Aviva Premiership Round Thirteen

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Gloucester Rugby vs Worcester Warriors
Kingsholm Stadium
Light Cloud, 9 degrees, 6 mph West North Westerly Winds

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Gloucester Rugby
Manager - Anonmattyt

01. Tendai 'Beast' Mtawarira	09. Dan Robson
02. Luke Cowan-Dickie	10. Dan Carter
03. Juan Figallo
04. Eben Etzebeth	11. Jonny May
05. Elliott Stooke	12. Ryan Crotty
06. Ross Moriarty	13. Tevita Kurindrani
07. Ardie Savea	14. Israel Dagg
08. Jaime Heaslip	15. Israel Folau

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Subs: 16. Rob Evans, 17. Joe Gray, 18. Uini Atonio, 19. Tom Croft, 20. Willem Alberts, 21. TJ Perenara, 22. Danny Cipriani, 23. Will Addison

Attributes

Counter Attack - Receiving the ball down field, your players will look to attack with ball in hand, thriving in the broken field and open spaces.
Breakdown (Turnover Possession) - Your side is recognised to pick off turnovers at the breakdown, by getting the ball and gaining the penalty

Choke tackle : Tacklers look where possible to hold the opposition up and force the turnover

Huge game at home.

We aim to play a super high tempo and take advantage of the conditions to attack in wider channels.

Initially We will look to build phases and use the likes of Moriarty, etzbeth, savea , heaslip etc to get us across the gain line so we can play with quick ball.

we will look for Robson, Carter and Crotty to control the tempo of the game. Off static ball we will look to use runners off ten or kick for space with a heavy press. However our aim is to play at pace. Our 9,10,12,13 will look to give Create space to target wide  

With a back 3 of dagg,may and Folau We have pace to burn and we will look to get it to them as often as possible. We will also look to put high ball on Saints back 3. With May Dagg and Folau being aerial experts we can really win here.

We will also be keen to test their ten channel/ We will Target him and look to flood numbers And cut him at source. We will also use Kurindrani to test outside shoulders one on one.

When we generate quick ball we will look to utilise our extreme gas out wide and create one on ones. Our wings are quick and elusive and can play.

Having ball players in 9-15 means we are able to slot in on any turnover and counter attack at pace.

We are looking to create space for our outside backs with looking to exploit the space outwide. We will use folau, Dagg or Crotty as a first receiver when we need to change things up.

In our own half when kicking we will use the boots of Robson, Carter and Dagg to gain territory, looking to kick long to Make them play. We want them
To kick to touch so we can use our line out to get quality possession and pressure their lineout on their ball:

In defence And with such a physical pack we will be using the choke tackle to slow down and turnover ball. When it gets to deck we will look to attack the breakdown with the first man there looking to win the penalty or the turnover.

We will look to use the up then out drift defence on the call of the scrum half or full back as in conditions like this it's harder to use as the ball player has more time on the ball. It's a day when blitz is ineffective

Carter to kick all penalties in range

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Worcester Warriors
Manager - Prop

01. Joe Moody	09. Gareth Davies
02. Ross Batty	10. Dan Biggar (k)
03. WP Nel
04. Devin Toner	11. James Short
05. Leone Nakawara	12. Jamie Roberts
06. Jackson Wray	13. Huw Jones
07. Sam Warburton (c)	14. Waisake Naholo
08. Ben Morgan	15. Brice Dulin

:-
16. Codie Taylor 17. Val Ruskin 18. Henry Thomas 19. Mike Williams 20. Warren Whiteley 21. Sam Harrison 22. Owen Williams 23. Anton Leniert-Brown

Season's Attributes-
Offloading in the Tackle
Breakdown (Turnovers)
Blitz Defence
Choke Tackle
*We have gone with a different centre pairing of Roberts-Jones to tackle the Glos centre pairings as well as looking to use Roberts as he is IRL by Quins using him 3 times then as a decoy going behind him to Jones.
*We have also selected Nakawara and Wray for their big hits to put pressure on Carter as Glasgow did IRL.
-We have selected a heavy, hard working pack looking to nullify the Glos danger from their big carriers and set piece,
-We will play a controlled game, offloading-only when on. Biggar will look for territory where we have Toner and Nakawara ready to rule the skies,
-Big carriers up front looking to offload if the conditions allow possible although being mindful of the encroaching defence and we will have support runners on their shoulders,
-Back row looking to be balanced with carrying, tackling and Warburton bringing the turnover attribute,
-We have good form and all of our internationals back meaning we can play our full strength squad,
-The breakdown is likely to be scrappy and the first man there will look to go for the ball using our turnover attribute. If it is obviously lost we will fan out. If Glos under-commit we will look to drive through them for the turnover,
-Look to not commit too much to their breakdown if the ball is lost and use blitz defence led by Jones allowing the chance to apply the choke tackle to stop Glos playing a quick tempo game,
-Backs to play what is in front of them, runners off Roberts and Jones, we will use Short and Naholo as a strike runner and know the pace of our back three to put pressure with quick ball,
-When nothing is on  go for territory and also use his Biggar's 'bombs' to challenge and turn their backlline,
-We will the wingers to come into the line and switch things up to keep Glos guessing and allow us the chance to hit from deep at times and not be predictable,
-We have selected a huge bench which will be used for impact and to maintain a high tempo game running against tired legs,
-Take all kickable penalties.

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Harlequins vs Sale Sharks
Twickenham Stoop
Light Cloud, 9 degrees, 7 mph West North Westerly Winds

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Harlequins
Manager – Steven_Sharks

01. Cian Healy	09. Ben Youngs
02. Agustin Creevy	10. Elton Jantjies
03. Tadhg Furlong
04. Pieter Steph Du Toit	11. Jack Nowell
05. George Kruis	12. Robbie Henshaw
06. Jaco Kriel	13. Jonathan Joseph
07. Michael Hooper (c)	14. Santiago Cordero
08. Mamuka Gorgodze	15. Damian McKenzie (k)

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16. Scott Baldwin 17. Richard Barrington 18. Kieran Brookes 19. Ultan Dillane 20. Jack Clifford 21. Luke McGrath 22. Steven Myler 23. James O'Connor

Attributes

Phase Attack - Attacks build momentum until an opportunity arises. 
Counter Attack - Receiving the ball down field, your players will look to attack with ball in hand, thriving in the broken field and open spaces. 

Breakdown (Turnover Possession) -  Your side is recognised to pick off turnovers at the breakdown, by getting the ball and gaining the penalty
Chop Tackle: Tacklers look to get low and chop down attackers before gaining momentum or metres over the gain line. 

Game Plan

• Play at pace. Look to play at a quick tempo controlled by Youngs and Jantjies with McKenzie also acting as a first receiver. Look for Jantjies to stand flat and bring our pack onto the ball at pace in the midfield. We want to offer numerous threats to Sale's defence with forwards carrying off 9 10 and 12.
  
  
• Look to use out the back options to get the ball wide into the hands of Henshaw, Joseph and our back three's hands. 
  
  
• Use Jantjies and McKenzie's boot to play in the right area of the field, but we will always look to run the ball if we have the overlap or an unorganised defence. Use Henshaw, Nowell and Cordero's ability under the high ball to put pressure on the Sale back three under the high ball
  
  
• Look for forwards to carry with support, and look for the offload out of contact if it is on or to recycle the ball quickly for the next attack. Conditions allow for us to build phases and use our pack, who are very comfortable with ball in hand, to build us momentum and recycle quick ball for our backs to use. 
  
  
• Use Du Toit and Kruis to put huge pressure on the Sale line out, looking to allow the front but not allow easy ball of the back or the tail of the line out.
  
  
• We have electric pace in our back line. If we can use the carriers in our pack to get us across the gain line and get Sale's defence on the back foot and allow us to attack them on the front foot. Look to counter attack any loose kicks back at pace.
  

