Aviva Premiership Round Three (Rugby Championship)

First topic message reminder :

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Team Sheets and tactics due by Saturday (20:00)
Predictions due till Tuesday (20:00)

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Bath v Northampton Saints
Location - The Rec
Sunny, 25 Degrees, 7mph Winds

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Bath Rugby

Manager – Bathite

01. C.Healy	09. M.Classens (c)
02. L.Mears	10. J.Hook
03. A.Perenise
04. J.Muller	11. K.Eastmond
05. D.Attwood	12. M.Banahan
06. S.O'Brien	13. C.Laulala
07. C.Fearns	14. T.Biggs
08. S.Taylor	15. R.Chisholm

16. K.P-Newport 17. C.Tolufua 18. N.Catt 19. R.Caldwell 20. M.Lund 21. C.Cook 22. S.Donald 23. O.Woodburn

TACTICS TBC

General
- We want to make sure that we play rugby in the opposition half and force handling errors, where we can attack the scrum. Use the physicality of our pack to our advantage, keeping the ball tight in the middle section of the pitch to retain possession and build a platform to attack from. In our third clear to touch and challenge for the ball at lineout.
- With slow ball, use Banahan on the switch off Hook to tie up and fix defenders, looking to get Laulala and Hook half a yard
- Hook to ensure we play sensible rugby in the right areas, kicking long for touch in our 22, using the up and under in the centre of the pitch and delicate grubbers in behind centres to chase and force kickable penalties.
- Banahan leads the rush defence, with SOB/Fearns flying up to cramp 10 for time and space and ensuring he takes the ball deep behind the gainline and starving their outside backs of ball. Classens sweeps up behind for counter attacks

Forwards
* Fearns plays as an openside, looking to secure the breakdown
* Picked a very physical pack to make sure that we defend strongly and smash over the gainline. Fearns to lead pack from base of scrum making hard yards and setting up the ruck for Louw and Fearns to clear out. Fearns to mark opposite 8 in defence to prevent charges from base of scrum
* At the lineout, Muller will lead the calls and look to pressurise oppoistion hooker and compete at every throw
* Use ball carriers of Franks, Louw, Tolufua, O'Brien, Fearns to make hard yards up the pitch and draw defenders into the ruck area, looking to create space around the fringes for Laulala to exploit

Backs
* Chisholm given free rein in attack, looking to come into the line either side of Laulala. Laulala to look for the half gap with power and offload (only if on), with the pace of Biggs and Woodburn on their shoulder to make the break
* Hook to take the ball flat on the gainline, drawing defenders and buying time and space for Banahan. Banahan often used as dummy runner to keep it unpredictable
* Use the inside pass with forward runners of SOB, Louw, Fearns to keep the inside shoulder honest and force the 10 to make tackles.
* Get Laulala on the ball early on and encourage a very pacy back three to run off his shoulder. Only offload if it is on, otherwise, crash it up and use SOB, Fearns, Caldwell to clear out and Louw to secure.
* Eastmond to get free rein in attack, looking to pop up as second receiver. Can interchange with Banahan on the wing

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Northampton Saints

Manager – SirJohnnyEnglish

01. Soane Tonga'uiha	09. Lee Dickson
02. Dylan Hartley	10. Johnny Sexton
03. Brian Mujati
04. Courtney Lawes	11. Chris Ashton
05. Samu Manoa	12. Sonny Bill Williams
06. Stephen Ferris	13. George Pisi
07. Tom Wood	14. Scott Armstrong
08. Roger Wilson	15. Ben Foden

16. Steven Kitshoff 17. Richardt Strauss 18. Paul Doran-Jones 19. Christian Day 20. Phil Dowson 21. Martin Roberts 22. Stephen Myler 23. Jamie Elliot

Key Points

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Get at Eastmond

• Although he’s an explosive runner, Eastmond has shown he can be bounced on defence and we have lined Scott Armstrong up on that side of the field to get at him.

Play It Smart

• With no sweeper on the Bath blitz we will look to put in some grubbers behind Banahan and take advantage of his slow turning time with SBW, Pisi & Ashton all looking to run on to the ball.

Using The Bench

• We will look to really turn the screw in the final quarter with a very strong set piece. Myler to come in for SBW and take 10, while Sexton moves to 12. We will look to pin Bath back and then turn the screw at the set piece and put Bath under pressure in front of their own posts.

Game Plan

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Attack

• We will look to play a fast paced attacking game using big carriers running of the 9/10/12 axis to get us over the gain line and generate quick ball.

• Keeping the ball alive is crucial so our carriers will be looking for support runners to hit on the offload to keep the ball moving and get us further over the gain line.

