Aviva Premiership - Round 4

[TheSaffycen]

Was working through the game, but I've heard Justin Burnell kicked off when interviewed?
Mentioned the refereeing being gash, and that the penalty count was 20-7 against Gloucester but no cards?

The penalty count was Welsh 19 Glos 6 ? According to aviva's website, and the cards were for cynical play. The first was collapsing a maul on the 5M line and the other for collapsing the scrums to Vea the tighthead.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Ah, I must've misunderstood (saw on twitter) - he must've been moaning that Welsh were getting pinged and Gloucester weren't.

From what I've seen it was the same game as the Sale one, really - kept in touch for 55ish and then the floodgates opened.

 

[goodNumber10]

There is zero chance Welsh will stay up.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Watching the welsh game I will say that Twelvetrees is starting to drop of the radar for me.

 

[Peat]

Didn't watch the game but ESPN stats say that Burrell missed 6 tackles today. Now, alright, they're the early ones and might get amended, but good grief...

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Not a great day at the office.

Di Marchi turned out to be a rubbish signing so far, Harrison scrummaging far far better.
Fridge can't play 3 anymore, which makes signing 2 looseheads (after loosing one tight) even stranger.

Apparently Brady did Strettle for his try, so that's a positive at least.

 

[Draggs]

Missed the end due to the Boks game, but after the first quarter, an lbp at FG isn't awful. Will await Rats, et al for more info. A bit worrying is the defence, gave up four tries to LW and now Northants.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Please tell me Northampton haven't given themselves a star on there shirt for winning the AP last season or even the 2nd tier Euro league.

 

[Don't Skip Leg Day]

Please tell me Northampton haven't given themselves a star on there shirt for winning the AP last season or even the 2nd tier Euro league.

Jealous much?

 

[ratsapprentice]

Missed the end due to the Boks game, but after the first quarter, an lbp at FG isn't awful. Will await Rats, et al for more info. A bit worrying is the defence, gave up four tries to LW and now Northants.

I posted my comment on the game in the wrong thread!

Here it is/was:

Good game.

Poor officiating at the scrums though, IMO. Saints' replacement front row were allowed to drive waaay before the ball went in - gained a good 1/2 foot in three consecutive scrums.
Should have kept the ball in during that last scrum and I think we may have won a penalty try, or even just scored from it.
Pretty good defensively again, barring some really bad individual tackle attempts.

Big Dave, Roko and Kyle are playing really well at the moment. A whole load of players are actually - I like the look of Henson at 15.

Only thing I really felt let down by was some inaccuracy at times in the lineout and in first phase moves.


How long is Cockers going to last?

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Jealous much?

Not really I guess it is kind of cute in it's own way.

 

[Wendigo7]

I posted my comment on the game in the wrong thread!

Here it is/was:

Good game.

Poor officiating at the scrums though, IMO. Saints' replacement front row were allowed to drive waaay before the ball went in - gained a good 1/2 foot in three consecutive scrums.
Should have kept the ball in during that last scrum and I think we may have won a penalty try, or even just scored from it.
Pretty good defensively again, barring some really bad individual tackle attempts.

Big Dave, Roko and Kyle are playing really well at the moment. A whole load of players are actually - I like the look of Henson at 15.

Only thing I really felt let down by was some inaccuracy at times in the lineout and in first phase moves.


How long is Cockers going to last?

Yep.

Was just a very good game but some of the stuff they got away with was laughable. That said I don't think it ultimately would have changed much. Poor start by Bath cost them ultimately. Could and should of probably got the draw, but 3-0-1 with the start theyve had and sarries at home to come isnt bad.

London Irish... well done! Very good win there.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Can anyone who watched the Saints/Bath game comment on Ford's performance?
I'm hearing that he was average at best and his defence was crap - but this is from biased/anti-Bath sources

 

[ratsapprentice]

Was good - a couple errors with ball in hand, but otherwise a good performance.

Not sure I really agreed with what the commentators were saying during the match either, they seemed to feel Saints were dominant.
I didn't really see it that way - they were better in the first half, we were better in the second.
The main difference between us was that we missed 3-4 crucial tackles that led directly to tries. I don't feel our defence was exposed in any particularly worrying way.

We very nearly (and probably should have) drew with the Saints at home - that doesn't happen if your FH played badly.

 

[goodNumber10]

talking of Ford & Bath, i posted this today (Sorry for the spam (only a bit)):

http://www.thedeadballarea.com/attack-analysis-bath-rugby/

there is a video in there.:

[video=youtube_share;A0aM4DPYN0A]http://youtu.be/A0aM4DPYN0A[/video]

 

[TheSaffycen]

I watched the Bath game and Ford played well I thought. His timing for the pass is excellent and his out of hand kicking was alright, one or two kicks were poor though. For Pisi's try he did get easily thrown away but that might have been him trying to run across. Has anyone heard about Corbs going off injured ? From the game Webber, Hartley, Attwood, Ford, Roko, Foden would have all gone up in lancasters mind. Hartley won MOTM but I think Fisher should have, I don't know alot about him but he's looked great everytime I've seen him. Outside pick possibly ?

 

[Peat]

Saffy - What would he offer that our current back-rows don't?

 

[ratsapprentice]

Fisher?! Can't say I really noticed him tbh.

 

[Wendigo7]

talking of Ford & Bath, i posted this today (Sorry for the spam (only a bit)):

http://www.thedeadballarea.com/attack-analysis-bath-rugby/

there is a video in there.:

[video=youtube_share;A0aM4DPYN0A]http://youtu.be/A0aM4DPYN0A[/video]

Just wanted to note the article is very good. Well structured and argues the point well, albeit it's nice to have an article favours players I'm a personal fan of, it's interesting to see how Bath structure the attack itself and compartmentalize the attack into different segments.

I had similar thoughts about Eastmond stretching the play, which is more obvious, but the use of Cook i thought was more interesting. I didn't peg that as any more than an after thought and thought Ford was the one trying to push and pull the defence to stress and open space for Eastmond to attack.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Sinkler hasn't been having much luck in the scrum this season.

Slade being brilliant, again.
It's almost a shame that Ford, Burns and Cipriani are playing well at the start of this season.
Considering how meh 36 has been, I'd genuinely consider him in the centres this autumn.