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Bath RFC	InTheFastLane
Exeter Chiefs	Driver - RIP 606
Gloucester	Anonmattyt
Harlequins	Steven_Sharks
Leicester Tigers	LukeLovesLuka
London Irish	stnick88
London Wasps	Arry
Newcastle Falcons	Sgt_Pooly
Northampton Saints	Dammit_Chris
Sale Sharks	SirJohnnyEnglish
Saracens	LDCPete
Worcester Warriors	prop_lyd

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Waiting List
1. pullthestrings
2. Bathite

Wilko retires from Int

Legend

Total, right time to call it a day

Had no choice really as he wouldn't be selected at Toulon and I don't see him back in the Prem in a playing capacity.

Be interesting to see if he fancies coaching or not. Can't really tell if he'd like that.

This weeks match threads are up (thanks for doing the Amlin driver).

I will hopefully get everything updated from the previous Euro rounds before this one begins.

http://planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,3822_7373457,00.html

How was the tackle Pete or Nick??? Usual levels of idiocy from the Hoff?

not that bad, nowhere near as bad as the morgan one.
doesnt matter anyway, he has broken his arm and is out for 3 months.

you guys will miss him. does give you some grunt. Will be looking at a serious ban on top of the last one i imagine.


to be fair he should have got longer for the Morgan one.

This tackling law needs to be rectified you get Hape's ban which was unbelievable and others go unpunished. Nobody no where the law starts or ends. it is so hard to fathom

He will get 10 weeks minimum for sure, it was only his 2nd game back from a 7 week ban.

Stupid tackle. He has to know by now that if he goes in with swinging arm like that he is going to get banned.

I don't think we will miss him as much as we did on his last ban, as Treviranus looks as monstrous a ball carrier as Hala'ufia is. As long as Garvey stays fit and Paice maintains the form that he showed on Saturday we are ok for carriers. I also liked Gibson at 8 after Hala'ufia went off. Such an intelligent footballer, he could be the answer to England's prayers in the long term if he gets a run there.

I said the other week i thought gibson could be an 8 but most disagreed. I think he is intelligent, Athletic and a real reader of the game.

Think you would see him thrive there

Wonder how long Care could be banned by Quins for getting arrested on Saturday night - they usually are pretty hard on disciplinary issues like that, especially after the whole Bloodgate thing.

Shame as last few games he's been the most on form England no9 - think he will be starting come 6Nations.

How old is Gibson?

Agrre, he would thrive. He's not the heaviest, but rarely loses out in contact and is very strong over the ball despite being quite tall (as opposed to more stocky sort of build of Pocock or Brussow who are great on the deck).

I genuinely think that he is the one player in the London Irish set up who could go on in time and become world class. At present I don't think he even trains full time with us, as he is at Oxford still doing his degree, yet he has been one of, if not the best player in almost every game he has played this season.

The kid has a really big future ahead of him.

He turned 21 in September Chris.

for me Gibson has been one of our top performers this season along with Garvey and Bowden.

I didnt like those sorts of players who went to Oxford or Cambridge and were part time professional rugby players - one of my last proper games of rugby, sure it was Oxford we played, and they had Joe Roff playing fly half and two players for Bath lined up for them.

He's impressed me each time I've seen him play. seems to have a lot of the right attributes to succeed - I'm hopeful that Joe Launchberry will be the same sort of player for Wasps, hoping he recovers quickly from injury as he looks very good.

I didn't realise how handy Gibson was in the lineout until the game v Sarries the other week.

Say that in the future we had Croft, Wood and Gibson as a back row we could pick whoever we wanted in the row to suit a game. Lawes and Garvey for example doesn't really offer a top notch lineout man but wouldn't be an issue with that back row.

Gibson's lineout work is improving all the time. He is very athletic and we have been using him a fair bit to dirupt on opposition ball.

I have to confess I was very lucky to snap him up. I wanted Gillies and King of Driver when he was relegated with Worcester and got Gibson thrown in so I was getting decent value for my 10 mil.

Also lucky that the deal was pretty quick and Pete didn't see it was occurring until it was confirmed!

I have seen Gibson play against gloucester the last 2 years and he was outstanding in each. Did not realise he was so young

I was gutted when I saw you had got him Steve. You know I would pay massively for him. Name you price.

I'd probably go Gibson at 7 and Trevors bum at 8 for the mean time Pete.
Gibson nicked one or two lineout balls on Saturday, not bad going against Nallet.

I thought Croft was terrible against Clermont, hasnt shown any particuarly good form for a while now for me.

What about Luke Wallace of Quins? Think he's been a proper out and out 7 - have been v impressed with him.

Hope Gibson does come through otherwise we;ve really only got Jackson Wray and Billy Vunipola coming through as 8s...

I'd go the other way nick and leave Big Trev at 7, as I think even as young as he is, Gibson is probably a more intelligent player and would give us better control off the back off the scrum (as he did for Thompstone's first try on Saturday).

Wallace at quins looks good but at this moment is only a prospect.

