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Premiership Rugby 18/19 - Rd 21

TRF_Olyy

English Arrogance
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15 Telusa Veainu

14 Sam Aspland-Robinson

13 Matt Smith

12 Matt Toomua

11 Jonny May

10 George Ford (c)

9 Sam Harrison

1 Ellis Genge

2 Tatafu Polota-Nau

3 Dan Cole

4 Will Spencer

5 Graham Kitchener

6 Mike Williams

7 Guy Thompson

8 Sione Kalamafoni

Replacements

16 Jake Kerr

17 Facundo Gigena

18 Joe Heyes

19 Mike Fitzgerald

20 Brendon O'Connor

21 Ben White

22 George Worth

23 Jordan Olowofela

Harlequins: 15 Mike Brown, 14 Gabriel Ibitoye, 13 Joe Marchant, 12 Ben Tapuai, 11 Charlie Walker, 10 Marcus Smith, 9 Danny Care; 1 Joe Marler, 2 Elia Elia, 3 Kyle Sinckler, 4 Mat Symons, 5 James Horwill, 6 Alex Dombrandt, 7 Chris Robshaw, 8 Jack Clifford.

Replacements: 16 Rob Buchanan, 17 Nic Auterac, 18 Will Collier, 19 Stan South, 20 Semi Kunatani, 21 Sam Hidalgo-Clyne, 22 James Lang, 23 Ross Chisholm.
 
I imagine it will be another week where Bath have a fantastic training session.
 
Anyone know why Goneva isn't on the roster for Newcastle this week? Apparently, they've found a way to ensure relegation AND screw my fantasy rugby draft team for the final! :p
 
Dombrandt needs to improve his fitness in the off season, he is a talented and strong carrier and very good player who i want to see go well but he seems to get more and more quiet and goes missing as the game goes on.
 
Dombrandt needs to improve his fitness in the off season, he is a talented and strong carrier and very good player who i want to see go well but he seems to get more and more quiet and goes missing as the game goes on.
Only a few weeks ago Gustard was referring to his "university rig". Should be easy for him to get fitter, but I wouldn't want to see his natural power compromised.

Didn't watch the game closely last night, but think they flashed up a stat showing he was right up there in the turnover charts.

Totally looks like an 8 to me.
 
Only a few weeks ago Gustard was referring to his "university rig". Should be easy for him to get fitter, but I wouldn't want to see his natural power compromised.

Didn't watch the game closely last night, but think they flashed up a stat showing he was right up there in the turnover charts.

Totally looks like an 8 to me.
Theres a balance to be got with him in terms of keeping his size and improving his fitness. Definate 8 or a dave ewers style 6. Id have had robshaw 6 Clifford 7 Donbrandt 8 tbh. But at 21 he's got a bright future, hopefully he gets one of those apprentice slots next year in england training, wont play but will get alot out of the training.
 
Sarries vs chiefs game today, 2 top teams in england, should be a great clash! Should be so excited and looking forward to this.

But im not, pretty much an A league game, both teams has rested pretty much rested all their top players...and yes i understand why with the play offs coming up but come on.
 
Sarries vs chiefs game today, 2 top teams in england, should be a great clash! Should be so excited and looking forward to this.

But im not, pretty much an A league game, both teams has rested pretty much rested all their top players...and yes i understand why with the play offs coming up but come on.
Totally agree. Very poor.

I'm going. My mate's got the tickets, but I somehow doubt they've been discounted.....
 
Gotta say, none of today's matches actually interest me.
Exeter v Sarries at any other time of year would be great
Saints may be winning the mid-table cripple fight, at home against a dead-rubber Worcester...
Glos Vs Newcastle is a mismatch this year even before we saw Newcastle's selection, Newcastle don't have it in them to take 5 points away from Kingsholm, even with it being a dead rubber for Glos.


Tomorrow's match might be a complete cripple fight, or might be high quality, both team's are perfectly capable of both options; but at least the score board should keep it tense, with both team's actually giving a damn about the result.
 
Newcastle relegated, so as Tigers fan I'm relieved, though will be interested to see if they still blame everything on MoC as I don't think next year will be any different at the moment.

Sarries mathematically can get 1st but unlikely.
Harlequins and Saints playing for the last play off.
Wasps vs. Bath will set up who is in contention for 6th next week.

Overall though, season is pretty much over.
 
Newcastle made a good go of it but the yellows killed them, shame to see but they should bounce back up
 
Newcastle relegated, so as Tigers fan I'm relieved, though will be interested to see if they still blame everything on MoC as I don't think next year will be any different at the moment.

Sarries mathematically can get 1st but unlikely.
Harlequins and Saints playing for the last play off.
Wasps vs. Bath will set up who is in contention for 6th next week.