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 Sale Sharks
Manager – SJE

01. Jack McGrath	09. Danny Care
02. Tommy Taylor	10. Johnny Sexton
03. Rabah Slimani
04. Maro Itoje	11. Nemani Nadolo
05. Brodie Retalick	12. Reece Hodge
06. CJ Stander	13. Malakai Fekitoa
07. Sam Cane	14. Ruan Combrinck
08. Duane Vermulean	15. Nick Abendanon

Subs:
16. Malcolm Marx 17. Ross Harrison 18. Martin Moore 19. Dave Atwood 20. Matt Kvesic 21. Faf De Klerk 22. Bernard Foley 23. Kyle Eastmond

Attributes:
Phase Attack: Attacks build momentum until an opportunity arises.
Breakdown - Clearing: Ensuring the possession is clean and quick with quick support to the breakdown.

Blitz Defence: Your side is known for Blitz and excels at it.
Breakdown - Slowing up ball: The defenders can get over the ball to slow it up and prevent the attack from building momentum and allowing your defence to set.  

Attack: We will be playing a high intensity phased attacking game. Look to use a rugby league shape with runners on the gain line and out the back door to force the opposition into making defensive decisions. Numerous playmakers across the back line allows us to constantly change the point of attack and restructure our attacking phases. Care to keep the fringe defence honest with his snipping runs.

Breakdown: Quick ball is the aim on attack. Mobile pack and physical back line to clear out rucks and ensure we get it. We will look to get over the gain line off all carries to give a target to hit. Defensively when the initial contact is won we will look to commit numbers and get over the ball turning it over or at least slowing opposition ball up. Otherwise we will strengthen the line.

Defence: Straight line blitz defence focused on winning the gain line collisions and driving the ball carrier back. Line speed is crucial. Care will sweep behind the line to cover chips and grubbers. Combrinck & Bendy to cover the background dropping deep to cut off the green grass available to kick into.

Scrum: Strong scrummaging unit in the front row with the support of a powerful 4-8 will look to get the better of the opposition and build a strong attacking platform. We will look to put a slight wheel on where possible to take the opposition backrow out of play and then attack the space available and look for one on ones in the backline.

Lineout: Five mobile, athletic jumpers allows us to genuinely mix it up on attacking ball. Primarily looking to get the backs on the ball in space. Defensively Retalick to get up in the air at the front and challenge on opposition ball while Itoje marshals the middle looking to make it as messy as possible.

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Northampton Saints vs Bristol Rugby
Franklin Gardens
Light Cloud, 8 degrees, 9 mph North Westerly Winds

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Northampton Saints
Manager: Dammit Chris

01. Wyatt Crockett	09. Joe Simpson
02. Schalk Brits	10. George Ford
03. Ramiro Herrera
04. Joe Launchbury (c)	11. Julian Savea
05. Vaea Fifita	12. Wesley Fofana
06. Schalk Burger	13. Elliot Daly
07. David Pocock	14. Rieko Ioane
08. Billy Vunipola	15. Leigh Halfpenny(k)

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Replacements
16. Ashley Johnson 17. Mako Vunipola 18. Zander Fagerson 19. Jonny Gray 20. Faconda Isa 21. Conor Murray 22. Harry Mallinder 23. Manu Tuilagi

Attributes:
Breakdown - Clearing: Ensuring the possession is clean and quick with quick support to the breakdown
First phase attack/strike moves: Will look to break the defence, with either a bust through or a clever move to create a gap.

Blitz Defence: Your side is known for Blitz and excels at it
Breakdown - Turnover possession: Your side is recognised to pick off turnovers at the breakdown, by getting the ball and gaining the penalty.

Tactics
After a busy Christmas period we have made 4 changes to our pack with Crockett, Fifita, Burger and BV all returning to the starting lineup, while Rieko Ioane and Joe Simpson come into the backline. We have picked a team that will allow us to play the game at a very high tempo, looking to create spaces for our strike runners, with Ford pulling the strings at no10. We've picked a strong carrying pack who will look to win the collisions and gain line battle and will target the breakdown.

Set Piece
Will use both platforms to secure quality ball for Ford to bring our strike runners into the game off first phase ball. We have four good jumpers in the lineout, whilst we will use BV to attack the Bristol 10/12 channel off the base of scrums to suck in defenders and create space outwide for our backs.

Gain-line/Physical Battle
Like Saracens in real life we'll look to send big runner after runner at the Bristol defence to suck in players and create space out wide for our strike runners to exploit. We've brought in Fifita to add his explosive speed in our pack and make full use of the conditions. We have picked five forwards on our bench who all offer big carries, or physicality to allow us to up the intensity and physicality of the game.

Breakdown
See attributes.

Attack
- Look for our pack to win the collisions and gain line battle to allow Ford to stand flat and control the game with his passing. We want to bring strike runners like Ioane, Savea and Fofana into the game and exploit any spaces that Bristol leave.
- Bring Daly into the game, using his pace in dummy runs to create space to attack gaps in the midfield channel with Savea and Ioane off their wings.
- Use Simpson's box kicking and Ford's kicking game to mix up our attacks and test the Bristol defence with cross field kicks and keeping the ball in field with a strong kick chase.
- Powerful impact bench to up the tempo in final 20/25 minutes.

Kicking
- Keep scoreboard ticking over with Halfpenny, whilst Daly to kick anything from 45-60 metres.

Defence
Blitz defence, with Murray sweeping behind. Kicking game of 9, 10 and 13 to get us out of trouble.

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Bristol Team 
Manager: CJ

01. Loni Uhila	09. Ben Spencer
02. Manuel Montoya	10. Jimmy Gopperth (k)
03. Sekope Kepu
04. Donnacha Ryan	11. Charlie Sharples
05. Sam Carter	12. Duncan Taylor
06. Chris Robshaw	13. Nick Tompkins
07. Josh Van Der Flier	14. Craig Gilroy
08. Victor Vito (c)	15. Jesse Mogg

:-
16. David Kilcoyne 17. Rob Buchanan  18. Mike Ross 19.  Kearnan Myall 20  Carl Fearns 21. Kahn Fotuali'i  22. Christian Lealiifano  23. Chris Pennell

Tactics:
Attributes:

Attacking:
1) Breakdown - Clearing: Ensuring the possession is clean and quick with quick support to the breakdown
2)  Phase Attack: Attacks build momentum until an opportunity arises. 
Defending:
1) Breakdown - Slowing up ball: The defenders can get over the ball to slow it up and prevent the attack from building momentum and allowing your defence to set. 
2) Breakdown - Organised Ruck defence: with guards and body guards set, allowing the rest of the line to set off them.

Tactics:
Group effort at the breakdown, focus on clearing out hard as a unit allowing for one of our flankers to get over the ball.

We will look to take Pocock out of the breakdown equation by looking to make him tackle with fringe attacks on the open side

Attack:
As always we will look to build up through the phases, but today we have the playmaking off 9-10 with 11-15 predominantly running threats .

The main focus of the early phases will be to send heavy traffic with big carriers in Uhila, Montoya, Kepu, Vito, Van Der Flier off small pop passes both inside and outside of our 9-10, looking to directly target their small players in 10-12-13. I expect them to mostly make their tackles, but to lose ground, give us front foot ball and suck in their defence to force it narrow, allow us to quickly recycle the ball and either spin it wide to the space we have just created for our pace men with a rapid 12 and 13 and our most attack minded back 3, or to snipe around the fringes with the front foot ball.

With inexperienced Ioane, small Halfpenny and Savea's strength not being fielding the ball on the turn, plan B will be the chip behind the winger for our quick, opportunistic wingers to exploit

Defence:
Blitz, led by Taylor, Spencer sweeping, pressing up from the fringes. The Saints backline, Savea aside, are pacy rather than powerful players who need space to break the line and can be knocked back with aggressive tackling so we will look to tackle early and drive them back rather than giving them attacking space to go around our men. Van Der Flier looking to get on Ford early and maybe look for some chargedowns

Scrum:
I think this is an area we can really compete, look to press hard from the off on their ball, trying to get the upper hand in teh referees mind early so that later on we can use more sneaky tactics knowing that we have the referee on side here.

