[2013 Premiership] Round 1

[TRF_Olyy]

Friday 6th September

Live on BT Sport

Saturday 7th September

Live on BT Sport

Live on BT Sport

Sunday 8th September

Live on BT Sport





​

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Horrible first fixture for us, we always get spanked down in Glawwwssster.
We've also taken a battering in pre-season with regards to injuries.
Off of the top of my head, we've lost (these aren't all confirmed as out, most are just players forced off injured):
Tony Buckley, Eifion Lewis-Roberts, Dan Baines, Dwayne Peel, Nick MacLeod, Sam James, Andy Forsyth, Will Addison, Mark Jennings, Sam Tuitupou, Rob Miller

That's all but one (Johnny Leota) of our centres out injured (potentially) - not ideal! Would need to shift Cueto or MacKenzie inside to accommodate.

I think we'll put out something like:

1. Harrison
2. Taylor
3. Thomas
4. Ostrikov
5. Kulemin
6. Paterson
7. Braid (c)
8. Gaskell
9. Fowles
10. Ford
11. Cueto (MacKenzie)
12. Leota
13. Forsyth (Cueto)
14. Brady
15. Arscott

16. Jones, 17. Croall, 18. Cobilas, 19. Mills, 20. Easter/Seymour, 21. Cliff, 22. Cipriani, 23. MacKenzie

Not a bad side, despite all of the players injured.
I reckon Gloucester by 12.

 

[ratsapprentice]

That front row looks positively tiny Olyy!

Bath v Falcons could be an interesting game considering they drew in their pre-season's.
It's a difficult one to call considering Bath's poor away record last season and there are numerous new players yet to bed in.
Newcastle will really want to get themselves some momentum and I don't doubt how much they will be up for it.
Having said that, on paper Bath are a far superior side.

I'm guessing they'll look something like this:

1. James
2. Webber
3. Wilson
4. Hooper (c)
5. Attwood
6. Garvey
7. Gilbert
8. Houston
9. Stringer
10. Ford
11. Banahan
12. Eastmond
13. Joseph
14. Rokoduguni
15. Devoto

16. Batty, 17. Catt, 18. Perenise, 19. Day, 20. Mercer, 21. Young, 22. Heathcote, 23. Biggs (Maybe Watson)

If Bath can get their heads right then I think they'll win by 15-ish.
That probably isn't going to happen, so Bath by 6.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

That front row looks positively tiny Olyy!

Average age of about 15!
Hopefully they'll fair a touch better this year with Ostrikiov and Kulemin in the donkey row - a slight step up in grunt from the Myall/Gaskell pairing of last season.

 

[LittleGuy]

Horrible first fixture for us, we always get spanked down in Glawwwssster.
We've also taken a battering in pre-season with regards to injuries.
Off of the top of my head, we've lost (these aren't all confirmed as out, most are just players forced off injured):
Tony Buckley, Eifion Lewis-Roberts, Dan Baines, Dwayne Peel, Nick MacLeod, Sam James, Andy Forsyth, Will Addison, Mark Jennings, Sam Tuitupou, Rob Miller

That's all but one (Johnny Leota) of our centres out injured (potentially) - not ideal! Would need to shift Cueto or MacKenzie inside to accommodate.

I think we'll put out something like:

1. Harrison
2. Taylor
3. Thomas
4. Ostrikov
5. Kulemin
6. Paterson
7. Braid (c)
8. Gaskell
9. Fowles
10. Ford
11. Cueto (MacKenzie)
12. Leota
13. Forsyth (Cueto)
14. Brady
15. Arscott

16. Jones, 17. Croall, 18. Cobilas, 19. Mills, 20. Easter/Seymour, 21. Cliff, 22. Cipriani, 23. MacKenzie

Not a bad side, despite all of the players injured.
I reckon Gloucester by 12.

Mackenzie has played CT before with Canada a couple of times and was fairly effective here, though he is a better winger in my opinion.

My picks for the weekend....

Bath(narrowly)
Saracens(Irish look really weak on paper this season and should be overwhleming favourites to go down)
Glous
Saints(could be game of the weekend)
Quins
Tigers

 

[j'nuh]

Prediction for Glos:

1. Wood
2. Dawidiuk (Edmonds injured?)
3. Harden (Knight injured?)
4. Savage (c)
5. Hudson or James (if Hudson injured)
6. Kalamafoni
7. Kvesic
8. Morgan
9. Not sure out of Cowan, Robson and Knoyle
10. Burns
11. JSD
12. Twelvetrees
13. Trinder
14. Sharples
15. Cook

16. Britton
17. Murphy
18. Thomas
19. James/Stooke?! or Lokotui (if Hudson injured)
20. Qera
21. Cowan/Robson/Knoyle
22. Mills
23. Thomas/Reynolds?! or Tindall (if Thomas injured)

 

[psychic duck]

Mackenzie has played CT before with Canada a couple of times and was fairly effective here, though he is a better winger in my opinion.

