Anglo Welsh Cup Round One

Cardiff vs Wasps

Cardiff Blues

01. Sam Hobbs	09. Lewis Jones
02. Rhys Williams	10. Gareth Davies
03. Taufa'ao Filise
04. Lou Reed	11. Tom James
05. James Down	12. Gavin Evans
06. Luke Hamilton	13. Owen Williams
07. Josh Navidi (c)	14. Tom Williams
08. Robin Copeland	15. Dan Fish

16. Marc Breeze 17. Nathan Trevett 18. Ryan Harford 19. Macauley Cook 20. Thomas Young 21. Rob Lewis 22. Ceri Sweeney 23. Dafydd Hewitt

London Wasps
Manager – ‘Arry

01. Charlie Beech	09. Haydn Thomas
02. Huia Edmonds	10. Stephen Jones (k)
03. Shaun Knight
04. Samu Manoa	11. Tom Varndell
05. Dan Tuohy (c)	12. Dan Bowden
06. Dewald Potgieter	13. Matt Banahan
07. Jonathan Poff	14. Jamie Elliott
08. Roger Wilson	15. Steven Myler

16. Nathan Morris 17. Ben Daley 18. Rhodri Jones 19. Mouritz Botha 20. Ben Mowen 21. Jonah Holmes 22. Dan Hipkiss 23. Jack Wallace


Ospreys vs Gloucester

Ospreys

01. Marc Thomas	09. Rhys Webb
02. Matthew Dwyer	10. Matthew Morgan
03. Joe Rees
04. Lloyd Peers	11. Will Price
05. James King	12. Jonathan Spratt
06. George Stowers	13. Ben John
07. Sam Lewis (c)	14. Tom Grabham
08. Morgan Allen	15. Ross Jones

16. Scott Otten 17. Nicky Smith 18. Nicky Thomas 19. Rhodri Hughes 20. Arthur Ellis 21. Tom Habberfield 22. Sam Davies 23. Nathan Edwards

Gloucester

01.Nick Wood	09.Dan Robson
02.Deon Fourie	10.Johan Gooson
03.Rupert Harden
04.James Percivel	11.Zac Guildford
05.George Robson	12.Stephen Donald
06.Stephen Ferris	13.Rob Horne
07.Andy Saull	14.Ian Clark
08.Immanol Harinordoquy	15.Iain Balshaw

16.Payne 17.Grey 18.Ousthusen 19.Stookes 20.Carr 21.Perarna 22.Lamb 23.May

Saracens vs Leicester

Saracens
Manager – Driver

01.Max Lahiff	09.Will Chudley
02.Hika Elliot	10.Iain Humphreys (K)
03.Ben Tamifuna
04.Bryn Evans (c)	11.Harry Robinson
05.Tim Swinson	12.Gael Fickou
06.Rhys Ruddock (c)	13.Chris Bell
07.Shane Jennings	14.Adam Thompstone
08.Luke Narraway	15.Rory Lamout

16.Scott Spurling 17.Efion Lewis Roberts 18.Phil Swainstone 19.Tom Jubb 20.Rocky Elsom 21.Paul Hodgson 22.Tom Catterick 23.Mark Cueto

Leicester Tigers
Manager – LukeLovesLuka

01. Jared Saunders	09. Sarel Pretorius
02. Jimmy Stevens	10. Brock James (k)
03. Brian Mujati
04. Simon Shaw	11. Rene Ranger
05. Pieter-Steph du Toit	12. Hudson Tonga'uiha
06. Tom Croft	13. Dominic Waldouck
07. Jacques Burger	14. Paul Jordaan
08. Jordan Crane (c)	15. Clement Poitreanud

16. Ryan Bower 17. Sebastien Bruno 18. Jonny Harris 19. Rob Conquest 20. Edwin Maka 21. Micky Young 22. Rory Clegg 23. Francois Venter

Tactics:

- In decent conditions we will play attacking rugby, led by our attacking HBs.

- Use Tonga'uiha at 12 to really attack the 10/12 channel of Sarries, looking to break through a weak defensive unit.

- Use the likes of Crane, Burger, Mujati, Shaw and du Toit to gain hard yards in the tight.

