Aviva Premiership Round 5 - Preview

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TABLE


Friday, 28 September 2012

Northampton v Wasps, 19:45

Northampton Team News:

Waldouck replaces George Pisi, while Lawes continues to feature at 6, PDJ selected over Mooj and Myler gets the nod over Lamb.

15 James WILSON, 14 Ken PISI, 13 Dom WALDOUCK, 12 Luther BURRELL, 11 Vasily ARTEMYEV, 10 Stephen MYLER, 9 Lee DICKSON
1 Soane TONGA'UIHA, 2 Dylan HARTLEY (capt), 3 Paul DORAN JONES, 4 Samu MANOA, 5 Christian DAY, 6 Courtney LAWES, 7 Tom WOOD, 8 Rhys OAKLEY

Replacements
16 Mike HAYWOOD, 17 Alex WALLER, 18 Brian MUJATI, 19 Mark SORENSON, 20 Phil DOWSON, 21 Martin ROBERTS, 22 Ryan LAMB, 23 Tom MAY


Wasps Team News:

A raft of changes for Wasps. Johnson and Poff are unavailable this week seeing Launchberry switch to back row and joined by Haskell and Vunipola. Chris Bell comes in at centre, while former Glaws winger Bailey makes his first appearance for Wasps. This match will mark Tim Paynes 250th appearance for the club. The oft-maligned (and at times unfairly) prop has been a stalwart for Wasps through thick and thin.

1 Tim Payne, 2 Tom Lindsay, 3 Zak Taulafo, 4 Tom Palmer, 4 Marco Wentzel (c ), 6 Joe Launchbury, 7 James Haskell, 8 Billy Vunipola
9 Joe Simpson, 10 Nick Robinson, 11 James Bailey, 12 Chris Bell, 13 Andrea Masi, 14 Christian Wade, 15 Tommy Bell

Replacements
16 T Rhys Thomas, 17 Simon McIntyre, 18 Fabio Staibano, 19 Sam Jones, 20 James Cannon, 21 Charlie Davies, 22 Stephen Jones, 23 Elliot Daly



Worcester v London Irish, 20:00

Worcester Team News:

3 changes to the Warriors starting XV. Matt Kvesic makes another start at 8, Josh Matavesi comes in at 12 while Arr replaces the injured Perry at 9.

15 Chris Pennell, 14 Nikki Walker, 13 Alex Grove, 12 Josh Matavesi, 11 David Lemi, 10 Andy Goode, 9 Jonny Arr,
1 Matt Mullan, 2 Aleki Lutui, 3 John Andress, 4 James Percival, 5 Dean Schofield (c), 6 Chris Jones, 7 Sam Betty, 8 Matt Kvesic

Replacements
16 Ollie Hayes, 17 Ceri Jones, 18 James Currie, 19 Craig Gillies, 20 Semisi Taulava, 21 Ollie Frost, 22 Joe Carlisle, 23 Jon Clarke


London Irish Team News:
Tagicakibau and Paice return to the LI line-up (I thought Paice was still banned?)

1 Lahiff, 2 Paice, 3 Aulika, 4 Evans, 5 Garvey, 6 Danaher, 7 Gibson, 8 Treviranus
9 O'Leary, 10 Humphreys, 11 Yarde, 12 Shingler, 13 Joseph, 14 Tagicakibau, 15 Homer

Replacements
16. Shaun Malton; 17. Jerry Yanuyanutawa*; 18. Alan Cotter; 19. George Skivington; 20. Alex Gray; 21. Topsy Ojo*; 22. Shane Geraghty*; 23. Jack Moates




Saturday, 29 September 2012

Bath v Sale , 14:15

Leicester v Exeter, 14:15

Sunday, 30 September 2012

Harlequins v Saracens, 14:00

London Welsh v Gloucester, 15:00

They should do, blooming trolls everywhere at the moment.

