 good.

Dupey and Kelleher pretty tight to call but a no form JMH is much better than Burns. Not sure he has the game to direct against this kind of opposition yet.

Backs pretty much all to Irish and think what they lose in the front 5 is made up in the backs for the win.

Quins
+ amazing front 5 that sets a real platform, competitive backrow
- backs need an injection of class, 10 not strong

Irish
+ quality throughout team, no major weaknesses
- front row could get dominated

"Not a game for AJ who's a great player on front foot but adds little behind a beaten pack"

Bizarre statement that Pooly. Cheetahs often get beaten in the pack yet AJ still gets into
many super 15 teams of the year

http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,16017_7031031,00.html

Cheetahs have a cracking pack Matt, but he offers not alot on the backfoot. Great carrier with front foot ball though, he'll be a real asset in some games but think you need to dominate front 5 to get the best out of him.

I suppose he's like a worse version of SOB in some respects as he doesn't offer much more than carrying. (I think SOB has a rounded game though, just excels in carrying)

Exeter Chiefs 17 29 Leicester Tigers Think Leicester backs will cut exeter to ribbons. Think that centre pairing for exeter would not work in any way. especially against Jauzion etc.

Newcastle 24- 21 Bath
Falcons decimate bath in the scrum with Jarvis way out of his depth. Bath locks much better. Falcons weak in this department with Parling being given 0 rating as has been out so long and no idea if he will return.

Backrow fairly even vermaulen much stronger than guest though.

Falcons take halfbacks. FDP better than pretorius but pretorius form better. Evans class above.

Falcons better centres and BAth much better back 3 with a lot more footballing ability. Prefer Maitland on wing

Saracens 26-18 Leeds

Slight edge in front row to Sarries but 2 good units. One a piece in the second row. Edge to Sarries carries on in the backrow, Prop needs some good form at the beginning of season from a few players.

Close battle in the halfbacks, one a piece. Mortlock the standout centre but let down a little with Thomas who've I've not seen for a fair while. Keeps centres even. Much stronger back 3 for Sarries although Toeava isn't as strong at wing than FB. Too much across the board for Sarries

Sale 30-28 Saints

Massive upfront battle I can't separate and similar in the locks. Backrows 6/7 tight but Vito on different planet to Taylor who's not a great player.

Close and similar halfback battle but Sale much stronger in centres as find it hard to rate Mason. Saints wingers a class above but Beaxuis is no FB and will cause issues there.

Sale
+ great competitive pack
- could do with one quality winger to compliment Abendanon who's a better FB IMO

Saints
+ again a strong pack and quality wingers
- Mason can't rate, Taylor isn't a strong 8 and need a 15

Saracens 30-20 Worcester saracens have a much stronger backrow and will take this game through their back 3.

A good battle and Worcester looking much stronger

Exeter 22 - 27 Leicester
Gloucester 23 - 27 Wasps
Saracens 28 - 19 Worcester
Sale 19 - 19 Northampton
Newcastle 32 - 24 Bath

Guys just wanted to see what you thought of a few of my players in new positions, Beauxis has had a lot of game time for Stade in the 15 shirt over the last 3 seasons or so - him or Cipriani at 15 during WC?

Also chose Mason because he has unbelievable offloading skills, will get my wings running off him like Ashton does for Saints - I know not many people rate him but would they pay attention to that tactic? His defence isnt ever going to be an issue either.

Simon Taylor, a star for Bath last season - but better 6 or 8?

Exeter 19 - 24 Leicester
Gloucester 25 - 28 Wasps
Saracens 31 - 25 Worcester
Quins 31 - 35 Irish
Newcastle 25 - 21 Bath

Late meeting just about to start, so cant really do more than that this week!

Taylor was no star for Bath, he's dropped of massivley over the years. Better at 6 imo. Beauxis is a bit of liability at 15 and not seen him play there for 2 seasons, Cips better option.

Mason has only played one game I think so hard to rate, see how he goes next season

Taylor was excellent for Bath last year and is a very good player. He is not as dynamic as he was but he is a great workhorse and reads the game very well.

He was one of the best players in the AP last year. After Xmas he was on fire every time i watched bath or read a review of the game. Does a lot of work and maybe does not get credit for it. quite similar in style to Vermaulen

Chris mate know its our game just giving you some feedback:
Wouldnt rate Beaxuis there mate. Rodrigeuz is the 1st choice 15 for Stade and plays there most games. Think 10. Beaxuis 15. Cipriani looks better or you.

Tactics always play a big role for me but Mason just wont get any rating from me till regurlarly playing. He may have an offloding game but his positioning defensively will be a major weakness for me.

