NPR

Bit of a training run this unfortunately. Hopefully Wasps get the benefit of resting a few of the uninjured players in the game next week.

Just as well Sarries aren't executing particularly well!

Grandfather time crosses the line, moral victory secured.

Will Porter's looked miles quicker than Hougaard since he's been on.

Yeah, Porter's upped the urgency. Better from Wasps there

This is when the floodgates could really open...

I'm stuck in a Toby Carvery with the family. Has Malins scored 4?

Kawazaki wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 3:37 pm I'm stuck in a Toby Carvery with the family. Has Malins scored 4?

So far. 7 in 2 is that?

Ali Crossdale might want to play for Saracens at this rate.

What's the consequence for forefeiting a game? Considering the additional injuries sustained during this game that might've been a better option.

sockwithaticket wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 2:39 pm

Dragster wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 2:36 pm

sockwithaticket wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 2:34 pm And now we've lost Cruse again, so a loanee from Doncaster runs on to play hooker.

Head injury two weeks running for Cruse?

Not quite, he's missed the last 3 due to a head injury, this was his return.

At least we get Oghre back from suspension next week.

Not sure players are being properly protected yet- big lawsuits down the road.

sockwithaticket wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 3:49 pm What's the consequence for forefeiting a game? Considering the additional injuries sustained during this game that might've been a better option.

It's the Premiership, not the Green King Essex Merit league.

Kawazaki wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 3:57 pm

sockwithaticket wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 3:49 pm What's the consequence for forefeiting a game? Considering the additional injuries sustained during this game that might've been a better option.

It's the Premiership, not the Green King Essex Merit league.

We had 16 players unavailable due to injury before the game kicked off, four more were subbed due to injury today including at hooker and centre where we were already beyond threadbare.

Injury crisis five games in - poor pre-season conditioning programme?

Prembore wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 4:09 pm Injury crisis five games in - poor pre-season conditioning programme?

It does make you wonder. It's not just the number of injuries, but where they are too. They're weirdly focused on hooker and centre. With Simonds (last man in the depth chart) going down during this game, all our first team centres apart from Gopperth are now injured. All our hookers apart from Oghre (serving the last week of his suspension) are now injured.

Morris and Carr going down today along with Jack Willis being out means the back row is pretty bare too.

Launchbury, Willis, Mills and Odogwu were long term injuries from last season.

Dinsdale Piranha wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 12:55 pm

Kawazaki wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 10:51 am Craig is very wealthy but he's not Dyson level wealthy is he?

Dyson is Lansdowne level wealthy I think.

Lansdowne isn't even close to Dyson's level of wealth.

Bruce is plenty rich, Dyson is another level. From memory Craig is around £300m, Dyson is pushing £20B.

But I'd think it's not lack of funds that's the problem.

If it were to happen - and I'd take much of the TRP rumour mill with a pinch of salt - I know many people who work for Dyson and he's notably hands-on in the design side, and I'm not quite clear whether that means 'control freak' or not.

inactionman wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 4:55 pm

Dinsdale Piranha wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 12:55 pm

Kawazaki wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 10:51 am Craig is very wealthy but he's not Dyson level wealthy is he?

Dyson is Lansdowne level wealthy I think.

Lansdowne isn't even close to Dyson's level of wealth.

Bruce is plenty rich, Dyson is another level. From memory Craig is around £300m, Dyson is pushing £20B.

But I'd think it's not lack of funds that's the problem.

If it were to happen - and I'd take much of the TRP rumour mill with a pinch of salt - I know many people who work for Dyson and he's notably hands-on in the design side, and I'm not quite clear whether that means 'control freak' or not.

Hopefully he's wealthy enough to get a decent pitch at Bath.

Kawazaki wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 4:57 pm

inactionman wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 4:55 pm

Dinsdale Piranha wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 12:55 pm

Lansdowne isn't even close to Dyson's level of wealth.

Bruce is plenty rich, Dyson is another level. From memory Craig is around £300m, Dyson is pushing £20B.

But I'd think it's not lack of funds that's the problem.

If it were to happen - and I'd take much of the TRP rumour mill with a pinch of salt - I know many people who work for Dyson and he's notably hands-on in the design side, and I'm not quite clear whether that means 'control freak' or not.

Hopefully he's wealthy enough to get a decent pitch at Bath.

Sadly that would involve moving - it's on the flood plain of the Avon and there's not a great deal that can be done, in winter it's not underheard of for the weir to be completely swamped and the paths by the back of the stands to be under water (only to puddle depth, but they're only about 30 or 40 yards from the edge of the pitch).

