Aviva Premiership - Round 10

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Round 10
Fri 29th 19:45 Northampton Saints  v   Wasps BT Sport

Sat 30th 14:30 Sale Sharks  v   London Irish
Sat 30th 15:00 Gloucester Rugby  v   Leicester Tigers
Sat 30th 15:15 Saracens  v   Bath Rugby BT Sport
Sun 31st 15:00 Newcastle Falcons v   Harlequins

Sun 31st 15:00 Worcester Warriors  v   Exeter Chiefs BT Sport

ChequeredJersey wrote:Bets on us having a strong 3rd quarter then making the game close and possibly losing it in the 4th quarter?

This hooker can really kick!

kingelderfield wrote:

ChequeredJersey wrote:Bets on us having a strong 3rd quarter then making the game close and possibly losing it in the 4th quarter?

This hooker can really kick!

So, just as I predicted it

ChequeredJersey wrote:

kingelderfield wrote:

ChequeredJersey wrote:Bets on us having a strong 3rd quarter then making the game close and possibly losing it in the 4th quarter?

This hooker can really kick!

So, just as I predicted it

I'm supremely confident........though I'm not sure if I'm right

Oh, I think we'll win. But this pattern is what we saw when the Ints were away

19-19 after a Goode penalty following what was not really a high tackle

Goode is a classy operator no matter how fat. Good comeback from the lads after 5 mins of madness

ChequeredJersey wrote:Bets on us having a strong 3rd quarter then making the game close and possibly losing it in the 4th quarter?

Nostradamus

Newcastle just begging for penalties now

Get in there!!!

What a difference a Goode makes

Hopefully that's our stinker for tge season out of the way :/

Poopie, Newcastle going to win now

ChequeredJersey wrote:Newcastle just begging for penalties now

Or a try

LondonTiger wrote:

ChequeredJersey wrote:Bets on us having a strong 3rd quarter then making the game close and possibly losing it in the 4th quarter?

Nostradamus

Yer I feel quite sick as well

We haven't deserved any win though. Draw the best option after that conversion.

What a come back! Well done lads!

Well, I think the question of will we miss our internationals has been answered. Terrible game but well done Falcons.

Not a very good game. Felt pretty confident we would do Saints, but now I am very worried

Well done, Newcastle, just did steady basics, didn't need to attack much, I'm not a happy bunny

What a win! Goode was superb.

Apart from 10mins of awful play we put in a pretty good performance and actually deserved the win I thought. We certainly tried to throw it away though. So glad we got hold of Goode, he didn't put a foot wrong.

Missing players not an excuse. Still should have won it on paper

We are still 4th but this one does not bode well for the next few matches, especially Wasps and Tigers.

Congratulations Falcons, I really thought Quins had it in the bag

Thank you Newcastle . If Worcester had pushed on at 15-15 it could've been a great day.

Is it too late to push for a top 4 spot?

looking pretty tight at the bottom of the table now.

Get in!!!!!!!!

At least Saints are looking poor too

Well done Falcons you played your gameplan well and that prop you keep playing at 10 is very solid.

London Irish must be gutted to have lost Goode. His experience and cool just keeps teams in the game.

Unexpected win, even with absentees!

GeordieFalcon wrote:Unexpected win, even with absentees!

Not if you read the other board, this was a banker???? I did fancy the win but was certainly never confident.

nathan wrote:looking pretty tight at the bottom of the table now.

Pretty tight round the bottom of Goode's shirt too

My positive spin on this is making a more exciting relegation battle.

Chisholm needs a kick up the arse and some lessons on playing 15. I'd rather have OLH on that performance (is he injured?). No-one could catch a ball, passing backwards or even flat seemed a big ask. Sloan was looking pretty handy though, but too many players went off down blind alleys with no support and got isolated.

I feared the worst when Quins got their third, thought they might go to put us away but the lads showed great fight. Could be back on the bottom next week though, we've got Wasps away and Irish have got Wuss at home. Looking at our next five fixture and we've got it pretty tough. That match at home against Worcester could be one of the two nails that our season hangs on.

Wasps (a)
Leicester (h)
Northampton (h)
Gloucester (a)
Worcester (h)

I can't see us getting anything from Wasps. If I was being really optimistic I would say that we can get a couple of LBP from Leicester, Northampton and Gloucester matches. A positive result from any would be a real bonus. Then Worcester at home is a must win.

Marra it's all in the bag man!

Top four easy.

mid_gen wrote:

nathan wrote:looking pretty tight at the bottom of the table now.

Pretty tight round the bottom of Goode's shirt too

and I thought black was meant to be slimming.

He can be as fat as he likes if he keeps playing like that

Congrats to Falcons ...

LI are really up against it now IMO ... the Goode 'thing', disastrous injury list getting worse week on week and fixtures falling unsympathetically have given us a mountain to climb.

