Aviva Premiership - Round 1 Preview

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Well it is here again, the new season and the Round 1 preview.

Friday 6th September 2013

Newcastle v Bath 19:45
After storming through most of the season, Newcastle seemed to struggle to impose themselves in the play-offs and almost limped into the Premiership. The big name signing for 2013/14 would seem to be Mike blair - and after seeing Fury in the play-offs, Falcons are in need of a quality 9. Te departed Jimmy Gopperth got a lot of stick from fans but his points and his leadership will be missed. Can Phil Godman do that?
Perennial under-performers Bath have been the most visible club in the off-season, both for the signings and the pub fuelled bust-ups. Gary Gold moves "upstairs" to the DoR job with Mike Ford assuming head coach duties. Will that actually change anything? Probably not.
With all their signings, Bath have to be securing a top 6 spot as a minimum and should really be aiming for Top 4 - while finishing 11th would be a success for Falcons this season. Newcastle will be looking to host as many Friday night fixtures as they can, and will need to win a good proportion of those. Later in the season the traditional NE weather may come to their aid, but this week promises to stay fair.
If Bath can overcome both the long journey and the opening ferocity we should expect from Newcastle, they should have far too much class. Big ifs though.

Newcastle Team:
15 Alex Tait, 14 Noah Cato, 13 Danny Barnes, 12 Jamie Helleur, 11 Tom Catterick, 10 Phil Godman, 9 Mike Blair, 1 Franck Montanella, 2 Matt Thompson, 3 Kieran Brookes, 4 Carlo del Fava, 5 Scott MacLeod, 6 Dom Barrow, 7 Andy Saull, 8 Ally Hogg (c)

Replacements: 16 Rob Vickers, 17 Scott Wilson, 18 Gary Strain, 19 Mark Wilson, 20 Chris York, 21 Warren Fury, 22 Joel Hodgson, 23 Adam Powell


Bath Team:
15 Anthony Watson, 14 Semesa Rokoduguni, 13 Jonathan Joseph, 12 Kyle Eastmond, 11 Matt Banahan, 10 George Ford, 9 Peter Stringer, 1 Paul James, 2 Rob Webber, 3 David Wilson, 4 Stuart Hooper ( c ), 5 Dave Attwood, 6 Matt Garvey, 7 Mat Gilbert, 8. Leroy Houston

Replacements

16. Ross Batty, 17. Nathan Catt, 18. Anthony Perenise, 19. Dominic Day, 20. Alafoti Fa'osiliva, 21. Micky Young, 22. Gavin Henson, 23. Tom Biggs

Saturday 7th September 2013

London Irish v Saracens 14:00
The first leg of the Twickenham double-header starts with London Irish "hosting" last season's table toppers Saracens. In the off-season Irish have lost a large number of very important players and frankly replaced them with much lower quality recruits. The premiership final against Leicester feels so long ago now.
Saracens have signed a couple off massive forwards in Johnston and BillyV. While Johnston may not solve Saracens scrummaging uncertainties, if the younger Vunipola can be integrated into the team he will provide some real front foot ball. In turn this could allow Hodgson or Farrell to really stamp their mark on the game and the season and get the Sarries backs firing. Meanwhile back to the front row and Jamie George should get a chance to stake a claim for a place in the side long term.
I suspect we may well see a match similar to last season - stodgy and tentative in the first half, but with Sarries taking Irish apart in the second.


Gloucester v Sale 15:00
It seems strange to think that Gloucester appear a little lightweight in the tight five. The plethora of riches available to them in the back row and then in the backs suggests that should that tight five be able to punch above their weight we could see real fireworks this season. While a young skipper, Tom Savage looks a real leader and will be driving his men forward. With the signing of Tavis Knoyle (a favourite of Nigel Davies) and the big money signing of Jimmy Cowan last season, I do worry about how much gametime the ever improving Dan Robson will get.
Sale Sharks - what can you say. Season before last Steve Diamond manged to turn them into a team that was so much more than the sum of it's parts. Last season they were at times dreadfull. Big signings Gray and Cipriani were absolute flops and young players like Miller, Cliff and Amesbury just did not kick on.
Gloucester surely have to win this?



Northampton v Exeter 15:00
While Exeter continue to sign lesser known players and create a team ethos, Saints have done the real big name transfers in the summer. Even if they do not stay fit and firing the whole season, the presence of Corbisiero and North in the play-offs (shoudl Saints make them) would give them a sprinkling of stardust they have previously lacked. Kahn Fotuali'i could be the key signing though. While he started slowly at Ospreys (due in large part to having played for two years without a break) the fans at the Liberty will have been sorry to see him go. He is a class act - though there seem to be some suggestions he may play at 10!
While Northampton have had some nerve-tingling matches with Exeter they should win this one with a little breathing space.



London Wasps v Harlequins 16:30
The London double-header culminates with Harlequins as the "away" team. Again a repeat of last seasons fixture, fans will hope to see another cracker. For 60 minutes Wasps were sublime until their conditioning failed. Wasps appear to have made some very shrewd signings and will look to run the ball at every opportunity. they will keep the tempo high - but need better fitness levels than last season.
After finishing last season with a whimper, Quins will be desperate to show they are not a flash in the pan. The performances of Ben Botica could be key as Nick Evans is showing his age and at times was quite frail last season. Enhanced contracts for the home-grown players has limited the funds available for new signings. The loss of Johnston and Kohn certainly reduces the bulk in the Quins pack.