Mackenzie's problem with Canada is he is more suited to 13 but can't play there as DTH has that position sewn up, so instead he is shoehorned out of position to 12, where he is still pretty solid but perhaps not his most ideal position (although I still prefer him there to Blevins).

I think he can thrive at Sale and could be a real bargain signing for them, he is an committed player and will shore up there defence out wide or in midfield as opposed to some of the tackling flakes like Amesbury or Jennings they were playing last season.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Little harsh on Jennings: his tackling is fine, it's his positioning that needed work, which is vaguely understandable considering he's an inside centre who was put on the wing due to injuries there. However he did leak a try or two so I'll let you off

Do remember seeing MacKenzie in the centres for Canada before, though I think that they'd put Cueto to 13 and MacKenzie on the wing rather than the other way round, but I don't suppose it'd make massive amount of difference as they'd chop 'n' change.

 

[Twebby]

Can't wait to see North and Corbisiero get their first taste of competitive action at the Gardens. The atmosphere when they cam on during pre-season was electric. Exeter are alays tough to beat but I think Saints have enough positive energy running through the camp to take it by 7-10 points. Hopefully.

 

[ratsapprentice]

Key Player: Last season they had a rock at tight-head, James Johnston. He has upped sticks, bought a fez and journeyed to Saracens with O'Shea bringing in Paul Doran-Jones as his ready-made replacement. Doran-Jones has flirted with the England side in the past, but if he finds some consistent performances for Quins, he could establish himself as a real alternative to Dan Cole. Quins will hope he manages this and shoehorns himself in as their new anchor at No.3.

From ESPN's preview.

Top lel.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

PDJ has been nothing but gash since he left Gloucester.
Quins could be in trouble this season - not trouble of relegation, but I don't think they'll make the top 4 and could struggle to make top 6, due their massively weakened pack - Johnstone and Kohn were their two most important players there (two who made Marler look competent in the scrum) and they've done a poor job of replacing them.

 

[j'nuh]

Exactly. I mean, Kennedy is probably a better player than Kohn imo and it might mean Quins can put Robson to one side, but what Kohn and Johnston brought to the scrum in terms of kgs may turn their scrum into a liability, even if Kennedy improves their game elsewhere...

The only thing is that Glos is the team on the cusp of top 4, and we have an equally bad scrum at the minute...

And I don't rate Bath's 8-15 enough to reach top 4.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

A little off topic, considering this the round 1 thread, but my prediction for the table would be:
Top 4: Tigers, Saints, Saracens, Glaws
5 and 6 could be any of Bath, Wasps, Chiefs and Quins, with Quins/Chiefs being my guesses.


I think Bath have a relatively strong set of backs, if they're all firing.

Ford, Henson, Joseph, Stringer, Eastmond, Biggs, Abendanon, Heathcote, Watson and Rokoduguni are all very exciting players.

 

[Peat]

While I agree it's a really obvious downgrade, think people might be overegging the effect of Johnston and Kohn leaving.

I mean, for one thing, we don't know how the new scrum rules will affect things, but plenty of people are saying they'll be to the benefit of the smaller technical props and bad news for the raw power merchants. PDJ should be able to take advantage of that, or at least he could at his best. It will certainly suit Marler, who is a far better technical scrummager than many give him credit for. Kohn is an obvious loss, but if Quins want, a second row of Kennedy and Matthews/Merrick is still larger than what most people have.

Really, I think Quins will miss the pair more in the loose, and might suffer more from the fact Nick Evans seems to be getting old. I don't think it will surprised anyone if Quins do make the top 4.

As for Bath's backs, plenty of exciting talent there, but not a lot of guys who can unlock a defence through power if it comes to it, nor do they have a particularly good record of unleashing backs in the coaching staff.

 

[ratsapprentice]

I'm not expecting them to be dominated every single game (in the set-piece or open play) but I think there are going to be a few teams who they used to get parity with, that they will no longer be able to cope with anywhere near as effectively.