Anyway back to the rugby Bath team vs Sale

15. Nick Abendanon
14. Kyle Eastmond
13. Dan Hipkiss
12. Stephen Donald
11. Tom Biggs
10. Olly Barkley
9. Michael Claassens
1. Paul James
2. Lee Mears
3. David Wilson
4. Stuart Hooper ( c )
5. Dave Attwood
6. Carl Fearns
7. Ben Skirving
8. Simon Taylor

Replacements

16 Ross Batty
17 Nathan Catt
18 Anthony Perenise
19 Dominic Day
20 Will Skuse
21 Mark McMillan
22 Sam Vesty
23 Jack Cuthbert

Seems odd that Donald is at 12?

Sale Sharks: 15.Rob Miller, 14.Tom Brady, 13.Johnny Leota, 12.Sam Tuitupou, 11.Mark Cueto, 10.Nick Macleod, 9.Cillian Willis, 1.Eifion Lewis-Roberts, 2.Tommy Taylor, 3.Tony Buckley, 4.Fraser McKenzie, 5.Kearnan Myall, 6.James Doyle, 7.David Seymour (capt.), 8.Andy Powell

Replacements: 16.Joe Ward, 17.Vadim Cobilas, 18.Aston Croall, 19.James Gaskell, 20.Mark Easter, 21.Nathan Fowles, 22.Danny Cipriani, 23.Will Addison

Harlequins team

15. Mike Brown
14. Seb Stegmann
13. Matt Hopper
12. Jordan Turner-Hall
11. Ugo Monye
10. Nick Evans
9. Danny Care

1. Joe Marler
2. Joe Gray
3. James Johnston
4. Olly Kohn
5. George Robson
6. Tom Guest
7. Chris Robshaw
8. Nick Easter

Replacements

16. Rob Buchanan
17. Mark Lambert
18. Will Collier
19. Charlie Matthews
20. Maurie Fa'asavalu
21. Karl Dickson
22. Rory Clegg
23. Ollie Lindsay-Hague

Ah, I was too late

I feel a bit more confortable with that Quins team. Feared that it could have been a lot worse.
With potentially JTH and Brown out.

Interesting call there on Stegman over Smith - I guess he must be doing something right in training.

I'm still waiting to see what Botica can do in a starting jersey - may have to wait till the LV cup for that though.

15 Alex Goode
14 Chris Ashton
13 Joel Tomkins
12 Brad Barritt
11 Chris Wyles
10 Owen Farrell
9 Richard Wigglesworth
1 Rhys Gill
2 Schalk Brits
3 Petrus du Plessis
4 Steve Borthwick ©
5 Alistair Hargreaves
6 Kelly Brown
7 Will Fraser
8 Ernst Joubert

16 John Smit
17 Mako Vunipola
18 Matt Stevens
19 George Kruis
20 Andy Saull
21 Ben Spencer
22 Charlie Hodgson
23 David Strettle

Interesting, Farrell gets another start.

15 Alex Goode
14 Chris Ashton
13 Joel Tomkins
11 Chris Wyles
9 Richard Wigglesworth
2 Schalk Brits
6 Kelly Brown
7 Will Fraser
8 Ernst Joubert

To me, its a funny thing, at the minimum, these guys should be able to consistently link up and be pretty dynamic in attack. I especially are interested to see how Tomkins gets on. I am not sure the uber conservative game plan really plays to their strengths. And to open up more would give young Farrell more opportunities to broaden his game.

If onlly Farrell could actually pass then that might be true Dr.

I am really disappointed to see Farrell starting. I like him but he's in really poor form. Saving him for London Welsh away would have been my decision.

It basically tells Quins we are going to just kick the ball back to them to run at us with their dynamic offloading game.

If Saracens do try and attack Farrell is just not effective enough in that area.

Doctor grey I agree. Unfortunately Quins have a really strong defence. Scoring tries against them is much harder than the average side too.

Who are Tommy Taylor and James Doyle for the Sharks? Any good?

Beshocked I agree with what you say there, but still you're such a good team that I wouldn't be surprised if you won. Gutted but not surprised

Quins do have a strong defence. A bit under rated in my opinion. My comment about some of the Sarries players was just wondering how they would get on in a different scheme. On current form, Quins would have to be favourites. Will be close, though, methinks.

northampton 8-6 wasps

Once again the TMO makes the wrong decision at FG. Van Velze should have been red carded and so should Payne. What's the point of having a TMO if they're not going to make the right decision. It slows the game for nothing!

payne should have been off.

