Aviva Premiership 16/17 - Round 1

[Every Time Ref]

A] You found a full replay? where was it?
B] I don't think Bladders can be credited with anything much at this stage - he's only been in the country a week or. This early season is the work deon by Booth and Edwards - possibly with Bladder's input over skype; but I doubt he'll have been doing too much whilst still learning the names of most of the players; NH reffing styles etc etc.
C] As for Cook - you're dead right; he did absolutely the right thing (as did the ref). He was about 7m back rather than 10, but less than 5m from his own try line; with no-one in place behind him to make the tackle legally. Stop the try and cop the yellow every day; a very professional foul.
People have been condemning him because he's Chris Cook, and without actually seeing the incident; and people have been condemning him because Saints went on to score (an illegal) try anyway, which is a purely hind-sight decision.

A] Twas on youtube, just searched Bath Northampton posted in the last week and there were two, one significantly better quality. If you can't find it PM me and I'll have a look when I get home. Annoying that the prem rugby site haven't put any up yet
B] Yep fair point, too much credit to Edmund there. Either way, better defence nad better discipline are both promising signs. And in fairness, Edmund was quoted specifically sayign "discipline needs to improve" the day before, so it's obviously a major focus of his (not that it takes much coaching genius to work that out, but still ... )

C]

I partially agree the best kind of professional foul is the one you get away with (that is when it's not dangerous play). Yes the ref is a muppet and the other side have a right to be aggrieved but to pretend it's not part of the game is a lie.

However the one you get carded for I've never been convinced by the 10 point swing average. Either you let in a ton of points like Bath did or you shut up shop and defend it out.

I think it's a judgement call if your defence has been holding strong like Bath's had been you can probably take the risk like Cook did. However if your in a game where both sides have been scoring freely you're probably being a colassal ***.

Still either way Bath had a 18 points lead with 7 mins to go I think Cook could rightly think they won't score 3 try's in that time so tried to take one for the team.

However in equal masure Bath probably could of taken that one try and been better suited for the next 7 mins.

So yeah can't decide if Cook was right or wrong on that one. In the end we won so he can probably cop some flak for allowing them to have a chance but not admoish him too much in case he needs to do it next time if Bath are merely 4 points in the lead with 2 mins to go.

Correct call or not, there isn't a single rugby player in the world who would literally let a player walk over the line rather than tackling him, even if cold hard logic would conclude that that was the better outcome than a yellow card. You can't blame a player for doing that.

3.5 points is it nowadays? Of course you have to take into account that a large number of yellow cards are given right on the line and lead to either an immediate three points or a line out and a good chance of a try. So if you get your yellow outside kicking range or you steal the lineout and clear, you are basically down to 0 points?

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Sale

Are Sale called Sale because there's always a Sale on, like DFS?

 

[tsof]

A] Twas on youtube, just searched Bath Northampton posted in the last week and there were two, one significantly better quality. If you can't find it PM me and I'll have a look when I get home. Annoying that the prem rugby site haven't put any up yet
B] Yep fair point, too much credit to Edmund there. Either way, better defence nad better discipline are both promising signs. And in fairness, Edmund was quoted specifically sayign "discipline needs to improve" the day before, so it's obviously a major focus of his (not that it takes much coaching genius to work that out, but still ... )

Highlights have been up since this morning Gents, http://www.premiershiprugby.com/match-highlights

 

[ncurd]

Are Sale called Sale because there's always a Sale on, like DFS?

Somehow I managed to buy a sofa from DFs that wasn't on sale.....me and my wife picked one out we liked in our price range. Kept an eye out for 9 months whilst we saved for it and it never went on sale, 1 month after we ordered the sofa it was on sale....

True Story

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I also agree on the 3.5 points thing, I'd like to see the stats where the full yellow card is played out. Cook for instance only was off for 7 minutes. That's 3 minutes of potential points he didn't have to account for. A lot of YC's are given between minutes 70 and 80.

You can say arguably and completely unscientifically that Cook's YC was worth 20 points not 14 due to the 3 minutes not played. However I bet when the stats are counted at the end of the season it carries equal weight to a 10 minute YC.

Just something to take into consideration.

 

[Raggs]

It would have been a guaranteed 7 had he not got carded, 30 seconds sooner too.

 

[Which Tyler]

Highlights have been up since this morning Gents, http://www.premiershiprugby.com/match-highlights

10 minute highlights have been up since Sunday morning

A] Twas on youtube, just searched Bath Northampton posted in the last week and there were two, one significantly better quality. If you can't find it PM me and I'll have a look when I get home. Annoying that the prem rugby site haven't put any up yet

A] I get 10+ pages of options to watch a live stream that isn't streaming.

ETA: OK, thinking to also filter it by duration >20 minutes helps; and I have it.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Best excuse for losing ever by Mallinder

orthampton director of rugby Jim Mallinder: "It was difficult. We haven't had any rain in training and it is a completely different game when it rains. We are all learning, but there were some positive aspects as well.

I mean that is 10/10 stuff

 

[Pieter Steph du Teague]

Best excuse for losing ever by Mallinder

orthampton director of rugby Jim Mallinder: "It was difficult. We haven't had any rain in training and it is a completely different game when it rains. We are all learning, but there were some positive aspects as well.

I mean that is 10/10 stuff

Well he's got to come up with something other than "I decided to play my son who's a centre at 10 over our 2 proven fly halves." I guess blaming the weather was the next best option.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

A Northerner blaming rain!
He's gone soft since going South.

 

[Lé Ddanno]

Are ITV still showing the highlights program?

 

[Every Time Ref]

We can all agree it was a stroke of genius by Blackadder to relocate pre-season training to the rainforest, hence avoiding such a disaster

 

[Which Tyler]

We can all agree it was a stroke of genius by Blackadder to relocate pre-season training to the rainforest, hence avoiding such a disaster

Those trees made great tackle-bag holders too; meant we could use the academy kids for actual rugby training - a novel approach for Bath I feel.

 

[Every Time Ref]

Coach of the year award guaranteed

 

[Duck a l'Orange]

Agreed that only 7 minutes being played skews the statistics, but it skews the card too.

I'm sure Cook knew that if he was carded it would count for less, mitigating the risk of taking the hit.

Swings and roundabouts.

 

[stus768]

Have premiership rugby.tv stopped uploading full games?

 

[ratsapprentice]

Seems like they might have.

I have friend who thinks you might still be able to torrent the full versions of the untelevised games.

 

[stus768]

I've found them all on YouTube but don't know how reliable they will be

 

[TRF_Olyy]

I've got a site that has all rugby torrents on, gimme a pm if you want it

 

[Which Tyler]

Have premiership rugby.tv stopped uploading full games?

No, just having technical difficulties, and they don't know how long it'll take to be working properly.
In the mean-time there's a YouTube uploaded who has access to the matches as they'd be put up, with commentary, match clocks etc. Not sure house rules on linking, but search terms are bloody obvious, then just filter out vid.s under 20 minutes

Seems like they might have.

I have friend who thinks you might still be able to torrent the full versions of the untelevised games.

Several betting sites have them all free and legal, some streamers just show those same streams free and illegally

 

[Geordie]

Missed penalty at the death that would have won it
We didn't deserve to win, to be fair - congrats to Newcy.

I was at the game. Happy with the result in the end...even though we nearly shot ourselves in the foot in the last minute with your penalty.

If we stick together we could develop a really strong side. I thought our defence and breakdown work stood out....very physical and aggressive.

A bit more control on the backs and we should go to bath with confidence we can give them a good game.