Aviva Premiership - Round 7

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Table

Team	--P--	--W--	--D--	--BP--	Points
Saracens	6	6	0	3	27
Exeter	6	5	0	4	24
Leicester	6	5	0	1	21
Harlequins	6	4	0	4	20
Northampton	6	3	0	4	16
Wasps	6	3	0	2	14
Gloucester	6	3	0	1	13
Sale Sharks	6	2	1	3	13
Bath	6	2	0	3	11
Worcester	6	2	0	2	10
Newcastle	6	0	1	0	2
London Irish	6	0	0	0	0

Fixtures

SATURDAY 26TH DECEMBER 2015
14:30 London Irish v Northampton
15:00 Exeter v Sale
15:00 Leicester v Newcastle

SUNDAY 27TH DECEMBER 2015
14:00 Wasps v Saracens
14:30 Bath v Worcester
16:30 Harlequins v Gloucester

As you may have guessed I was running a bit behind --- wooohooo !!!!!!!

Irish won???

Tom Youngs comes on....mis-throws

Yep Youngs on now pretty much a man advantage to Falcons now basically.

Sgt_Pooly wrote:Irish won???

Tom Youngs comes on....mis-throws

Oh yes

Lots of ref whinging going on today...

Aye Sarge. Stupid from Agulla again. Looking dangerous In attack, if we could pack it in with the stupid penalties we might have a chance of getting something out of the game.

Congratulations mate

Youngs mis-throws again.......he makes this too easy Welly lol

Not watching. Are these actual mis-throws or poolys own definition?

Veainu is all heart.

Quickly becoming a favourite of mine.

Tom Youngs having an off day. McGuigan was poor in the first half. The only hooker who can reliably throw in today is the one we all think should be an open side.

formerly known as Sam wrote:Tom Youngs having an off day. McGuigan was poor in the first half. The only hooker who can reliably throw in today is the one we all think should be an open side.

It just looks more like the normal Youngs for me. Thrown 3 only made 1 (straight to the front I might add). Thacker was solid.

Freddie having a good game.

A win for the Irish at last and probably just about deserved it. This could be the springboard for their season. I think Newcastle might now be the favourites for the drop!

Sgt_Pooly wrote:Congratulations mate

Cheers mate

Our mauls are going nowhere great maul defence by Falcons.

Ref hands out the final warning for infringements in the 22 and we score. No coincidence the Falcons penalty count seems fairly massive.

Their 10 is on a far more creative wave length than those around him.

Welly wrote: Our mauls are going nowhere great maul defence by Falcons.

We've stopped competing at the line out to concentrate on the maul defence, a mistake I think the way Robinson was upsetting Youngs throw.

Typical Falcons to bow out in the final 10. Shame not to get anything from the game(again) but Tigers have obviously been the better side.

Another dreadful Youngs throw....well rescued from the back, no idea how he got anywhere near that.

Sometimes it is bloody hard being a Falcons fan...

Leicester have some great Lineout jumpers.

BigGee wrote:A win for the Irish at last and probably just about deserved it. This could be the springboard for their season. I think Newcastle might now be the favourites for the drop!

With a half decent line-out it may not have even been as close - two of Saints' tries came from lost line-out positions and LI lost some good attacking positions as well ... just hope they can keep it going now.

Welly wrote: Leicester have some great Lineout jumpers.

You need them with Youngs! lol

No more, I promise....its Christmas.

FFS TBP went begging.

Wasn't a knock on IMO.

Deserved win lads

Couldn't hear the final whistle did the ref actually blow it? Only time he didn't use the bloody TMO. Woeful officiating.

He wasn't great but you certainly got the rub. I doubt good officiating would have altered the score much end of the day. Leicester the better side and 12pts was about right in the end.

Great win for Irish. All grit and fight if not much skill at times.

You desperately need to sort your lineouts out though.

Creates a little space between 5 and 4 now.

Saints were to a man poor today. Harrison about the only guy to come out of that game looking good. The rest were off the pace, uncommitted and sloppy. Poor kicking and rout 1 was their only option.

How did Hartley go?

Just got back to see the final 20 minutes of the Irish vs Saints game.

Were Saints front row poor or was it a Malinderism changing the whole front row on about 60 minutes. Denman is dire at his best, against someone like Court he is cannon fodder. Did Hill get taught a few lessons to encourage him to bring on Denman?

I cannot comment on who deserved to win having missed the majority of the game, but Harrison looked exceptional from what I saw, I would put him in the EPS if he carries on like that.

Irish's rolling maul also looked very good, very difficult to stop legally as Saints found out in the final minutes.

Saints kicking game was awful, looked like they were against the wind, they just kept giving the ball away.