Lawes has looked good so far out shining haskell and wood in the back row.

Lindsay struggling with lineout throwing depriving wasps of an important weapon. wasps are lateral in attack and saints defense look well in control.

To be fair to the TMO, he didn't have the camera view at the time of his decision that showed it to be as bad as it was.

I don't think it's so much Lindsay struggling as that the Saints have a number of athletes in their lineout and have got the Wasps' jumpers completely clocked.

disappointing from wasps, they really struggled to stretch the saints defense.
saints also controlled the set piece disrupting the wasps lineout all night, dominated the scrum especially 2nd half.

shame saints didnt play for the try bonus, I got the impression they were happy with the win. Wasps defended well and will have better days im sure.
Still those better days cant come soon enough, just 1 win from 5.

england player watch from saints vs wasps:

lee dickson- traditional quick delivery, key to the saints tempo.
lawes- great workrate, big hits and a strong showing in the lineout too
hartely- good set piece, hit the line at pace and tackled well

wade- looked threatening in the rare occasions he found space
haskell- good in defence but had no impact ball in hand
wood- quiet game, didnt have the impact you might expect him to have

From what I can glean from various sources (online comments, people at the game and a bit of radio) poor discipline and basic errors have killed us at Sixways.

Gutted.com

basic errors= not playing well

Pete,

Looks like it was close for first 3/4s of game then Warriors ran away with it. I thought Worcester would be too good at home for LI, but had not expected a TBP.

I'm told we were dropping high balls under no pressure and kicking restarts out on the full. You get nowhere if you can't get them sort of things right.

Also having 2 players sin binned so playing a quarter of the match a man short can't help.

Very disappointing start to the season all round for us.

HQ matt wrote:wood- quiet game, didnt have the impact you might expect him to have

I tought he had a really good, effective game. Fast to the breakdown he was all over the ball whether in attack or defence. OK he did not put in the showy hits of Lawes or Manoa but he completely neutralised Haskell I felt.

In the head-to-heads:

Hartley>Lindsay
Lawes>Launchberry
Wood>Haskell
Dickson>Simpson

burrell also had another good game.

point taken on wood, saints pack was dominant and he was a part of that, certainly more effective than haskell.

worcester 35-11 LI

wow, warriors did show spirit against the saints but didnt expect that result.
LI look to be in serious trouble, certainly dont look like a side capable of challenging for HC spots this season, its still early but they look to have a lot of improving to do.

burrell also had another good game.

Perfect replacement for Downey. Big strong 12 that makes the 10s life much easier. Needs to develop a plan b ball in hand though.

Spent a great evening at The Gardens and watched the replay this morning over breakfast. Observations:

Saints still have not played for a full 80 minutes. Almost sleep-walked through the first half. Then played with terrific intensity through the entire second half. This is troubling. Also did not convert simple scoring opportunities. Also troubling.

Saints attack from the backs tended to crab across the pitch, and they need a little more cutting edge to get across the gain line.

The front row of Tonga'uiha, Hartley, and Brian Mujati is one of the best in the league and last night's display, especially when Mujati come on, was possibly one of the best I have seen. I cannot understand why the Springbok management doesn't send roses to Mujati's house every day asking him to come home. Terrific player, class individual (once again, spent a lot of time post-match talking with everyone).

Doran-Jones played very well.

Lawes played terrific. Though lined up at 6, he featured prominently in the lineout which dominated Wasps. He should be fine.

Seemed Wasps game plan was to bang up the middle then immediately find Wade, left, right, or centre. Seemed to be involved every time Wasps had the ball. To state the obvious, he is going to be seriously good.

Wasps blue road jerseys made them look like another team. Where is the blue in black and gold?

Overall, Saints owned Wasps and it never felt like Saints were going to lose, even at 8-6. But not the complete win it could have been.

Wasps just threw it to Wade and hoped he'd make something from nothing. Their pack made little to no impact in the loose and they never earned the right to go wide.

Saints seemed happy in defence but struggled a little in attack, not sure why they didn't go for the tbp.

