Summer Tournament Semi Finals

First topic message reminder :

---

Cup Semi Finals

Newcastle Falcons vs. Sale Sharks

Newcastle Falcons
Manager – Sgt Pooly

01. Soane Tonga'uiha	09. Ben Youngs
02. Rory Best	10. Aaron Cruden
03. Paul Doran-Jones
04. Brad Thorn	11. Miles Benjamin
05. Geoff Parling	12. Sonny Bill Williams
06. Kieran Read	13. Adam Ashley-Cooper
07. Richie McCaw(c)	14. James O’Connor
08. Toby Faletau	15. Alex Goode

17. Lee Mears 17. Owen Franks 18. Fabien Barcella 19. Ed Slater 20. Chris Robshaw 21. Jimmy Cowan 22. Toby Flood 23. George Lowe

Tactics:

- HIGH INTENSITY
- STRONG SCRUM WITH THORN BACKING UP
- PARLING LEADING LINEOUT WITH NUMEROUS OPTIONS IN BACKROW (READ LEADS AB LINEOUT SO GREAT READER ALSO)
- FAST PACED, KEEP THE BALL ALIVE
- NUMEROUS CARRYING OPTIONS IN PACK TO DRAW IN DEFENCE

- CRUDEN 80%+ GOAL KICKER TO KEEP BOARD TICKING
- CRUDEN/SBW LINK WITH AAC RUNNING HARD & STRAIGHT OFF SBW
- JOC WILL COME INTO MIDFIELD LOOKING FOR BALL
- NUMEROUS FOOTBALLERS IN BACKLINE & HARD RUNNERS TO MIX THINGS UP

Sale Sharks
Manager – SJE

01. Marcos Ayerza	09. Danny Care
02. Guilleme Guirado	10. Johnny Sexton
03. Davit Zirakishvilli
04. Brodie Retalick	11. David Strettle
05. Andries Bekker	12. Francois Steyn
06. Adam Thomson	13. Robbie Freuen
07. Fulgence Quedragao	14. Lelia Masaga
08. Louis Picamoles	15. Nick Abendanon

16. Jerome Schuster 17. David Paice 18. Luc Ducalcon 19. Stephen Sykes 20. Peter O' Mahony 21. Ben Spencer 22. James Hook 23. Keith Earls

---

Northampton Saints vs. London Irish

Northampton Saints
Manager – dammit chris

01. Sona Taumalolo	09. Mike Phillips
02. Dylan Hartley	10. Matt Giteau
03. Carl Hayman
04. Courtney Lawes	11. Leigh Halfpenny (k)
05. Alyn Wyn Jones	12. Weslie Fofana
06. Dan Lydiate	13. Manu Tuilagi
07. Julian Salvi	14. Chris Ashton
08. Sergio Parisse (c)	15. Ben Foden

16. Rob Webber 17. Thomas Domingo 18. Henry Thomas 19. Bradley Davies 20. Joe Launchbury 21. Joe Simpson 22. George Ford 23. Siti Siviatu

Tactics:

- to play at a high tempo, work through the phases and then attack with pace through our backline.
- aggressive defence, with Lawes and Lydiate to stop Irish gainline breakers from getting on the front foot. Force mistakes, turnovers and attack.
- target breakdown with Salvi and aim to smash Armitage off the ball.
- get big ball carriers on the ball and get good attacking position
- look to control lineout and put Lindsay's throwing under pressure.

London Irish
Manager – stnick88

01. Jean Baptiste Poux	09. Julien Dupuy
02. Tom Lindsay	10. Nick Evans
03. Martin Castrogiovanni
04. Matt Garvey	11. Paul Sackey
05. Johann Muller	12. Luke McAllister
06. Keegan Daniel	13. Conrad Smith
07. Steffon Armitage	14. JP Pieterson
08. Netani Talei	15. Delon Armitage

16. Matt Stevens 17. James Buckland 18. WP Nel 19. Nick Kennedy 20. Hendrie Fourie 21. Neal De Kock 22. Shane Geraghty 23. Sireli Naqalevuki

---

---

Shield Semi Finals

Leicester Tigers vs. Bath Rugby

Leicester Tigers
Manager – LukeLovesLuka

01. Andrew Sheridan	09. Dimitri Yachvili (k)
02. Tom Youngs	10. Kurtley Beale
03. Dan Cole
04. Nathan Hines	11. Rene Ranger
05. James Horwill (c)	12. Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu
06. Tom Croft	13. Casey Laulala
07. Francois Louw	14. Isa Nacewa
08. Ernst Joubert	15. Rob Miller

16. Gethin Jenkins 17. Stephen Moore 18. Brian Mujati 19. Simon Shaw 20. Thomas Waldrom 21. Micky Young 22. Billy Twelvetrees 23. Ugo Monye

Tactics

Play attacking, fast paced, offloading rugby.

