Aviva Premiership - Round 1 Preview

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Well it is here again, the new season and the Round 1 preview.

Friday 6th September 2013

Newcastle v Bath 19:45
After storming through most of the season, Newcastle seemed to struggle to impose themselves in the play-offs and almost limped into the Premiership. The big name signing for 2013/14 would seem to be Mike blair - and after seeing Fury in the play-offs, Falcons are in need of a quality 9. Te departed Jimmy Gopperth got a lot of stick from fans but his points and his leadership will be missed. Can Phil Godman do that?
Perennial under-performers Bath have been the most visible club in the off-season, both for the signings and the pub fuelled bust-ups. Gary Gold moves "upstairs" to the DoR job with Mike Ford assuming head coach duties. Will that actually change anything? Probably not.
With all their signings, Bath have to be securing a top 6 spot as a minimum and should really be aiming for Top 4 - while finishing 11th would be a success for Falcons this season. Newcastle will be looking to host as many Friday night fixtures as they can, and will need to win a good proportion of those. Later in the season the traditional NE weather may come to their aid, but this week promises to stay fair.
If Bath can overcome both the long journey and the opening ferocity we should expect from Newcastle, they should have far too much class. Big ifs though.

Newcastle Team:
15 Alex Tait, 14 Noah Cato, 13 Danny Barnes, 12 Jamie Helleur, 11 Tom Catterick, 10 Phil Godman, 9 Mike Blair, 1 Franck Montanella, 2 Matt Thompson, 3 Kieran Brookes, 4 Carlo del Fava, 5 Scott MacLeod, 6 Dom Barrow, 7 Andy Saull, 8 Ally Hogg (c)

Replacements: 16 Rob Vickers, 17 Scott Wilson, 18 Gary Strain, 19 Mark Wilson, 20 Chris York, 21 Warren Fury, 22 Joel Hodgson, 23 Adam Powell


Bath Team:
15 Anthony Watson, 14 Semesa Rokoduguni, 13 Jonathan Joseph, 12 Kyle Eastmond, 11 Matt Banahan, 10 George Ford, 9 Peter Stringer, 1 Paul James, 2 Rob Webber, 3 David Wilson, 4 Stuart Hooper ( c ), 5 Dave Attwood, 6 Matt Garvey, 7 Mat Gilbert, 8. Leroy Houston

Replacements

16. Ross Batty, 17. Nathan Catt, 18. Anthony Perenise, 19. Dominic Day, 20. Alafoti Fa'osiliva, 21. Micky Young, 22. Gavin Henson, 23. Tom Biggs

Saturday 7th September 2013

London Irish v Saracens 14:00
The first leg of the Twickenham double-header starts with London Irish "hosting" last season's table toppers Saracens. In the off-season Irish have lost a large number of very important players and frankly replaced them with much lower quality recruits. The premiership final against Leicester feels so long ago now.
Saracens have signed a couple off massive forwards in Johnston and BillyV. While Johnston may not solve Saracens scrummaging uncertainties, if the younger Vunipola can be integrated into the team he will provide some real front foot ball. In turn this could allow Hodgson or Farrell to really stamp their mark on the game and the season and get the Sarries backs firing. Meanwhile back to the front row and Jamie George should get a chance to stake a claim for a place in the side long term.
I suspect we may well see a match similar to last season - stodgy and tentative in the first half, but with Sarries taking Irish apart in the second.


Gloucester v Sale 15:00
It seems strange to think that Gloucester appear a little lightweight in the tight five. The plethora of riches available to them in the back row and then in the backs suggests that should that tight five be able to punch above their weight we could see real fireworks this season. While a young skipper, Tom Savage looks a real leader and will be driving his men forward. With the signing of Tavis Knoyle (a favourite of Nigel Davies) and the big money signing of Jimmy Cowan last season, I do worry about how much gametime the ever improving Dan Robson will get.
Sale Sharks - what can you say. Season before last Steve Diamond manged to turn them into a team that was so much more than the sum of it's parts. Last season they were at times dreadfull. Big signings Gray and Cipriani were absolute flops and young players like Miller, Cliff and Amesbury just did not kick on.
Gloucester surely have to win this?



