Prem Round 12

First topic message reminder :

Friday 19.45
Bath v Quins

Saturday
Irish v Falcons (15.00)
Gloucester v Saints (17.30)
Bristol v Tigers (20.00)

Yep no arguments on that one

10 minutes of scrum resets now ...

Bad pass leads to chaos and a score

Bad error from Burns

Can't understand why Bristol aren't getting that ball out quickly

Or taking the scrum again - risky

Heaf wrote:Or taking the scrum again - risky

Well CMK reset two stone wall Tigers penalties at the scrum time so at that point he clearly didn't have the bottle to ping Bristol. Bristol's best chance was getting one of their power runners one on one with a defender and breaking through.

Tigers showed a worrying lack of organisation after Kelly went off. Burns was again shocking and so error ridden. His kicking for goal wasn't great but Atkinson overall looked better. Hopefully Pollard is back soon.

CMK does look a bit of a homer in those situations - explains what happened at the end of the Quins/Irish match after the TMO shocker when he added insult to injury by  giving a scrum pen to Quins when it should have gone the other way ...

I'm a little grumpy today.

I'm a little happy

https://twitter.com/spkeene/status/1599344276864761857

This is the Vui on Chessum incident which I'm thinking is more just a penalty though a lot of Tigers fans seem to think harsher. You'd need to see the slow mo to be sure either way but it wasn't even reviewed or queried by the ref.

CMK and Hodnett combo - say no more ...

Interesting one as I think he's going to cover his face so he can't see and not going for an eye gauge or anything like that. Laws pretty clear of fingers around eye level so for me it's a real letter vs spirit of the law there. I don't know what i think. Probably penalty and a warning. Maybe.

No 7&1/2 wrote:Interesting one as I think he's going to cover his face so he can't see and not going for an eye gauge or anything like that. Laws pretty clear of fingers around eye level so for me it's a real letter vs spirit of the law there. I don't know what i think. Probably penalty and a warning. Maybe.

Well he certainly knows he's grabbing his face though I agree I don't think there's any gouging going on. Still can't grab someone by the face.

doctor_grey wrote:I'm a little grumpy today.

Ditto

How's Van Graan getting on with Bath? I see they've the lowest try amount in the league.

profitius wrote:How's Van Graan getting on with Bath? I see they've the lowest try amount in the league.

To be fair they have been improving and he took on a really big job as they were a shower last season. Worcester's demise has benefitted him massively with some exciting young talent unexpectedly available and Bath's annual injury crisis was both eased and via the injury dispensation in the salary cap partly able to fund the recruitment.

I'm not sure his brand of rugby will really flourish there but they have improved.

Pretty bad red card in the LI match.

No 7&1/2 wrote:Pretty bad red card in the LI match.

I think he was out before he hit the floor. Stonewall red card. LI their own worst enemies so far in this game.

And that's another very possible red.

Tucked arm. Don't think you can mitigate it.

No 7&1/2 wrote:Tucked arm. Don't think you can mitigate it.

It's always foul play so there's no mitigation on the head contact. Ref explained it well. Really dim from Ben Earl.

LI were the better team with a man down so this is good news for them.

12 vs 14.

Didn't manage to catch either of tonight's matches yet but they sound bizarre ...

I watched the highlights of the Falcons one which appears to be a game of two halves. All Sale first half and all Falcons in the second. Carreras's try is worth watching unless you are Dan du Preez or Ewan Ashman as they want to revisit being brushed off by a winger two thirds of their weight in a set defensive line.

I think Carley deserves credit. He reffed a difficult game very well and I did enjoy him lecturing Farrell for back chat as well as penalising the Sarries replacement hooker for over celebrating. Screaming in the face of a prone player isn't very sporting.

Borthwick on hand to watch Pearson, Loader and OHC light it up as well as Farrell have a shocker and Daly be meh. Earl hadn't really gotten in to the game before his red card either. Tizard looked good in defence for Sarries.

Woest 1st 40 ever....then best 2nd 40

Didn't realise that was Colemans thirs red in 3 games.

No 7&1/2 wrote:Didn't realise that was Colemans  thirs red in 3 games.

Third red in three games against Sarries.

To be fair to him, the second one was rescinded in the citing hearing, as it was just a collision without any head or neck contact.

Otherwise not good enough though.

Ah makes more sense. Was thinking he was going to be banned until 2025.

Seems he hasn't learned to go low - he's a big chap I know but needs to do better ...

Daft pen by Tigers there

Hmmm try ruled out for Tigers - Cole not happy but can't be surprised when you hold a player in ... maybe Sarries try v Irish last night should have been ruled out too as Farrell did more or less the same to White

That was a tough one to call - think he might have been in touch but on-field decision meant it had to stand.

Nice finish by Porter

I think Cole was chuntering because he felt Tuisue milked it. It was a penalty though.

If Borthwick is looking to change up his midfield he got two young EQ 12s showing exactly what England need. Kelly and Atkinson both ran hard, defended well and showed good hands.

Otherwise it's another spurned bonus point opportunity for Tigers. Wigglesworth had made a couple of subtle changes to the attack but it's going to need to be a lot more clinical if we're going to retain the title.

Dayglo shows why he's a carp pundit again - trying to say Sarries loss could be down to their tough away game in France last week - didn't Irish have a tough away game in South Africa - which with the travel would take more out of them?

A moment of stupidity from a Quins player gets a pen that they could have kicked into the corner reversed which then leads to a try to Bristol - just dumb

Heaf wrote:A moment of stupidity from a Quins player gets a pen that they could have kicked into the corner reversed which then leads to a try to Bristol - just dumb

Looked a bit of a nasty clear from the side though so can understand the feeling you need to jump in for a teammate.

But was adjudged as no foul play ...

When a 5m line-out is caught a yard beyond the line how can they not see it's not straight?

Not that I'm a Quins fan but Bears are getting away with a lot of slowing down ...

Heaf wrote:But was adjudged as no foul play ...

Quins player was off his feet and Thacker ploughs straight into the body. Care then reacts after the whistle. Dickson was struggling to keep control of the game at the time and that was probably reflected in the decision.

Commentary were saying shoulder on shoulder - not sure if I agree though

Nice try

Ibitoye is in trouble here. Probably yellow. He's had a really good game bar some iffy work under the high ball.

Struggling to see how that was yellow compared to similar recent incidents that were red?

Wow that's well saved

Heaf wrote:Struggling to see how that was yellow compared to similar recent incidents that were red?

Wraps arms and there's another tackle causing the player to drop. There's no sufficient force to change the dynamic of the contact so it's not a high force impact. It's red mitigated to yellow, not helped by the rambling of the commentators.

Quins were arrogant to turn down the three and go straight to the corner. Their lineout had been malfunctioning and minimum of a draw was there for the taking with Bristol then having to kick back to them from the restart. Instead it all went pear shaped almost immediately.

Mind it looked like they rescued it but for McGinty's tap tackle and then Whiteley dislodging the ball.

Quins' line-out lost them the game. It was almost total domination in that second half and they only scored one try.

Didn't see a wrap but admit I wasn't paying a lot of attention at that point.