NPR

Raggs wrote: ↑Tue Jan 05, 2021 5:14 pm

Ali Cadoo wrote: ↑Tue Jan 05, 2021 4:39 pm Farrrk... that is awful for Steve Diamond. Poor guy, I've always kind of liked him and his attitude and I've never heard a player say a word against him... I know he's been a shit to journalists but, well... journalists!

There's been players who've not had kind words for him too.

Yeah, no doubt... but they’ve not been lining up to slate him publically a la Woodward...

East Midlands derby cancelled due top Covid in Saints squad

Saint wrote: ↑Wed Jan 06, 2021 12:36 pm East Midlands derby cancelled due top Covid in Saints squad

Shame, always looks forward to the derby, but it's probably 2 points that we otherwise wouldn't have got.

Saint wrote: ↑Wed Jan 06, 2021 12:36 pm East Midlands derby cancelled due top Covid in Saints squad

This won't be the last. Really don't want the league decided on who had the least Covid infections!!

Why is the league still continuing? It's patently clear we can't keep it Covid-secure.

JM2K6 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 06, 2021 5:01 pm Why is the league still continuing? It's patently clear we can't keep it Covid-secure.

Who's going to pay the bills if they don't play?

Yeah, I think they'll keep ploughing on for the moment until it gets even worse or they are told to stop.

Crunch point coming with the Euro games though. A lot of French teams making (understandable) noises about not wanting to play.

Christ, having some rugby on is the only thing making this lockdown bearable

Raggs wrote: ↑Wed Jan 06, 2021 5:03 pm

JM2K6 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 06, 2021 5:01 pm Why is the league still continuing? It's patently clear we can't keep it Covid-secure.

Who's going to pay the bills if they don't play?

That's arse-about-tit.

JM2K6 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 06, 2021 5:34 pm

Raggs wrote: ↑Wed Jan 06, 2021 5:03 pm

JM2K6 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 06, 2021 5:01 pm Why is the league still continuing? It's patently clear we can't keep it Covid-secure.

Who's going to pay the bills if they don't play?

That's arse-about-tit.

Who's going to play if they don't pay the bills?

Yeah, that works too.

Altrad stamping his foot in France with regards the ERC

Exeter boss Rob Baxter has admitted he is in the dark about calls from France to cancel the remainder of the 2020/21 Heineken Champions Cup tournament following the recent escalation in the spread of the pandemic. Montpellier owner Mohed Altrad wants the plug pulled on the 24-team tournament that has two rounds of pool matches due to be played this month.
There is also growing support among club presidents in the Top 14 to take a stand against EPCR on behalf the likes of Toulon who had a 28-0 defeat applied against them after they failed to fulfil their game at Scarlets due to concerns over the virus.

https://www.rugbypass.com/news/defend ... ions-cup/

Raggs wrote: ↑Wed Jan 06, 2021 5:39 pm

JM2K6 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 06, 2021 5:34 pm

Raggs wrote: ↑Wed Jan 06, 2021 5:03 pm

Who's going to pay the bills if they don't play?

That's arse-about-tit.

Who's going to play if they don't pay the bills?

Yeah, that works too.

There's a pandemic on and we're at the stage where it's spiralling out of control. The clubs cannot keep things COVID-secure. They should not be playing rugby.

Other businesses that aren't COVID secure aren't allowed to run either.

JM2K6 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 06, 2021 6:35 pm

Raggs wrote: ↑Wed Jan 06, 2021 5:39 pm

JM2K6 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 06, 2021 5:34 pm

That's arse-about-tit.

Who's going to play if they don't pay the bills?

Yeah, that works too.

There's a pandemic on and we're at the stage where it's spiralling out of control. The clubs cannot keep things COVID-secure. They should not be playing rugby.

Other businesses that aren't COVID secure aren't allowed to run either.

They're probably arguing that with regular testing the players are safer than most the general public, even with the full lockdown.

Teams for tomorrow evening's game at the Rec





Probably the strongest lineup Wasps can put out at the moment, good to see Willis wasn't badly injured last week. Nice to see Shields back as well, he'd really started to come good before his injury and restores a bit of depth to our back row stocks.