Lineout:
As usual we will mix up our options with 4 strong jumpers and mix up the maul and tap down. On their ball, Fifita is far and away the star jumper, so mark him in the air every throw and make Brits change things up, looking to pounce on mistakes

Other:
Again we are massive underdogs in this match, not expected to get anything away from home against one of the strongest sides in teh league. Let this help us play with no pressure of expectation and just take the game to them - they will only be vulnerable on the back foot so we have to look to smash them up

Take on any easy points, and be vigilant with discipline in our own half as Halfpenny is a big kicking threat

I think we can target their back 3 with teh aerial game, test their positioning and turning by kicking just behind the back 3 and trusting the pace of Gilroy and Sharples

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Saracens vs Exeter Chiefs
Allianz Park
Thick Cloud, 8 degrees, 10 mph North Westerly Winds

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Saracens
Manager – Pooly

01. Alex Waller	09. Morgan Parra
02. Guilhem Guirado	10. Nicolas Sanchez
03. Dan Cole
04. Patrick Tuipultou	11. George North
05. Sam Whitelock	12. Rohan Janse van Rensburg
06. James Haskell	13. Conrad Smith
07. John Hardie	14. Telusa Veainu
08. Nathan Hughes	15. Stuart Hogg

:-
16. Richard Hibbard 17. Ben Franks 18. Paul Hill 19. Geoff Parling 20. Guy Thompson 21. Lee Dickson 22. Robbie Fruen 23. Delon Armitage

Tactics:

Defensive:
Blitz Defence - Get in the face of the opposition and allow them very little time on the ball.
Breakdown - Turnover possession: Your side is recognised to pick off turnovers at the breakdown, by getting the ball and gaining the penalty

Attacking:
Territorial Kicking: Looking to pin back sides and kick for open spaces or touch
Offloading in the tackle: Moving the point of attack preventing a defence to set and keeping play fluid

KICK IN BEHIND BACK 3 & THROW UP THE HIGH BALLS AT THE EXETER WINGERS WITH STRONG KICK CHASE - Numerous kicking options to target the Exeter back 3. Look to get at Ashton under the high ball and kick in behind Noa, making him turn where he struggles.

DOMINATE BREAKDOWN - Very few breakdown options for Exeter. Look to take advantage of this and slow down/turnover ball with our numerous options.

General - We'll be playing a structured physical game from the off, look to get at the opposition and target the breakdown. We'll look to tie the opposition in with our physical pack/carrying options and then get at their outisde backs, more so in their half. Look to keep it tight in the forward pack and grind through work. Looking to bring in the opposition pack and then use big carrying options to punch holes through their defence. Look to control the tempo and areas we play with kicking options at halfback.

Scrum - Look to get a platform from the off with a strong scrummaging unit. Strong front 5 with big locks will look for the big push once the ball is in and drive the opposition back. Our TH and Hooker will look to target LH and try to get between him and Hooker to allow LH to work on TH If no weakness seen will use as restart.

Line out – Look for safe ball with world class line out options and experience. Will allow SH good clean ball and have big carriers running off the 9 at angles. Look to target opposition throw and put pressure on the hooker.

Defence - Blitz defence with high intensity and big hits, looking to drive past the ball player if the ball hits the deck. physical pack that can look to get at the collision and breakdown allowing a chance to slow down/steal ball. Put pressure on SH's basics and force him into errors. Scrum half to sweep behind the defensive line.

Attack - Keep things simple in our own half then look to unleash backs in opp 22 territory. Scrum half to dictate play from the breakdown and runners on his shoulder. Huge carrying pack to get us over the gain line after front 5 set a platform. Midfield to run angles off the 9/10, allowing us gain line breakers. Look to keep opposition guessing with clever lines through midfield. Wingers will look to track the midfield combo.

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Exeter Chiefs
Manager – StNick

01. Jefferson Poirot	09. Greg Laidlaw
02. Dane Coles	10. Camille Lopez
03. Ben Tameifuna
04. Courtney Lawes	11. Noa Nakaitaci
05. Kane Douglas	12. Ma'a Nonu
06. Dave Ewers	13. Maxime Mermoz
07. Teimana Harrison	14. Chris Ashton
08. Sergio Parisse	15. Maxime Medard

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Subs: 16. Nathan Catt, 17. Tom Youngs, 18. Kyle Sinckler, 19. James Horwill, 20. Marcell Coetzee, 21. Nic White, 22. Alex Lozowski, 23. JP Pietersen

Territorial Kicking: Looking to pin back sides and kick for open spaces or touch.
First phase attack/strike moves: Will look to break the defence, with either a bust through or a clever move to create a gap.

Breakdown - Slowing up ball: The defenders can get over the ball to slow it up and prevent the attack from building momentum and allowing your defence to set.
Chop Tackle: Tacklers look to get low and chop down attackers before gaining momentum or metres over the gain line.

We have freshened up the side after the Bath game by bringing in Big Ben T for Sinckler, Ewers for Ollivon at 6 and Kane Douglas in at 5 for James Horwill, who drops to the bench.

We have picked a big pack and are targeting the forward battle as key to the win. We have a solid scrum to build from and two big locks who are both good lineout options.

The set piece will be important and we will look to use this as a weapon to attack from and gain territory. Our back row are all big carriers and we will use them all to gain hard yards and tire out Saracens defenders. Ewers, Coles, Sinckler, Parisse, Harrison are all good strong ball carriers and will look to get us front foot ball for Lopez to work with.

In the backs we will use Nonu as a crash ball option and a decoy runner to open up space for the likes of Mermoz, Nakaitaci and Medard to exploit. Laidlaw will kick all pens for goal if in range and if not look to kick deep to gain territory.

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Wasps vs Leicester Tigers
Ricoh Arena
Light Cloud, 8 degrees, 8 mph North Westerly Winds

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Wasps
Manager - Pullthestrings

01. Joe Marler	09. Maxime Machenaud
02. Bismark Du Plessis	10. Aaron Cruden (k)
03. Frans Malherbe
04. Sebastien Vahamahina	11. Bryan Habana
05. Alun Wyn-Jones (c)	12. Henry Slade
06. Tom Wood	13. Jonathan Davies
07. Sean O'Brien	14. Anthony Watson
08. Louis Picamoles	15. Rob Kearney

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16. Harry Thacker, 17. Marcos Ayerza, 18. Dave Wilson, 19. Andrew Kitchener, 20. Jerome Kaino, 21. Sebastien Tillous-Borde, 22. Brad Barritt, 23. Marland Yarde

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Tactics
Attack:
- Good athleticism in the pack. Looking for them to be mobile and get around the park, ensuring good numbers at every breakdown to give clean ball
- Mix up forward runners off 9 and 10 to give go forward and tie in defence. When space opens up, go wide and utilise pace of back three.
Defence:
- Ensure guards and body guards at every breakdown, no gaps in midfield.
- Good line speed to put pressure on their handling and ability to go round our blitz defence

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Leicester Tigers
Manager – Fluxy

01. Gethin Jenkins	09. Francois Hougaard
02. Stephen Moore	10. Kurtley Beale
03. Owen Franks
04. Samu Manoa	11. Henry Purdy
05. Pascal Pape	12. Ben Te'o
06. Don Armand (c)	13. Gael Fickou
07. Sam Jones	14. Sean Maitland
08. Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe	15. Mike Brown

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Subs: 16. Dave Ward 17. Mikheil Nariashvili 18. Brian Mujati 19. Dominic Bird 20. Calum Chick 21. Nick Phipps 22. Freddie Burns 23. Mathieu Basteruad

In reasonable conditions we will be looking to play a possession based game, going through the phases and continually shifting the point of attack. With it being slightly damp however we won't take chances with offloading in our half, but will make ground carrying close to the ruck and recycling quickly. Beale will take the ball to the line and tempt someone to bite down on him, creating holes for our back line to exploit. 

In defence, as always we will be running our traditional blitz defence. Our focus will be on the gainline collisions and driving back in the tackle. Line speed and no dog-legs will be key components for us. Hougaard will sweep in behind the defensive line to counter any chips/grubbers.

