Premiership Round 16

Overshadowed again by the 6N but still it rumbles on

Friday 11/2/22 19:45
Bristol v London Irish
Leicester Tigers v Northampton Saints

Saturday 12/2/22 all 15:00
Exeter Chiefs v Gloucester
Sale v Worcester Warriors
Wasps v Bath

Sunday 13/2/22 13:00
Saracens v Harlequins

Do we get a week off?? Well thats nice

Saints team for Tiggers tomorrow:

15 Ahsee Tuala
14 Ollie Sleightholme
13 Fraser Dingwall (c)
12 Rory Hutchinson
11 Courtnall Skosan
10 George Furbank
9 Alex Mitchell

1 Alex Waller
2 Sam Matavesi
3 Paul Hill
4 David Ribbans
5 Api Ratuniyarawa
6 Tom Wood
7 Teimana Harrison
8 Juarno Augustus

Replacements:
16 Mike Haywood
17 Emmanuel Iyogun
18 Conor Carey
19 Alex Coles
20 Karl Wilkins
21 Tom James
22 James Grayson
23 Matt Proctor

Very interesting that Furbank seems to have usurped Grayson as the preferred 10 backing up Biggar.

Reports that Ashton may start for Tigers tonight.

I was very surprised to see they had signed him, short term deal or not. He has been pretty toxic where ever he has been for the last few years

He was announced as on the bench, they picked up an injury?

I'd echo I'm surprised. Clearly a clas player years ago but it's odd how he's never produced anything over theist couple of years and his departures have been quick with not much talk of why.

Confirmation he's on the bench.

Stripy cats
Leicester: Hegarty, Potter, Porter, Kelly, Nadolo; Burns, Wigglesworth; Whitcombe, Montoya, Cole, Wells, Green, Liebenberg (capt), Reffell, Wiese.

Replacements: Clare, van Wyk, Leatigaga, Snyman, Martin, van Poortvliet, Scott, Ashton.

Bristol LI

Arundell starts for LI which might well explain his absence from the U20's (his premiership debut apparently)

Bristol: Purdy; Naulago, Radradra, O'Conor, Leiua; Lloyd, Whiteley; Y. Thomas, Thacker, Lahiff, Vui, Joyce, Luatua (capt), Jeffries, Harding.

Replacements: Kerr, Woolmore, Challenger, Hawkins, Heenan, Strang, Eden, Frisch.

London Irish: Arundell; Stokes, Van Rensburg, Hepetema, Loader; Jackson, Phipps (capt); Goodrick-Clarke, Creevy, Hoskins, Simmons, Coleman, Cracknell, Gonzalez, O'Brien.

Replacements: Willemse, Gigena, Van der Merwe, Nott, Pearson, O'Sullivan, Rona, Rowe.

No 7&1/2 wrote:He was announced as on the bench, they picked up an injury?

I'd echo I'm surprised. Clearly a clas player years ago but it's odd how he's never produced anything over theist couple of years and his departures have been quick with not much talk of why.

Sounds like him and Borthwick have an understanding. He's there because we're very light on fit back three players. We needed somebody to cover fullback as well as wing so Ashton is in. I think he'll get the last 10 minutes.

much talk about why he hasn't lasted elsewhere then Sam?

Chiefs - cherries

Exeter: Hodge; Woodburn, Whitten, Hendrickson, O'Flaherty; J Simmonds (capt), S Maunder; Hepburn, Innard, Schickerling, Kirsten, Jenkins, Armand, Capstick, Grondona.

Replacements: Yeandle, Keast, Street, Ewers, Leatherbarrow, Hidalgo-Clyne, H Skinner, Cordero.

Gloucester: Moyle; Carreras, Kveseladze, Twelvetrees, Thorley; Evans, Meehan; Ford-Robinson, Singleton, Balmain, Clarke, Alemanno, Reid, Ludlow (capt) Ackermann.

Replacements: Socino, Elrington, Gotovtsev, Davidson, Clement, Chapman, Hastings, Seabrook.

Sharks - Warriors

Manu starts! Quirke on the bench

Sale: S James; Roebuck, R du Preez, Tuilagi, Reed; MacGinty, de Klerk; Harrison, Langdon, Oosthuizen, Wiese, De Jager, Ross, Dugdale, J-L du Preez.

Replacements: Taylor, McIntyre, Jones, J-P du Preez, Nield, Quirke, Rensburg, McGuigan.