• Our back three will look to get involved as much as possible running support lines of the halfbacks and midfield looking for the inside ball or offload.

• If for whatever reason we aren’t getting quick ball, we will look to take control of territory with the boots of Dickson & Sexton and force Bath to come at us from deep.

Set Piece

• With a powerful front 5 on show we will look to keep the scrum up and use it as a weapon. On our own feed we will look to get the wheel on and give our 8-9-10 axis as much more room as possible to attack from.

• In Bath territory, with 5 jumping options to use, we will look to play off the top and move the ball out to Sexton and the backs.

• In our own territory, we will look to take the ball down into the maul and drive ourselves into the right areas.

Defense

• We will look to blitz aggressively, playing on the edge of the offside line and coming up at pace, looking to isolate the ball carrier and stop any Bath momentum before it can get going.

• Dickson will act as a sweeper and cover any chips or grubbers behind the defensive line.

• We will leave two players sitting deep to cover any kicks and they will look to counter attack of any loose kicks.

Breakdown

• With the blitz in operation, we will look to be at the breakdown first hitting it hard and fast. If the ball looks available we will flood the breakdown with Wood looking to get his hands on the ball.

• If the ball is not immediately available we will only commit 1 or 2 players to legally slow the ball down and instead look to strengthen the defensive line.

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Harlequins v Sale Sharks
Location - Twickenham Stoop
Sunny, 25 Degrees, 7mph Winds

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Harlequins

Manager – Driver

01.Alex Corbisero	09.Luke Burguss
02.Joe Grey	10.Owen Farrell (K)
03.James Johnstone
04.Mouritz Botha	11.George North
05.Alistair Hargreaves	12.Wesley Fofana
06.Chris Robshaw(c)	13.Jared Payne
07.Heinrich Brussouw	14.James Short
08.Alex Gray	15.Nick Abendanon

16.John Smith 17.Mark Lambert 18.Chris Budgen 19.Tom Denton 20.Will Skinner 21.Richard Wrigglesworth 22.Tom Heathcote 23.Hudson Tonga'uhia

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Sale Sharks

Manager – LondonIrishOllie

01.Andrew Sheridan	09.Hadyn Thomas
02.Gary Botha	10.Nick McLeod (k)
03.Davit Kubriashvili
04.Yoann Maestri	11.Mark Cueto
05.Dean Schofield	12.Sam Tuitupou
06.Richie Vernon	13.Jonothan Davies
07.Dave Seymour (C)	14.Tom Brady
08.Jordan Crane	15.Rob Miller

Subs
16.Logovoi Mulipola 17.Marc Jones 18.Henry Thomas 19.James Gaskell 20.Andy Powell 21.Scott Mathie 22.Jaque Fourie 23.Cameron Shepherd

Tactics
Travelling to Quins we will look to play a strong, basic game. With strong ball carriers throughout the team, and a half back pairing with the ability to marshall the team around the field, we will look to play in the correct areas.

Attack
We will look to use Tuitupou and Davies to carry the ball, however sometimes they will be used as dummies and the back 3 will be given licence to utilise the space created by the centres hoding the Sarries defence.

Pack is full of ball carriers, who will tire the Sarries defence such as Maestri, Sheridan, Schofield and Crane.

Defence - A blitz defence will be used.
Set piece - We will look to target their tighthead at scrum time.
Use range of jumpers at lineout.
All kicks within range will be taken.

Our bench has the real ability to make an impact with 20-30 mins to go. With backs such as Fourie and Shephard having the ability to change the game. And forwards such as Mulipola, Thomas and Powell who can make a difference in the loose as well as the tight.

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London Welsh v Exeter Chiefs
Location - Kassam Stadium
Sunny, 25 Degrees, 7mph Winds

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London Welsh

Manager – Fluxy

01. Paul James	09. Paul Hodgson
02. David Paice	10. Nick Evans (K)
03. David Wilson
04. Paul O'Connell (C)	11. Topsy Ojo
05. Tim Swinson	12. Dominic Waldlouck
06. Steve Mafi	13. Tom May
07. Will Welch	14. Adam Thompstone
08. Nick Easter	15. Hugo Southwell

16. Rhys Gill 17. Phil Swainston 18. Tom Lindsay 19. Dean Mumm 20. Ashely Johnson 21. Joel Hodgson 22. Brad Barritt 23. Ben Ransom

The Kassam is our fortress, and we will never make it easy for any team to come and play here. We look to impose ourselves from the off and let the oppisition know how we are going to play the game and how we want to dictate the pace of the game. Our brand of rugby is physical and fast, however we won't just run the ball at every oppurtunity. We will only play in the right areas of the paddock, and Evans knows when to attack and when we need to clear the lines. We will look to go through simple phases to reproduce quick ball to cut the defence open. We have brilliant leaders all other the pitch in POC, Easter, Hodgson and Evans, and they know what will be required to get we want from the game - a win. Nothing will be left in the changing room from our boys, they want to put the rest of the league on high alert with a strong display of effective and efficient attacking rugby from the set pieces.