- Target the lineout, with Croft, du Toit, Shaw and Crane all great jumpers.

- Use out attacking back three when we can - get the ball wide and look to cause damage.

- Brock James in great form for Clermont, and look to him to play the game as he sees it, with an attacking mindset.

Northampton Saints vs Harlequins

01. Loti Mulipola	09. Joe Simpson
02. Mike Haywood	10. Danny Cipriani (k)
03. Carl Hayman
04. Courtney Lawes	11. Christian Wade
05. Patricio Albacete	12. Matt Giteau
06. Dan Lydiate (c)	13. Elliot Daly
07. Julian Salvi	14. Siti Siviatu
08. Ashley Johnson	15. Ben Foden

16. Rob Webber 17. Sebastien Taofifenua 18. Henry Thomas 19. Bradley Davies 20. Calum Clark 21. Sam Harrison 22. Ashley Beck 23. George Ford

Tactics:

- Game plan to control the ball through the forwards, all but one is an international from the starting pack. To work through the phases, build a solid platform for our backline to attack from. Have a really strong pack and will look to assert some real pressure on Quins. Confident that if our pack can gain the upper hand our backline has a lot of tries in them.

- Getting our big runners on the ball early on and getting over the Quins gainline - Mulipola, Haywood, Lawes, Albacete and Johnson. A lot of the running will come off the Cipriani/Giteau axis and we will look for Foden and Siviatu as our main strike runners early on.

- Attack the breakdown with Salvi targeting the ball, with Lydiate and AJ clearing the Quins players out of the way. As a backrow unit we will look to try and get some dominance at the breakdown and seek turnover ball. Have a very strong backrow for during the AI's with Clark to add some bulk in second half.

- With our backline we are only going to go out and attack Quins and look to score tries, got good form in Simpson, Cipriani (so nice to be able to type that again), Giteau, Wade and Siviatu.

- When turnovers are on we will have options with Simpson's running threat, but also a great chance to use Wade on any overlaps that are created - on great form, in what could be a high scoring game.

- Strong defensive effort with Lawes and Lydiate leading the pack and will be looking to slow down Quins ball and set a solid defensive pattern. Will look to put Quins under pressure, force mistakes and errors and then attack. Foden will be very important at fb, as one of the best defensive fbs in world rugby.

- Will look to use the set piece as an area to build a platform - powerful pack and scrummaging unit, and feel that we can get at Quins lineout through Lawes athleticism. Very even lineouts otherwise.

- Will get Cipriani kicking all goals when points on offer, with Daly able to kick from 55metres.

Harlequins
Manager – Steven_Sharks

01. Will Collier	09. Karl Dickson
02. Rob Buchanan	10. Freddie Burns (k)
03. John Afoa
04. Bakkies Botha	11. Tom Biggs
05. Jerome Thion	12. Anthony Faainga
06. Carl Fearns	13. Jonathan Joseph
07. Jamie Gibson	14. Luke Morahan
08. Nick Easter (c)	15. Andre Taylor

16. Rob Hawkins 17. Kyle Sinckler 18. Kieran Brookes 19. James Gaskell 20. Will Welch 21. Jano Vermaak 22. Quade Cooper 23. Olly Lindsey-Hague

Tactics

Play as we usually do. Strong carrying and rucking by our forwards before getting the ball into the hands of our quick backs who can exploit the gaps created. Picked a very big pack to attempt to control things upfront.

Control the breakdown with Fearns and Gibson nulifying Salvi.

look for Afoa to control scrum and Gibson and Thion to control the lineout

Burns to kick points. Win is important not tries today.