Sorry Yappysnap, crossed with that one. From what I saw Saints looked like they were still digesting their Christmas dinner

Hartley did OK-ish. Line-out was fine, but LI didn't really pressure him at all (not sure they competed for a single one of Saints). Scrum didn't go very well for Saints, and they struggled with the maul, both in attack and defense. Hartley didn't carry much either (not to any noticeable effect certainly). Still, given it was his first game back after a while I think he did just about OK. Needs to get up to speed quickly though, would defo have George ahead of him at this moment.

To LI fans who watch them more regularly than I do, I was impressed with the young centre Johnny Williams? Seemed to make good yards whenever he carried, and in general to be a slippery custommer. Very involved in LI's second try. Seems he's an academy lad though, so will probably be off to Bath next year

Still, England are looking for a 12, and he was certainly much better than Burrell today

Our line-out struggled as we have a bit of an injury issue at lock at the moment - and yes Johnny has been excellent so far this season.

Sgt_Pooly wrote:He wasn't great but you certainly got the rub.

When did you become a comedian?

Well done LI.


Gutted about how we blew so many chances in our game. With Falcons pretty much toothless and playing pretty dumb rugby (ie trying to run the ball with a gale behind, trying to kick when into the wind) we really should have put them to the sword.

The brand of rugby we are playing is so much better than the last two seasons, but we need to execute basic skills so much better if we are to run the decent sides close.

LondonTiger wrote:

Sgt_Pooly wrote:He wasn't great but you certainly got the rub.

When did you become a comedian?

??

Wigglesworth didn't have the best of games but you certainly got the better of the calls(as expected for the home side tbh). I don't see anything comical in that, I don't think he gave us anything at breakdown all match.

I was disappointed by Tigers insistence on going for the glory pass rather than backing ourselves through the phases. We didn't finish enough of those all or nothing chances. Left a bonus point out there. The lack of O'Connor was very noticeable, he brings such a massive intensity to our defence and really links our attacking play.

Newcastle were overly negative and often stifled their own back line with slow predictable play. Too many one out carries and tempo sapping passes from the awful Micky Young. If they'd mixed up their carries and gotten a scrum half to give some quick ball to their ten they could have posed us some problems. The ten looked sharp and had his runners not run into each other or past the ball he'd have made some very neat passing moves. He also kicked intelligently during our sin bin period.

Young was only on 23mins Sam, he was pretty awful though.

I don't think we were overly negitive, we were away to a top 6 side, we tried to contain somewhat. We're just not a great side, only conceding 22pts after recent outings is an improvement.

Whoever your other scrum half was equally bad then. Extremely pedestrian on reasonable ball.

On another day another ref won't let you accumulate as many penalties particularly in your 22. Newcastle played more positively last season and would have had a decent chance of taking more points from these sort of games. Maul defence was good mind.

Mad for Chelsea wrote:Hartley did OK-ish. Line-out was fine, but LI didn't really pressure him at all (not sure they competed for a single one of Saints). Scrum didn't go very well for Saints, and they struggled with the maul, both in attack and defense. Hartley didn't carry much either (not to any noticeable effect certainly). Still, given it was his first game back after a while I think he did just about OK. Needs to get up to speed quickly though, would defo have George ahead of him at this moment.

To LI fans who watch them more regularly than I do, I was impressed with the young centre Johnny Williams? Seemed to make good yards whenever he carried, and in general to be a slippery custommer. Very involved in LI's second try. Seems he's an academy lad though, so will probably be off to Bath next year

Still, England are looking for a 12, and he was certainly much better than Burrell today

Williams is class. The best prospect we have produced in a very long time from what I have seen so far. He is naturally a big unit which gives him a big advantage over other young players, but he has a good step, fend and is very powerful. He has also spent some youth Rugby at 10 so he has solid distribution skills as well. I hope we manage his game time a bit, as apparently the step up to first team Rugby straight out of school has knackered him out a bit, but absolutely no reason he can't go on to play for England.

I thought we were ok today. If we'd have went for it we'd have got beat 50-25, not that it matters.

Our maul defence, scrum and breakdown went well. Wigglesworth decided to not police the breakdown with Tigers attack so it was all a wasted effort.

We were never going to win and didn't deserve much from the game.

SirBurger wrote:

Mad for Chelsea wrote:Hartley did OK-ish. Line-out was fine, but LI didn't really pressure him at all (not sure they competed for a single one of Saints). Scrum didn't go very well for Saints, and they struggled with the maul, both in attack and defense. Hartley didn't carry much either (not to any noticeable effect certainly). Still, given it was his first game back after a while I think he did just about OK. Needs to get up to speed quickly though, would defo have George ahead of him at this moment.

To LI fans who watch them more regularly than I do, I was impressed with the young centre Johnny Williams? Seemed to make good yards whenever he carried, and in general to be a slippery custommer. Very involved in LI's second try. Seems he's an academy lad though, so will probably be off to Bath next year

Still, England are looking for a 12, and he was certainly much better than Burrell today

Williams is class. The best prospect we have produced in a very long time from what I have seen so far. He is naturally a big unit which gives him a big advantage over other young players, but he has a good step, fend and is very powerful. He has also spent some youth Rugby at 10 so he has solid distribution skills as well. I hope we manage his game time a bit, as apparently the step up to first team Rugby straight out of school has knackered him out a bit, but absolutely no reason he can't go on to play for England.

or Scotland or Wales, he is apparently qualified for all three! Not sure what his preference may be?

