Hopes and Predictions for your team this season...?

Who is the team, (club, province, region) you support and what are your thoughts on their prospects for the new season...?

Could they fulfil your optimistic ambitions or is your persimistic realism more accurate....?

Happy with the signings and departures or is the DOR letting you down.

Which trophies might you stand a chance of winning?

Wasps -

Very busy on the recruitment front & just heard we are signing Italian hooker Carlo Festucchia. Dai has gradually been improving our squad & this year we look to have much more added grunt in the pack together with more depth.
Our attacking strengths will always be a threat.

The competition in the Jeff is fierce with many teams closely matched & I suspect we will be fighting mid table with Glaws,Bath,Exeter.
A realistic aim for Wasps would be to qualify for the HC but would love to see them pushing for a top 4.

Ulster:-

Have to be aiming for silverare, Rabo being the most likely. In the last two seasons we've made the Rabo final and the Heineken Cup final and come away empty handed. Time now is to win some silverware. I hope that doesn't sound arrogant but I really think thats what Ulster have be looking at.

Leicester:

Domestic - yes the League is competitive, and we could lose to any of the 11 teams on a given day. However, we should reasonably expect to make the play-offs and be disappointed if we do not secure a home semi-final spot. After that it is a shoot-out but I seriously hope for another May trip to Twickenham.


European - in the last season of the HEC in it's current guise I sincerely hope we are able to top the group and with enough points to secure a home 1/4 final. Treviso will beat someone - hopefully not us, though they have come close recently. Ulster completely man-shamed us two years ago, but something tells me that they reached their peak last season and may not be in decline this year. Whilst not an easy group, it is not the hardest we have had in recent seasons.

Exe:

Domestic - nervous as always at the start of a season, and will settle for 11th and avoiding the drop. In reality, hoping we can kick on again from last season and be close to a play-off berth. Rob Baxter is the man to get the best out of this squad and our adventurous brand of rugby will hopefully serve us well

European: up against the reigning champions again, in Toulon, and Glasgow will be no slouches as their squad goes from strength to strength. Cardiff will surprise a few this season, I reckon, so I'd settle for 2-3 wins in our pool

Glasgow - Win Rabo & quarter-final HC.

Edinburgh - Top half Rabo & 2/3 wins in HC.

Glasgow  :
 
Hopes: win the Rabo; win 1872 Cup; HC semi-finalists
Expectation: make Rabo playoffs; win 1872 Cup, HC quarter finalists
 
Edinburgh :
 
Hopes: place top 5 in the Rabo; get beaten like they owe us money in the 1872 Cup games; win HC home games
Expectation: place top 8 in the Rabo; get beaten like they owe us money in the 1872 Cup games; HC banana skin for other teams

Saracens:

After doing so well to top the AP and get to the HC semis I am hoping we can win either the AP or HC this season. Need to be prepared for the business end of the season much better than last time round though.

In the HC we have the easiest pool by some distance. A home quarter final is a bare minimum. Toulouse still have a stellar squad but have looked quite beatable in the HC in the last couple of seasons. Looking for 6/6 wins in the pool stages. If Quins can do it in a similar group so can we.

Still doubts whether we can handle the likes of Toulon,Leinster and Clermont but we'll see if we can get there first.

Relegation if the Edinburgh game was anything to go by... 

Play offs.
No injuries.
Squad players to perform when internationals are on.
Beat all other regions home n away.

Edinburgh

Hope: Rabo play-off; 1872 Cup and HC best group runner-up.....in fact scrap all that. My hope is that we make more tackles this season than we miss......

Expectation: Play so badly in the Rabo that they create a special retrospective relegation clause so no-one has to watch us play again; 1872 Cup whitewash including the utter humiliation of allowing Mark "the word overhyped doesn't do me justice" Bennett to score against us and managing to go through the HC without scoring any points.....again....

Glasgow

Hope: that Glasgow continue to develop players for Scotland and win everygame this season excluding the two 1872 fixtures.