Bath vs Dragons

Bath Rugby
Manager – inthefastlane

01. Charlie Faumuina	09. Fourie Du Preez
02. Chris Brooker	10. Gareth Anscombe
03. Carl Rimmer
04. Louis Deacon	11. Maxime Medard
05. Tom Donnelly	12. Luther Burrell
06. Brad Shields	13. David Marty
07. David Seymour	14. Only Woodburn
08. James Haskell	15. Isiah Toeava

16. Will Tanner 17. Jon Golding 18. Davit Kubrashvilli 19. Jarrad Hoeata 20. David Pocock 21. Richard Wigglesworth 22. Anthony Allen 23. Rob Miller

Newport Gwent Dragons

01. Tim Ryan	09. Jonathan Evans
02. Sam Parry	10. Lewis Robling
03. Dan Way
04. Ian Nimmo	11. Hallam Amos
05. Adam Jones	12. Pat Leach
06. Ieuan Jones	13. Ashley Smith
07. Jevon Groves	14. Will Harries
08. Nic Cudd	15. Dan Evans

16. Steve Jones17. Nathan Buck 18. Owen Evans 19. Josh Tyler 20. Andrew Coombs 21. Liam Davies 22. Steffan Jones 23. Ross Wardle

Worcester Warriors vs Scarlets

01.Nathan Catt	09. Dwayne Peel
02.Korree Britton	10.Tom Heathcote (k)
03.Samson Lee
04.Juan Cruz Guilleman	11.Eli Walker
05.Leo Cullen	12.Regan King
06.Tom Savage (c)	13.Ian Whitten
07.Chris Walker	14.Sean Maitland
08.Mamuka Gorgodze	15.Cameron Shepherd

[/quote]

16. Dave Ward 17. BJ Botha 18. Chris Budgen 19. Ollie Kohn 20. Kearnen Myall 21. James Short 22. Sam Vesty 23. Ben Ransom

Tactics
Big pack for go forward with experience and youth,
Backs to look to run with Heathcote standing flat and using tactical kicking,
Bring on experience on 60mins to bitz Scarlets,
We are targetting a win to get momentum again.

Scarlets

01.Shaun Hopkins	09.Aled Davies
02.Kirby Myhill	10.Aled Thomas
03.Jacobie Adriaanse
04.Jake Ball	11.Lee Williams
05.Johan Shynman	12.Adam Warran
06.Craig Price	13.Garath Maule
07.Dan Thomas	14.Kristian Phillips
08.Kieran Murphey	15.Andy Fenby

London Irish vs Sale Sharks

London Irish
Manager – stnick88

01. Matt Stevens	09. Julien Dupuy
02. Tom Lindsay	10. Elton Jantjies
03. WP Nel
04. Dean Mumm	11. Sailosi Tagicakibau
05. Nick Kennedy	12. Shane Geraghty
06. Jerome Kaino	13. Mathieu Bastereaud
07. Will Fraser	14. Bjorn Basson
08. Netani Talei	15. Anthony Watson

16. Grant Shiells 17. James Buckland 18. Brok Harris 19. Stuart Hooper 20. Hendrie Fourie 21. Neal De Kock 22. Matthew Morgan 23. Guy Armitage

- Play an attacking expansive game.
- Use big ball carriers like Stevens, Mumm, Kaino, Talei, Bastereaud to make inroads before getting the likes of Basson, Geraghty, Watson running at Sale.
- Jantjies to kick all pens in range for goal.

Sale Sharks
Manager – SJE

01. Vasil Kakovin	09. Ben Spencer
02. Darren Dawdiuk	10. JJ Hanrahan
03. Luc Ducalcon
04. Romain Millo Chluski	11. Craig Gilroy
05. Andries Bekker	12. Francois Steyn
06. Matt Kvesic	13. Will Addison
07. Matt Todd	14. Tom Brady
08. Alex Tulou	15. Jean-Marcellin Buttin

16. Jerome Schuster 17. Tommy Taylor 18. Ross Harrison 19. Dave Attwood 20. Luke Whitelock 21. Nicholas Bezy 22. Tommy Bell 23. Sam Smith

Tactics

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 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 Spencer, JJ & Steyn and force Irish to come at us from deep.

• 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 room as possible to attack from.

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

• We will play an aggressive blitz on defence, playing on the edge of the offside line and coming up at pace, looking to isolate the ball carrier and stop any Irish momentum before it can get going.

• Spencer 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 ball.

• 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 Kvesic & Todd looking to get their 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.

