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That time of year again - well into pre-season and we are only a week or so away from the start of the best domestic competition in the world.
By this time you should have a reasonable grasp of how you think the season will play out, and this is where you can put those claims on record for later bragging.
Feel free to write a general preview of your team and of any others! You can also chuck in your "players to look out for" and league predictions too.
Here are some of mine:
I think we'll see the league continue the trend of being ever more competitive, with the bottom being a real dogfight, and the potential for a very well established prem team to be relegated.
- Bath have obviously had some fairly significant coaching and player changes since last season. Blackadder and Matson coming in and Stuart Hooper stepping up to a coaching role are good appointments on the face of it, and I expect they should be able to improve the team significantly from last season. That being based on the impression that much of last season's misery was based on squad disquiet just as much as inadequate coaching.
Losing Eastmond is a big deal – if only for the fact that losing him necessarily means quite a considerable change in style for the club. With Max Clark stepping up from the academy, and the rumour of Robbie Fruean being on the way – I'd imagine that the team are going to be playing in a slightly more orthodox style. There are a number of exciting signings and young players in Bath's squad, but their overall depth is a worry and will inevitably tell during international periods (and outside of that – particularly if there are injuries).
Obviously Faletau and Charteris are the big name signings and could make a sizeable impact for the club. Jack Walker has a very good chance of becoming a first team regular at the very least, if he can remain injury free – he has no real outstanding players in his way. Dave Sisi is "back" although whether he was ever really there before his loan spell back to LI is questionable – very difficult to tell what he'll be able to do given the competition in the back row. A guy who you may not be familiar with is Levi Douglas; a young flanker who spent four months with the Sarries academy before moving to Oyonnax for a season. He played a couple of senior games after joining mid-way through last season and is still in the academy. I think the guy has quite a bit of potential – he's a very powerful, big guy (119kg!) – he reminds me a bit of a much bigger Teimana Harrison. Tom Ellis and Charlie Ewels should get plenty of first team action – although Ellis may find that difficult if he's seen mainly as a backrower, as I do, given the competition in that area. It will be interesting to see how Stooke goes.
Bath players to look out for: Levi Douglas, Beno Obano, Tom Ellis.
- Harlequins have lost O'Shea and brought in Rowntree as forwards coach. It will be intriguing to see what effect this will have on quins, as it is unclear to me what role Connor was filling.
The state of Quins scrummaging under Rowntree is something all England fans should be keeping a keen eye on IMO – if he can improve Marler and Sinckler then it will really benefit the national side – Kyle in particular, who remains one of my favorite players. Quins have listed Marler as 93kg this season, which is patently incorrect; but he does look to have lost a significant amount of weight during his time off (and I know he prefers to play lighter).
As usual for Quins, there hasn't been too much player movement. Aaron Morris would be the "big" signing – he looked decent in the Glasgow game; so he might be able to pressure Brown somewhat. Joe Marchant looks set to have a breakthrough season – the more I see of him, the more he impresses me. This surely has to be the season that they start to bring through a replacement for Evans? Who is that person, though… Swiel is the obvious guy, but I don't know how much faith the coaches have in him – James Lang may get an opportunity here, I know he is highly rated and he impressed in the 7s. Jonas Mikalcius is in an interesting position – he's ostensibly behind two fairly established international wingers, but looks to be an absolute machine. He is a phenomenal athlete, and I would not be surprised to see him feature heavily.
Quins home-grown locks will have to jostle with Reddish and Horwill for a position in the first team.
Quins players to look out for: Aaron Morris, Joe Marchant, Jonas Mikalcius, James Lang.
- Wasps have a very, very impressive squad this year. I think everyone expects them to challenge for honours. Tommy Taylor possibly giving them the biggest boost of all – they now have very good fundamental base in the set-piece, which was perhaps lacking.
Hopefully Robson can kick on from where he was and put his hand up for senior England caps.
Wasps players to look out for: Tommy Taylor, Matt Symons, Ehize Ehidoze
- Gloucester have signed Motu Matu'u, not that great a player, but sweet jeezus does he tackle hard. The hardest I've ever seen, in fact… it's actually quite scary.
Other players to look out for:
Exeter: Sam Simmonds
Gloucester: Joe Batley, Ben Vellacot, Harry Randall
Leicester: Freddie Tuilagi, Ellis Genge
Bristol: Jack Lam
Newcastle: Josh Chisanga, Simon Uzokwe
Northampton:
Sale: Paolo Odogwu
Saracens: Nathan Earle, ***i Lamositele, Savenaca Rawaca, Alex Lozowski
Worcester: Will Spencer, Christian Scotland-Williamson
League positions:
Bottom two thirds of the table is anyone's guess, to an extent, but here we go:
1. Saracens
2. Leicester
3. Wasps
4. Exeter
5. Northampton
6. Quins
7. Bath
8. Sale
9. Worcester
10. Newcastle
11. Gloucester
12. Bristol
By this time you should have a reasonable grasp of how you think the season will play out, and this is where you can put those claims on record for later bragging.
