Prem Round 12

Friday
Sale v Saracens

Saturday
Exeter v Bristol
Leicester v Gloucester
Newcastle v Quins
Worcester v Bath

Sunday
Wasps v Saints

Falcons v Quins

15 Simon Hammersley
14 Vereniki Goneva
13 Chris Harris
12 Josh Matavesi
11 Tom Arscott
10 Brett Connon
9 Michael Young

1 Trevor Davison
2 Kyle Cooper
3 Logovi'i Mulipola
4 Calum Green
5 Will Witty
6 Will Welch (captain)
7 Gary Graham
8 Callum Chick

Replacements
16 Santiago Socino
17 Adam Brocklebank
18 David Wilson
19 Andrew Davidson
20 Ryan Burrows
21 Sonatane Takulua
22 Tim Swiel
23 Pedro Bettencourt


Harlequins
15 Mike Brown
14 Nathan Earle
13 Joe Marchant
12 Francis Saili
11 Gabriel Ibitoye
10 Marcus Smith
9 Danny Care (captain)

1 Joe Marler
2 Max Crumpton
3 Kyle Sinckler
4 Matt Symons
5 Ben Glynn
6 Semi Kunatani
7 Jack Clifford
8 Alex Dombrandt

Replacements
16 Elia Elia
17 Nick Auterac
18 Will Collier
19 George Merrick
20 Renaldo Bothma
21 Charlie Mulchrone
22 James Lang
23 Aaron Morris
Referee: Tom Foley

Sounds like Sam James is having a cracking game v Saracens so far. Been a part of both tries and been busy around the pitch. Maybe an England call beckons?

Also Billy V is back and has scored, fingers crossed he doesn't break...

Soft yellow for Farrell ....

Followed by a soft pen in front of posts ... interesting refereeing tonight.

Sam James has played consistently well for some time. At least two seasons in fact. Eddie Jones just doesn't seem to rate him. Considering Eddie likes playmakers and big runners in the midfield with James providing both as well as high offload numbers, it's a mystery why he's not had caps.

Lazy high tackle from Owen Farrell sees him in the bin. Arm over the shoulder ref didn't even look whether it was a standard "seatbelt" tackle or whether it was first contact with the head. Straight to the bin he went. They'll be tackles like that this weekend that won't even get pinged.

Sarries definitely on the wrong side of the officials tonight ....

And what was Ugo banging on about Sale not being able to take the quick throw - surely too many players had touched it?

Agree Sam...why James hasn't had a look in is a total mystery. But then we've agreed on that in the past.

GeordieFalcon wrote:Agree Sam...why James hasn't had a look in is a total mystery. But then we've agreed on that in the past.

Both James and Ryan Mills at Worcester seem to be oddly overlooked in my view. Big lads who can both crash and play. Considering our midfield struggles we really haven't experimented much.

I know it might get shouted down, but I believe the reason James hasn’t had a chance is because he is at Sale. At times there seems a genuine bias against northern clubs in England selection terms. Look how long it took Mark Wilson to get involved. He has been consistently excellent for years, but pretty much ignored. Look at the two Sale lads who have decided that they have to play for Ireland to further their international careers.  Look at the northern player who haemorrhage south at young ages in their career.  They may being offered more money, but I also firmly believe that the lure of an England career is a factor. A career that they do not believe they will have if they stay in the north.  Tom Curry seems the exception to the rule, but you can bet Sale will struggle to keep him when his new deal has finished and he enters the prime of his career.

The northern clubs aren't viewed as glamorous. And they aren'y successful like a lot of the southern clubs are/were.

Rightly or wrongly this seems to effect the thinking of selectors who'll happily pick players from slap dash teams like Bath, Glos, Quins and Saints. But overlook others from the North.

Not just the North though, Wuss have had talent in the past but aren't a glamorous club so no one noticed. And how long were Exeter ignored before thwy forced people to recognise them.

From the outside looking in, is it a case of most internationals are earmarked to be internationals from a young age. With so many players coming through in England if you haven't been earmarked is it harder to impress. Coaches/selectors think that the earmarked person will be better in the long run so why waste the time with the other person.

In smaller countries like Ireland there are 3/4 other people you are up against. As a result it is easier to get noticed and show you are better.

As an aside the Curry boys have just renewed their contracts at Sale.

It certainly seems that if you aren't on the England pathway you aren't getting a look in. We've seen a fair few under 20 level players brought in to observe ready for full international status in the future.

Ridiculous how long it took Wilson to get capped. Wilson, Underhill and Vunipola would be most people's starting backrow for England (Curry on the bench).

What has changed over the last few rounds that Exeter (2 losses) and Sarries (1 loss and a fight with Wuss) have both lost to teams that are not each other. Have they had injuries, using their squad, or just improvement in other teams.

Wasn't it around this time last year Sarries had their mid season slump. I know people said Sale were improved and this game would be a marker for them. Just surprised Sarries need a last minute try to get an LBP

I am getting fed up with the standard of officiating. Starting to think Barnes is only decent ref in premiership, and he retires soon.

Ref yesterday was only officiating one team. Now that may be due to the yapping from Sarries, but some of his calls, especially use (and non use) of cards was appalling.

I'm really disappointed by the level of TMO officiating. We saw a completely incompetent display last weekend give Bath two tries incorrectly and then today the ref rules out a clearly correct score for Owolofela but doesn't even bother to check a potentially forward pass for another try from Eastmond (I think it was just flat but I am bias).