Specifics 

• Line-out: Nothing flash. Hit our front and middle jumpers and ensure that we secure our ball. We will also mix it up, shortening the line-out and using our back row as crash ball options off the top. On Wasps ball put pressure on through Manoa and Armand, who are athletic line-out jumpers. 
  
• Scrum: Get low and underneath their props and drive straight. Really test their props technical abilities rather than get in to a battle of strength.
  
• Breakdown: When we carry in, we will flood the breakdown rucking well past the ball to free it up quickly and go again. In defence, if we have made a passive tackle and the carrier has momentum we will not over commit, but will maintain a strong defensive line. If we win the collision and knock the carrier back we will look to get the second man in hard over the ball to slow up momentum, or turn over possession. Key for us is being selective.
  
• Attacking Play: We will be looking to play a fast offloading game, with the ball shifted on to the support runner just prior to the point of the tackle with the defender already committed. We will also utilise the pick and go, meaning their defensive line cannot blitz efficiently. We will then we will look to exploit the delay in their blitz that results. We will then look to shift the direction of play and pull their defenders out of position to create gaps. Houagaard to also look to snipe around the fringes and keep us going forwards all the time.  
  
• Tactical Kicking:  If we kick, we will look to kick in behind their wingers and get them on the turn going back towards their own line, with our wingers on the kick chase to really target them defensively. Brown and Beale can take the ball to the line and kick in behind the defense, to get our wingers either on the end of the grubber, or pin back Wasps. 
  

Tigers Attributes
Defensive Traits

• Blitz Defence: Your side is known for Blitz and excels at it
  
• Breakdown - Slowing up ball: The defenders can get over the ball to slow it up and prevent the attack from building momentum and allowing your defence to set. 
  

Attacking Traits

• Offloading in the tackle: Moving the point of attack preventing a defence to set and keeping play fluid.
  
• Breakdown - Clearing: Ensuring the possession is clean and quick with quick support to the breakdown
  

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Newcastle Falcons vs Bath Rugby
Kingston Park
Light Cloud, 7 degrees, 9 mph North Westerly Winds

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 Newcastle Falcons
Manager – Bambam

01. Matt Mullan	09. Rhys Webb
02. Jamie George	10. Owen Farrell
03. Vincent Koch
04. Guido Petti	11. Charles Piutau
05. Lood De Jager	12. Scott Williams
06. Pablo Matera	13. Sam James
07. Francois Louw	14. David Strettle
08. Kieran Read (c)	15. Ben Smith

:-
16.Camille Chat 17.Alec Hepburn 18. Charlie Faumuina 19. Matt Symons 20. Elliott Dixon 21. Will Chudley 22. Paddy Jackson 23. Rob Miller

Attributes
Counter Attacking: Receiving the ball down field, your players will look to attack with ball in hand, thriving in the broken field and open spaces.
Phase Attack: Attacks build momentum until an opportunity arises.
Breakdown: Slowing up ball: The defenders can get over the ball to slow it up and prevent the attack from building momentum and allowing your defence to set.
Blitz Defence: Your side is known for Blitz and excels at it

Game plan

Use Farrell/James/Smith to split the field as alternate first receivers, look to create mismatches on the outside.

Win the pack battle -  looking to use Matera/Petti/De Jager/George as our heavy carriers, with Louw/Read to help us rule the breakdown, we think we are stronger in the back 5 of the pack

Target Goode with high balls and strong chasers, he lacks the physical ability to match our back 3

Laulala hasn't played in a year - target him with Mullan's technique

Set piece - Look to really put their props under maximum pressure with our strong front row, we've got a great scrummaging lock pairing to help. If no weakness, use as restart. On their ball, mark their second rows and force long throws. On our ball, use the back row options to mix it up.

Breakdown - Back row and hooker to lead the way on turnovers. Others focus on strong clear outs and maintaining a strong defensive line. . On our ball, smash them off the ball, use pod system to ensure support if they are having success. Our openside is charged with keeping their main breakdown threat off our ball, and target turnovers if one of their carriers gets isolated

Kicking - Options throughout the backs . Kick in behind the wings for territory, aim for space not the man. Challenge wings positioning, Wings free to drop back for the counter off their kicks

Attack - Run our attack off 9 who sets the tempo, constantly change the point of attack and get our 10 quick ball.. Challenge their 10 defensively with our power backs cutting in running hard lines at his channel with the full back coming into the line. Big carrying forwards to set a platform, run at 10/12 all day long to put them on the back foot off first phase, see how they handle it.  

Defence - no weak links in the backline, use the blitz defence to put them on the back foot,  Farrell to set the tone in defence

Bench - Big carrying forwards throughout and talented, pacy backs to see us home

---

Bath Rugby
Manager – CJB

01. Steven Kitchoff	09. Richard Wigglesworth
02. Rory Best	10. Beauden Barrett
03. Nepo Laulala
04. Will Skelton	11. Juan Imhoff
05. Graham Kitchener	12. Sam Hill
06. Liam Squire	13. George Moala
07. Liam Gill	14. Liam Williams
08. Josh Beaumont	15. Alex Goode

.
16. Eddy Ben Arous 17. Mikey Haywood 18. Samson Lee 19. Charlie Ewers 20. Toby Falateu 21. Aaron Smith 22. Christian Wade  23. Jesse Kriel

Harlequins
Manager – Steven_Sharks

[/b][/b]
[/b]

01. Cian Healy	09. Ben Youngs
02. Agustin Creevy	10. Elton Jantjies
03. Tadhg Furlong
04. Pieter Steph Du Toit	11. Jack Nowell
05. George Kruis	12. Robbie Henshaw
06. Jaco Kriel	13. Jonathan Joseph
07. Michael Hooper (c)	14. Santiago Cordero
08. Mamuka Gorgodze	15. Damian McKenzie (k)

[b][b]

16. Scott Baldwin 17. Richard Barrington 18. Kieran Brookes 19. Ultan Dillane 20. Jack Clifford 21. Luke McGrath 22. Steven Myler 23. James O'Connor

[b]Attributes

Phase Attack - Attacks build momentum until an opportunity arises. 
Counter Attack - Receiving the ball down field, your players will look to attack with ball in hand, thriving in the broken field and open spaces. 

Breakdown (Turnover Possession) -  Your side is recognised to pick off turnovers at the breakdown, by getting the ball and gaining the penalty
Chop Tackle: Tacklers look to get low and chop down attackers before gaining momentum or metres over the gain line. 

Game Plan

• Play at pace. Look to play at a quick tempo controlled by Youngs and Jantjies with McKenzie also acting as a first receiver. Look for Jantjies to stand flat and bring our pack onto the ball at pace in the midfield. We want to offer numerous threats to Sale's defence with forwards carrying off 9 10 and 12.
  
  
• Look to use out the back options to get the ball wide into the hands of Henshaw, Joseph and our back three's hands.
  
  
• Use Jantjies and McKenzie's boot to play in the right area of the field, but we will always look to run the ball if we have the overlap or an unorganised defence. Use Henshaw, Nowell and Cordero's ability under the high ball to put pressure on the Sale back three under the high ball
  
  
• Look for forwards to carry with support, and look for the offload out of contact if it is on or to recycle the ball quickly for the next attack. Conditions allow for us to build phases and use our pack, who are very comfortable with ball in hand, to build us momentum and recycle quick ball for our backs to use.
  
  
• Use Du Toit and Kruis to put huge pressure on the Sale line out, looking to allow the front but not allow easy ball of the back or the tail of the line out.
  
  
  • We have electric pace in our back line. If we can use the carriers in our pack to get us across the gain line and get Sale's defence on the back foot and allow us to attack them on the front foot. Look to counter attack any loose kicks back at pace
  
  
  
  

1 Beast
2 LCD
3 Figallo
4 Etzbeth
5 Stooke
6 Moriarty
7 Savea
8 Heaslip
9 Robson
10 Carter
11 May
12 Crotty
13 Kurindrani
14 Dagg
15 Folau
16 Evans
17 Gray
18 Antonio
19 Croft
20 Alberts
21 Perenara
22 Cips
23 Addison





Attributes

Counter Attack - Receiving the ball down field, your players will look to attack with ball in hand, thriving in the broken field and open spaces.
Breakdown (Turnover Possession) - Your side is recognised to pick off turnovers at the breakdown, by getting the ball and gaining the penalty

Choke tackle : Tacklers look where possible to hold the opposition up and force the turnover


Huge game at home.