Sunday 8th September 2013

Leicester v Worcester 14:00
Tigers do not always start the season especially well, but against a Worcester team that has lost a number of key players and replaced them in the main with journeymen, they should be seeking a fairly comfortable win.
Leicester will  not look to overplay their Lions players, but their is strength in depth in those positions. Worries about Floods fitness are countered by the good form shown by Lamb and Williams in pre-season. Full back cover is a little light on the ground with Matty Tait not appearing yet following more surgery in the summer.

Crappy Quins will get smashed by Saints this weekend.

I genuinely worried about losing that one, but we'll see. Personally I think we have Saints' number tactically but they do have an excellent team. I'm glad to see you've not lost your optimism.

More excuses. Yesterday was awful. CoS is taking the club backwards.

All depends on Saints pack and their new signings, think they could do some real damage with that potential team of theirs.

?what in my post could possibly be construed as an excuse? Can you actually read?

How is winning three trophies in three seasons after a run of winning nothing for about 10 years going backwards?

Deluded. Quins are no match for any top team. Wasps are mid table T best and were by far the better side yesterday. I look forward to your excuses next saturday morning.

Three EQP players in the Worcester starting line up isn't great to see.

They did say they were looking to change the constant loss of the good young players by bringing in more experienced overseas players. Could be good for the club short term I suppose, but the opposite of the direction pretty much every other team is taking.

Hope Worcester go down but I think they'll be fine. I understand their reluctance to keep picking EQ players who get nabbed, but for the national team we can do without a team of NEQ journeymen in the competition. IMO.

To be fair with 11 other teams fielding around 60%+ EQ players Wuss don't really matter. It might even help trim down on some of the chaff

Cumbrian wrote:Three EQP players in the Worcester starting line up isn't great to see.

Certainly their back line looked rather exotic. Worcester looked much more solid than I expected, and reading through their squad in the matchday program I realised they had more quality amongst the arrivals than I had thought.

Pretty average start from Tigers. Bonus point win though so job done. Hope the physio is working extra hard to get the missing half the team back.

Yappy, remember me saying Mele would be a good signing?

I thought the sin-binning was harsh.

Now remember I only have one view of it, but it looked from end on as though Lamb changed direction to run into Williams.

Ryan Lamb was pretty much as expected, and I would have liked to see more of Williams. Bath will be a tricky, nay very tricky trip next week.

Looked like Lamb made a lot of it initially (and Austin said as much) but once you watch the slow motion replay you can see Williams drop his arm and block Lamb. Definite contact and eye contact. Stupid and deliberate but personally I'd have thought a penalty was sufficient. Either of the two shoulder charges by Betty would have been worthy of a yc and Lamb was a touch lucky himself with his failed interception.

Agree completely on Williams LT, looked very assured and very much in a Toby Flood attacking style. I'd have liked to see him start to be honest.

Man Baths pack meeting your pack head on should be some viewing! Combined weights of a small land mass.

Only got to read the about the game and see Goneva's try on Sky news, looked pretty good to me (assisted by limp tackling).

Sam I remember you going on and on about Mele, can I assume he was pretty good then?  

Man of the match and a try on his debut.

So pretty good then...

As well as could be expected. Very quick pass, doesn't look to snipe ala Youngs or Care but his service from the base gives the 10 very good ball. Very old school in his view to rucking as well which helped when Wuss were killing ball all day (16 penalties conceded by Wuss today). Good and different option for Tigers. An excellent mentor for Harrison and Steele as well.

So what would everybody's England team be based on round 1?

Escluding Tigers due to my natural bias based purely on what I managed to see (so Saints players included when there was little opposition from those I saw) and on this weekend:


Corbs, Hartley, Wilson, Attwood, Launchbury, Wood, Robshaw, Vunipola
Dickson? , Farrell, Varndell, ANO, Lowe, Yarde, Brown

I'd go Care at 9 if we are excluding players from our own club. He caused Wasps a lot of problems and carried for a lot of metres.

I missed the first half, which seems to be when he did the business.

ANO?

Well obviously, as he wasn't on the pitch most of the 2nd half... Not sure why we took him off tbh, he made every single Quins break

Apart from the little break for the Dickson try. He didn't look impressed at being subbed early.

Good win away for Sarries Storm last night over Exeter Braves - both had a number of 1st team players on show, Sarries snuck a high try-scoring game at the last

Tigers lost 15-23 to the Saints in their A league game at Welford Rd.  http://www.leicestertigers.com/news/17643.php

formerly known as Sam wrote:Apart from the little break for the Dickson try. He didn't look impressed at being subbed early.

Ah but he would have made that too

Thought Care's kicking was a bit better than usual too

But impressions from a live match as opposed to scrutinising on a screen are often wrong

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:Good win away for Sarries Storm last night over Exeter Braves - both had a number of 1st team players on show, Sarries snuck a high try-scoring game at the last

Sounds like a good game. Who stood out in your opinion?

Wasn't there, beshocked

Portnoy, we missed 13 points by not having a recognised kicker on the field, scrum half Sam Harrison played 10. From what I heard our backs made a lot of breaks and only good scrabbling Saints defence stopped us scoring more.

The penalty try at the end came as we had two academy props (both in their teens) and an academy flanker who is converting to hooker at 2. That will be valuable experience to them.

Their young 10 Olver was apparently very good off the tee.

Every cloud has a silver lining Sam!

Who's our kicking coach? He needs a cattle prod up his arse. We haven't had a consistent hoofer since Stimpson.

Pretty sure Toby Floods percentages are better than Stimmos ever were.

I assume that amongst other things Paul Burke looks at kicking.