As for Quins?

Well where to start.

Next week we'll hopefully play like we've at least trained together. Managing more then 15 mins of good rugby would be a bonus too.

I worried we might struggle during the 6Ns, it's now up to the youngsters to prove that wrong.

https://twitter.com/andygoode10/status/693876251258437632

Grumpy ward

Ward and Goode both spout off on twitter when perhaps they should be silent.

Have to say that over the last 12 months Dave Ward has come across, on twitter, as a deeply unpleasant person.

BBC quote from COS

COS wrote:Andy Goode is a class act and he can pull players around the pitch. He's a quality player and I'm sure London Irish will be disappointed to see his performance today.

Was it a bit of a fractious game? Not the first time Goode has called a fellow pro out for what he deems to be unsporting behaviour. Remember last season and his little public bollocking of Wade.

OLH is injured. But Swiel could come in for Chisholm.

Let's see what happens next week...

Agree, Ward need to stop spouting off on Twitter, the whole Wood argument was embarrassing

COS doesn't seem happy with the ref's performance yesterday....

“If I say what I think about the referee, I’ll be fined, but we have to take people like that out of the equation,” O’Shea said

I didn't think Pearce had a huge bearing on the game and what he did do seemed pretty ok. He pinged us a fair few times at the scrum which seemed fair enough, I thought he had a pretty good game and spotted the Latu knock on which I didn't when we nearly scored.

Never like to blame the ref.

He didn't make us drop passes, miss tackles and get turned over. Play well and you can take the ref out of the equation. Play Poopie and he always looks like he has an effect.

Exactly Yappy, it's a bit odd. I seem to recall COS saying this the last time we beat you.

Mike Ford of course had to have a moan about the ref too.....


Bath head coach Mike Ford:

"I'm proud of the first half, proud of the performance. The boys got stuck in.

"There's 13 league games left for us; there's another two before we reach halfway. We have to accumulate to get to the top four and we're going to go for it.

"Saracens conceded six penalties from mauls and didn't get anyone in the sin bin, not even a talking-to.

"[Richard] Wigglesworth kicks it dead from the halfway line, it's our scrum feed and the referee rules that it's us to be penalised on our own ball and we're under pressure again.

"It's small margins and you need that rub of the green with the referee."

Personally I didn't feel there were too many injustices on either side.

I was impressed by Bath's fighting spirit but Bath should have really IMO been a bit more aggressive in the 2nd half. Instead of tryng to defend the lead, they should have tried to go for the jugular. Instead it was Saracens who seized the initiative in the 2nd half and had the upperhand for basically the entire 2nd 40. I know they only broke through in the last 10 but it was because of relentless pressure.

A side who is 13-0 down should be put under more pressure IMO. Not the other way round.

Bath lost but performance wise I think they played like a top 4 AP team. The narrow losses to Toulon and Sarries will hurt but if Bath keep up their performance levels then those wins will come.

COS moans about the ref more than any other DOR, even Cockerill. He gets away with it because he follows that format every time, something along the lines of 'I can't say what I'd like to say about the officiating or I'll get in trouble...'

I felt Saracens got the benefit of doubt a few times, but no more than you would expect when the top of the table team host a team in the bottom half. A ref has to make a decision in an instant and he will always have an element of prejudice in decision making.

Fuzzy Dunlop true he does. He's more politically correct than someone like Venter was!

Londontiger fair enough if you feel that way. To be honest I felt that as games go there wasn't too many notable injustices. Yes perhaps Saracens got one or two decisions go their way but I think when a team's on top, the penalty count inevitably goes up.

Wilson's YC for example was perhaps a bit harsh but it was a silly needless push. Webber's attempting at winding up was also unnecessary. I prefer it when a hooker sticks to the basics. Neither Brits or George feel the need to do that.

I said it before the game Brits' performance was important and he put in a very good shift.

Brits is a firm fan favourite and for good reasons.

I also mentioned the engine room - how prophetic, just got the 2nd rows mixed up.

Sgt_Pooly wrote:COS doesn't seem happy with the ref's performance yesterday....

“If I say what I think about the referee, I’ll be fined, but we have to take people like that out of the equation,” O’Shea said

I didn't think Pearce had a huge bearing on the game and what he did do seemed pretty ok. He pinged us a fair few times at the scrum which seemed fair enough, I thought he had a pretty good game and spotted the Latu knock on which I didn't when we nearly scored.

Didn't have COS down as the bitter type, I'll put it down to frustration as such a crap performance. I rate Pearce, he's consistent, communicates well, uses the TMO properly. I don't recall a single call I thought was poor yesterday, apart from the headless chicken display quins were putting on again.

Remember when we said Mike Phillips looked far more like a flanker than a 9, Goode has got to look like an 8, same sort of figure and BV had before he went on the slimming pills