Aviva Premiership - Round 18

First topic message reminder :

Positions:

62pts Northampton
53pts Exeter
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52pts Saracens
51pts Bath
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51pts Leicester
48pts Wasps
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43pts Sale
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39pts Harlequins
37pts Gloucester
29pts London Irish
25pts Newcastle
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1pt    London Welsh




Fri 27 th

BT Sport
Northampton Saints v Wasps, Franklin's Gardens, Northampton 19:45 GMT
Just one round of the AP before the European semis, and both clubs will have one eye on their tough away trips next weekend. Northampton have not been in the best of form but have managed to grind out results with 3 wins and a draw during the 6 nations. Wasps last recorded an away win in the AP in December so despite having the talent may not have the belief to challenge the champions. Mallinder has an interesting selection decision to make at 12. Tom Stephenson is a young man with huge potential, who has been on fire while Burrell has been away.
Both teams have players returning, but Saints returnees are of a higher quality. I expect the champions to play this Midlands derby  tight and wrestle their new neighbours out of it.


Sat 28th

Leicester Tigers v Exeter Chiefs, Welford Road, Leicester  15:00 GMT
2nd visit 5th in a must win game for both sides. A repeat of the result from Sandy Park at the start of the season will see Leicester move into the Top 4 and Exeter probably drop out. While disappointed to lose their LV title, Chiefs will have been heartened by the spirit shown in coming back and the win at Welford Rd in the semis. Much may depend on the performances of the Devon bound Parling and (if selected) Salvi.

London Irish v Newcastle Falcons, Madejski Stadium, Reading 15:00 GMT
Both sides have Challenge cup matches next week, and with Premiership safety guaranteed and 7th spot out of reach may have one eye on that. Irish won the reverse fixture and will be confident of doing a double. Falcons will hope that their threatening backs can profit against an Irish defence that scrambles well. As so often this will probably come down to how the ref polices the scrums and breakdowns. Irish will be hoping Blair Cowan can bring his Scotland form back with him and secure ascendancy in the latter.

BT Sport
Saracens v Harlequins, Wembley Stadium, London 15:15 GMT
Having secured silverware last week, Sarries will be confident that they can handle a faltering Quins team. With the play-off situation so tight, they cannot afford to have any attention drawn to their trip to Paris next week. Quins have a weekend off next week, so may choose to play all their England men. Sarries will surely give BillyV the week off.
Sarries surely too strong.


Sun 29th

BT Sport
Sale Sharks v Gloucester Rugby, Salford City Stadium, Salford 14:00 BST
Sale seem to have dropped out of the Semis race and currently sit in the ECC playoff spot. They need to win this game to keep the breathing space they currently have. Gloucester have a challenge cup match with Connacht just 5 days later and will probably field a team this week that takes the short turn round into account.

London Welsh v Bath Rugby, Kassam Stadium, Oxford 14:30 BST
Bath have major injury crisis amongst their props. With a crunch ECC trip to Dublin next week and the need to give some rest to their England guys this will not be the strongest team they have put out. They are the only side to have allowed Welsh a point so far. Yet the only chance that LW have is surely if Bath forget the clocks went forward over night and arrive an hour late.

We need some points, we've been camped in their half but not looked like scoring

Another yellow for Irish

Yeah lots of territory but little to show for it.

We had to get that three points. Need to convert some tries though.

Amazing defence by Leicester in that phase against Exe. Exeter had over 25 phases in the Leicester 22 and got nothing in return.

6 - 3. Tigers

Excellent counter ball by Leicester, results in a penalty.

Burns gets it 9 - 3

What a try for Ashton

Benjamin injured, Goneva coming on.

You at the game Welly or you got a stream for the Tigers?

Awesome finish by Ashton for Sarries. Grubber through and Ashton gasses past his man and the covering Care (who had a head start) to score in the corner from 20 metres out.

Really like Geraghty but he does have those cynical tendencies when we look like conceding. Difference so far has been a couple of really poor pieces of defending from the falcons. Sinoti looking dangerous as per

formerly known as Sam wrote:You at the game Welly or you got a stream for the Tigers?

Awesome finish by Ashton for Sarries. Grubber through and Ashton gasses past his man and the covering Care  (who had a head start) to score in the corner from 20 metres out.

Streaming had to get my first pair of glasses today so couldn't go.

Ben Youngs playing brilliantly so far.

Radox For Men wrote:Really like Geraghty but he does have those cynical tendencies when we look like conceding. Difference so far has been a couple of really poor pieces of defending from the falcons. Sinoti looking dangerous as per

Totally agree, Irish have scored at every opportunity. Can't argue with the scoreline despite our territorial advantage. We're not clicking in attack today.

Great pressure again by Leicester.

Penalty 15M in front of the post.

Burns going for goal.

Gets it

12 - 3 Half Time.

Irish well worth their lead. We need to improve second half.

Watching the sarries match whilst it's half time in Reading, I knew it was coming but still amazed by that crowd size for a club match. Great effort

That was never a try

Another Tigers penalty 15 - 3

Mind we are half asleep at times aswell...some sloppy careless play.

Try Waldrom

15 - 8 Kick to come.