SaintK wrote: ↑Wed Jan 06, 2021 5:44 pm Altrad stamping his foot in France with regards the ERC

Exeter boss Rob Baxter has admitted he is in the dark about calls from France to cancel the remainder of the 2020/21 Heineken Champions Cup tournament following the recent escalation in the spread of the pandemic. Montpellier owner Mohed Altrad wants the plug pulled on the 24-team tournament that has two rounds of pool matches due to be played this month.
There is also growing support among club presidents in the Top 14 to take a stand against EPCR on behalf the likes of Toulon who had a 28-0 defeat applied against them after they failed to fulfil their game at Scarlets due to concerns over the virus.

https://www.rugbypass.com/news/defend ... ions-cup/

For once i agree with the clown, it should be shitcanned, results skewed due to covid cancellations, the format is all wrong, just bin it until next season, as an added bonus the weekends freed up could be used to play domestic games cancelled due to covid and give the leage a more realistic look.

ASMO wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 2:42 pm

SaintK wrote: ↑Wed Jan 06, 2021 5:44 pm Altrad stamping his foot in France with regards the ERC

Exeter boss Rob Baxter has admitted he is in the dark about calls from France to cancel the remainder of the 2020/21 Heineken Champions Cup tournament following the recent escalation in the spread of the pandemic. Montpellier owner Mohed Altrad wants the plug pulled on the 24-team tournament that has two rounds of pool matches due to be played this month.
There is also growing support among club presidents in the Top 14 to take a stand against EPCR on behalf the likes of Toulon who had a 28-0 defeat applied against them after they failed to fulfil their game at Scarlets due to concerns over the virus.

https://www.rugbypass.com/news/defend ... ions-cup/

For once i agree with the clown, it should be shitcanned, results skewed due to covid cancellations, the format is all wrong, just bin it until next season, as an added bonus the weekends freed up could be used to play domestic games cancelled due to covid and give the leage a more realistic look.

Or just take the top ranked 8 and go straight to knockout. The format is stupid and if there was anything else to do no one would be watching

Any reason why the two games tonight can't kick off at different times? With no crowd one game could start at 6 - would quite like to watch both

Just a question for a Friday morning, who does everyone think are the best scrummaging props in the league?

Exeter always seem powerful however they get a lot of help from their locks/loose forwards. Brookes has impressed me since the resumption for Wasps, Genge is always good value. Anyone else worth shouting about?

Paddington Bear wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 8:20 am Any reason why the two games tonight can't kick off at different times? With no crowd one game could start at 6 - would quite like to watch both

That reaslly is bad planning
Though I guess BT have contractual commitments to show FA Cup and Bundesliga matches on the other channels?

SaintK wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 10:37 am

Paddington Bear wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 8:20 am Any reason why the two games tonight can't kick off at different times? With no crowd one game could start at 6 - would quite like to watch both

That reaslly is bad planning
Though I guess BT have contractual commitments to show FA Cup and Bundesliga matches on the other channels?

Yeah, but at least one of them could be on the red button. This is coming dangerously close to forcing me to do some exercise at 5pm.

Hells Bells wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 9:20 am Just a question for a Friday morning, who does everyone think are the best scrummaging props in the league?

Exeter always seem powerful however they get a lot of help from their locks/loose forwards. Brookes has impressed me since the resumption for Wasps, Genge is always good value. Anyone else worth shouting about?

It's difficult to say for sure due to injuries, but Tom West at Wasps seems to have forced his way into the starting loosehead spot and be it alongside Brookes or Toomaga-Allen seems to be winning a fair share of scrum pens. In general our scrum has rarely looked better.

Marler's still up there with the best.

I'm an ex back three player, though, so whatever I say about scrummagers comes with a massive pinch of salt.

sockwithaticket wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 10:52 am

Hells Bells wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 9:20 am Just a question for a Friday morning, who does everyone think are the best scrummaging props in the league?

Exeter always seem powerful however they get a lot of help from their locks/loose forwards. Brookes has impressed me since the resumption for Wasps, Genge is always good value. Anyone else worth shouting about?

