Aviva Premiership Round Two

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Well round one is done, and the Aviva Premiership is most definitely back.  With over 300 points scored, 34 tries and 3 hat tricks, it was an exciting weekends rugby, that began on Friday night with Saints putting 50+ points on Gloucester, and finished on Sunday afternoon with the Chiefs doing the same to hapless London Welsh.  Sandwiched in between Bath got themselves up and running with a win on the road at Sale, and Tigers completed a comprehensive victory over the Falcons at Welford Road.  At Twickenham, the first game f the double header was great spectacle and fantastic advert for the league, with Saracens edging out Wasps courtesy of a late try.  This was followed by Quins proving to strong for a London Irish team who simply failed to turn up until half time, by which time the game had gone.


With regard predictions, I got 4 from 6 right on here, having tipped my own boys to beat Quins, and Gloucester to nick it at The Gardens.  By the time I did my Superbru predictions and put my accumulator on, I'd gone for Saints, so was 5 from 6 elsewhere, but I'm clearly not going to get rich this way unless London Irish start winning a bit more often!  Anyway, here's the table of round one of the action:

	Pos	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	TF	TA	TBP	LBP	PTS
	1.	Exeter Chiefs	1	1	0	0	52	0	+52	7	0	1	0	5
	2.	Northampton Saints	1	1	0	0	53	6	+47	8	0	1	0	5
	3.	Leicester Tigers	1	1	0	0	36	17	+19	4	2	1	0	5
	4.	Saracens	1	1	0	0	34	28	+6	4	3	1	0	5
	5.	Bath Rugby	1	1	0	0	29	20	+9	2	2	0	0	4
	6.	Harlequins	1	1	0	0	20	15	+5	2	0	0	0	4
	7.	London Irish	1	0	0	1	15	20	-5	0	2	0	1	1
	8.	Wasps	1	0	0	1	28	34	-6	3	4	0	1	1
	9.	Sale Sharks	1	0	0	1	20	29	-9	2	2	0	0	0
	10.	Newcastle Falcons	1	0	0	1	17	36	-19	2	4	0	0	0
	11.	Gloucester	1	0	0	1	6	53	-47	0	8	0	0	0
	12.	London Welsh	1	0	0	1	0	52	-52	0	7	0	0	0

So on to this weeks fixtures, and here they are:

Friday 12th September 2014   19:45   Harlequins vs. Saracens

Two of last seasons top 4 go head to head in an early season clash of the big guns.  Both won last week, although neither were wholly convincing and have room for improvement.  Quins look very strong defensively, whilst Saracens look to have a real cutting edge in attack, which seems strange to say as I would imagine the perception of both sides would be the other way round.  Both will be fired up and wanting to lay down a marker in this one, and I expect a fiercely competitive contest, which Quins just sneak, sending Saracens home with just the losing bonus point.


Saturday 13th September 2014   15:00   Bath Rugby vs. London Welsh

It certainly doesn't get any easier for London Welsh does it.  Bath, to the surprise of their own fans on here I would imagine, managed to come back from Sale with 4 points in the bag, and should really extend their total to nine points with a big victory in this one.  Welsh, unsurprisingly for a team with 25 new players looked all over the place defensively on Sunday, and will need to improve very quickly if they are to avoid more thumpings by a similar scoreline this season.  Pride I suspect will keep it closer this weekend, but I don't see them getting anywhere near Bath this time out.


Saturday 13th September 2014   15:00   Gloucester vs. Sale Sharks

Two teams who lost in the opening round, one at home, and one in spectacular fashion on the road.  Both will want to put things right this weekend, and Gloucester will take comfort in being back in familiar surroundings at Kingsholm.  Sale will be undaunted by the atmosphere there though, having won there last season, and I would imagine the players will be keen to not incur the wrath of Steve Diamond, which is the likely outcome if they lose two on the bounce.  David Humphreys doesn't strike me as putting the same fear into his players, but you have to think that guys like Richard Hibbard, John Afoa and James Hook will all step up a gear of their own accord this weekend.  This is a really tough call, but I can see a wounded Gloucester side sneaking this at home and Sale heading back North with a losing bonus point.