We aim to play a super high tempo and take advantage of the conditions to attack in wider channels.

Initially We will look to build phases and use the likes of Moriarty, etzbeth, savea , heaslip etc to get us across the gain line so we can play with quick ball.

we will look for Robson, Carter and Crotty to control the tempo of the game. Off static ball we will look to use runners off ten or kick for space with a heavy press. However our aim is to play at pace. Our 9,10,12,13 will look to give Create space to target wide  

With a back 3 of dagg,may and Folau We have pace to burn and we will look to get it to them as often as possible. We
Will also look to put high ball
On saints  back 3 . With May Dagg and Folau being aerial experts we can really win here.

We will also be keen to test their ten channel/ We will Target him and look to flood numbers And cut him at source. We
Will also use Kurindrani to test outside shoulders one on one.

When we generate quick ball we will look to utilise our extreme gas out wide and create one on ones. Our wings are quick and elusive and can play.

Having ball players in 9-15 means we are able to slot in on any turnover and counter attack at pace.

We are looking to create space for our outside backs with looking to exploit the space outwide. We will use folau, Dagg or Crotty as a first receiver when we need to change things up.

In our own half when kicking we will use the boots of Robson, Carter and Dagg to gain territory, looking to kick long to Make them play. We want them
To kick to touch so we can use our line out to get quality possession and pressure their lineout on their ball:

In defence And with such a physical pack we will be using the choke tackle to slow down and turnover ball. When it gets to deck we will look to attack the breakdown with the first man there looking to win the penalty or the turnover.

We will look to use the up then out drift defence on the call of the scrum half or full back as in conditions like this it's harder to use as the ball player has more time on the ball. It's a day when blitz is ineffective

Carter to kick all penalties in range

Weather Conditions updated

Saracens
Manager – Pooly

01. Alex Waller	09. Morgan Parra
02. Guilhem Guirado	10. Nicolas Sanchez
03. Dan Cole
04. Patrick Tuipultou	11. George North
05. Sam Whitelock	12. Rohan Janse van Rensburg
06. James Haskell	13. Conrad Smith
07. John Hardie	14. Telusa Veainu
08. Nathan Hughes	15. Stuart Hogg

:-
16. Richard Hibbard 17. Ben Franks 18. Paul Hill 19. Geoff Parling 20. Guy Thompson 21. Lee Dickson 22. Robbie Fruen 23. Delon Armitage

Tactics:

Defensive:

Blitz Defence - Get in the face of the opposition and allow them very little time on the ball.

Breakdown - Turnover possession: Your side is recognised to pick off turnovers at the breakdown, by getting the ball and gaining the penalty

Attacking:

Territorial Kicking: Looking to pin back sides and kick for open spaces or touch

Offloading in the tackle: Moving the point of attack preventing a defence to set and keeping play fluid

KICK IN BEHIND BACK 3 & THROW UP THE HIGH BALLS AT THE EXETER WINGERS WITH STRONG KICK CHASE - Numerous kicking options to target the Exeter back 3. Look to get at Ashton under the high ball and kick in behind Noa, making him turn where he struggles.

DOMINATE BREAKDOWN - Very few breakdown options for Exeter. Look to take advantage of this and slow down/turnover ball with our numerous options.

General - We'll be playing a structured physical game from the off, look to get at the opposition and target the breakdown. We'll look to tie the opposition in with our physical pack/carrying options and then get at their outisde backs, more so in their half. Look to keep it tight in the forward pack and grind through work. Looking to bring in the opposition pack and then use big carrying options to punch holes through their defence. Look to control the tempo and areas we play with kicking options at halfback.

Scrum - Look to get a platform from the off with a strong scrummaging unit. Strong front 5 with big locks will look for the big push once the ball is in and drive the opposition back. Our TH and Hooker will look to target LH and try to get between him and Hooker to allow LH to work on TH If no weakness seen will use as restart.

Line out – Look for safe ball with world class line out options and experience. Will allow SH good clean ball and have big carriers running off the 9 at angles. Look to target opposition throw and put pressure on the hooker.

Defence - Blitz defence with high intensity and big hits, looking to drive past the ball player if the ball hits the deck. physical pack that can look to get at the collision and breakdown allowing a chance to slow down/steal ball. Put pressure on SH's basics and force him into errors. Scrum half to sweep behind the defensive line.

Attack - Keep things simple in our own half then look to unleash backs in opp 22 territory. Scrum half to dictate play from the breakdown and runners on his shoulder. Huge carrying pack to get us over the gain line after front 5 set a platform. Midfield to run angles off the 9/10, allowing us gain line breakers. Look to keep opposition guessing with clever lines through midfield. Wingers will look to track the midfield combo.

Northampton Saints

1. Wyatt Crockett
2. Schalk Brits
3. Ramiro Herrera
4. Joe Launchbury (c)
5. Vaea Fifita
6. Schalk Burger
7. David Pocock
8. Billy Vunipola
9. Joe Simpson
10. George Ford
11. Julian Savea
12. Wesley Fofana
13. Elliot Daly
14. Rieko Ioane  
15. Leigh Halfpenny (k)

Replacements
16. Ashley Johnson 17. Mako Vunipola 18. Zander Fagerson 19. Jonny Gray 20. Faconda Isa 21. Conor Murray 22. Harry Mallinder 23. Manu Tuilagi

Attributes:
Breakdown - Clearing: Ensuring the possession is clean and quick with quick support to the breakdown
First phase attack/strike moves: Will look to break the defence, with either a bust through or a clever move to create a gap.

Blitz Defence: Your side is known for Blitz and excels at it
Breakdown - Turnover possession: Your side is recognised to pick off turnovers at the breakdown, by getting the ball and gaining the penalty.

Tactics
After a busy Christmas period we have made 4 changes to our pack with Crockett, Fifita, Burger and BV all returning to the starting lineup, while Rieko Ioane and Joe Simpson come into the backline. We have picked a team that will allow us to play the game at a very high tempo, looking to create spaces for our strike runners, with Ford pulling the strings at no10. We've picked a strong carrying pack who will look to win the collisions and gain line battle and will target the breakdown.

Set Piece
Will use both platforms to secure quality ball for Ford to bring our strike runners into the game off first phase ball. We have four good jumpers in the lineout, whilst we will use BV to attack the Bristol 10/12 channel off the base of scrums to suck in defenders and create space outwide for our backs.

Gain-line/Physical Battle
Like Saracens in real life we'll look to send big runner after runner at the Bristol defence to suck in players and create space out wide for our strike runners to exploit. We've brought in Fifita to add his explosive speed in our pack and make full use of the conditions. We have picked five forwards on our bench who all offer big carries, or physicality to allow us to up the intensity and physicality of the game.

Breakdown
See attributes.

Attack
- Look for our pack to win the collisions and gain line battle to allow Ford to stand flat and control the game with his passing. We want to bring strike runners like Ioane, Savea and Fofana into the game and exploit any spaces that Bristol leave.
- Bring Daly into the game, using his pace in dummy runs to create space to attack gaps in the midfield channel with Savea and Ioane off their wings.
- Use Simpson's box kicking and Ford's kicking game to mix up our attacks and test the Bristol defence with cross field kicks and keeping the ball in field with a strong kick chase.
- Powerful impact bench to up the tempo in final 20/25 minutes.

Kicking
- Keep scoreboard ticking over with Halfpenny, whilst Daly to kick anything from 45-60 metres.

Defence
Blitz defence, with Murray sweeping behind. Kicking game of 9, 10 and 13 to get us out of trouble.