The irish defence can cope with this all day,

Our backline in the midfield looks blunt. Tiesi and Powell just crash balling it constantly is going to do nothing.
If we're going to play that we should have put Andy Tuilagi in there.

How did Slade miss that!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shocking kick. Right in front of the post.

Actually very pleased with the defensive effort so far. Not just in open play but the defensive maul has been streets ahead of where it was earlier in the year for us

Well I thought us an Irish would put on a really good entertaining game today ....nothing to lose.

But we've ended up with utter boring dross with the Falcons playing unimaginative predictable tosh.

Yea it's a poor game. Irish just happy to soak it up and catch us on the break. Their defence has been very good though.

Burns all round game has improved so much in the second half of the season.

Their defence has been excellent but we've not given them anything to even remotely stretch them.

Cole held up, after a poor Exeer Lineout on their 5M

Try Geoff Parling!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

20 - 8

Kick to come from the touch line.


What a kick by burns 100% ATM.

His kicking is unrecognisable.

22 - 8

Well done Chris Harris.

GeordieFalcon wrote:Well I thought us an Irish would put on a really good entertaining game today ....nothing to lose.

But we've ended up with utter boring dross with the Falcons playing unimaginative predictable tosh.

Facilitated by Irish constantly giving away penalties enabling falcons to continue in their blunt attacks. We're defending well and look decent with the ball but as always discipline is useless

Good try there though

Cracking try by Exeter.

Slade made that.


22 - 13

Kick to come.

Kick good

22 - 15.

Harris saves a try now.

But by god where was the tackling from the falcons there.

Another excellent kick by Burns 25 - 15

Burns 7 out of 7 ATM.

Oh JOsh Furno what were you doing.

Is that a yellow though? He upended him then put him back right??

Don't think that should have been a yellow

Well Irish win, but they were never under pressure. Just kept it tight in defence...and we never questioned them.

Chris Harris sets that one up aswell.

He should have started.

FFS Exeter get a LBP at the last play with a pen.

Leicester go into the top 4 though.

Why did we wait until the 75th minute to start playing like that?
Chris Harris must start next game.

That'll do. Only 4 points behind Gloucester now. Shame we couldn't find a 4th try in that whole second half

GeordieFalcon wrote:Chris Harris sets that one up aswell.

He should have started.

Totally agree, has to start next week.

We've left it too late. Strong last 20 but our defence was poor in the first. Deserved Irish win, their defence won them that one.

Close one in the end. Well played at the end by Newcastle, but just too late.

Sinoti looks incredibly dangerous with ball in hand, as he has all season. Nice cameo from Harris too. Important win for LI, to gain some momentum into the QF next week.

Tiesi needs to go...just doesn't offer anything IMO, likewise Cato.

Harris always makes space ..and gets forward.

Disappointed we lost but Irish deserved the win on our inability to break down their good defence.

After how rubbish we have been playing this season, to think we're 2 points off 2nd!

Incredible isn't it Nathan. Now if only we could get Slater, Allen and Manu back before the end of the season where could we finish!?! Kitchener should be back next week but those three who knows.

Disappointing to let Chiefs get the LBP but they are a dangerous team and we needed a win so I'm just happy with the four points.

i was a touch dismayed that Parling decided Bell should go for a long penalty near the end, which when it came up short gave Exeter possession and eventually they got the late penalty to sneak a point.

We should at that stage have driven the ball into the corner.


I thought we played pretty well, especially defensibvely in the first half playing into a very strong wind. Four times we eaned penalties deep in the chiefs 22 on counter attacks and Burns was immaculate with his kicking. Slade missed two long range penalties, one from 60m and succeeded with the 3rd again from long range (inside Exeter half). We did concede a couple of penalties in our 22, but Exeter opted to go to the corner and we held them out.

Ayerza had Francis in his pocket.

Second half with the wind behind us we dominated territory and crated opportunities. Goneva was well tackled in the corne, and Cole held up over the line. Both Exeter tries came from us losing the ball when on attack in the Chiefs half. Second got a huge set of boos as much of the crowd was convinced a player on the wrong side played the ball to win it back. I suspect he was the tackler, so did not have to get round from the right side.

My god we are terrible.

I was going to rant about the atrocious tackling, aimless kicking, idiotic penalties and the total lack of gameplan/awareness/leadership/skill/commitment/professionalism/class or indeed ANYTHING that a Premiership club should have. But why bother?

I would say I was stunned but the saddest thing is I really am not.

Well done Saracens and good luck next week.

McGeechan says Hartley and Dickson were out of order at the weekend, and believes Maxwell-Keys should not have been given the fixture at an early stage in his career.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/club/11501752/Craig-Maxwell-Keys-shouldnt-have-refereed-Northampton-vs-Wasps.html

I think I'd probably agree with that.

yappysnap wrote:My god we are terrible.

I was going to rant about the atrocious tackling, aimless kicking, idiotic penalties and the total lack of gameplan/awareness/leadership/skill/commitment/professionalism/class or indeed ANYTHING that a Premiership club should have. But why bother?

I would say I was stunned but the saddest thing is I really am not.

Well done Saracens and good luck next week.

It could be worse yappy, you could support Glaws