London Welsh vs Newcastle Falcons

London Welsh
Manager – Ozzy3213

01. Brett Sturgess	09. Tomas O’Leary (c)
02. Chris Whitehead	10. Butch James
03. Adam Jones
04. Sitaleki Timani	11. Digby Ioane
05. James Hanks	12. Gavin Henson
06. Maurie Fa’asavalu	13. Joel Tomkins
07. Siya Kolisi	14. Bryan Habana
08. Sione Kalamafoni	15. Tom Homer

16. Tom Cowan-Dickie 17. Ben Alexander 18. Werner Kruger 19. Dean Schofield 20. Luke Wallace 21. Charlie Davies 22. Jonathan Davies 23. Matt Jess


Newcastle Falcons
Manager – Sgt Pooly

01. Alex Waller	09. Luke Burgess
02. Lee Mears	10. James O’Connor
03. Clement Ric
04. Ed Slater	11. Colin Slade
05. Paul O’Connell©	12. Luke Marshall
06. John Barclay	13. George Lowe
07. Heinrich Brussow	14. Miles Benjamin
08. Jackson Wray	15. Jared Payne

16. Rory Best 17. Scott Wilson 18. Luke Cowan-Dickie 19. Jonny Gray 20. Joel Conlon 21. Jimmy Cowan 22. Henry Slade 23. Francis Saili

TACTICS

Normal Falcons tactics....high intensity, offloading rugby (if weather permits). Target breakdown & set piece. Plenty of kicking options in Slade, JOC.

Look to get youngsters game time in the 2nd.

Good job Driver!

Will do mine around 5ish!

Good work driver.

Just very quickly:

Cardiff Blues 13 - 33 London Wasps
Walk in the park for Wasps, stronger in most positions and try scorers in the backline.

Ospreys 17 - 30 Gloucester Rugby
Same as above.

Saracens 26 - 22 Leicester Tigers
Very good team from Driver, less changes in the team and more cohesion as a result. Good home win.

Bath Rugby 35 - 22 Newport Gwent Dragons
Can see Bath walking this too.

Worcester Warriors 31 - 19 Scarlets
Same story.

London Irish 22 - 20 Sale Sharks
Hard game to call, but home advantage and some good strike runners make a difference for the home side and can see them just winning this one.

London Welsh 27 - 24 Newcastle Falcons
Can see that Pete has really targeted this competition and again home advantage and the experience he has will get him the win. Newcastle will be in it right until the end though. Having Habana and Ioane makes all the difference out wide.

Cardiff 12-28 Wasps
Ospreys 10-35 Gloucester
Saracens 23-20 Leicester
Northampton 27-24 Quins
Bath 30-9 Newport
Worcester 32-12 Scarlets
London Welsh 25-21 Newcastle

sorry lads short for time

Cardiff 10-28 Wasps
Too much power in the back 5 and the outside backs for Wasps here against a Cardiff team struggling for fire power and motivation.

Ospreys 12-36 Gloucester
Good 9-10-12 for the O's here but the Glos pack will have a field day with only Stowers fronting up against them. More pace and flair in the Glos outside backs and their bench will continue the pressure.

Saracens 24-21 Leicester
Front row to Sarries, 2nd row to Tigers, back row is even looking at form and impact. Prefer the Tigers 9-10 but IHump is playing well. 12 to Sarries and 13 to Tigers. Little bit more in Sarries back line and more impact from the bench see's them take this.

Northampton 25-21 Quins
Front row to Saints, 2nd rows are even with 2 strong pairings, Saints edge the back row but Easter is in good form. 9-10 pairing edged to Quins with Burns' form helping, Simpson will make breaks though. Centres to Saints and I think they'll get more joy with their back three. 2 good benches but Saints just have enough.

Bath 38-7 Newport
Dragons are playing very poorly at present and Bath will have way too much for them here and this will see them run riot.

Irish 20-21 Sale
Front row battle just to Sale, again a good set of 2nd rows here! Calling the backrows even. JJ is in good form at 10 so will do well here. 12 to Sale but 13 to Irish, Good try scorers here in the back three too. Really ahrd one to split but I'm going to go with Sale because I can see them getting a bit more at the set piece.

London Welsh 32-28 Newcastle
Welsh are obviously targeting this cup! Front row to Welsh and 2nd row with a bit more form there, 2 good sets of backrows and their half back pairings are good, centres will see a good battle and overall quite even, the extra bit of quality form Welsh in their back 3 will take this with Habana and Ioane and a bit more on the bench, high scoring game.