Expectation: that Glasgow will do ok, win by a few big scores in the Rabo and make the play-offs but continue to flatter to deceive in the HC, just missing out on the knock-out stages. Still, this relative set-back won't stop the ever increasing number of Glasgow fans continuing to develop a sense of "Welshness" in their attitude to their team - all our players are world class, best side ever......yadda yadda yadda.....

Enjoying your Monday FES?

Hopes - Play-offs, LV= knockout stages. Winning all the derby matches (maybe not at the liberty), winning two HEC games, and holding onto all the key players who are out of contract at the end of the season (Foxy, Priest, Scott etc)

Excpectations - Top 6 of the Rabo, 50% wins in LV=, bottom of HEC group, holding onto a few players

funnyExiledScot wrote:Edinburgh

Glasgow

Hope: that Glasgow continue to develop players for Scotland and win everygame this season excluding the two 1872 fixtures.

Expectation: that Glasgow will do ok, win by a few big scores in the Rabo and make the play-offs but continue to flatter to deceive in the HC, just missing out on the knock-out stages. Still, this relative set-back won't stop the ever increasing number of Glasgow fans continuing to develop a sense of "Welshness" in their attitude to their team - all our players are world class, best side ever......yadda yadda yadda.....

A number of people here would regard that as a compliment.

funnyExiledScot wrote:Edinburgh

Hope: Rabo play-off; 1872 Cup and HC best group runner-up.....in fact scrap all that. My hope is that we make more tackles this season than we miss......

Expectation: Play so badly in the Rabo that they create a special retrospective relegation clause so no-one has to watch us play again; 1872 Cup whitewash including the utter humiliation of allowing Mark "the word overhyped doesn't do me justice" Bennett to score against us and managing to go through the HC without scoring any points.....again....

Glasgow

Hope: that Glasgow continue to develop players for Scotland and win everygame this season excluding the two 1872 fixtures.

Expectation: that Glasgow will do ok, win by a few big scores in the Rabo and make the play-offs but continue to flatter to deceive in the HC, just missing out on the knock-out stages. Still, this relative set-back won't stop the ever increasing number of Glasgow fans continuing to develop a sense of "Welshness" in their attitude to their team - all our players are world class, best side ever......yadda yadda yadda.....

Such bitterness in one so young, just so unattractive!  

For the Dragons, I want us to win our home games or at least make the visiting side work hard for the win. There were some shameful performances last season and if we're going to get anywhere, we need to improve our home form. I was impressed by some aspects of our win over Bath, and although it was worrying to see us shoved backwards a few times in the scrum and not able to combat the rolling maul, I doubt we'll be the only team to struggle against Bath's pack. We managed to push them back in the scrum a few times too, so hopefully we won't get shoved around too much over the course of the season.

If we finish the season with at least one Welsh region below us in the table, and with a few derby wins, I'll be happy enough.

Quins:

Domestic - I will be happy with Top 4 and think that is completely attainable. I will be disappointed if we don't qualify for the HEC but feel that is unlikely. I would a piece of silverware no matter what it is. I really hope our new pack (missing Kohn and JJ) can click and our England hopes/write-offs prove their numerous detractors wrong and that we can integrate our young players in as usual.

Europe- tough group. Would be happy with second place and winning every home game and a spot in the Amlin with hopefully a bit of a run there. Delighted if we can beat ASM and Racing away!

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:For the Dragons, I want us to win our home games or at least make the visiting side work hard for the win. There were some shameful performances last season and if we're going to get anywhere, we need to improve our home form.

The only Dragons match I saw last season was the game against Glasgow. I hope for the sake of all Dragons fans that such a display is now ancient history.

That was our heaviest ever defeat. Glasgow were good - they play a great brand of rugby - but it was as if we capitulated with about twenty minutes or so left and they were running in tries for fun after that.

Leinster: I hope for a top 4 position in the Rabo (but we will bow out in an away semifinal if that is the case) and to make it out of the group in the HC (though could end up with a run in the Amlin).