The Falcons scrum went well when Augero came on. Slightly concerning how much he struggled. I thought they'd have been a more concerted attempt to pressurise Thacker but he seemed comfortable between Mulipola and Balmain.

The Falcons defence was ill disciplined and littered with fairly cynical penalties. More incision might have meant you lost a high scoring shoot out but given how many chances Tigers left on the park and how much ball was wasted with aimless box kicks straight to our back three you could have caused us problems.

BigGee wrote:

SirBurger wrote:

Mad for Chelsea wrote:Hartley did OK-ish. Line-out was fine, but LI didn't really pressure him at all (not sure they competed for a single one of Saints). Scrum didn't go very well for Saints, and they struggled with the maul, both in attack and defense. Hartley didn't carry much either (not to any noticeable effect certainly). Still, given it was his first game back after a while I think he did just about OK. Needs to get up to speed quickly though, would defo have George ahead of him at this moment.

To LI fans who watch them more regularly than I do, I was impressed with the young centre Johnny Williams? Seemed to make good yards whenever he carried, and in general to be a slippery custommer. Very involved in LI's second try. Seems he's an academy lad though, so will probably be off to Bath next year

Still, England are looking for a 12, and he was certainly much better than Burrell today

Williams is class. The best prospect we have produced in a very long time from what I have seen so far. He is naturally a big unit which gives him a big advantage over other young players, but he has a good step, fend and is very powerful. He has also spent some youth Rugby at 10 so he has solid distribution skills as well. I hope we manage his game time a bit, as apparently the step up to first team Rugby straight out of school has knackered him out a bit, but absolutely no reason he can't go on to play for England.

or Scotland or Wales, he is apparently qualified for all three! Not sure what his preference may be?

He's played up to U18 for England and I believe is in the U20's this year. His twitter profile pic is him in his England U18 kit, so I suspect england would be his preferred choice.

Johnny Williams and Sam James (Sale) at 12 and 13 for the Saxons? Be nice to see England blooding some young talent in the centres and those two have certainly started their AP careers well. Tie them in early as well.

Williams has been excellent for us, but he is still a kid. I'd leave him in the U20's if I am honest, he still has a lot to work on.

I'm having an interesting discussion with a so called journalist on twitter who reckons Paul Hill is better than Ben Franks.

Ozzy3213 wrote:

BigGee wrote:

SirBurger wrote:

Mad for Chelsea wrote:Hartley did OK-ish. Line-out was fine, but LI didn't really pressure him at all (not sure they competed for a single one of Saints). Scrum didn't go very well for Saints, and they struggled with the maul, both in attack and defense. Hartley didn't carry much either (not to any noticeable effect certainly). Still, given it was his first game back after a while I think he did just about OK. Needs to get up to speed quickly though, would defo have George ahead of him at this moment.

To LI fans who watch them more regularly than I do, I was impressed with the young centre Johnny Williams? Seemed to make good yards whenever he carried, and in general to be a slippery custommer. Very involved in LI's second try. Seems he's an academy lad though, so will probably be off to Bath next year

Still, England are looking for a 12, and he was certainly much better than Burrell today

Williams is class. The best prospect we have produced in a very long time from what I have seen so far. He is naturally a big unit which gives him a big advantage over other young players, but he has a good step, fend and is very powerful. He has also spent some youth Rugby at 10 so he has solid distribution skills as well. I hope we manage his game time a bit, as apparently the step up to first team Rugby straight out of school has knackered him out a bit, but absolutely no reason he can't go on to play for England.

or Scotland or Wales, he is apparently qualified for all three! Not sure what his preference may be?

He's played up to U18 for England and I believe is in the U20's this year.  His twitter profile pic is him in his England U18 kit, so I suspect england would be his preferred choice.

In a recent interview he said one of his main goals for the season was to make the England u20 squad. So he seems to regard himself as English. And given he's a big unit who's preferred position is 12, and who can carry, pass and kick I'm sure England will be taking a close interest in his development.

formerly known as Sam wrote:Johnny Williams and Sam James (Sale) at 12 and 13 for the Saxons? Be nice to see England blooding some young talent in the centres and those two have certainly started their AP careers well. Tie them in early as well.

I think that is a good call. Plenty of talent between them. I've a feeling James is another who's played FH in the past but prefers 13?

If Eastmond fails to make the EPS then he will be front runner 12 for the Saxons wouldn't he?

Devoto is at Bath as well of course and Sloan at Quins is showing up well too.

Williams is a talent but I think he's better off with LI for now if we have those guys as well.