Northampton v Exeter 15:00
While Exeter continue to sign lesser known players and create a team ethos, Saints have done the real big name transfers in the summer. Even if they do not stay fit and firing the whole season, the presence of Corbisiero and North in the play-offs (shoudl Saints make them) would give them a sprinkling of stardust they have previously lacked. Kahn Fotuali'i could be the key signing though. While he started slowly at Ospreys (due in large part to having played for two years without a break) the fans at the Liberty will have been sorry to see him go. He is a class act - though there seem to be some suggestions he may play at 10!
While Northampton have had some nerve-tingling matches with Exeter they should win this one with a little breathing space.



London Wasps v Harlequins 16:30
The London double-header culminates with Harlequins as the "away" team. Again a repeat of last seasons fixture, fans will hope to see another cracker. For 60 minutes Wasps were sublime until their conditioning failed. Wasps appear to have made some very shrewd signings and will look to run the ball at every opportunity. they will keep the tempo high - but need better fitness levels than last season.
After finishing last season with a whimper, Quins will be desperate to show they are not a flash in the pan. The performances of Ben Botica could be key as Nick Evans is showing his age and at times was quite frail last season. Enhanced contracts for the home-grown players has limited the funds available for new signings. The loss of Johnston and Kohn certainly reduces the bulk in the Quins pack.




Sunday 8th September 2013

Leicester v Worcester 14:00
Tigers do not always start the season especially well, but against a Worcester team that has lost a number of key players and replaced them in the main with journeymen, they should be seeking a fairly comfortable win.
Leicester will  not look to overplay their Lions players, but their is strength in depth in those positions. Worries about Floods fitness are countered by the good form shown by Lamb and Williams in pre-season. Full back cover is a little light on the ground with Matty Tait not appearing yet following more surgery in the summer.

Harlequins team

15. Mike Brown
14. Paul Sackey
13. George Lowe
12. Jordan Turner-Hall
11. Ugo Monye
10. Nick Evans
9. Danny Care

1. Joe Marler
2. Joe Gray
3. Will Collier
4. George Merrick
5. George Robson
6. Luke Wallace
7. Chris Robshaw (C)
8. Nick Easter

Replacements

16. Rob Buchanan
17. Mark Lambert
18. Paul Doran Jones
19. Maurie Fa'asavalu
20. Tom Guest
21. Karl Dickson
22. Ben Botica
23. Charlie Walker


London Wasps

15 Andrea Masi
14 Christian Wade
13 Ben Jacobs
12 Charlie Hayter
11 Tom Varndell

10 Andy Goode
9 Joe Simpson

1 Matt Mullan
2 Tom Lindsay
3 Jake Cooper-Woolley
4 Joe Launchbury
5 Tom Palmer
6 Sam Jones (captan)
7 Guy Thompson
8 Ed Jackson

Replacements
16 Neil Cochrane
17 Simon McIntyre
18 Will Taylor
19 James Cannon
20 Ashley Johnson
21 Charlie Davies
22 Joe Carlisle
23 Tommy Bell

Fatty Stevens not resting after his Lions' exertions, beshocked?!

Sale team:
Tom Arscott; Phil McKenzie, Andy Forsyth, Jonny Leota, Mark Cueto; Nick Macleod, Dwayne Peel; Eifion Lewis Roberts, Marc Jones, Henry Thomas; Jonathan Mills, Michael Paterson; Dan Braid (capt), David Seymour, James Gaskell

Replacements:

Tommy Taylor, Ross Harrison, Vadim Cobilas, Kirill Kulemin, Josh Beaumont, Will Cliff, Joe Ford, Rob Miller

Tigers have named a very strong pack but a mixed backline.

1. Mulipola
2. Youngs
3. Cole
4. Deacon
5. Parling
6. Croft
7. Salvi
8. Crane
9. Mele
10. Lamb
11. Thompstone
12. Bowden
13. Allen
14. Goneva
15. Morris

Subs - Schuster, Briggs, Balmain, Slater, Waldrom, Youngs, Williams, Manu.

Who needs a backline when you've got that pack Sam?!

Are Wasps carrying a number of injuries? There are quite a few names missing from their lineup that I was hoping would give us a show similar to the same encounter last season.

Cumbrian mate...

Nah it doesnt come close to 6 Barrow, 7 Saull, 8 Hogg  

Tiger's centre's seem a bit imbalanced to me.

GeordieFalcon wrote:Cumbrian mate...

Nah it doesnt come close to 6 Barrow, 7 Saull, 8 Hogg  

Well there is that.  

Saying that, I believe a back-row of 06. Welch, 07. Saull and 08. Hogg could complete with most back rows in the Premiership.