Tactics

• James and Wilson are solid technicians and will secure our own feed, to provide first phase possesion for our backs. James will look to put pressure on the Tigers feed.
  
  
• With a strong lineout, O'Connell will lead the lineout and use Mafi as a banker ball at the front of the line with POC jumping in the middle. If winning own ball POC will look to cut the lineout to five, to allow Easter to get a chance to run at the defence in open field.
  
  
• Our whole pack is mobile and capable of snaffling ball at the breakdown. Collectively we will look to (legally!) slow down Chiefs' ball as much possible, only committing men to rucks if the turnover is on.
  
  
• Evans will look to pin Chiefs back and pepper Jess and Sackey with high balls.
  
  
• Off any first phase possesion, there will be a strike runner to get over the gainline to provide quick ball whilst the opposition defence is still organising itself.
  
  
• Evans will direct traffic and marshall the attacking forces, looking for the distribution of Waldlouck off his shoulder to release our dangerous roaming back three.
  
  
• Look to use our strong bench for impact later in the game, and to bed in players like; Johnson, Mumm, Barritt
  
  
• Evans will kick all points, unless POC dictates we have a dominate set piece at the moment in time.

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Exeter Chiefs

Manager – Luke

01. Brett Sturgess	09. Dwayne Peel
02. Rob Webber	10. Jonny Wilkinson (k)
03. John Afoa
04. Tom Hayes	11. Paul Sackey
05. James Horwill (c)	12. Sireli Naqelevuki
06. Tom Johnson	13. Richard Kahui
07. Steffon Armitage	14. Matt Jess
08. Richard Baxter	15. Isa Nacewa

16. Ben Moon 17. Simon Alcott 18. Hoani Tui 19. Loius Deacon 20. James Scaysbrook 21. Kevin Barrett 22. Ian Humphreys 23. George Lowe

Tactics

We will play a structured game built around our massive ball carriers, the strength of our set piece and getting our lightning backline into space.

- Attack the scrum as a weapon - and call when we can. Look to really get the shove on.

- Use Wilkinson's boot to attack our strong lineout with Hayes, Horwill, Johnson and Baxter all big jumpers. We will relentlessly target the opposition's throws.

- Massive line-breakers right throughout the side that will look to tire down the opposition defence. We will use our big carriers consistently to tire down the opposition.
The likes of Afoa, Baxter, Armitage, Horwill, Johnson and Naqelevuki used off the shoulder crashing through the opposition defence.

- Armitage is the man charged with reaching the breakdown first and look to turnover possession. We will always look to attack quickly off turnover ball.

- Box kicks from Peel and up and unders from Wilkinson to give the opposition problems in the air.
Lightning back line to really get the chase on.

- Look to play attacking rugby in the backs, getting the likes of Kahui and Nacewa on the ball when we can.

- Our back three are encouraged to do what they do best - counter attacking and running the ball back. If isolated all have good kicking games, but the counter is what we ask them to look for.

- Wilkinson to kick all penalites.

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Saracens v Leicester Tigers
Location - Wembley
Sunny, 25 Degrees, 7mph Winds

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Saracens

Manager – ChequeredJersey

01. Mako Vunipola	09. Morgan Parra (k.)
02. Schalk Brits	10. Charlie Hodgson
03. Carlos Nieto
04. Ollie Kohn	11. Vereniki Goneva
05. Donnacha Ryan	12. James Fitzpatrick
06. Kelly Brown (c.)	13. Joel Tomkins
07. Jonathan Poff	14. Leigh Halfpenny
08. Jackson Wray	15. Alex Goode

16. Matt Mullan 17. Rob Buchanan 18. Sekope Kepu 19. Charlie Matthews 20. Will Fraser 21. Ben Spencer 22. Anthony Allen 23. Chris Wyles

Team subject to change
Tactics

The overall gameplan is to keep the ball tight and make territory and hard yards until quick ball or a defensive hole is available then to spin the ball out and strike hard at 12/13 or Wade's wing. When the ball is slow, Vunipola, Brits, Ryan, Kohn, Brown and Wray will attack the fringes in packs of 3, supported by Poff and whoever wasn't in the pick and drive to secure as quick ball as possible. In our part of the pitch, Parra will kick for territory. When we get quicker ball but the defence is still well set, we will send Fitzpatrick and Brits between JOC and Manu, to test the former's size and the latter's awareness and positioning. Players will be on the shoulder to make use of the space Manu could leave if he comes in. Actual quick ball will go fast to the wings, using Goode as an extra playmaker.