Very worried as a Quins fan about how good Saints are looking now though, they seem to have sorted their pack out from last season and are playing to their strengths. Just glad they never bothered to get a good fly half.

Good to see Lawes playing like he'd never been away, maybe the enforced rest actually helped him gain a bit of weight and recover properly? I think he should be looked at as a 6 for the Autumn, it looks more and more like the perfect postion for him and Eng, all the lineout skills of Croft in a machine that can destroy the opposition in defence.

I wouldn't worry too much yappy. I'm sure Saints will finish in the top 4, but I think the Wasps pack made them look better than they were. Teams have worked them out a bit at scrum time and they aren't the force of 2 years ago. Their rolling maul however is excellent. Overall the lack of a truly top class FH is going to be their downfall. You've got the best FH in the NH who can change games, but I can't see Myler doing that. Lamb has the ability, but is far too inconsistent.

When Burrell carries it looks like something is going to happen. The set up for the try was quite brilliant. Like Twelvetrees I feel he has the potential to be seriously good, something I've never felt about Barritt and Allen.

Saints look a very fine side. You'd still worry though that against the very best their weaknesses at FH might come back to haunt them.

To me, Saints are solid, but still not the finished article. Still have not played consistently for 80 minutes. Also looking for the cutting edge in the backs, especially with George Pisi out for a while. Burrell has the potential to fill the hole and looks good so far, but Saints need to see if Waldouck is the man to play with him.

The fly half dilemma persists. Saints got to the Heineken Cup finals with Myler in the pivot. So a team can win with him. But he is certainly not a game breaker. Lamb is much more dynamic and creative, but can win a match with brilliance or just as easy lose a match with a bad mistake. Too inconsistent for my taste.

Overall, happy with their position at the moment. But they have not yet played Saracens, Leicester, or Harlequins. A long way to go.

Quins v Sarries.

The commentators seemed to have got the Danny Care try analysis wrong. The ball was being interfered with by Joubert at the base of the ruck by his foot this did cause Care to knock on. Small saw it & gave a penalty advantage but allowed play to continue & Care carried on.
Barnes & Ryan just picked up on the knock on & are wrong to say Quins were lucky. Sarries could be considered lucky that Joubert wasn't binned.

Quins were lucky to get the try. If Small had seen the knock on it would have been a penalty to Quins and 3 points but I doubt a card would have been given.

LondonTiger wrote:Quins were lucky to get the try. If Small had seen the knock on it would have been a penalty to Quins and 3 points but I doubt a card would have been given.

Yes that is true.

Hence why Quins should have been awarded a penalty. That they had advantage does not allow Care to score a try having knocked the ball on.

As I said correct decision should have been no try with penalty awarded to Quins.

I see we are struggling. Thought that would be the case

Not helped by Evans missing a couple of fairly easy penalties.

As I said correct decision should have been no try with penalty awarded to Quins.

+1. Robshaw appeared to he blocking defenders as well. Small should have seen it or seen enough to go upstairs.

On the other hand we are still winning and I'll take that. Knock on wood

Mike Brown is an obnoxious git at times, but he is playing well.

ChequeredJersey wrote:On the other hand we are still winning and I'll take that. Knock on wood

not any more

"Stevens gobbles that up like it's a cornish pasty"
Stuart Barnes

Stevens looks liek he has eaten a fair few pasties while he was injured.

Sarries games are just so hard to watch! It seems like every game they play in dissolves into a niggly stodgy affair.

Cumbrian wrote:Sarries games are just so hard to watch! It seems like every game they play in dissolves into a niggly stodgy affair.

Very true but they stop teams playing & in this one Farrell is kicking better than Evans - who would have thought that?

Thing is, how do the Sarries coaches believe that this style plays to their strengths?

Tell me guys Brown the fullback from Quins, is he the guy that came to SA?

Biltong wrote:Tell me guys Brown the fullback from Quins, is he the guy that came to SA?

Yes, and got injured.

Biltong wrote:Tell me guys Brown the fullback from Quins, is he the guy that came to SA?

Yes Brown played in S.A. mind you, so did his opposite number Alex Goode.

Evans misses yet another kick.

I think Brown must be pound for pound one of the strongest players in the Prem