Driver, cheers for sorting this buddy.

Cardiff 23 - 29 Wasps

Wasps have enough here but don't Cardiff will be push overs. A couple of decent players make Wasps work hard.

Ospreys 23 - 49 Gloucester

Pretty routine for Gloucester here. Stronger all over! Gloucester looking in a pretty good shape for AI's.

Saracens 23 - 21 Leicester

Tight one this. I think at Welford road Leicester would take this but I think Saracens will just about edge it.

Bath 39 - 18 Dragons

Pretty routine for Bath. Not much in the Dragons side to trouble Bath and they have a nice balance themselves.

Worcester 32- 5 Scarlets

A decent Worcester outfit. Comfortable win really. Scarlets lacking firepower.

London Irish 23 - 27 Sale

Sale just have more in key positions. Plenty of carriers and enough in the backs and get a good away win.

London Welsh 32 - 27 Newcastle

Welsh a bit stronger in most positions. Home advantage helps them to get a good win here.

Cardiff 12-22 Wasps

Cardiff struggling at the moment and Wasps have just a little more particularly in the backrow and halfbacks and get a comfortable win.


Ospreys 9-32 Gloucester

Complete mismatch in this one!


Saracens 22-20 Leicester

Decent battle in the pack. Little more in the front 5 for Sarries but the backrow battle is even. Not a lot between the backs. Sarries at home shade this one.


Northampton Saints 27-21 Harlequins

Quins have a little more at halfback but see Saints getting the better of the forward battle and Cips & Giteau have enough to break the defence


Bath 35-15 Dragons

Just too much quality on show for Bath. Comfortable win at the Rec.


Worcester 24-6 Scarlets

Warriors have that bit more firepower in the backs.


London Welsh 22-18 Newcastle Falcons

Welsh get an edge at the scrum. See Falcons turning a bit of ball over but lacking ball carriers. Not an awful lot between the halfbacks. JOC the outstanding player but not an out and out 10. Slight edge in midfield to Falcons but Welsh with a classy set of wings take the back 3. See Welsh sealing the win here in the last quarter with a strong bench

Cardiff 16-23 Wasps

Wasps strong throughout and Cardiff struggling to find form bar Halfpenny/Cuthbert who are away.

Ospreys 9-45 Gloucester

Stupidly strong Gloucester team cosidering the opposition, easy win.

Saracens 24-21 Leicester

Not much in the sides but home advantge just sees Sarries through.

Saints 26-22 Harlequins

Both sides taking the LV seriously with strong teams out. Just a bit more for Saints I think mainly in the backs and bench.

Bath 34-12 Newport

Routine win

Worcester 29-16 Scarlets

Worcester too strong, esp the backs

Irish 25-24 Sale

Real tight one with twostrong teams out and nice combo's. Home advanatge sees Irish through, at Sale it would be Sale by 3+ but Irish just have enough.

On route to darlo for rugby won't be able to predict

Blues 8-17 Wasps
Ospreys 12-38 Gloucester
Sarries 25-23 Tigers
Saints 29-25 Quins
Warriors 23-6 Scarlets
Irish 28-29 Sale

Ospreys 10 - 23 Gloucester
Sarries 22 - 20 Tigers
Bath 28 - 10 NGD
Saints 25 - 23 Quins
Warriors 18 - 6 Scarlets
Irish 20 - 18 Sale

CJB and Arry not fancy predicting on my game with Pooly?

Apologies

London Welsh 22 - 20 Newcastle Falcons

Cardiff Blues 10 London Wasps 20

Ospreys 15 Gloucester 27

Bath 23 Dragons 10

Northampton Saints 20 Harlequins 19

Worcester Warriors 19 Scarlets 10

London Irish 27 Sale 27

London Welsh 9 Newcastle Falcons 8

Bath 37-3 Newport
Welsh 14-13 falcons

Blues 8-17 Wasps

Sarries 25-23 Tigers
Saints 29-28 Quins
Warriors 23-6 Scarlets
Irish 29/ 29 Sale

Welsh 24-22 Falcons

Back three isnt bad Pete

Chuffed with that result, a win against any tigers team id a good one.