Overall though, season is pretty much over.
Wasps with 10 points from last 2 games can still be 4th.
Saints guarantee in top 6 .
If Quins get nothing v wasps Sale could overtake them for 5th.
Only way Quins not in top six is Wasps getting 10 points.
Or Bath getting 10 points and turning around the points difference over last 2 matches.
I agree most likely saints ,quins for last playoff spot.
After tomorrow it will be wasps or bath and sale for spot 6.
 
It's time for what they're calling The Battle of the Overspending Mediocrities Who Came Second A Few Years Ago!

I have to say I can't remember the last time I gave this little of a **** about Bath games. Last few weeks I haven't really watched at all, I've barely known who they're playing week to week. I'm really trying to build myself up to give a **** about the Wasps game today but I just can't seem to. Hypothetically, I'd rather be in Europe next year but ... I don't really care.

I don't know if this is just me or a widespread feeling among Bath fans ... if the latter, the club 100% shoulders the blame.
 
It's time for what they're calling The Battle of the Overspending Mediocrities Who Came Second A Few Years Ago!

I have to say I can't remember the last time I gave this little of a **** about Bath games. Last few weeks I haven't really watched at all, I've barely known who they're playing week to week. I'm really trying to build myself up to give a **** about the Wasps game today but I just can't seem to. Hypothetically, I'd rather be in Europe next year but ... I don't really care.

I don't know if this is just me or a widespread feeling among Bath fans ... if the latter, the club 100% shoulders the blame.
It has been a particularly dispiriting year TBH.
It's been long enough after Mike Ford, and Todd does seem to have done a good job of healing those wounds. We finally get a season where we're not ravaged by injuries, and... There's no improvement. I still don't know what gameplay Todd wants us to play, and were still underperforming compared tomour training paper, but this time we've had the chance for some consistency of selection, and the ability to train with enough bodies in all positions.
This year, there's no excuse.
Consequently, whilst I was happy enough to see Todd extend at the beginning of the year, I'm now actually quite glad that Todd is off. I just wish I had faith that we'd appoint an experienced, no-nonsense head coach.
Hooper as a backroom DOR is fine, management and a buffer between Bruce and the coaches. But we need an Edwards-type head coach. It looks like we'll get Dempsey with new guys coming in below him, possibly requiring Hooper to be more hands-on, which... is significantly more likely to fail than to succeed.

As for the gradual reduction in interest, the whole sport has been heading that way for me for a few years now. I'm over-saturated with matches, with too much let go, especially time wasting, and the odds stacked too far in the favour of the team in possession at every contest for the ball. I don't feel that retention should be even close to 90% in any aspect of play. Scrums are still a penalty/rescrum lottery. Lines-out are virtually guaranteed retention. Mauls are improving, but no reward for doing it well if one player happens to end up near the ball carrier. Rucks are contests for blasting dangerously and falling over, ending with a crocodile tail.
Intercepts are probably the most common way of changing possession except for offences. Virtually no-one tried to steal the ball, just to earn a penalty by getting a hand on it that can't do anything, typically in a body position that's physically impossible to actually be called "on your feet", it's more "resting on the body underneath you, whilst keeping your feet on the ground". Add in inconsistent reff.ing (it's always been like this, we just never saw it as it was rarely on telly and rarely replayed when it was) and ever changing laws/interpretations the constant spectre of salary cap cheating and threats to ring-fence...

Of course, there's also the phone/tablet induced lowered attention span, meaning that unless a match is rivetting, I'm probably watching about 1/3 of the actual footage (actual amount depends on how interesting the match actually is to me)

Quite honestly, I suspect that if I wasn't discussing rugby in online communities like this, then I'd probably have quit the sport by now.
 
Were great when we play like this. Let's see if we can do so for more than 20 minutes (10-15 is our usual maximum)
 
The apparent (real or imagined on my part) political turmoil of the sport, concussion/club/country etc. really fatigues me.

I've barely watched the domestic game this year.
 
That one looked to me as if the ball was released backwards by Bath, drawn back in by Wasps hands, and given as a knock on by bath!

So Obano does what he's supposed to do, Wasps bring it back in an attempt to earn a penalty, but gain a KO instead.

And we're not allowed a second look.
 
FFS, how is that a knock on? It clearly goes back off white!
Added to the previous Obano scrum penalty, has the ref just decided that Bath are playing badly. Two entirely imaginary decisions on the trot
 
FFS, how is that a knock on? It clearly goes back off white!
Added to the previous Obano scrum penalty, has the ref just decided that Bath are playing badly. Two entirely imaginary decisions on the trot

We are probably architects of our own problems with regard to refereeing. Bath have had shoddy handling for a long time and last week Obano was bad in the scrum and we were knocking on all the time. Sub consciously a ref probably thinks this is just continuing again here. Teams that get the rub of the green tend to have good reputations. Our reputation is of conceding penalties and poor handling.

The fact Hughes wasn't even touched there is shocking.
 

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