In saying that, some of more advanced plans I've seen for redevelopment include an underground car park.

We've already been round the houses with alternative locations - the Frys Club at Keynsham (I used to play pub football there, acres of space and right by the train station) - but I'd be gutted if we ever left the Rec. Yes, objectively it's a stupid place to put a professional rugby club, but I've had enough of identikit new build stadia sited with cheap land values and transport links foremost in mind.

<end rant>

Probably a difficult match to judge, but how did Tommy Matthews get on in his Wasps debut?

inactionman wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 5:08 pm

Kawazaki wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 4:57 pm

inactionman wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 4:55 pm

Bruce is plenty rich, Dyson is another level. From memory Craig is around £300m, Dyson is pushing £20B.

But I'd think it's not lack of funds that's the problem.

If it were to happen - and I'd take much of the TRP rumour mill with a pinch of salt - I know many people who work for Dyson and he's notably hands-on in the design side, and I'm not quite clear whether that means 'control freak' or not.

Hopefully he's wealthy enough to get a decent pitch at Bath.

Sadly that would involve moving - it's on the flood plain of the Avon and there's not a great deal that can be done, in winter it's not underheard of for the weir to be completely swamped and the paths by the back of the stands to be under water (only to puddle depth, but they're only about 30 or 40 yards from the edge of the pitch).

In saying that, some of more advanced plans I've seen for redevelopment include an underground car park.

We've already been round the houses with alternative locations - the Frys Club at Keynsham (I used to play pub football there, acres of space and right by the train station) - but I'd be gutted if we ever left the Rec. Yes, objectively it's a stupid place to put a professional rugby club, but I've had enough of identikit new build stadia sited with cheap land values and transport links foremost in mind.

<end rant>

There's always a solution. Be it artificial, hybrid, soakaways, pumps, levies etc. It always comes down to money, Bath likely expect public money to pay for it.

Kawazaki wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 5:16 pm

inactionman wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 5:08 pm

Kawazaki wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 4:57 pm



Hopefully he's wealthy enough to get a decent pitch at Bath.

Sadly that would involve moving - it's on the flood plain of the Avon and there's not a great deal that can be done, in winter it's not underheard of for the weir to be completely swamped and the paths by the back of the stands to be under water (only to puddle depth, but they're only about 30 or 40 yards from the edge of the pitch).

In saying that, some of more advanced plans I've seen for redevelopment include an underground car park.

We've already been round the houses with alternative locations - the Frys Club at Keynsham (I used to play pub football there, acres of space and right by the train station) - but I'd be gutted if we ever left the Rec. Yes, objectively it's a stupid place to put a professional rugby club, but I've had enough of identikit new build stadia sited with cheap land values and transport links foremost in mind.

<end rant>

There's always a solution. Be it artificial, hybrid, soakaways, pumps, levies etc. It always comes down to money, Bath likely expect public money to pay for it.

Bath Rugby don't own the land, and it reverts back to common use outside of season. Don't think they'd get away with much just to make a corner of the common land better suited to professional Rugby. They've already had enough complaints from certain pultenay residents.

Craig didn't hold back with farleigh, he's indicated he'll spend on the rec if he's allowed to do so.

inactionman wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 5:32 pm

Kawazaki wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 5:16 pm

inactionman wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 5:08 pm

Sadly that would involve moving - it's on the flood plain of the Avon and there's not a great deal that can be done, in winter it's not underheard of for the weir to be completely swamped and the paths by the back of the stands to be under water (only to puddle depth, but they're only about 30 or 40 yards from the edge of the pitch).

In saying that, some of more advanced plans I've seen for redevelopment include an underground car park.

We've already been round the houses with alternative locations - the Frys Club at Keynsham (I used to play pub football there, acres of space and right by the train station) - but I'd be gutted if we ever left the Rec. Yes, objectively it's a stupid place to put a professional rugby club, but I've had enough of identikit new build stadia sited with cheap land values and transport links foremost in mind.

<end rant>

There's always a solution. Be it artificial, hybrid, soakaways, pumps, levies etc. It always comes down to money, Bath likely expect public money to pay for it.

Bath Rugby don't own the land, and it reverts back to common use outside of season. Don't think they'd get away with much just to make a corner of the common land better suited to professional Rugby. They've already had enough complaints from certain pultenay residents.

Craig didn't hold back with farleigh, he's indicated he'll spend on the rec if he's allowed to do so.