Worcester: Shillcock; Humphreys, Hearle, Beck, Howe; Smith, Simpson; McCallum, Annett, Judge, Garvey, G Kitchener, Hill (capt), Lewis, Dodd.

Replacements: Miller, Owen, Tyack, Batley, Hatherell, Chudley, Searle, Atkinson.

Saracens - Quins

How many Vunipolas does one team need?

Saracens: Goode; Maitland, Lozowski, Morris, Segun; Manu Vunipola, Van Zyl; Mako Vunipola (capt), Woolstencroft, Koch, Hunter-Hill, Swinson, McFarland, Earl, B Vunipola.

Replacements: Lewis, Barrington, Wainwright, Christie, Wray, De Haas, Hallett, Lewington.

Harlequins: Green; Beard, Northmore, Esterhuizen, Murley; Allan, Care; Garcia Botta, Walker (capt), Kerrod, Symons, Tizard, Jurevicius, Wallace, White.

Replacements: Riley, Els, Louw, Lewies, Taulani, Gjaltema, Edwards, Lynagh.

Wasps Bath

Wasps: Miller; Odogwu, Spink, Gopperth, Bassett; Atkinson, Robson; Hislop, Oghre, Alo, Launchbury (capt), Stooke, Gaskell, Morris, Shields.

Replacements: Cruse, West, Toomaga-Allen, Fifita, Barbeary, Porter, Mills, Watson.

Bath: Prydie; Rokoduguni, Joseph, Ojomoh, Muir; Bailey, B Spencer; Morozov, Du Toit, Rae, Richards, McNally (capt), Faletau, Coetzee, Hughes.

Replacements: Doughty, Cordwell, Verden, Dingley, De Carpentier, Simpson, Clark, De Glanville.

No 7&1/2 wrote:much talk about why he hasn't lasted elsewhere then Sam?

No but Borthwick talked up his competitive nature and how he takes that into every training session among other things. Reading between the lines that sounds like a difficult personality who says what he sees and always goes full in. I guess he's not the easiest to manage but Borthwick knows him from England and Sarries I believe so wouldn't have brought him in if he didn't think he could manage him.

It's a short term contract so if it doesn't work out he can be jettisoned quickly. Definitely going to be weird seeing him in a Tigers shirt particularly against Saints.

It's good to have Nadolo back on the pitch!

Tigers are playing very loose so far. It's working, sort of, but I can't help think this style of game plays into Saints hands more than Tigers.

Early opportunity for Ashton to show if he's still got it.

Fair enough to Ashton. Another quick Saints try there would have put it right back in the balance. It's a good cover tackle.

That Furbank break came from an absolutely abysmal bit of defence from Tigers though. Same as the Hutchinson break. Well taken but dire defence. Scott or Moroni at 13 are so important to Tigers defensive alignment.

Yellow for Wells now. So silly. Tigers with another quick start then blowing up.

Well both sides are certainly throwing it around at times. Nadolo looks like he's been desperate to get back playing and is carrying all over and has scored two.

Saints have scored two from nice breaks. Nearly a third but Ashton on as HIA cover made a really nice cover tackle on Furbank. Textbook quicker guy showing slower guy to the corner and then tracking him and putting him into touch. To be fair to Ashton he put himself about whilst he was on, seemed to be endearing himself to the Tigers fans quickly, never thought I'd be typing that.

Wells with one of his dimmer moments, he'd had a cracking game until that point. If Tigers can get through the rest of the sin bin period then try for the fourth try and shut the game down. Saints are very dangerous if they can get a one on one or turnover ball to attack.

Wigglesworth delicate grubber tees up the Tigers bonus point score.

Saints being pulled into a kicking game that doesn't suit them.

Tigers currently 35-13 up. Saints still look dangerous if they make a break.

Lol Ashton

Not a perfect Tigers performance but more than enough against an poorly disciplined Saints.

Liebenberg back near his best and Nadolo being fit made a big difference.

Burns had his best performance of the season by a distance. Montoya, Reffell and Kelly all also did well.

James Whitcombe had a very solid game for such an inexperienced LH in a derby too.

I'll take a TBP against Saints!

Jimmy Whitcombe looks to the manor born. A young loosehead shouldn't look that composed, some of his tackles were pretty big as well.

Agree with you in those KC but quick word for Wigglesworth. Think that's his best performance in a Tigers shirt so far. Certainly the most mobile and attacking I've seen from him in a Tigers shirt.