Bath down to 11 men??

Well good bye premiership.

And we deserve it.

Predictable, passionless, awful defence, awful attack.

It's like 5/6 years ago...

RDW_Scotland wrote:Bath down to 11 men??

And 19 minutes of injury time. It will be very interesting to hear what happened, as Worcs won it with a try in the 97th minute. Did Bath really realy piss the ref off?

lostinwales wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:Bath down to 11 men??

And 19 minutes of injury time. It will be very interesting to hear what happened, as Worcs won it with a try in the 97th minute. Did Bath really realy piss the ref off?

Sounds like Bath has 3 men yellow carded on their line yet no PT. Meant Worcester had to score and left Weir with a tricky conversion.

RDW_Scotland wrote:

lostinwales wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:Bath down to 11 men??

And 19 minutes of injury time. It will be very interesting to hear what happened, as Worcs won it with a try in the 97th minute. Did Bath really realy piss the ref off?

Sounds like Bath has 3 men yellow carded on their line yet no PT. Meant Worcester had to score and left Weir with a tricky conversion.

Surely after the second yellow he could have given it but after the third has to.  Even if they are hands in rucks etc, if they are given 3 cards for issues on the try line it should be a foregone conclusion.  Same in the France v Wales, ref don't want to do there job because they don't want to influence the game, by doing nothing they influence it more

I was going to say cheers to Falcons for completely undermining my pissy message of northern schadenfreude. Christ that was dire. We will be VERY lucky to avoid the drop this season. Where has the nous gone? We are being split in twain by even the most average attacking play.

God, back in the box for me...

Couldn't agree more Cumbrian.

Simply awful.

RDW_Scotland wrote:Bath down to 11 men??

Having had a quick look at the BT Sport highlights, it appears one of the Bath players sin-binned should have been brought back before the conclusion, as he'd been in the bin for around 13 minutes!

Duty281 wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:Bath down to 11 men??

Having had a quick look at the BT Sport highlights, it appears one of the Bath players sin-binned should have been brought back before the conclusion, as he'd been in the bin for around 13 minutes!

Does this mean Bruce will demand the last ten minutes be replayed ?

carpet baboon wrote:

Duty281 wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:Bath down to 11 men??

Having had a quick look at the BT Sport highlights, it appears one of the Bath players sin-binned should have been brought back before the conclusion, as he'd been in the bin for around 13 minutes!

Does this mean Bruce will demand the last ten minutes be replayed ?

No just stricken from the record.

The Batty red card I've seen and looked fully deserved. A move straight out of WWE.

formerly known as Sam wrote:

carpet baboon wrote:

Duty281 wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:Bath down to 11 men??

Having had a quick look at the BT Sport highlights, it appears one of the Bath players sin-binned should have been brought back before the conclusion, as he'd been in the bin for around 13 minutes!

Does this mean Bruce will demand the last ten minutes be replayed ?

No just stricken from the record.

The Batty red card I've seen and looked fully deserved. A move straight out of WWE.

Just seen it myself. That's got to be around the 6 week mark for a ban. Can't see how he could claim it wasn't intentional

Just watched the Tigers Glaws match - what the hell was the TMO looking at to disallow that try?

Good win for Quins, we needed to back up last weeks result to boost our confidence.

Feckin hell batty just ddt s the guy!
No way were any of the pen s that resulted in yellows a pen try though. Nearest was the 3rd but still close.

yappysnap wrote:Good win for Quins, we needed to back up last weeks result to boost our confidence.

Agree Yappy. A rare away win for Quins. I am hoping its not another false dawn and they've turned a corner.
Falcons are the big surprise for me. Last seasons performances were exceptional - so what's missing this season?
Are there injuries?
Nili Latu being missed?
Soccino? (the back not the hooker)

No 7&1/2 wrote:Feckin hell batty just ddt s the guy!
No way were any of the pen s that resulted in yellows a pen try though. Nearest was the 3rd but still close.

I feel Brew's intervention should have been a penalty try. Take him completely out of the equation and you have a 4 on 1 just a few metres from the line with plenty of width. I was surprised the ref did not look at the challenge itself and only sanctioned the offside. Brew looked very high to me.

Refs and TMOs need a talking too.

Shocking standards on show all weekend.

propdavid_london wrote:

yappysnap wrote:Good win for Quins, we needed to back up last weeks result to boost our confidence.

Agree Yappy.  A rare away win for Quins.  I am hoping its not another false dawn and they've turned a corner.  
Falcons are the big surprise for me.  Last seasons performances were exceptional - so what's missing this season?
Are there injuries?  
Nili Latu being missed?
Soccino? (the back not the hooker)

Im not going to get carried away, its just good to see two good performances and wins on the bounce, im realistic enough to know we'll lose again sometime though!

Staggered that Batty only got a 3 week ban.

LondonTiger wrote:Staggered that Batty only got a 3 week ban.

That does seem a little short considering the wrestling move he pulled

They deemed it was a mid point level infraction and then given his previous good behaviour had it reduced by 50%.

formerly known as Sam wrote:They deemed it was a mid point level infraction and then given his previous good behaviour had it reduced by 50%.

Yeah, they treated it as a mid level neck roll thus ignored the driving him into the ground. If the Wuss player had been carrying the ball it would have been a much longer ban.

Some of the band have seemed a little perverse this season. Thought Eastmond got off pretty lucky too.