- defence will be blitz led by Fitzpatrick. Brown and Wray to guard ruck fringes. Poff harry Youngs at scrum time.

- scrum- hold off the strong Leicester squeeze and on our ball go for a 7 man shove to get momentum and when Wade is on the blind side, send Wray blind, supported by Parra and Goneva and later on Brown and maybe Goode. Flood him and a gap will open.

- breakdown- work as a pack, with Brown and Wray clearing and Poff and Ryan scrapping for ball.

- lineout- Wray will play dummy-half- aim to disrupt front ball with Ryan. When we are attacking the tryline, throw short to Vunipola at front-lifter and pop to Wray who will charge the line with Brits rushing inside him. At other times, use our strong driving maul

- kick all 3 points on. Do not counter kick to the back 3- we can and will run the ball back

- bring all the forwards on at 65 mins if we look to be tiring against te Tigers' big pack. Use Wyles to steady the ship if Tomkins or Goneva struggles, and bring Allen on once the game breaks up

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Leicester Tigers

Manager – Sgt_Pooly

01. Thomas Domingo	09. Ben Youngs
02. Bismark du Plessis	10. Toby Flood
03. Dan Cole
04. Joe Launchbury	11. Miles Benjamin
05. Richie Gray	12. James O’Connor
06. Maurie Fa'asalavu	13. Manu Tuilagi
07. Sam Warburton(c)	14. Christian Wade
08. Sergio Parisse	15. Rob Kearney

16. Tom Youngs 17. Martin Castrogiovani 18. Luke Cowen-Dickie 19. Ed Slater 20. Tom Croft 21. Karl Dickson 22. Danny Cipriani 23. Jordan Turner-Hall

Tactics

We will base our game around high tempo, high intensity rugby. We’ll look to use the set piece as a foundation to work from and turn the screw on the opposition if a weakness is seen. We’ll look for big carries from our pack to give us go forward ball which Youngs thrives upon.

We’ll look to target the lineout throughout with top draw options, if weakness seen Flood will play for the corners with 2nd playmaking option JOC.

Flood/JOC will dictate tempo and look to get Manu running angles to either punch holes in the opposition midfield or draw the decoy and allow our back 3 into the game.

When the 3 is on in front of the posts we’ll take and the captain will make the call on set piece if an advantage is seen.



- Turn screw in set piece if weakness seen
- High intensity & keep the ball alive
- Youngs to attack the gaps and allow Flood time to hit the line
- Manu to be used as crash and decoy with back 3 coming into the line
- Target lineout with world class operators
- Warburton/Fasa to marshal breakdown and slow/turnover opp ball

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London Wasps v London Irish
Location - Adams Park
Sunny, 25 Degrees, 7mph Winds

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London Wasps

Manager – GeordieFalcon

01.Tim Payne	09.Danny Care
02. Andy Titterell.	10. Luke McAlister
03.Nicholas Mas
04.Matt Garvey	11.Tom Varndell
05. Marco Wentzel	12. Billy Twelvetrees
06.Thierry Dusautoir	13. Jonathon Joseph
07.Julien Salvi	14. Ugo Monye
08.Thomas Waldrom	15. Mike Brown

16. Richard Haughton 17. Billy Vunipola 18.Micky Young 19. Jimmy Gopperth 20. Boris Stankovich 21. George Skivington 22. Ben Broster 23. Chris Brooker
Tactics

Looking to play a high impact, high physicality) quick release game from the forwards...utilising a very strong set of backs.,....

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London Irish

Manager – Pullthestrings

01. Gethin Jenkins	09. Joe Simpson
02. James Buckland	10. Brock James
03. Euan Murray
04. Tom Palmer	11. Tom Homer (k)
05. Nick Kennedy	12. Daniel Bowden
06. Jerome Kaino	13. Aurelien Rougerie
07. David Pocock (c)	14. Sailosi Tagicakibau
08. Imanol Harinordoquy	15. Delon Armitage

16. Rob Herring, 17. Max Lahiff, 18. Leo Halavatau, 19. Simon Shaw, 20. Tom Guest, 21. Darren Allinson, 22. Regan King, 23. Alesana Tuilagi

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Worcester Warriors v Gloucester
Location - Sixways
Sunny, 25 Degrees, 7mph Winds
Worcester Warriors