Burns was impressive tonight - meanwhile the Bears v Irish match sounds like it was a strange one - Bears were 15 10 up at HT then Irish woke up and took it out to 15 49 before letting Bears score 3 tries in the last 5 or so mins with only 14 men to end on 32 49

Heaf wrote:Burns was impressive tonight - meanwhile the Bears v Irish match sounds like it was a strange one - Bears were 15 10 up at HT then Irish woke up and took it out to 15 49 before letting Bears score 3 tries in the last 5 or so mins with only 14 men to end on 32 49

I went and looked at the stats for that game because I was interested to see if wonder boy had done anything crazy. They are odd. Bristol ran 862m with the ball, LI half that.

I suspect quite a few of those meters may have been for the 3 tries in the last 5 mins, plus Bears have a tendency to run from deep ... who's wonder boy?

Heaf wrote:I suspect quite a few of those meters may have been for the 3 tries in the last 5 mins, plus Bears have a tendency to run from deep ... who's wonder boy?

Arundell

Heaf wrote:I suspect quite a few of those meters may have been for the 3 tries in the last 5 mins, plus Bears have a tendency to run from deep ... who's wonder boy?

Weird stats overall from that match.
Bristol conceded 16 pens to LI's 5.
4 scrums total combined for both teams.
Each team was 16/17 in the lineout.
I think this would have been a very frustrating match to watch from a Bristol perspective.

You know what I'm starting to think about ESPN stats

Another loss for Quins, away to Sarries is always a hard ask but the losing is becoming a habit now I worry.

Alot of the tigers kids coming through look physically strong...

GeordieFalcon wrote:Alot of the tigers kids coming through look physically strong...

I think most kids coming through look physically strong these days to be fair.

Whenever clips pop up from schools finals I just think, "these are a different breed to when I played schools rugby 10 years ago". I wasn't a good player at all but our school had a few Leeds academy lads, a decent number of Yorkshire representative players. Even those sorts of talents looked completely different to what seems a fairly run of the mill school kid these days. The kids these days are just massive.

We see a lot of tongue in cheek comments about the size of South African schoolboys, their monstrous U20s and the special vitamins in the biltong. When I watch the English and French age grade sides these days I always think that they are just as gigantic as those young South African players people raise eyebrows at.

Tigers have Aled Walters running their S&C who was with South Africa when they won the RWC. He's got a great rep and seems to get players into very good shape. A few of the elder statesman such as Cole and Nadolo are playing fantastically for their miles on the clock.

When it comes to "the kids" though I think almost all young players coming through the academies look "physically strong" these days. S&C for players from around 16 through to their early 20s has fundamentally changed.

All true KC. It does somewhat sway the view of our academy when we seem to be best at producing locks and props. Now if one of the big lads coming through could be an 8 that would help. As it stands the next two forwards likely to come through are also locks and both 6ft9 (including Ollie Chessum's brother https://images.app.goo.gl/KzUSfwAPdRGb8HG89 ). Well we also produce 9s as well.

With professional sport moving the way it's going the genetic abnormalities, the lads with the unusually big frames etc, are going to be identified earlier than before. Those wanting to make a career of it will know that the distractions of girls and beer aren't going to get them that contract. The mentality is increasingly different. Apparently each generation emerging is opting less for booze and more for better quality food and better ways of life so I suppose that societal change might help the S&C guys out as well.

Sinfield's defensive set up really helps amplify the strength of our forwards as well as they make a lot of double hits, hits with momentum etc. Builds a lot of confidence in the young guys, we've seen it with Whitcombe this season recently, the more he plays the more big hits he seems to make.

yappysnap wrote:Another loss for Quins, away to Sarries is always a hard ask but the losing is becoming a habit now I worry.

It's tough during international periods when you've got injuries and players away. Quins were a bit lucky last 6N period on both fronts but it's hurting them a bit more this year. Quins are a team that will fancy themselves in an away semi final though so fourth wouldn't be the end of the world for them.

Yep, the double edged sword of producing international quality players for Quins at the minute. Smith, Dombrandt, Marler and Marchant are all vital players for them.

Was Wilco Louw's early substitution injury related or tactical? It sounded like Sarries were absolutely mincing the Quins scrum.

Louw's substitution was supposed to be tactical. He walked off and there was no sign of injury beforehand though he didn't have a good time in either the loose of the scrum. I think it Garcia Botta that was having the most problems at scrum time with Koch doing a number on him.

Quins might survive losing their Internationals but the injury list on top of it is tough.