Saturday 13th September 2014   15:15   Exeter Chiefs vs. Leicester Tigers

Now if you asked me last week to predict this one I had it down as an away banker.  The Chiefs I felt had not recruited particuarly well in the summer, but their win against London Welsh will have given them massive confidence ahead of hosting the Tigers this week.  I've not seen the Tigers game, but understand from others who have that they weren't at their very best, but were clinical enough to put away a spirited Falcons side.  The Chiefs will be solid and difficult to play against and Leicester will need to up their game slightly to win here I feel, but I think they will, and will head back to the East Midlands with 4 points in the bag.


Sunday 14th September 2014   14:00   Wasps vs. Northampton Saints

This could be a cracker.  I need say nothing about Saints really, as we all saw the power they have and the finishing ability to match on Friday night.  Wasps were excellent in spells against Saracens, with back row forwards Nathan Hughes and Ashley Johnson particularly outstanding, but once again failed to put in a full 80 minute performance.  They will have to manage that against the Saints, as you cannot give them anything or they will run right over you.  I'm putting this one down as the game of the round, with Saints to just edge out Wasps in an 8 or 9 try thriller which sees the home side pick up a try bonus point to go with their losing one.


Sunday 14th September 2014   15:00   Newcastle Falcons vs. London Irish

Two teams who need to win, it's that simple.  Falcons possibly didn't expect to get anything at Welford Road, but will be targeting this one big time for a win.  Irish conversely probably expected to beat Quins on Saturday, but came up short, and will know that they need this with Sarries, Saints and Tigers next up for them in the fixture list.  Whilst I would like to think that on Falcons new shiny 4G pitch this will be a fast and loose throwaround of a game, I suspect it will be a nervous, cagey arm wrestle with very little to wrote home about in terms of exciting play.  It will be tight, but I fancy is to nick it and head home with our first league win of the season under our belts.


Ozzy's predicted table after round two:

Northampton Saints 10, Bath Rugby 9, Leicester Tigers 9, Harlequins 8, Exeter Chiefs 6, Saracens 6, London Irish 5, Gloucester 4, Wasps 3, Sale Sharks 1, Newcastle Falcons 1, London Welsh 0.

When Socino was at Notts I think the general consensus was average flyhalf but good centre. Arlidge was still about at that point though he was a good player and it was somewhat odd he was never given a go at the prem.

Advantage of having Socino is that you can just pick a playmaker and not worrying about the goal kicking. Might mean Clegg can get another look in as it was his goal kicking that let him done and seemed to effect his confidence.

Clegg has been worse than Godman Sam, baffling.

Godman looks better with Socino in the side, as you said it takes off a bit of pressure. Hopefully neither will be signed at the end of the season and we can get a bit of quality in.

That was one of the best try saving tackles I have seen in a very long time.

Brown is a Demi god see

Who needs a 7 with Jamie George on the field!

All Saracens at the minute....first try

Quins need to get on the scoreboard next.

All Sarries except the 60% possession

All Sarries where it counts lol

Hasn't helped that Quins have had jubblies for hands in dangerous areas of the pitch.

Brian Moore say "Quins error strewn and naive. Sarries much more streetwise." Dead on

Poor mistake from Evans, he's looked ponderous so far.

Top's it off really, he seems to miss the easier kicks.

He's really slowing down, I thought it was blip last year but he's not looked great so far this season.

And Nev has left his kicking boots at home too

Need to capitalise before HT.

Too slow and predictable, easily defended.

That is frustrating, the ball was knocked on with about 5 seconds to go and they still called HT, surely there should be a scrum in that situation? The ball already spends too much time in dead play whilst we have reset scrums and lineouts. If the clock is already red, fair enough, but not whilst there is still time on the clock. Sorry, it is a little bugbear of mine.

Danny Care still has a Kim Jong-il haircut.  

Maybe if he went out and got a Charlie Hodgson coif he would do better?  Charlie has tape holding his head together today.

Real test of Marler's leadership now. Him and Robshaw both playing well which helps.

Not looking terrible, just need to cut out the attacking errors. Yards and Brown are linking up well.