It has pace, breakdwon, skills pretty much everything....my only problem is its missing some non fancy sheer brute power and carrying...

Cumbrian wrote:Tiger's centre's seem a bit imbalanced to me.

The pairing looks a little underpowered, could be quite expansive though and I've always thought Allen's attributes are better suited to OC, he's always gone very well there for clubs or the Saxons in the past.

Will Allen be playing at 13 more (when Manu is absent) to allow Bowden to play at 12 and so take some pressure off Lamb? Could be a good call as he is bound to have a flaky patch at some point this season.

Bathman_in_London wrote:Will Allen be playing at 13 more (when Manu is absent) to allow Bowden to play at 12 and so take some pressure off Lamb? Could be a good call as he is bound to have a flaky patch at some point this season.

I'd suspect that patch will cover rounds 1-22

So after all Cockers whining. Ben Youngs and Manu are fit enough for the bench?

Or will they be late withdrawals?

Mele to kick the goals or Lamb?

LondonTiger wrote:So after all Cockers whining. Ben Youngs and Manu are fit enough for the bench?

Or will they be late withdrawals?

Mele to kick the goals or Lamb?

Cockers was whining? I must have missed that, most unlike him.

Looks like Saracens are missing afew in the pack then.  I am fascinated to see how the scrum battle goes.  I just hope that whatever the result in our game, we don't just capitulate like we did last year.  I want us to chuck everything at them, and come off knowing that we left nothing out there.  If we do that and we et beat by a better side, then I can live with that.

Cockers was unimpressed by the Lions management choosing Manu and Ben to play in tests when both had shoulder injuries. Neither have featured in preseason and are probably only on the bench for a fitness run out late on.

Given Manu isn't 100% and Smith is out for 3 months Allen is the only senior option ať 13. It's that or Goneva plays there or we call up England under 20 Catchpole (currently on loan at Notts) or the new 21 year old English born Kiwi who's played in the Waratahs academy that we signed this week.

Quins going for the Welsh "2 "7s"" approach to a backrow. Good plan. Starve Wasps of ball

I'm really forward to watching Mélé at SH although the francophone in me will make it difficult for me not to become (even more) confused not to think a scrum has been called like it did on the radio last week. Sounded literally like a really good signing.

beshocked wrote:I think Bath should be worried about the breakdown battle. Newcastle look to have the better backrow in my opinion. That's the one area I feel that Newcastle have the edge. It's an area I can see other sides in the AP targetting too.

Ooooops

Garvey and Gilbert both had blinders. Attwood also huge at the breakdown

Attwood very good. And in.the lineout....not hard against us mind.
Parling needs a good performance.
And I know it's my pet subject...but if Garvey isn't in the England squad this season...it's a problem with Lancaster. He was outstanding tonight.

Webber looked good aswell hit his lineouts also.

GeordieFalcon wrote:Attwood very good. And in.the lineout....not hard against us mind.
Parling needs a good performance.
And I know it's my pet subject...but if  Garvey isn't in the England squad this season...it's a problem with Lancaster. He was outstanding tonight.

Webber looked good aswell hit his lineouts also.

Would be delighted to see that - would at least make me feel a bit better about losing him from Irish

We'd be stuffed if we lost webber Atwood and Garvey to England!

Add Fearns in.there and.that pack is huge!!

Attwood looked like he's continued his rejuvenation from last year.

I also have to say mind...Brookes looked like the one who left us for tigers. When him and Montellano went off the game ended...

We've got to add Guinaza and Orlandi from Argentina and Louw and Fearns as well. Some big old options

Absolutely....be interesting to see how you integrate play.with those cracking backs.aswell...

Of course you must remember you'll have a lot tougher games than tonight...as we will face easier teams...

GeordieFalcon wrote:Add Fearns in.there and.that pack is huge!!

Attwood looked like he's continued his rejuvenation from last year.

I also have to say mind...Brookes looked like the one who left us for tigers. When him and Montellano went off the game ended...

Yeah, good to see Brookes look like the prospect we know he is.

GeordieFalcon wrote:Attwood very good. And in.the lineout....not hard against us mind.
Parling needs a good performance.
And I know it's my pet subject...but if  Garvey isn't in the England squad this season...it's a problem with Lancaster. He was outstanding tonight.

Webber looked good aswell hit his lineouts also.

Garvey needs to play at lock then, good as he was, he's not a better 6 than those we have.