Exeter Chiefs
Manager – StNick

01. Jefferson Poirot	09. Greg Laidlaw
02. Dane Coles	10. Camille Lopez
03. Ben Tameifuna
04. Courtney Lawes	11. Noa Nakaitaci
05. Kane Douglas	12. Ma'a Nonu
06. Dave Ewers	13. Maxime Mermoz
07. Teimana Harrison	14. Chris Ashton
08. Sergio Parisse	15. Maxime Medard

.
Subs: 16. Nathan Catt, 17. Tom Youngs, 18. Kyle Sinckler, 19. James Horwill, 20. Marcell Coetzee, 21. Nic White, 22. Alex Lozowski, 23. JP Pietersen

Territorial Kicking: Looking to pin back sides and kick for open spaces or touch.
First phase attack/strike moves: Will look to break the defence, with either a bust through or a clever move to create a gap.

Breakdown - Slowing up ball: The defenders can get over the ball to slow it up and prevent the attack from building momentum and allowing your defence to set.
Chop Tackle: Tacklers look to get low and chop down attackers before gaining momentum or metres over the gain line.

We have freshened up the side after the Bath game by bringing in Big Ben T for Sinckler, Ewers for Ollivon at 6 and Kane Douglas in at 5 for James Horwill, who drops to the bench.

We have picked a big pack and are targeting the forward battle as key to the win. We have a solid scrum to build from and two big locks who are both good lineout options.

The set piece will be important and we will look to use this as a weapon to attack from and gain territory. Our back row are all big carriers and we will use them all to gain hard yards and tire out Saracens defenders. Ewers, Coles, Sinckler, Parisse, Harrison are all good strong ball carriers and will look to get us front foot ball for Lopez to work with.

In the backs we will use Nonu as a crash ball option and a decoy runner to open up space for the likes of Mermoz, Nakaitaci and Medard to exploit. Laidlaw will kick all pens for goal if in range and if not look to kick deep to gain territory.

---

Newcastle Falcons
Manager – Bambam

01. Matt Mullan	09. Rhys Webb
02. Jamie George	10. Owen Farrell
03. Vincent Koch
04. Guido Petti	11. Charles Piutau
05. Lood De Jager	12. Scott Williams
06. Pablo Matera	13. Sam James
07. Francois Louw	14. David Strettle
08. Kieran Read (c)	15. Ben Smith

:-
16.Camille Chat 17.Alec Hepburn 18. Charlie Faumuina 19. Matt Symons 20. Elliott Dixon 21. Will Chudley 22. Paddy Jackson 23. Rob Miller

Attributes
Counter Attacking: Receiving the ball down field, your players will look to attack with ball in hand, thriving in the broken field and open spaces.
Phase Attack: Attacks build momentum until an opportunity arises.
Breakdown: Slowing up ball: The defenders can get over the ball to slow it up and prevent the attack from building momentum and allowing your defence to set.
Blitz Defence: Your side is known for Blitz and excels at it

Game plan

Use Farrell/James/Smith to split the field as alternate first receivers, look to create mismatches on the outside.

Win the pack battle - looking to use Matera/Petti/De Jager/George as our heavy carriers, with Louw/Read to help us rule the breakdown, we think we are stronger in the back 5 of the pack

Target Goode with high balls and strong chasers, he lacks the physical ability to match our back 3

Laulala hasn't played in a year - target him with Mullan's technique

Set piece - Look to really put their props under maximum pressure with our strong front row, we've got a great scrummaging lock pairing to help. If no weakness, use as restart. On their ball, mark their second rows and force long throws. On our ball, use the back row options to mix it up.

Breakdown - Back row and hooker to lead the way on turnovers. Others focus on strong clear outs and maintaining a strong defensive line. . On our ball, smash them off the ball, use pod system to ensure support if they are having success. Our openside is charged with keeping their main breakdown threat off our ball, and target turnovers if one of their carriers gets isolated

Kicking - Options throughout the backs . Kick in behind the wings for territory, aim for space not the man. Challenge wings positioning, Wings free to drop back for the counter off their kicks

Attack - Run our attack off 9 who sets the tempo, constantly change the point of attack and get our 10 quick ball.. Challenge their 10 defensively with our power backs cutting in running hard lines at his channel with the full back coming into the line. Big carrying forwards to set a platform, run at 10/12 all day long to put them on the back foot off first phase, see how they handle it.

Defence - no weak links in the backline, use the blitz defence to put them on the back foot, Farrell to set the tone in defence

Bench - Big carrying forwards throughout and talented, pacy backs to see us home

Bristol Team 
Manager: CJ

01. Loni Uhila	09. Ben Spencer
02. Manuel Montoya	10. Jimmy Gopperth (k)
03. Sekope Kepu
04. Donnacha Ryan	11. Charlie Sharples
05. Sam Carter	12. Duncan Taylor
06. Chris Robshaw	13. Nick Tompkins
07. Josh Van Der Flier	14. Craig Gilroy
08. Victor Vito (c)	15. Jesse Mogg

:-
16. David Kilcoyne 17. Rob Buchanan  18. Mike Ross 19.  Kearnan Myall 20  Carl Fearns 21. Kahn Fotuali'i  22. Christian Lealiifano  23. Chris Pennell

Tactics:
Attributes:

Attacking:
1) Breakdown - Clearing: Ensuring the possession is clean and quick with quick support to the breakdown
2)  Phase Attack: Attacks build momentum until an opportunity arises. 
Defending:
1) Breakdown - Slowing up ball: The defenders can get over the ball to slow it up and prevent the attack from building momentum and allowing your defence to set. 
2) Breakdown - Organised Ruck defence: with guards and body guards set, allowing the rest of the line to set off them.


Tactics:

Group effort at the breakdown, focus on clearing out hard as a unit allowing for one of our flankers to get over the ball.

We will look to take Pocock out of the breakdown equation by looking to make him tackle with fringe attacks on the open side

Attack:

As always we will look to build up through the phases, but today we have the playmaking off 9-10 with 11-15 predominantly running threats .

The main focus of the early phases will be to send heavy traffic with big carriers in Uhila, Montoya, Kepu, Vito, Van Der Flier off small pop passes both inside and outside of our 9-10, looking to directly target their small players in 10-12-13. I expect them to mostly make their tackles, but to lose ground, give us front foot ball and suck in their defence to force it narrow, allow us to quickly recycle the ball and either spin it wide to the space we have just created for our pace men with a rapid 12 and 13 and our most attack minded back 3, or to snipe around the fringes with the front foot ball.

With inexperienced Ioane, small Halfpenny and Savea's strength not being fielding the ball on the turn, plan B will be the chip behind the winger for our quick, opportunistic wingers to exploit

Defence:

Blitz, led by Taylor, Spencer sweeping, pressing up from the fringes. The Saints backline, Savea aside, are pacy rather than powerful players who need space to break the line and can be knocked back with aggressive tackling so we will look to tackle early and drive them back rather than giving them attacking space to go around our men. Van Der Flier looking to get on Ford early and maybe look for some chargedowns

Scrum:

I think this is an area we can really compete, look to press hard from the off on their ball, trying to get the upper hand in teh referees mind early so that later on we can use more sneaky tactics knowing that we have the referee on side here.

