Aviva Premiership Round Twelve

First topic message reminder :

Fri 3rd Jan 14 19:45 PR Newcastle Falcons v Sale Sharks Kingston Park
Fri 3rd Jan 14 19:45 PR Northampton Saints v Harlequins Franklin's Gardens
Sat 4th Jan 14 15:00 PR London Irish v Worcester Warriors Madejski Stadium
Sat 4th Jan 14 15:15 PR Gloucester Rugby v Saracens Kingsholm
Sun 5th Jan 14 14:00 PR Leicester Tigers v Bath Rugby Welford Road
Sun 5th Jan 14 15:00 PR London Wasps v Exeter Chiefs Adams Park



Some big fixtures again this weekend. I'm going for Sharks, Saints, Saracens, Tigers and Chiefs to win. Not predicting on the Irish game, just praying this week!   

Is this Saracens or Quins?

Sarries, Glous kicking the ball away all the time.

nathan wrote:looks like it could be a long game for glous.

Cricky, in my prediction I thought Gloucester might just have that one special match left in them to actually stage the upset. In that regard, the proper and decent thing for them to do would be to wait until halftime to make me look bad.

Poor chases from the kick, way too slow. Just shown there were 5 Gloucester defenders on the blindside before the last try. And NO Sarries!

I thought Davies and his team had brought Glos on last year, sadly it seems they've moved right back. They have taken a very exciting set of backs and made them utterly static. The defence looks like it is not worked on at all, and the pack - lots of players haven't stepped up, but signings like Hudson for Hamilton have been poor.

Think it's going to be a v disappointing year for Glos.

doctor_grey wrote:

nathan wrote:looks like it could be a long game for glous.

Cricky, in my prediction I thought Gloucester might just have that one special match left in them to actually stage the upset.  In that regard, the proper and decent thing for them to do would be to wait until halftime to make me look bad.  

Gloucester just don't look interested at all.

nathan wrote:Gloucester just don't look interested at all.

They just don't seem to want to be there.

Glos scrum problems have not been fixed. Wood I actually think is an extremely average player all round.

is it me or does Borthwick annoy the hell out of you.

I have been watching bits of the first half in the American Airlines lounge in Heathrow. The staff in the AA lounge didn't know they get BT Sport. They do now.

Time to go board the flight back to New York. I don't think I will be missing anything. My flight is supposed to have international wifi so I can find out the dreadful result in mostly real time.
Ciao Dad
Ciao England
Ciao Her Majesty
Ciao Karina

nathan wrote:is it me or does Borthwick annoy the hell out of you.

It is not you, he's a narky, snivelling little gob-sh@te who I always want to see put on his arse. Sarries would be 50% more appealing without him.

Not sure if Sarries are making this look easy or if Gloucester are making it actually easy.

Glos are facing a cricket score here. They look a far poorer team than they do on paper. At what point does the coaching team come under scrutiny?

Ha, Borthwick yellow. That's better!

Glos scrum is utterly pathetic. Completely useless. A very poor decision to go for the scrum

I think McCall just said FFS to the decision to go fort he posts.

Glaws are rubbish 

I don't think Paul Moriarty is a Prem level defence coach, neither is Andrew Stanley a good enough forwards coach.

Some of them look like they have eaten too much turkey  

Hood83 wrote:Glos are facing a cricket score here. They look a far poorer team than they do on paper. At what point does the coaching team come under scrutiny?

Ha, Borthwick yellow. That's better!

what did he get a yellow for?

Taking out lifter. Sarries should be ashamed they didn't get the BP

Questions to be answered across the board for Gloucester - congratulations Saracens, well played.

Honestly some the glaws team should be shown the door tonight - they were a disgrace to the shirt, the club and the fans. A number of contracts will not be renewed on the back of this performance.

Writ LARGE Nigel Davis is the NOT the man to lead this team

You can apprciate Freddie Burns decision if he does choose to leave, but where does the leave Billy Twelvetrees?

Does he stick around? Its going to be hard to maintain any sort of form playing in a side as poor as that. He has to consider his england future.

But is it the coach or the players?

And could any coach genuinely do better?

Very mixed emotions. Full credit to Sarries, they played at times some of the best rugby I've seen at Kingsholm; their off loading and quick ruck ball was fantastic.