Pack full of runners who will look to make ground and link with backs.
Backs asked to attack all game, running from deep and looking to make breaks.

Bath Rugby
Manager – inthefastlane

01. Charlie Faumuania	09. Richard Wigglesworth
02. Kevin Mealamu	10. Charlie Hodgson
03. Davit Kubrashvilli
04. Luke Romano	11. Aurelien Rougerie
05. Rob Simmons	12. Anthony Allen
06. Brad Shields	13Isiah Toeava
07. David Seymour	14. George North
08. James Haskell	15. Stuart Hogg

16. Cian Healy 17. Chris Brooker 18. Euan Murray 19. Sam Whitelock 20. David Pocock 21. Aaron Smith 22. Gareth Anscombe 23. Cory Jane

---

London Wasps vs. Gloucester

London Wasps
Manager – ‘Arry

01. Benn Robinson (c)	09. Nick Phipps
02. Tatafu Polota-Nau	10. Rhys Preistland (k)
03. Carlos Nieto
04. Mouritz Botha	11. Matt Banahan
05. Marco Wentzel	12. Brad Barritt
06. Steve Mafi	13. George Pisi
07. Dewald Potgieter	14. Topsy Ojo
08. Roger Wilson	15. Mike Brown

16. Nathan Morris 17. Charlie Beech 18. Rhodri Jones 19. Dan Tuohy 20. Dave Dennis 21. Haydn Thomas 22. Steven Myler 23. Noah Cato

Tactics

Use our big ball carriers to get us over the gain line and set out a platform to attack from. Look to dominate contact area and get offload game going.

Put several phases of quick ball together, attack gaps and half gaps in Worcester defensive line, keep moving the ball when it's on.

Manager – Mat

01. Nick Wood (c)	09. Connor Murray
02. Adriaan Strauss	10. Dan CArter (k)
03. Rupert Harden
04. Palmer	11. Gear
05. Gray	12. Berrick Barnes
06. Steven Ferris	13. Elliot Daly
07. Lapandry	14. May
08. Heaslip	15. Israel Dagg

16. Tim Payne 17. Joe Gray 18. Jamie johnstone 19. George Robson 20. Harinordoqouy 21. Will Genia 22. JSD 23. Charlie Sharples

Tactics

Target lineout
Big ball carriers to put on front foot
use our super quick and skillfull backline

---

---

Plate Semi Finals

Saracens vs. Worcester Warriors

Saracens
Manager – Ozzy3213

01. Alex Corbisiero	09. Morgan Parra
02. John Smit (c)	10. Francois Trinh-Duc
03. Adam Jones
04. George Skivington	11. Mark Cueto
05. Steve Borthwick	12. Jonathan Davies
06. Thierry Dusautoir	13. Nevin Spence
07. Ross Rennie	14. Andrew Trimble
08. Joe van Niekerk	15. Tom Homer

16. George Chuter 17. Matt Mullan 18. David Wilson 19. Rynhardt Elstadt 20. Tom Johnson 21. Dewaldt Duvenage 22. Owen Farrell 23. Luke Fitzgerald

01. Beast	09. Dwayne Peel ©
02. Gary Botha	10. Sam Vesty (k)
03. BJ Botha
04. Ollie Kohn	11. James Short
05. Luke Charteris	12. Pat McCabe
06. Scott Higginbotham	13. Ian Whitten
07. Justin Tipuric	14. Julien Malzieu
08. Ben Morgan	15. Ollie Morgan

16. Richardt Strauss 17. Nathan Catt 18. Chris Budgen 19. Tom Savage 20. Mamuka Gorgodze 21. Eion Reddan 22. Olly Barkley 23. Rob Cook



Tactics

We are aiming to hit the ground running with an exciting brand of confrontational forwards with pace and flair in the backs. Peel is an apt captain with the experience and go-forward drive in his game



Forwards

*Heavy front row who will look to dominate the set piece and we have experience on the bench to come on and do similar,

*2^nd rows are two characters who will look to get on top of the breakdown and battle hard when it comes to the lineout. We won’t go backwards with these two.

*Backrow are breakdown specialists with Higgs and Tips both terrorising here and Morgan providing brute strength off the back of the scrum and off the backs, again the bench provides more go forward with Gorgodze.