Garvey-Attwood-Fearns-Louw is a tasty 4-7 combo

I was quite surprised the BT lot kept saying the weather conditions would have an adverse effect on Bath. With that pack they are always going to do well when they need to grind out a result. It was not a performance from them I enjoyed watching!

If you'd never watched a game before you'd have though Bath were the home side. KP has always been a fortress for Newcastle as they know how to play the conditions there, but I thought they were inept last night. Blair and Godman failed to control the game in the slightest. Bath showed them how to play in the conditions with their 2nd half performance and I'm amazed Richards did nothing to change their style in the 1st half. When the ball did go out wide it was entirely scripted and whilst Bath did a good defensive job, they were never really tested either. On that performance it is going to be a long, hard season for Newcastle.

Falcons need a 10. Good Godman was as bad as the Scots fans said he would be, totally inept and stole the donkey of the day shirt away from Banahan (is Biggs injured?). Blair looked good but was left to do far too much in his own.

Bath looked good though the injury to Eastmond will be a real concern. They'll take a lot of positives from that game particularly with the young 10 and 15 both doing admirably.

Bath looked decent. you can only beat what's in front of you, and they did that comfortably.

I don't think I have ever been more excited than this for the opening game of the season. I am literally shaking with the energy I have this morning.

formerly known as Sam wrote:Falcons need a 10. Good Godman was as bad as the Scots fans said he would be, totally inept and stole the donkey of the day shirt away from Banahan (is Biggs injured?). Blair looked good but was left to do far too much in his own.

Bath looked good though the injury to Eastmond will be a real concern. They'll take a lot of positives from that game particularly with the young 10 and 15 both doing admirably.

Yup, he was pish. Don't expect him to offer us anything at 10 this year that Hodgson and Clegg won't, that includes goal kicking. Brookes however looked useful, hope he can last 80 mins and stay injury free, his bouncing Ford off was great to watch. On that point, Ford's defence is a little Ryan Lamb-esque.

Watching that match last night, it seems to me that Newcastle, Sale, Worcester and London Irish will be in a league of their own this season.

I don't think you can complain when your 12 and a half stone flyhalf gets knocked on his backside by a 20 stone prop at full tilt. More important he puts his shoulder in and at least acts as a roadblock. When there's more than 7 stone in weight difference you'd expect the big guy with momentum to win the collision. Brookes did make some brilliant carries and much bigger players than Ford were dumped on their ar$e.

Lost that in the first half, getting nilled with that wind behind us was ridiculous. It meant we had to chase the game into the wind. Godman was infuriating, his handling and passing were terrible (conditions accepted) his tactical kicking was inept and some of his decision making baffling. He's only there for 'experience' as far as I can tell, could Joel Hodgson really been much worse than that?

The scrum went to pieces when Brookes went off, Strain looked properly useless against Bath's reserve front row. The only positives in my opinion were Montanella and Brookes. They competed well in the scrum and were brilliant around the park, more of that please!

From Bath, I though Ford was very good. His tactical kicking game (especially in the second half) was very measured and he won the game for the visitors. There is no shame in being dumped on your backside by a rampaging prop who's had a run up against you either.

Very disappointed with that start.  

I have to say I couldn't understand going for the new guy over a pair of 10s who know Kingston Park and the weather conditions better.

Wrestled my way into Twickers now, love the buzz here! Can not wait for kick off!

So pumped for this now. 10 minutes to kick off.

Anyone got a link?

Pretty decent match so far, Irish need to improve their ball control in contact

Crooked feed called

Any reason why Daly isn't starting for Wasps?

Also, how did Eastmond and Joseph get on in midfield yesterday? From the scoreline Newcastle can't have offered a whole lot in attack, but they are still a fairly small centre combo

Daly is injured, out for ten weeks if I think.

Entertaining first half. Be interested to get a neutrals view.

Positives for us...

- set piece has gone pretty well
- we have found gaps and got over the gainline and looked as if we might score tries


Negatives...

- Not accurate enough at the breakdown
- iHumph playing too deep
- need to tighten up in defence on our own line.


Am pleased with the effort though, we are at least giving it a go out there.

Irish scored a great individual try and look generally good with attacking intent but you need to protect the ball in contact so much better

I thought both hookers had a good first half. Farrell looking impressive.

Ojo lively but Saracens look too strong & with their bench will probably pull away 2nd half.

Terrible hands

Terrible hands by Irish so far, what's going on with them?