Both Vunipolas look like they need some fitness work

Wallace is good but he is benefiting from playing in a side full of confidence which makes it tricky to figure out his quality.

He could be a very decent player in time.

Mako definitely does, think Billy is more athletic, but isnt that intelligent as just runs into people all the time and isnt physically big enough to do that in the AP. But then again he's only 19. He keeps getting injured atm.

I do like Mako, very physical - but like you say Mat he's not particularly fit. If Sarries can sort that out then he's potentially a top draw prop. Love his barnstorming runs and then the need for a 15minute breather...

"Hope Gibson does come through otherwise we;ve really only got Jackson Wray and Billy Vunipola coming through as 8s."

Alex Gray & Chris York look like better players than both of those.

Carl Fearns , Matt Kvesic , Ben Morgan

Morgan will play for Wales. Almost certain now I think,

Kvesic is more of a 7 than an 8 isn't he?

And I'm not sure what Fearns best shirt is at the moment.

Kvesic has played a little 8, looked decent tbh but probably better on the flanks.

Hala'ufia getting banned might give a chance for Alex Grey to get some more game time as he has been playing A team rugby for a while now. Needs to be a bit more agressive and bulk up a bit, but is a very intelligent player and has good hands.

I hope he does Nick, our best young prospect at 8. Just lacks the physicallity but that will come, he has great hands and is top lineout op.

lads need a bit of help.
all the pictures/buttons on this site have gone to little X and it wont let me copy and paste the format for my team on this weeks thread. what do I need to do?

Interesting fact...

If you take away Chris Ashton's Championship season then he scores a try every 0.64 games, Jamie Elliot gets one every 0.6 games.

Don't think he will end up staying, but Elliot looks like one of the best back three prospects in the country - this year's u20's looks the best year yet for England.

Still think Vunipola is our best bet for a no8 (unless Gibson plays there), as we are likely to have Wood and Croft as flanks, so a ball carrying no8 will be needed - I like Grey a lot, just needs more game time and to fill out a lot, as he's 21/22 now? Wonder if he will be moved to the flanks?

Chris you have to put that into some sort of context. The number of games played/Opposition etc. How many games has Jamie Elliot played in the 1st team etc

Vunipola is nowwhere near England class either.

Elliott looks raw, he has good gas but looks behind players such as Wade etc by a long way. He took his tries well but they were pretty simple chances. I don't think he's comparable with Ashton.

Must admit Chris I've seen nothing to suggest vunipolu is anything more than a fat lump

Just first team stats Steven, think he's played 3 Heineken Cup games, last 3 premiership games and before that he had 5 tries in 4 games in the AP too. A very exciting player - any good fullbacks coming through?

Vunipola isnt near Wasps first team class yet - just saying that he's got the sort of game where his style could be a huge benefit for us if he develops - should have made that clearer. The games I've seen him in he does have some great moments - he really reminds me of Falateau so hopefully over the next few years he will get better and better.

Mako's definitely a fat lump, but wouldnt say the same about Billy - although at 20 stone and 19 years old...I hope Dae Young develops him properly, apparently the England u20 coaches go and give him extra coaching at Wasps. At the moment he hasnt learnt that his style of running through everyone at u16, u18 and u20 level doesnt work in the AP and he's been smashed about a few times.

I would have Elliot as the most exciting 18/19 year old in the back three - not sure who else we have coming through this age group, though am sure the young Sarries fb is there again (Ben Ransom) - shame that Sam Stanley got injured, he's a young 10/12 at Sarries and the nephew of a former All Black - looked v good.

Rob Miller at Sale has been one of the best FB's in the AP this year. Very exciting prospect.

Its really odd, but Sale have some really good young players coming through but they are nearly always overlooked for England u18/u20s - same with Bath. Wonder if there is an issue with them, seems a lot of the players are coming from Wasps, Saints and Tigers this year.

Miller is 22.

The stats on The Telegrapgh site have him top 5 in clean breaks, defenders beaten, metres made and try assists.

Worth a look....

Elliott is 19, he looks pretty good tbh. Nothing to get over excited about at this stage though.

Not seen anything to suggest Billy will become a good player, just looks fat and brainless. His physicallity has obviously got his so far but he really needs to learn the game.

People tend to get over excited by physical stats, you can be 6ft 4 and 23st of solid muscle, it doesn't mean you'll make a good rugby player.

All Euro results and tables are now finally up to date!!!

Good work Pete!!!

whats the link to that site luke? always interested to see stats

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/3538935/Rugby-Union-Statistics.html

Dan Bowden top of the try assists thats what I like to see!

Amazed at how many tackles the SAracens backline have missed.

Am always a bit sceptical about some of the stats as how do you count all of them accurately in a game of union? A lot must be from someone sitting in a crowd and watching the game once.

Mike Brown's having a good season so far.

Folks, I am away this weekend from Friday to Monday, so won't be able to update results/scorers/tables until I get back.

if anyone wants to do the results/scorers at the weekend then please feel free to.