JTH is hitting the line hard but he needs to take the ball with him!

Evans off??? Tactical?

It's like Quins don't want to score points!

Simply have to score whilst Hodgson is away.

Good to see Fraser having a good game. Always a worry when someone comes back off injury

Reckon that is just about the game to be honest.

19 mins down with 30 mins left is too big an ask when we are struggling this much

Interesting....

Jack Clifford at outside centre?!?

Is Walker injured?!

You know one thing that bugs me? Morons like Dawson comparing numbers at the breakdown but using the same ruck (I.e. Attacker and defender). Almost all teams out more players into an attacking ruck than a defensive one.

What bothers me is my team playing poorly

ChequeredJersey wrote:Is Walker injured?!

Looks like it unfortunately, your backs have had no luck at all.

That's shocking from Barnes, really bad

ChequeredJersey wrote:What bothers me is my team playing poorly

I can see why that takes precedent.

What the hell was Botica doing????

That really was awful from Quins, good defence from Sarries. I don't even support Quins and I want to tear my hair out.

So looks like Sloan playing 13 next match then?

Managing to score Zero is perhaps flattering Quins - a truly shocking performance.

Repeated early mistakes robbed Quins of any momentum and then injuries in the backs meant they couldn't do much with the ball they had. Good solid performance from Saracens. Never letting up, taking chances, good performance.

Not only is this a real drubbing, but it is a relatively frustrating one to watch. Quins simply cannot do anything right. They are much better than this. Saracens, of course, have a lot to do with Quins under-performing. An iron clad defense.

Realistically the most upset I've been with one of our matches

I thought Robshaw, Marler and Brown had good games...but that was about it. Really happy about Fraser's performance though.

The worst thing, and there are many bad things about this, is that this probably means Logan will blight us once more

Great defence by Saracens but what were Quins doing completely brainless for most of the match. Yarde wants a right strip tearing off him jogging back and letting Ashton past! But everyone bar Brown Robshaw and Marler should hang their heads.

No 7&1/2 wrote:Great defence by Saracens but what were Quins doing completely brainless for most of the match. Yarde wants a right strip tearing off him jogging back and letting Ashton past! But everyone bar Brown Robshaw and Marler should hang their heads.

Both of those two though should accept responsibility for some odd onfield "management" decisions

ChequeredJersey wrote:The worst thing, and there are many bad things about this, is that this probably means Logan will blight us once more

The game was past his bedtime so he'll have missed this

LondonTiger wrote:

No 7&1/2 wrote:Great defence by Saracens but what were Quins doing completely brainless for most of the match. Yarde wants a right strip tearing off him jogging back and letting Ashton past! But everyone bar Brown Robshaw and Marler should hang their heads.

Both of those two though should accept responsibility for some odd onfield "management" decisions

You could point at Marler though the kicking was hardly stellar but seeing as Robshaw shoulders blame especially for England without it being shared its a bit harsh when hes not captain to point at him.

Marler is a new captain. It was stated quite clearly by COS that Quins have a strong leadership group that included Robshaw and Easter. When a game is drifting away, but not mission impossible then the senior players need to help young Captains. They failed to offer any assistance.



Yes it was harsh that in early tests the media slated robshaw exclusively for decision making - however it should also be pointed out that at the time England were completely bereft of senior players.

Well we differ on that. Still performance wise those 3 for me and possibly Matthews at a push.

Robshaw and Marler both led by example, both put in a good shift, Robshaw in particular carried well. I still have questions about Marler's captaincy, but it's not their fault everyone was dropping the ball every time they went into contact.

Poor basic skills let us down today. Nev's inability to bang over points deflated us when we needed a lift.

I think Marler was right to kick for the corner towards the end of the first half. In a dire opening thirty or so minutes for Quins the attacking five metre drives were the only thing that started raising the Quins intensity. If anything the half time break came to soon, another ten mins with their tails up and maybe they could have made more of a fist of the second half.

The first twenty of the second half showed a much better intensity but they were just so poor at the basics that Sarries could pick off their attacks far too easily.

Sarries were just brutal physically and clinical. They dominated up front and played territory cleverly letting Quins play from deep and just picking them off.