Backs

* Peel to marshall and Vesty to aim for corners when under pressure but to release McCabe when possible, he will go for goal when in range,

* McCabe to release Whitten who will have a winger on his shoulder at all times and also look for Morgan to break through the defence, Whitten is an exciting runner and will look to take it close off McCabe then drag the defence wide,

* A fast back 3 here who will always look for work and are strong in defence and under the high ball, on the bench we have Cook who is an excellent goal kicker and steady in defence.



Defence

*McCabe to lead this,

*Tips/Higgs to be on 10’s shoulder looking to wrap the ball up,

*Contest at the breakdown and all set piece,

*No silly penalties anymore!

---

London Welsh vs. Harlequins

London Welsh

Manager – Driver

01.Brett Sturgess	09.Lloyd Williams
02.Ben Kayser	10.Butch James(k)
03.Ben Alexander
04.Dean Schofield	11.Tim Visser
05.Ali Williams	12.James Downey
06.Luke Narraway(c)	13.Darren Cave
07.Phil Dowson	14.Matt Smith
08.Rapheal Lakafia	15.Ben Smith

16.Chris Whitehead 17.Efion Lewis Roberts 18.Craig Mitchell 19.James Hudson 20.Will Welch 21.Charlie Davies 22.Tom Catterick 23.Harry Robinson

Harlequins
Manager – Steven_Sharks

01. Tony Woodcock	09. Lee Dickson
02. Matthew Rees	10. Freddie Burns
03. Ben Franks
04. Jerome Thion	11. Tom Biggs
05. James Gaskell	12. Felipe Contepomi
06. Carl Fearns	13. Anthony Faainga
07. Michael Hooper	14. Ross Chisholm
08. Nick Easter	15. Luke Morahan

16. Rob Hawkins 17. Joe Marler 18. Kieran Brookes 19. George Kruis 20. Jamie Gibson 21. Karl Dickson 22. Johann Sadie 23. Jonathan Joseph

Tactics

Put out a potential HC side and have put out most of my english in side or on bench so would appreciate the opinion of my strongest 7 english.

---

---

how will people view internationals who get injured for say the 6Nations but are available for their teams on here? For example, last year I got to play Lawes throughout the 6Nations, which really helped me along.

I was going to think of them as lacking a bit of form, because otherwise they'd be playing for their country.

I tend to just judge them on their most recent form Chris, unless the injury lay off goes on a long time then their rating drops a bit.

For me players have 6 months grace. Too be fair it is random on here i had goosen injured at start of May and he was getting knocked from July.

I have had Kahui knocked already and his injury was mid may and he is world class.

Yet you can get some players who don;t get knocked despite being out for ages like JMH and barcella.

Really is random and you cant control what people put down.

Personally i see it as a bit of a bonus if you get a player back. for me i have kahui for the RC which solves my 13 problem. only realised this yesterday!. World class is 6 months. most others 3-4 months.

I will have Conrad Smith for a game or two during the RC, but his rating wont be affected as he got injured at the end of S15. that has worked out nicely for me.

Kahui will help me big time hopefully. i was looking thin at 13

I've had no luck at all, all of my SH players are in the RC squads, I think it will be a tough early season for me.

Really tough to call Pete, I didn't really expect Mitchell to be called up but he's made bench.

Losing JDJ was annoying. I have a SH bias to my side so have lost quite a few. It all balances out. i am often really strong in 6N.

Just dont want May, Sharples etc to get call ups

Guys,

On a serious note am I doomed to relegation this year?

I doubt both will but expect one I think

Sharples in EPS so most likely but May has such talent.

Driver not necessarily. you have strengthened well. It depends on form and weather to be honest. Also this year BP's will be important. You have some really good players and a really lumpy side so wet weather will help,

Form is a massive issue. Look at saints they have so many players in form and came on like a train at the end of last year

Driver, would say you are going to be a tough team to beat in the wet and will be able to bully a lot of teams. You were unlucky last year as the weather never really got that bad overall.

What will be your strongest team?

I think you're a little behind Driver, it'll be a tough year but could change with form etc.

I think EQ is your biggest issue

It's tough from my point of view to keep interest in a game where im being relegated every year and getting battered every week.

I can't understand how people see me as a wet weather side with the signings iv made all mobile player who like to run the ball.

Driver, I think you've made some cracking signings - maybe a slight issue is that you sacrificed some world class players to improve your overall squad. Think you are a lot, lot better than last year and wouldn't say you are definitely going to go down at all.

If guys like Ruddock, Cave come through this season they could transform your team mate - a few others to hit form, like Smith, Bryne and your backline looks good.

Think people mean your forward pack is very wet weather orientated - would be happy to loan some youngsters to you to bulk up your academy of players who should play AP rugby this season?