Taylor had a decent season at Bath but post world cup may struggle to get gametime in the big games with Moody, Louw and fearns in the backrow. Would play him at 6. Think hes better there

He's a decent AP player and no more for me, I see him as a slight weakness in your pack Chris, strong everywhere else though. Can't imagine he'll get much game time either next season.

I'm really surpised about some of the ocmments about Taylor, every game I saw him play he was Bath's best forward by some distance - think Bath's backrow will be Louw, Moody and Taylor next year. Fearns isnt at any of their levels yet, but imagine he'll get a lot of gametime with Moody no doubt being injured for at least 2months of next year!

I'm trying to build a pack that is completely suited to English conditions during October-February when the pitches are wet, loads of mud to almost bully my way through games - its why I went with Phillips as well at 9 too. Big mean packs the way forward in the AP!

stnick88 wrote:
saracens 18-15 worcester - strong sarries forwards win the battle with warriors. not the biggest fan of farrell and can see warriors runners getting some joy with sarries defence. farrell will kick goals though and the forwards will grind them the win.

stnick, if you get a chance, do you think you could let me know where you see the defensive weaknesses are that Warriors runners could get some joy from. Am going to be trying to put a lot of emphasis on having a tight defence this season so would like to know which gaps people think need plugging.

Thanks

Exeter Chiefs 16 Leicester Tigers 26

Not a fan of either of the Chiefs starting props and think the Leicester pack will put them in the driving seat here. Don't see Crane as a 6 though, can't remember ever seeing him play there. Neither 10 inspires me that they will get the back lines going, but in the backs Tigers have more players who are likely to make something happen themselves. Hipkiss at 12 for Chiefs means the ball is unlikely to get past 12 very often so King will be redundant when really you want him on the ball as much as possible.


Gloucester 16 London Wasps 19

Looking at the packs I would give Wasps the set piece here, which isn't something I've said often about Gloucester in this game. In the absence of tactics I am going that Gloucester will play the way they have done since we started this, and look to play off the set piece, which I think they will struggle with today. Glaws have the better backs, as Wasps are a bit one dimensional with the Downey/Clarke combo in midfield, but it's a low scorer for me with Gopperths steadier boot winning it.


Harlequins 22 London Irish 21

Found this tough to call. On paper the Quins front row is mustard, but I can't help thinking that in the scrum they could get schooled by the Irish props. In winter, this may have swayed things the other way for me, but the stumbling block for Irish for me is JMH. I just cannot rate him he has played so little rugby, which means I don't see how he would get. I have no problem with Berne at 12 for QUins, he is a steady player who would help out the inexperienced Burns at 10.


Sale Sharks 26 Northampton Saints 20

Great pack battle here. I would give the scrum to Sale, but the lineout to Saints, by virtue of better jumping options in the back row. Cipriani at 10 is an issue for me Chris, not going to lie. He does some magical things with ball in hand, but also some crazy things that always seem to cost his team points. Sharks have a back row that would pressurize him and I can see him gifting points to them. Would have gone with him and Beauxis the other way round. Mason /Tuilagi as a midfield could be mustard going forward, but defensively I suspect would get ripped to shreds by a top team. One of them alongside an experienced player who can organise defensively you could get away with, but not the two of them together. Sharks midfield solid defensively and powerful, but would lack a little spark at 12.


Newcastle Falcons 23 Bath Rugby 21

Interesting pack battle. Front row is Falcons, second row is Bath by a stretch for me, and back row is Falcons by a whisker. Shingler is a ??? for me and will have to wait for the season to start to assess properly as he has not played at anywhere near this level before, whereas the Falcons pair are experinced enough to take advantage of whatever decent ball they get. In the backs there is absolutely nothing in it for me, so it's a narrow Falcons win, mainly down to Evans using the ball better than Shingler at the moment.

Still waiting for predos from

Inthefastlane
Prop
Luke
Driver
Arry

Need to get the results done in the next couple of hours so if predos not in by then will go without.

I'll try and get mine in ASAP quite busy at the moment.

If Matt is on he still has a few games to get predictions in on

think in this league where the standards are so high, farrell/36 10/12 combo may struggle defensively with people like mortlock, masaga and chabal running at them. ranger also not the best defensively.

Cheers stnick, thought Ranger might be one that was on the 'not the best defensively list'.

Pete I'm out at moment won't be until tonight

Sorry been on spinal board training all day!!

Exeter Chiefs 18 Leicester Tigers 21

Gloucester 24 London Wasps 18

Harlequins 20 London Irish 20

Sale Sharks 24 Northampton Saints 22

Newcastle Falcons 24 Bath Rugby 21

RESULTS

Exeter Chiefs 19 Leicester Tigers 32
Gloucester 20 London Wasps 29
Harlequins 23 London Irish 27
Saracens 32 Worcester Warriors 18
Sale Sharks 27 Northampton Saints 22
Newcastle Falcons 32 Bath Rugby 21