Feel free to write a general preview of your team and of any others! You can also chuck in your "players to look out for" and league predictions too.
Here are some of mine:
I think we'll see the league continue the trend of being ever more competitive, with the bottom being a real dogfight, and the potential for a very well established prem team to be relegated.
- Bath have obviously had some fairly significant coaching and player changes since last season. Blackadder and Matson coming in and Stuart Hooper stepping up to a coaching role are good appointments on the face of it, and I expect they should be able to improve the team significantly from last season. That being based on the impression that much of last season's misery was based on squad disquiet just as much as inadequate coaching.
Losing Eastmond is a big deal – if only for the fact that losing him necessarily means quite a considerable change in style for the club. With Max Clark stepping up from the academy, and the rumour of Robbie Fruean being on the way – I'd imagine that the team are going to be playing in a slightly more orthodox style. There are a number of exciting signings and young players in Bath's squad, but their overall depth is a worry and will inevitably tell during international periods (and outside of that – particularly if there are injuries).
Obviously Faletau and Charteris are the big name signings and could make a sizeable impact for the club. Jack Walker has a very good chance of becoming a first team regular at the very least, if he can remain injury free – he has no real outstanding players in his way. Dave Sisi is "back" although whether he was ever really there before his loan spell back to LI is questionable – very difficult to tell what he'll be able to do given the competition in the back row. A guy who you may not be familiar with is Levi Douglas; a young flanker who spent four months with the Sarries academy before moving to Oyonnax for a season. He played a couple of senior games after joining mid-way through last season and is still in the academy. I think the guy has quite a bit of potential – he's a very powerful, big guy (119kg!) – he reminds me a bit of a much bigger Teimana Harrison. Tom Ellis and Charlie Ewels should get plenty of first team action – although Ellis may find that difficult if he's seen mainly as a backrower, as I do, given the competition in that area. It will be interesting to see how Stooke goes.
Bath players to look out for: Levi Douglas, Beno Obano, Tom Ellis.
- Harlequins have lost O'Shea and brought in Rowntree as forwards coach. It will be intriguing to see what effect this will have on quins, as it is unclear to me what role Connor was filling.
The state of Quins scrummaging under Rowntree is something all England fans should be keeping a keen eye on IMO – if he can improve Marler and Sinckler then it will really benefit the national side – Kyle in particular, who remains one of my favorite players. Quins have listed Marler as 93kg this season, which is patently incorrect; but he does look to have lost a significant amount of weight during his time off (and I know he prefers to play lighter).
As usual for Quins, there hasn't been too much player movement. Aaron Morris would be the "big" signing – he looked decent in the Glasgow game; so he might be able to pressure Brown somewhat. Joe Marchant looks set to have a breakthrough season – the more I see of him, the more he impresses me. This surely has to be the season that they start to bring through a replacement for Evans? Who is that person, though… Swiel is the obvious guy, but I don't know how much faith the coaches have in him – James Lang may get an opportunity here, I know he is highly rated and he impressed in the 7s. Jonas Mikalcius is in an interesting position – he's ostensibly behind two fairly established international wingers, but looks to be an absolute machine. He is a phenomenal athlete, and I would not be surprised to see him feature heavily.
Quins home-grown locks will have to jostle with Reddish and Horwill for a position in the first team.
Quins players to look out for: Aaron Morris, Joe Marchant, Jonas Mikalcius, James Lang.
- Wasps have a very, very impressive squad this year. I think everyone expects them to challenge for honours. Tommy Taylor possibly giving them the biggest boost of all – they now have very good fundamental base in the set-piece, which was perhaps lacking.
Hopefully Robson can kick on from where he was and put his hand up for senior England caps.
Wasps players to look out for: Tommy Taylor, Matt Symons, Ehize Ehidoze
- Gloucester have signed Motu Matu'u, not that great a player, but sweet jeezus does he tackle hard. The hardest I've ever seen, in fact… it's actually quite scary.
Other players to look out for:
Exeter: Sam Simmonds
Gloucester: Joe Batley, Ben Vellacot, Harry Randall
Leicester: Freddie Tuilagi, Ellis Genge
Bristol: Jack Lam
Newcastle: Josh Chisanga, Simon Uzokwe
Northampton:
Sale: Paolo Odogwu
Saracens: Nathan Earle, ***i Lamositele, Savenaca Rawaca, Alex Lozowski
Worcester: Will Spencer, Christian Scotland-Williamson
League positions:
Bottom two thirds of the table is anyone's guess, to an extent, but here we go:
1. Saracens
2. Leicester
3. Wasps
4. Exeter
5. Northampton
6. Quins
7. Bath
8. Sale
9. Worcester
10. Newcastle
11. Gloucester
12. Bristol
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