Aviva Premiership - Round 16

First topic message reminder :

Again the club fixtures slip under the radar, but here goes:

Table

56pts Northampton
47pts Bath
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44pts Saracens, Exeter
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43pts Sale, Leicester, Wasps
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35pts Gloucester
34pts Harlequins
23pts Newcastle, London Irish
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1pt London Welsh



Fixtures

Fri 27th Feb 15

19:45 NORTHAMPTON SAINTS  v   HARLEQUINS Franklin's Gardens BT Sport
Both teams missing important players, but with Lawes and Wood possibly able to feature in some capacity expect quins to be harder hit. After gifting Bath a 10pt lead, Saints controlled the match well to secure an important away win. Meanwhile Quins struggled at home to Exeter, despite the Chiefs seeing 3 yellow cards. Quins do not have the depth of squad capable of coping with the loss of players like Marler, Easter, Robshaw and Brown. Could be an interesting match-up between two scrum halves (Dickson and Care) desperate to catch Lancaster's eye. Will Care try too hard? with Danny Care rules out we get the Dickson boys going head to head.
I struggle to see anything other than a Saints win.


Sat 28th Feb 15

14:30 LONDON WELSH  v   LONDON IRISH Kassam Stadium
Not many teams have failed to get the TBP against LW. London Irish however "only" got 3 tries in a comfortable win at the Madj on Boxing Day. They will want to get all four this time but will need to show much more precision than they have in the last two rounds. Looking at their remaining fixtures this looks like Welsh's best chance to secure a win this season. Confidence is shot to pieces though and the team look like a Pub XV who met in the car park.

15:00 LEICESTER TIGERS  v   SALE SHARKS Welford Road
A repeat of the previous two meetings between these sides will be good for Tiger's Play-Off hopes, but bad for the fans nerves. Twice Leicester have scored a flurry of second half points to overturn large deficits and secure TBP wins. I struggle to see us scoring 4 tries this weekend, so will need to control the game better up front. If Burns is fit, then with Sale posibly missing both half-backs, Leicester should be able to play the game in the right parts of the pitch and grind out a win.


15:00 SARACENS  v   NEWCASTLE FALCONS Allianz Park
At the start of the season you would have marked this down as a guaranteed home win. However Falcons are playing well, while Saracens have major issues at 10 with Farrell and Hodgson both struggling with injuries and Goode with England. Missing Brookes and Furno I do feel that Saracens should be too strong up front, but they have to play better than they have in recent weeks.

15:15 EXETER CHIEFS  v   BATH RUGBY Sandy Park BT Sport
Huge game and and it is possible that a defeat could see Bath drop from 2nd to 6th. Bath struggled to impose themselves against Saints, and with Chiefs close to full strength could well struggle again - especially if Henry Thomas is still with England. Should be a smashing match up between the back rows. Can Bath get Burgess into the game more? I have this feeling that Bath are the only team Exeter have yet to beat in the AP - is this correct? If so this would be a great time to break the duck.


Sun 1st Mar 15

13:00 WASPS  v   GLOUCESTER RUGBY
Wasps will be looking for another big win in Coventry. With Glaws missing Hibbard, Laidlaw and 36 to internationals plus Morgan (and possibly Kvesic) injured it is hard to see them resisting Wasps.

The lack of pressure by not playing in the ERCC may help as well as we can focus more on the premiership

Wasps up to 4th and Bath fall out of the play-off spots.