It's difficult to say for sure due to injuries, but Tom West at Wasps seems to have forced his way into the starting loosehead spot and be it alongside Brookes or Toomaga-Allen seems to be winning a fair share of scrum pens. In general our scrum has rarely looked better.

Marler's still up there with the best.

I'm an ex back three player, though, so whatever I say about scrummagers comes with a massive pinch of salt.

A lot depends on the beef behind them at club level. At international level there's not many lightweight packs any more.

I also find scrums incredibly difficult to decipher these days. There's so many incidents where Ben Kay will say "[player] hinged there, good penalty" and it'll look to me like both players just dropped at the same time...

Yep JM. Really different for the average punter to figure out what goes on and who is making the biggest impact. Was it player A hinging or the opposition prop going too low and collapsing etc?

Size and strength of the pack (locks especially) as well like you say. Just speaking from a LI point of view we were getting mullered in the scrum over the summer with whichever props were starting getting rinsed. However we had kids playing at lock and in the back row. All of a sudden we get a massive Moldovan fella in at lock and Tuisue is back at 8 and those same props are getting parity.

JM2K6 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 11:06 am

sockwithaticket wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 10:52 am

Hells Bells wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 9:20 am Just a question for a Friday morning, who does everyone think are the best scrummaging props in the league?

Exeter always seem powerful however they get a lot of help from their locks/loose forwards. Brookes has impressed me since the resumption for Wasps, Genge is always good value. Anyone else worth shouting about?

It's difficult to say for sure due to injuries, but Tom West at Wasps seems to have forced his way into the starting loosehead spot and be it alongside Brookes or Toomaga-Allen seems to be winning a fair share of scrum pens. In general our scrum has rarely looked better.

Marler's still up there with the best.

I'm an ex back three player, though, so whatever I say about scrummagers comes with a massive pinch of salt.

A lot depends on the beef behind them at club level. At international level there's not many lightweight packs any more.

I also find scrums incredibly difficult to decipher these days. There's so many incidents where Ben Kay will say "[player] hinged there, good penalty" and it'll look to me like both players just dropped at the same time...

True, Launchbury and Rowlands behind you is going to go a long way to making a front row look good, but we were doing alright with Levi Douglas and a Championship injury cover signing while they were gone.

I definitely don't pay as much attention to scrums as I used to and definitely see a lot that I would've thought a reset end up as a pen. Decisions don't always seem to get a replay either, which doesn't help trying to figure things out.

JM2K6 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 11:06 am

sockwithaticket wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 10:52 am

Hells Bells wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 9:20 am Just a question for a Friday morning, who does everyone think are the best scrummaging props in the league?

Exeter always seem powerful however they get a lot of help from their locks/loose forwards. Brookes has impressed me since the resumption for Wasps, Genge is always good value. Anyone else worth shouting about?

It's difficult to say for sure due to injuries, but Tom West at Wasps seems to have forced his way into the starting loosehead spot and be it alongside Brookes or Toomaga-Allen seems to be winning a fair share of scrum pens. In general our scrum has rarely looked better.

Marler's still up there with the best.

I'm an ex back three player, though, so whatever I say about scrummagers comes with a massive pinch of salt.

A lot depends on the beef behind them at club level. At international level there's not many lightweight packs any more.

I also find scrums incredibly difficult to decipher these days. There's so many incidents where Ben Kay will say "[player] hinged there, good penalty" and it'll look to me like both players just dropped at the same time...

A good lock can make the world of difference, especially when combined with good timing. At a vastly lower level, I've faced against a kid of a prop, somehow smaller than me, but with a monster of a lock behind him (nicknamed Hodor). If his lock didn't get the timing right, I easily sent them backwards (and I'm no master), but if Hodor started pushing in time, I was in trouble. I think Genge nearly always has good locks behind him, but it still takes good technique to keep things stable and moving, he's a very very good loosehead in the scrum now. West has also shown a lot of good technique and strength.

Marler is another brilliant scrummaging loosehead.

As for tightheads, Stuart is still learning, he's good, but his technique needs to start improving, since he still seems to get caught out by decent looseheads. Sinkler is still one of my favourites, technically he's really good from what I can tell.