Lineout:

As usual we will mix up our options with 4 strong jumpers and mix up the maul and tap down. On their ball, Fifita is far and away the star jumper, so mark him in the air every throw and make Brits change things up, looking to pounce on mistakes

Other:

Again we are massive underdogs in this match, not expected to get anything away from home against one of the strongest sides in teh league. Let this help us play with no pressure of expectation and just take the game to them - they will only be vulnerable on the back foot so we have to look to smash them up

Take on any easy points, and be vigilant with discipline in our own half as Halfpenny is a big kicking threat

I think we can target their back 3 with teh aerial game, test their positioning and turning by kicking just behind the back 3 and trusting the pace of Gilroy and Sharples

Worcester Warriors
Manager - Prop

01. Joe Moody	09. Gareth Davies
02. Ross Batty	10. Dan Biggar (k)
03. WP Nel
04. Devin Toner	11. James Short
05. Leone Nakawara	12. Jamie Roberts
06. Jackson Wray	13. Huw Jones
07. Sam Warburton (c)	14. Waisake Naholo
08. Ben Morgan	15. Brice Dulin

:-
16. Codie Taylor 17. Val Ruskin 18. Henry Thomas 19. Mike Williams 20. Warren Whiteley 21. Sam Harrison 22. Owen Williams 23. Anton Leniert-Brown
Season's Attributes-
Offloading in the Tackle
Breakdown (Turnovers)
Blitz Defence
Choke Tackle
*We have gone with a different centre pairing of Roberts-Jones to tackle the Glos centre pairings as well as looking to use Roberts as he is IRL by Quins using him 3 times then as a decoy going behind him to Jones.
*We have also selected Nakawara and Wray for their big hits to put pressure on Carter as Glasgow did IRL.
-We have selected a heavy, hard working pack looking to nullify the Glos danger from their big carriers and set piece,
-We will play a controlled game, offloading-only when on. Biggar will look for territory where we have Toner and Nakawara ready to rule the skies,
-Big carriers up front looking to offload if the conditions allow possible although being mindful of the encroaching defence and we will have support runners on their shoulders,
-Back row looking to be balanced with carrying, tackling and Warburton bringing the turnover attribute,
-We have good form and all of our internationals back meaning we can play our full strength squad,
-The breakdown is likely to be scrappy and the first man there will look to go for the ball using our turnover attribute. If it is obviously lost we will fan out. If Glos under-commit we will look to drive through them for the turnover,
-Look to not commit too much to their breakdown if the ball is lost and use blitz defence led by Jones allowing the chance to apply the choke tackle to stop Glos playing a quick tempo game,
-Backs to play what is in front of them, runners off Roberts and Jones, we will use Short and Naholo as a strike runner and know the pace of our back three to put pressure with quick ball,
-When nothing is on go for territory and also use his Biggar's 'bombs' to challenge and turn their backlline,
-We will the wingers to come into the line and switch things up to keep Glos guessing and allow us the chance to hit from deep at times and not be predictable,
-We have selected a huge bench which will be used for impact and to maintain a high tempo game running against tired legs,
-Take all kickable penalties.

Sale Sharks
Manager – SJE

01. Jack McGrath	09. Danny Care
02. Tommy Taylor	10. Johnny Sexton
03. Rabah Slimani
04. Maro Itoje	11. Nemani Nadolo
05. Brodie Retalick	12. Reece Hodge
06. CJ Stander	13. Malakai Fekitoa
07. Sam Cane	14. Ruan Combrinck
08. Duane Vermulean	15. Nick Abendanon

Subs:
16. Malcolm Marx 17. Ross Harrison 18. Martin Moore 19. Dave Atwood 20. Matt Kvesic 21. Faf De Klerk 22. Bernard Foley 23. Kyle Eastmond

Attributes:
Phase Attack: Attacks build momentum until an opportunity arises.
Breakdown - Clearing: Ensuring the possession is clean and quick with quick support to the breakdown.

Blitz Defence: Your side is known for Blitz and excels at it.
Breakdown - Slowing up ball: The defenders can get over the ball to slow it up and prevent the attack from building momentum and allowing your defence to set.  

Attack: We will be playing a high intensity phased attacking game. Look to use a rugby league shape with runners on the gain line and out the back door to force the opposition into making defensive decisions. Numerous playmakers across the back line allows us to constantly change the point of attack and restructure our attacking phases. Care to keep the fringe defence honest with his snipping runs.

Breakdown: Quick ball is the aim on attack. Mobile pack and physical back line to clear out rucks and ensure we get it. We will look to get over the gain line off all carries to give a target to hit. Defensively when the initial contact is won we will look to commit numbers and get over the ball turning it over or at least slowing opposition ball up. Otherwise we will strengthen the line.

Defence: Straight line blitz defence focused on winning the gain line collisions and driving the ball carrier back. Line speed is crucial. Care will sweep behind the line to cover chips and grubbers. Combrinck & Bendy to cover the background dropping deep to cut off the green grass available to kick into.

Scrum: Strong scrummaging unit in the front row with the support of a powerful 4-8 will look to get the better of the opposition and build a strong attacking platform. We will look to put a slight wheel on where possible to take the opposition backrow out of play and then attack the space available and look for one on ones in the backline.

Lineout: Five mobile, athletic jumpers allows us to genuinely mix it up on attacking ball. Primarily looking to get the backs on the ball in space. Defensively Retalick to get up in the air at the front and challenge on opposition ball while Itoje marshals the middle looking to make it as messy as possible.

Bath Rugby
Manager – CJB

01. Steven Kitchoff	09. Richard Wigglesworth
02. Rory Best	10. Beauden Barrett
03. Nepo Laulala
04. Will Skelton	11. Juan Imhoff
05. Graham Kitchener	12. Sam Hill
06. Liam Squire	13. George Moala
07. Liam Gill	14. Liam Williams
08. Josh Beaumont	15. Alex Goode

16. Eddy Ben Arous 17. Mikey Haywood 18. Samson Lee 19. Charlie Ewers 20. Toby Falateu 21. Aaron Smith 22. Christian Wade  23. Jesse Krieli

Attributes: First phase attack/strike moves: Will look to break the defence, with either a bust through or a clever move to create a gap.
Breakdown - Clearing: Ensuring the possession is clean and quick with quick support to the breakdown
Blitz Defence: Your side is known for Blitz and excels at it
Breakdown - Turnover possession: Your side is recognised to pick off turnovers at the breakdown, by getting the ball and gaining the penalty

Overall: We are gonna be looking to play front foot rugby and put Newcastle under immense pressure with our energy. Look for big carries and offloading at a high pace looking to create space and break the defense. Attack the set piece where we expect to be dominant and finish strongly off the bench 

Scrum: Use the set piece to get quick ball to restart our play. We will look to get more power from our back five. Beaumont will look to attack off the quick ball he gets.

Lineout: We will look to switch up the lineup with Beaumont, Skelton and Kitchener options in the lineout. Kitchener will run the line out. Look to get up into the air quickly and down for a quick maul. We think we can dominate here against a poor set of jumpers. Skelton will offer quick ball option at the front. 

Breakdown: Look to generate quick ball for our backs to take advantage of. Gill is brilliant at the breakdown and we will also look to get the rest of the pack looking to help and clear out. 

Defence: Run a blitz defence. Wiggles to drift behind expecting kicks.

Attack: Our half backs will control our rugby. Wiggles will set the tempoand play what he sees in front of him. Outside of him, Barrett will play flat and use his creativity to bring in the back line and make plays. He will be given a freedom to be creative. Look to bring in the rest of the back line, especially Hill and Moala who we would like to get running at defenders.  Wade and Imhoff are very skilful and if the ball gets to them will look to draw in defenders. The pack will also be involved when we have the ball for a prolonged period. We have strong carriers who excel in the loose. Look to get the ball in the hands of Kitchoff, Skelton and Squire in order to break the line and make yards. Throughout them team look to Keep the ball alive and look for offloads. Look to play with a high tempo and get the ball moving across the back line. Exploit the holes we create and look to tire out Newcastle which can help nullify their offensive threats. 

Kicking: Beaumont will be our chosen place kicker. We will chuck in the occasional grabber to chase. Beaumont, Wigglesworth, Imhoff, Williams and Goode all have the boots necessary to try and put us in a good position territorially if need. 

Substitutes: Keep a high tempo off the bench.

I've added tactics in case you're able to add Flux

Wasps
Manager - Pullthestrings

01. Joe Marler	09. Maxime Machenaud
02. Bismark Du Plessis	10. Aaron Cruden (k)
03. Frans Malherbe
04. Sebastien Vahamahina	11. Bryan Habana
05. Alun Wyn-Jones (c)	12. Henry Slade
06. Tom Wood	13. Jonathan Davies
07. Sean O'Brien	14. Anthony Watson
08. Louis Picamoles	15. Rob Kearney

_
16. Harry Thacker, 17. Marcos Ayerza, 18. Dave Wilson, 19. Andrew Kitchener, 20. Jerome Kaino, 21. Sebastien Tillous-Borde, 22. Brad Barritt, 23. Marland Yarde

---

Tactics
Attack:
- Good athleticism in the pack. Looking for them to be mobile and get around the park, ensuring good numbers at every breakdown to give clean ball
- Mix up forward runners off 9 and 10 to give go forward and tie in defence. When space opens up, go wide and utilise pace of back three.
Defence:
- Ensure guards and body guards at every breakdown, no gaps in midfield.
- Good line speed to put pressure on their handling and ability to go round our blitz defence

Predictions open  please PM me by Sunday midnight, and will get the results done Monday morning.