Manager – InTheFastLane

01. Joe Marler	09. Will Genia
02. Ed Shervington	10. George Ford
03. Tevita Taumoepeau
04. Gerhard Mostert	11. David Strettle
05. Graham Kitchener	12. Steven Shingler
06. James Haskell	13. Matt Hopper
07. Matt Kvesic	14. Marcel Garvey
08. Ben Morgan	15. Luke Rooney

16. Will Radburn 17. George Porter 18. Kyle Sinckler 19. George Robson 20. Andy Saull 21. Jonny Arr 22. Andy Goode 23. Ernie Claasens

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Gloucester

Manager – prop_lyd

01. Nick Wood ©	09. Dimitri Yachvilli
02. Darren Dawiduk	10. Freddie Burns
03. Adam Jones
04. Jim Hamilton	11. Johnny May
05. Alex Brown	12. Jamie Roberts
06. Tom Savage	13. Henry Trinder
07. Akapusi Qera	14. JSD
08. JVN	15. Ollie Morgan

16. Scott Lawson 17. Dan Murphy/TBA 18. Sean Knight 19. Alasdair Strokosch 20. Luke Narraway 21. Dan Robson 22. EFS 23. Ryan Mills



Tactics

We are aiming to hit the ground running this season with a new and exciting brand of confrontational forwards with pace and flair in the backs. Wood will lead the side from the front. Our game will want to get the ball to a set of backs who can make a lot of inroads. And our back row will get a lot of turnover ball.



Forwards

*Experienced front row who will look to dominate the set piece and Jones will be the anchor,

*2^nd rows will look to control the lineout and wind up the opposition and also steal their lineouts

*Backrow are breakdown specialists with Savage and Qera both terrorising here and JVN providing brute strength off the back of the scrum and off the backs, again the bench provides more go forward with Narraway.



Backs

* Yachvilli to marshall and Burns to release Roberts when possible, he will go for goal when in range,

* Roberts to make inroads then offload to Trinder who will have a winger on his shoulder at all times and also look for JVN to break through the defence,

* Exciting backs here who will link well and look to constantly run at and through the Saints defence,

* 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 flair in Robson, EFS and Mills



Defence

*Yachvilli to lead this,

*Savage/Qera to be on 10’s shoulder looking to wrap the ball up,

*Contest at the breakdown and all set piece.

Bath 19 Saints 21

I think the clear weakness in the packs for either team is Perenise. I can see Tonga'huia destroying him at scrum time, espceially as Mears isn't the best scrummager either. In the loose i see the front rows beinig close. 2nd rows even for me, with more in the set piece for Bath but more in the loose for Saints. Backrow goes to Saints, as well as halfbacks. Not a fan of Banahan at 12, and like the tactic of putting the odd kick in behind him. I give the edge to Saints from 11-15. Not massive differneces but Saints consistently better throughout. And their stronger bench sees them nick an away win.

Welsh 17 Exeter 18
Very close, just think in the outside backs Exeter have more quality. Think front 5 is also slightly to exeter, especially because POC hasn't played in a while. Peel-Wilko is a combo that can get an away win. Subs from Welsh bring them back into it but Exeter sneak it.

Sarries 19 Tigers 24

In my mind Sarries do not beat Tigers in any section of the pitch apart from possibly half backs slightly and back 3. The edge that Tigers that get up front will take them to an away win.

Wasps 25 Irish 25
Think Irish have an advantage in the front 5, Wasps edge half backs, Both teams are very good from 11-15. I can just see Irish snatching an away draw.

Predicting to give you an accurate account for results, not bothered about bonus. Obviously if I get it - great!

Bath 21 - 24 Northampton

Quins 20 - 20 Sale

Welsh 28 - 26 Exeter

Saracens 15 - 23 Tigers

Worcester 19 - 20 Gloucester

Worcester 18 - Glaws 20

Glaws dominate front row and Worcester 3 will have a tough day. Worcester better backrow. Neither set of backs are in form, with the exception of Burns, and for me this will see Glaws sneak a win.

Results:

Bath Rugby 21-27 Northampton Saints
Harlequins 18-23 Sale Sharks
London Welsh 21-24 Exeter Chiefs
Saracens 15-26 Leicester Tigers
London Wasps 20-24 London Irish
Worcester Warriors 16-25 Gloucester Rugby

Bonus:

Full:
SJE, Bathite, CJ & Prop

Half:
Driver, Fluxy, Luke

All predictions provided were used to do results to give a true and fair view
but bonuses were not given.

Jesus you know I'm an accountant when reading that back!

So you know how to fiddle scores as well as books?!

Lists Jimmy Carr as his main client I heard

Shhh that would be bad advertisement Bathite!