Allan Dell is actually extremely good technically despite giving away a ton of weight. Stays very compact/square and you rarely see him collapsing or getting turned inside out like you do our other loose heads. He'll go backwards if there's too much power/weight coming through, but he does his bit.

There was a really good couple of tweets from Corbs a few weeks back, talking about Leinster's scrum and the "sling shot" type prep they were doing for the set up versus Sarries set up. The point being that Leinster have since adopted the Saracens' approach.

However, for me the interesting thing was the perfection of the English side's technique, which obviously down to their scrum coach, their backs are all straight and parallel to the floor and their hips are all in the right stages of flex.

It's worth a look if anyone is interested in this sort of thing.

This "unity" and timing counts for so much more than an individual prop's strengths (though to be fair, put a couple of very good scrummaging props and a similar hooker at the front of that set up and you're laughing)

Weather looks crap in Newcastle btw. Not sure if that game is going to happen. Anyone know who gets the points then?

Edit - scrap that, thought the game was tonight. Should hopefully go ahead tomorrow.

Teams for Quins LI on Sunday, which thankfully is going ahead. Looks like a first game for Rob Simmons off the bench and 19 yo Luke Green set for his prem debut at TH.

Time for Marchant to snap out of his malaise. Rona's a tricky customer in attack but he's a weakness to be exploited in defence.

Looking forward to seeing what young Lynagh can do again. Kid has some footwork, and isn't small either.

Rona's actually very good defensively. Definitely our most effective centre without the ball anyway.

He flew under the radar a bit as a signing among some of the bigger names they got in in the last year or two, but he's been the best of them so far by a distance. He's good at pretty much everything he has to do on the field.

If anyone has a spare tenner, stick it on Steele scoring on Sunday

Margin__Walker wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 2:59 pm Rona's actually very good defensively. Definitely our most effective centre without the ball anyway.

He flew under the radar a bit as a signing among some of the bigger names they got in in the last year or two, but he's been the best of them so far by a distance. He's good at pretty much everything he has to do on the field.

If anyone has a spare tenner, stick it on Steele scoring on Sunday

Hmmmm really? At international level and in Soup he was an absolute turnstile. I will admit to not watching much of LI... sorry

JM2K6 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 3:04 pm

Margin__Walker wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 2:59 pm Rona's actually very good defensively. Definitely our most effective centre without the ball anyway.

He flew under the radar a bit as a signing among some of the bigger names they got in in the last year or two, but he's been the best of them so far by a distance. He's good at pretty much everything he has to do on the field.

If anyone has a spare tenner, stick it on Steele scoring on Sunday

Hmmmm really? At international level and in Soup he was an absolute turnstile. I will admit to not watching much of LI... sorry

I don't blame you.

No, he's been decent there. Although saying that, he's not been facing Kiwi backlines and he'll definitely screw up now on Sunday now.

I'll forgive him if he's getting done by Smith, who does everyone. But I'll be very smug if Marchant remembers he's actually a dangerous attacking runner...

I'll be very disappointed if we play anything like we've played in the last few matches though. Very few out of form players in the starting side (Brown, maybe Young) so no excuse.

I'm guessing we'll be a bit undercooked given the cancelled games and not being able to train properly.

Front row isn't up to much and could struggle, but the rest of the team could do okay on a good day. Theo Brophy Clews has managed to stay fit for a couple of months now. I don't think he's done that since he was 18. Smith will no doubt break his ankle here as he darts past him

Is Creevy too old to start? Would've thought letting him soften us up - particularly with our weakness against mauls - might have been a good plan.

JM2K6 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 3:51 pm Is Creevy too old to start? Would've thought letting him soften us up - particularly with our weakness against mauls - might have been a good plan.

Seems to rotate between starting and benching. Definitely the best hooker we have, although not sure where everyone's match fitness is at the moment with the enforced time off.

Deary me, some bad defensive decisions by wasps there. Umaga...

Yeah, not an encouraging start.

2 really good mauls there, nice way back into the game.

Not sure how they thought they'd get away with pulling that second one down.