 

[Peat]

Who? Leicester, yes. Northampton, until Corbs gets crocked or is on international duty. Bath, hmm, yeah. Sarries stand to lose more from technique trumping power than any other club, difficult to know what to predict there. After that...

 

[ratsapprentice]

I think there is a distinct possibility that all four of those teams will have a big advantage over Quins, yes.

As you say though, the winners from new scrum situation have been hard to predict so far in the T14 and TRC.
So they may well turn the tables on those predictions.

Btw, I think Marler has done what we agreed he probably needed to and put on a couple of Kg.
He's 114 now, which although still light is better than the 110(?) he was before.

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

Wasps are in a very interesting place going into this game; we've had really good pre-season by all accounts - pushing a pretty must 1st choice(well, at least as first choice as our team was) Clermont team pretty close, and then two good wins. But this has been without many of our 'best players'. I think that gives Dai a bit of a selection headache, because it's a big game and we really want to get off to the right start - but you can't just drop players doing well in pre-season, it just gives out the wrong message altogether to players who are working hard for it.

As a result I would except to see guys like Smashley Johnson on the bench, since he's had no gametime. Launchbury may also feature on the bench, and Haskell won't feature at all. Swainston is our leading Tighthead but has been injured, not sure if he's match fit. By all accounts Jake Cooper-Wooley - new boy from Cardiff FC - terrorised the Not Not front row when he came on last week. However, one good half does not by itself prove your credentials, and I'd fear for the guy against Quins. Swainston to come back if he's anywhere near ready, with JCW on the bench.

In the centres, Dai's given himself a massive headache by naming an inside centre as captain, despite the outstanding form of Hayter. But Captain has to play really. Wade is a cert, and will replace Basset. Masi to get the nod at 15 because of big game experience and Daly to bench it.

My prediction:

1. Mullan
2. Lindsay
3. Swainston if fit
4. Cannon
5. Myall
6. Jones
7. Thompson
8. Jackson

9. Simpson
10. Goode
11. Varndell
12. Bell
13. Jacobs
14. Wade
15. Masi

16. Lindsay
17. Cooper-Wooley
18. Vea/Mcintyre
19. Launchbury
20. Johnson
21. Davies/Moates
22. Carlisle
23. Daly/T. Bell

I think that given a tough choice, Dai will choose the older guys and make the newer guys work for it - so I think he'll go for Lindsay over Cochrane, Davies over Moates etc

 

[Patchey]

Wasps are in a very interesting place going into this game; we've had really good pre-season by all accounts - pushing a pretty must 1st choice(well, at least as first choice as our team was) Clermont team pretty close, and then two good wins. But this has been without many of our 'best players'. I think that gives Dai a bit of a selection headache, because it's a big game and we really want to get off to the right start - but you can't just drop players doing well in pre-season, it just gives out the wrong message altogether to players who are working hard for it.

As a result I would except to see guys like Smashley Johnson on the bench, since he's had no gametime. Launchbury may also feature on the bench, and Haskell won't feature at all. Swainston is our leading Tighthead but has been injured, not sure if he's match fit. By all accounts Jake Cooper-Wooley - new boy from Cardiff FC - terrorised the Not Not front row when he came on last week. However, one good half does not by itself prove your credentials, and I'd fear for the guy against Quins. Swainston to come back if he's anywhere near ready, with JCW on the bench.

In the centres, Dai's given himself a massive headache by naming an inside centre as captain, despite the outstanding form of Hayter. But Captain has to play really. Wade is a cert, and will replace Basset. Masi to get the nod at 15 because of big game experience and Daly to bench it.

My prediction:

1. Mullan
2. Lindsay
3. Swainston if fit
4. Cannon
5. Myall
6. Jones
7. Thompson
8. Jackson

9. Simpson
10. Goode
11. Varndell
12. Bell
13. Jacobs
14. Wade
15. Masi

16. Lindsay
17. Cooper-Wooley
18. Vea/Mcintyre
19. Launchbury
20. Johnson
21. Davies/Moates
22. Carlisle
23. Daly/T. Bell

I think that given a tough choice, Dai will choose the older guys and make the newer guys work for it - so I think he'll go for Lindsay over Cochrane, Davies over Moates etc

Spot on analysis there. Dai Young seems unable to chose sensible captains, last year it was Southwell who was promptly outplayed by Daly and this year the same may happen for Bell.

I presuming Haskell and Launchbury have been injured? I know Daly broke his toe a few weeks back.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Don't think Johnson is fit, he said on Twitter he's only started running, after being injured, today.