Gloucester Rugby 26 - 24 Worcester Warriors
Outside of Etzebeth, the Glos front 5 just looks a bit weak to me, up against a very solid Worcester tight 5. Glos stronger in the back row and halfbacks with 2 good units. Glos stronger in the outside backs too, and at home have just enough to pip a decent Wuss outfit

Gloucester Rugby 24 - 23 Worcester Warriors

Gloucester Rugby 27 - 22 Worcester Warriors
Small edge in the front fives to Gloucester. Similar small edge in the back row. One each in the half backs and Gloucester have enough outside of that to get the win 

Gloucester Rugby 24 - 23 Worcester Warriors

Gloucester Rugby 34 - 31 Worcester warriors
Really high scoring game, some WC talents in the Gloucester pack but the away side have a really strong pack and will really put Gloucester under pressure at the lineout. Gloucester have some excellent ball carriers and LCD in excellent form. Backlines the home side have more quality. Impact from the Worcester bench is very strong. 

Gloucester Rugby 23 - 21 Worcester Warriors
Very little in the packs overall with Worcester having a small front 5 edge, with Stooke not really at this level and Gloucester just getting on top in the backrow. I think Worcester may have bit more in the set piece but nothing game changing. One a piece in the halfbacks and both midfields lacking some form. Gloucester back 3 a step up and will be dangerous with any ball. Home advantage just sees Gloucester through.

Gloucester Rugby 24 - 21 Worcester Warriors
Good battle upfront though think there is a bit more about the home pack. Short a standout weakness in Worcester backs while Gloucester look very strong out wide with a nicely balanced back line which misses another guy to pull the strings outside Carter.

Gloucester Rugby 29 - 24 Worcester Warriors

Harlequins 24 - 25 Sale Sharks

Harlequins 29 - 29 Sale Sharks
What a battle this is. Sale stronger in the front 5, with only Creevy stronger than his opposite number for Quins. Back rows very even, but think Cane is a better 7 than Hooper, with Itoje also around I think Sale edge the breakdown. One a piece at half back, centres even and the back 3 probably just favours Quins. Sale have a bit more off the bench. Went round the houses on this one, can't split them tactically or on paper, have to go with a draw

Harlequins 26 - 27 Sale Sharks

Harlequins 27 - 28 Sale Sharks
Slight edge in the front fives to Sale but two quality units. Also a slight edge to Sale in the back rows. Sale win the half back battle and although the outside backs means Quins are always dangerous they are edged here by Sale. 

Harlequins 27 - 26 Sale Sharks

Harlequins 25 - 22 Sale Sharks
Game of the round. Two quality teams, packs even and can't split them, but Sale's second row is formidable. Can see Quins getting more breakdown success. Looking at key positions there's an edge with the home side, apart from no10. Balance of Quins backline is better and form of Youngs and JJ gets them the win. 

Harlequins 25 - 26 Sale Sharks
Immense pack battle from 2 top sides in this weeks best game. Healy's lack of form really hnders Quins and gives Sale an advantage in the forwards, very little in it elsewhere. Sale with advantage in the halfbacks but I prefer the Quins backline. Quins LH and FH need improving to really get to the next level and possibly overtake Sale, it's that close. 

Northampton Saints 23 - 22 Bristol Rugby

Northampton Saints 27 - 22 Bristol Rugby
Really tough couple of weeks for Bristol. They target the right areas and think they'll have success kicking for space behind the back 3 and targeting the scrum, but overall the Saints pack will just get a stranglehold on the game. With Ford/Murray they have the class to take the chances that they have and will win this

Northampton Saints 25 - 24 Bristol Rugby

Northampton Saints 28 - 20 Bristol Rugby 

Northampton Saints 25 - 23 Bristol Rugby
Interesting forward battle with some differing form making it pretty even despite Saints bigger names. Similar story in the backs with some starts for Saints but some poor real life form. Home advantage enough but closer than it should be. 

Northampton Saints 26 - 22 Bristol Rugby
Another good battle up front. A real physical aspect to the Bristol front 5 and two flankers in really good form mean Saints are working for everything. A bit more quality across the Saints side though I expect Gopperth's kicking game to torment the two Saints wingers. 

Northampton Saints 27- 26 Bristol Rugby

Saracens 21 - 20 Exeter Chiefs

Saracens 28 - 23 Exeter Chiefs
Exeter go hard at Sarries, but their pack is one of the best in the league and difficult to see an area where Exeter can get on top, especially with the lack of form for some of Exeters players. Sarries to dominate up front, but the Exeter backs are good and will keep this close till late on

Saracens 26 - 22 Exeter Chiefs

Saracens 25 - 24 Exeter Chiefs

Saracens 20 - 20 Exeter Chiefs 
Can't see beyond a draw as Chiefs have such a good pack out, with Lawes being a real threat and Saracens have brought back Haskell a little early with no form and Hardie out of sorts. Hughes playing very well and will cause Chiefs a lot of problems. Saracens unlucky with some form in the backs, and against a very strong defensive setup from the away side I can't see either team winning.

Saracens 22 - 21 Exeter Chiefs
Really physical battle up front again with two high quality packs. More experience in the Saracens 8 though which I think will tell. Nothing between the backs for me and its a narrow home win ground out up front.

Saracens 25 - 25 Exeter Chiefs

Wasps 22 - 22 Leicester Tigers

Wasps 26 - 25 Leicester Tigers
Really found this hard to call, Both packs are well matched and can see them nullifying each other to some extent, although the Wasps back row is really getting back some form now. Beale isn't a 10 for me, and think that is what will be the big difference especially against Cruden with little help outside. Cruden to lead Wasps to the win

Wasps 24 - 23 Leicester Tigers

Wasps 21 - 23 Leicester Tigers

Wasps 22 - 22 Leicester Tigers

Wasps 25 - 27 Leicester Tigers
Again with a little more detail in the tactics the home side would have won as its an excellent side and like the 10/12 combination. Tigers have gone with more detail and Beale and Teo'o are an excellent combination - wouldn't play Jones though as he's been out for quite some time. 

Wasps 26 - 24 Leicester Tigers
Better scrummaging unit from Wasps but BdP very hard to rate.Little in the engine rooms but Wasps a step up in the backrow and will get a bit of control at the breakdown. Wasps with just a touch more quality 9-15 that gives them the win. Better game plan would have seen a higher margin but Tigers keep it close. 

Wasps 32 - 26 Leicester Tigers
Bit of a gulf in class in key area here. I can't see how the 9,10 and 12 axis controls the game for Leicester and you need that in an away fixture. It's essential. Switch to Wasps and you have a 9/10/12 axis that can see how they control territory and direct their side around the field at home. Feel Wasps are stronger up front and have the quality out wide to finish off the chances they get.

Newcastle Falcons 30 - 29 Bath Rugby

Newcastle Falcons 27 - 26 Bath Rugby

Newcastle Falcons 27 - 26 Bath Rugby

Newcastle Falcons 22 - 16 Bath Rugby
No tactics from Bath make this a good win for a very inform Newcastle side.

Newcastle Falcons 22 - 22 Bath Rugby
Koch hasn't looked great of late and Bath perhaps just shade the engine room to get a slight front 5 advantage. Falcons step it up in the backrow despite Louw not fully firing. A bit more form and quality in the Bath backline, esp centre bar Smith v Goode. Real tight game.

Newcastle Falcons 30 - 20 Bath Rugby
Very strong side for Newcastle who take an easy win at home.

Newcastle Falcons 25 - 24 Bath Rugby