Aviva Premiership - Round 1

[TRF_Olyy]

Round 1 Fixtures

Live on BT Sport

Live on BT Sport

Live on BT Sport

Live on BT Sport
​

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Finally, real rugby is back!
Let the smack talking begin.



Hey Bath, I just saw this picture of your new training grounds:

 

[Patchey]

Winners: Saints, Bath, Sarries, Tigers, Quins, Chiefs. Heard it first here.

This weekend if going to be incredible. Prem season starts, Rugby Championship starts, some good ITM games and I'm playing myself. Bloody love September.

 

[Tony Manx]

Winners: Saints, Bath, Sarries, Tigers, Quins, Chiefs. Heard it first here.

This weekend if going to be incredible. Prem season starts, Rugby Championship starts, some good ITM games and I'm playing myself. Bloody love September.

Not being picky but the Rugby Championship....is that not into its third week now?

Top14 has been going for three weeks already and the Pro2 for two.............the season started ages ago!!

Enjoy your game though and am wondering whether it is with Quins, Ealing or Blues?

 

[Patchey]

Meant to say 'starts again'.

It's too early for this. I'm only awake because Canterbury v Otago is on.

Enjoy your game though and am wondering whether it is with Quins, Ealing or Blues?

I wish!

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Top14 has been going for three weeks already and the Pro2 for two.............the season started ages ago!!

Were talking about real rugby not retirement rugby.

 

[TheSaffycen]

Glos, Sale, Sarries, Tigers, Quins, Chiefs
Reasons Glos are incredibly unpredictable, first game of the season and they might catch saints out. If Northampton go down the physical route this Glos look like they should be able to cope.
Sale have a really scary defence and it's something that Bath struggle with, also without Louw I dont think they will have the quality in the back row compared too Sale IMO.
Sarries is pretty obvious, we're now bigger and a stronger team and we always put the little teams away. Wasps should cause us a few problems for the first 60 minutes but then i think our fitness will take over.
Tigers look like the champions with their squad and Falcons will lose by 20+ points.
Quins play some good rugby and now with Yarde they have another good finisher on the wing. Irish have added alot too their pack so it might be a long day for Quins but I expect them too win eventually.
Chiefs are a really good team and they might be a dark horse in getting top 4, the top 7 this year is gonna be mighty tight.

 

[Tony Manx]

Were talking about real rugby not retirement rugby.

I have heard of "real" tennis but never "real" rugby....must be something they wish they played at Leicester!!!!!!!

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Coming from a Biarritz supporter?

 

[Tmartin995]

Northampton vs Gloucester teams announced:
Saints:
1. Corbisiero 2. Hartley 3. Ma'afu 4. Lawes 5. Day 6. Clark 7. Wood 8. Manoa 9. Dickson 10. Myler 11. North 12. Burrell 13. Pisi G 14. Pisi K 15. Wilson
16. McMillan 17. Waller 18. Denman 19. Craig 20. Fisher 21. Fotuali'i 22. Hooley 23. Foden

Gloucester:
1. Murphy 2. Hibbard 3. Afoa 4. Savage 5. Hudson 6. Kalamafoni 7. Rowan 8. Morgan 9. Laidlaw 10. Hook 11. May 12. Twelvetrees 13. Trinder 14. Sharples 15. Cook
16. Dawidiuk 17. Thomas 18. Puafisi 19. Palmer 20. Moriarty 21. Robson 22. Atkinson 23. McColl

 

[ratsapprentice]

Gloucester Rugby:
Rob Cook; Charlie Sharples, Henry Trinder, Billy Twelvetrees (capt), Jonny May; James Hook, Greig Laidlaw; Dan Murphy, Richard Hibbard, John Afoa; Tom Savage, James Hudson; Sione Kalamafoni, Jacob Rowan, Ben Morgan

Replacements:
Darren Dawidiuk, Yann Thomas, Sila Puafisi, Tom Palmer, Ross Moriarty, Dan Robson, Mark Atkinson, Steve McColl

Kvesic's injured.

Moriarty on the bench. :good:

The scrum is going to be veeery interesting, as will the 12 channel.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

wonder why Stooke isn't involved?

 

[ratsapprentice]

Saints
Sharks
Tigers
Sarries
Quins
Chiefs

As always the opening round is quite hard to predict aside from one or two games.

 

[Peat]

Am I the only one who thinks Exeter's pack isn't good enough to bother top 4?

 

[ratsapprentice]

They'll do well to finish top 6.

They've got some good young tight 5 players (and enough of them to ensure there will be some good players based on probability), but I think they're still a year or two away from being experienced enough.
It's weird, because they're not an overtly lightweight pack like Quins'... but they don't seem like the sort of pack who can really impose themselves.

 

[TheSaffycen]

Cowan Dickie,Low, Munn, Waldrom, Ewers, Johnson, Naqelevuki they have some really decent players and their pack is not that far from Quins who are in and around the ***le contenders

 

[goodNumber10]

Saints
Bath (I think they will come out hard this year)
Sarries (I want to say Wasps but i just don't see it)
Tigers
Irish
Welsh

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Bath (I think they will come out hard this year)

Yeh but most likely end up floppy and tired after halfway, leaving Sale to finish themselves off.

 

[Tmartin995]

Cowan Dickie,Low, Munn, Waldrom, Ewers, Johnson, Naqelevuki they have some really decent players and their pack is not that far from Quins who are in and around the ***le contenders

I think that Baxter is keen to play Ewers at 6 with Johnson at 7 and Waldrom at 8 this season, with Naqelevuki coming on as an impact sub for Waldrom once he's played more games at back row.

I've seen the Chiefs and Quins comparison a couple of times recently, still think Chiefs are a a couple of years away from bothering the top 4 as they are still a young, developing side, particularly in the backs with Nowell, Slade, Hill, etc.

 

[ratsapprentice]

I agree with all that ^