Glaws on the other hand were an embarrassment. The defence was dire and too slow; we were clueless in what limited attack we had, although the backs can be excused slightly as they played with back foot ball the entire game; we kicked very poorly and Burns has got a lot to answer for with the two charge downs; our pack's direction for the maul is idiotic - every time we take the ball from the lineout we do the same driving maul making it incredibly easy to defend against.

It certainly is character building being a Glaws supporter, but at least I got to see one team play some decent rugby today, although it is somewhat bemusing Sarries didn't get the bonus point.

I'm going for a drink, I may be some time...

HongKongCherry, I really feel for you mate. On paper they should do better. Something isn't right there.

The Doc wrote:Firstly, everyone agreed the referee did indeed lose control of the match.

I'm of the opinion that the players lost control in a spate of dubious encounters all over the pitch at the time and that the ref with the TMO worked well together to clear up as many anomalies as could be filtered out to find some resolution.

I really enjoyed the game - a full-blooded encounter in the mud. That's proper rugby imo.

Why Myler stayed on is anyone's guess though. Unless as Austin(?) suggested on the telly that the Saints have possibly given up on the Heiney.

Happy new year HKC  

HongKongCherry wrote:Very mixed emotions. Full credit to Sarries, they played at times some of the best rugby I've seen at Kingsholm; their off loading and quick ruck ball was fantastic.

Glaws on the other hand were an embarrassment. The defence was dire and too slow; we were clueless in what limited attack we had, although the backs can be excused slightly as they played with back foot ball the entire game; we kicked very poorly and Burns has got a lot to answer for with the two charge downs; our pack's direction for the maul is idiotic - every time we take the ball from the lineout we do the same driving maul making it incredibly easy to defend against.

It certainly is character building being a Glaws supporter, but at least I got to see one team play some decent rugby today, although it is somewhat bemusing Sarries didn't get the bonus point.

I'm going for a drink, I may be some time...

I didn't see the game, but I'm not surprised. The Sarries are a very good team his season to be compared in the same breath only with the Saints. I'll eat my non-existent hat if those two don't play out the HQ final.

Glaws are the enigma of the season for their many motley performances.

Just back from a very cold and wet MadStad. Not the greatest game I've seen, but happy enough with the win, albeit the score flatters Worcester a fair bit. Some of the refereeing was pretty poor as well.

Up to 10th in the table, will be getting a nosebleed if this continues!

Unbeaten in 2014!

yappysnap wrote:But is it the coach or the players?

And could any coach genuinely do better?

Send Venter in, he'd soon have them weeping for for the old luvvie Davis

Well done Irish. Another nail in Worcester's coffin.

More like another spade of soil onto the coffin of Worcester. No wins so far and the gap between them and their rivals is growing weekly.

Portnoy's Complaint wrote:

The Doc, wrote:Firstly, everyone agreed the referee did indeed lose control of the match.

I'm of the opinion that the players lost control in a spate of dubious encounters all over the pitch at the time and that the ref with the TMO worked well together to clear up as many anomalies as could be filtered out to find some resolution.

I really enjoyed the game - a full-blooded encounter in the mud. That's proper rugby imo.

Why Myler stayed on is anyone's guess though. Unless as Austin(?) suggested on the telly  that the Saints have possibly given up on the Heiney.

The Good Doctor, Loyal Subject of her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II Regina, Major of Her Majesty's Army, Semi-Obedient Son of an Ancient Line, Dedicated Father of Semi-Obedient Progeny, Proud Member of the Family of Northampton Saints, Endowed with Large Testicles, and Keen Admirer of the Female Form In All Its Wondrous Permutations wrote:Hiya Port!

Hoping your new year was grand and all the best for the upcoming year.  The way Rugby is going, I think we will need all the good wishes we can get.  

I agree the some or many of the players did start to lose control.  I was somewhat disappointed that Hartley didn't take a break in the action to rein in Saints, as they were defending a potentially important win, and that Robshaw didn't do the same for Harlequins.  Ultimately, however, the referee has to step in, if for no other reason to prevent players from getting hurt.  This guy either couldn't do it or didn't understand what was happening.  He didn't do well in the first half either before things broke down.  After the match a couple of players told me they could feel extra tension in the match right as it started.  Odd that.  

Afterwards, Dylan Hartley said almost the exact same as you:

Portnoy's Complaint wrote:a full-blooded encounter in the mud. That's proper rugby imo.

Almost word for word.  You are related, perchance?

Not sure about Saints folding their Heineken Cup tent.  No one mentioned that, but Myler has played a huge amount of Rugby so far this season.  His injury appeared to be a contusion, but that was only a quick exam.  Hopefully Saints do go after the last Heineken Cup, but there is a small squad and players are tired.

Cheers Hammer.

Things aren't right, but I'm confident they're being addressed albeit for next season. The old adage that forwards win games has never been truer than our example. We have a very good backrow, but like the backs if they're going backwards you can't expect them to be at their best. Davies inherited this squad and the forwards were largely tied in until next year, so yes not had much chance to revitalise things. Afoa and Hibbard will help enormously and we should also be signing a big lock to add to the front 5. Dear old Woody is past his best; 3 years ago he was the best LH in the Jeff, but he just doesn't hit those heights anymore. I think its time Yann Thomas is given the starting berth.

It is a lot more than just the front 5, but without out decent first phase ball we can't build any territory or possession. We are a team bereft of confidence and it shows. We need to remember how we played last year and start trusting our ability, although that's easier said than done.

King, you've got a bit of a thing for Davies, personally I feel he is very much the man for the job. The structure he is putting in place is very much about the long term and I believe we will start seeing the benefits of this from next year. We're having a tough year, but he can only take so much blame. This season has been personified by players making idiotic mistakes and a coach cannot be held responsible.

Scrumpy, happy new year to you too   

they just kept kicking ball away, I'm not sure if that was a lack of confidence or the game plan. Several times you could see players walking around, it's like they didn't care. I do wonder if theres something going on in the background.

I really can't understand why the Saints management didn't bring Myler off sooner, every kick was clearly putting him in considerable pain. Do they think Dickson is so useless he can't even be trusted to steady the ship for the final 20 mins? On another note I thought Collins did pretty well out of position and Clarke also had a good game.

HongKongCherry wrote:Cheers Hammer.

Things aren't right, but I'm confident they're being addressed albeit for next season. The old adage that forwards win games has never been truer than our example. We have a very good backrow, but like the backs if they're going backwards you can't expect them to be at their best. Davies inherited this squad and the forwards were largely tied in until next year, so yes not had much chance to revitalise things. Afoa and Hibbard will help enormously and we should also be signing a big lock to add to the front 5. Dear old Woody is past his best; 3 years ago he was the best LH in the Jeff, but he just doesn't hit those heights anymore. I think its time Yann Thomas is given the starting berth.

It is a lot more than just the front 5, but without out decent first phase ball we can't build any territory or possession. We are a team bereft of confidence and it shows. We need to remember how we played last year and start trusting our ability, although that's easier said than done.

King, you've got a bit of a thing for Davies, personally I feel he is very much the man for the job. The structure he is putting in place is very much about the long term and I believe we will start seeing the benefits of this from next year. We're having a tough year, but he can only take so much blame. This season has been personified by players making idiotic mistakes and a coach cannot be held responsible.

Scrumpy, happy new year to you too   

I think I'd be more concerned with his staff - Moriarty and Stanley don't exactly have glowing CVs. The latter in particular seems very poorly qualified.

hopefully Doyle will put a stop to Bath flopping over the rucks.

Tigers defence needs to improve, far too many missed tackles. having said that you have to give credit to Bath for most of that.

how is that not a pen to us? webber had no chance of catching that.

Sounds like Ford and Williams are both having good games. O Williams is at 10 right?

Beshocked will be happy that Watson has now got a try so can play for England!  

Yeh Williams at 10, big vote of confidence to have him kicking instead of flood.

what the Frak? how was that not forward?

another pathetic decision.

Has Gavin Henson featured lately for Bath?

legal? he was on his hands?

fml

feel sorry for slater if this is a bad injury.

glad to see him walk off.

nathan wrote:glad to see him walk off.

hope it wasn't just for prides sake though

that lineout didnt go 5? why is there being so much missed in this match?