I guess it's stick or twist time then. As traditional as the Rec is, it's tradition lies in the old amateur era. The game has moved on and Bath must move on with it or finishing with the also-rans will become the default. The Rec just isn't fit for purpose.

So Craig would rather sell up than sack his mate Hooper? That’s god tier loyalty.

Kawazaki wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 5:47 pm

inactionman wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 5:32 pm

Kawazaki wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 5:16 pm



There's always a solution. Be it artificial, hybrid, soakaways, pumps, levies etc. It always comes down to money, Bath likely expect public money to pay for it.

Bath Rugby don't own the land, and it reverts back to common use outside of season. Don't think they'd get away with much just to make a corner of the common land better suited to professional Rugby. They've already had enough complaints from certain pultenay residents.

Craig didn't hold back with farleigh, he's indicated he'll spend on the rec if he's allowed to do so.

I guess it's stick or twist time then. As traditional as the Rec is, it's tradition lies in the old amateur era. The game has moved on and Bath must move on with it or finishing with the also-rans will become the default. The Rec just isn't fit for purpose.

A general temperature check of most Bath support said they would rather stay at the rec, but most recognise it's stay and live with the compromises or move and lose the tradition and the event of it all.

We've had a fair few false dawns with redevelopment, I don't live in the city any more so I might be missing something but it's gone very quiet again on talk around the new ground despite the release of some pretty tidy-looking new plans. The stumbling block is always the same - the land is owned by a charitable trust which just kyboshes any substantial change. There was an historical outside chance of building something on the old stothert and pitt land on the other side of the town centre, but it needed a lot of cleanup of industrial waste (which is what delayed its redevelopment ) but the escalating house and land values in Bath mean it's all been built on now. Other than that, all I can see is up on Lansdown near the racecourse but the wind is beyond a joke - I've had football games cancelled it's been so bad - or out of town. Bath is in a valley so there's just no suitable land to work with, even Twerton (Bath City Football) is on a fecking slope. And groundshare would be out - despite being raised as an option - as capacity is around 3.5-4k and its boxed in on all sides.

There are just no real options, save moving out of town, which no-one wants to do.

inactionman wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 6:18 pm

Kawazaki wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 5:47 pm

inactionman wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 5:32 pm

Bath Rugby don't own the land, and it reverts back to common use outside of season. Don't think they'd get away with much just to make a corner of the common land better suited to professional Rugby. They've already had enough complaints from certain pultenay residents.

Craig didn't hold back with farleigh, he's indicated he'll spend on the rec if he's allowed to do so.

I guess it's stick or twist time then. As traditional as the Rec is, it's tradition lies in the old amateur era. The game has moved on and Bath must move on with it or finishing with the also-rans will become the default. The Rec just isn't fit for purpose.

A general temperature check of most Bath support said they would rather stay at the rec, but most recognise it's stay and live with the compromises or move and lose the tradition and the event of it all.

We've had a fair few false dawns with redevelopment, I don't live in the city any more so I might be missing something but it's gone very quiet again on talk around the new ground despite the release of some pretty tidy-looking new plans. The stumbling block is always the same - the land is owned by a charitable trust which just kyboshes any substantial change. There was an historical outside chance of building something on the old stothert and pitt land on the other side of the town centre, but it needed a lot of cleanup of industrial waste (which is what delayed its redevelopment ) but the escalating house and land values in Bath mean it's all been built on now. Other than that, all I can see is up on Lansdown near the racecourse but the wind is beyond a joke - I've had football games cancelled it's been so bad - or out of town. Bath is in a valley so there's just no suitable land to work with, even Twerton (Bath City Football) is on a fecking slope. And groundshare would be out - despite being raised as an option - as capacity is around 3.5-4k and its boxed in on all sides.

There are just no real options, save moving out of town, which no-one wants to do.

What about building a stadium on the University site at the top of the hill? I did a few pre-season camps up there back in the early-90s. Good laugh, got a life ban from The Grapes pub!

Kawazaki wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 6:32 pm

inactionman wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 6:18 pm

Kawazaki wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 5:47 pm



I guess it's stick or twist time then. As traditional as the Rec is, it's tradition lies in the old amateur era. The game has moved on and Bath must move on with it or finishing with the also-rans will become the default. The Rec just isn't fit for purpose.

A general temperature check of most Bath support said they would rather stay at the rec, but most recognise it's stay and live with the compromises or move and lose the tradition and the event of it all.

We've had a fair few false dawns with redevelopment, I don't live in the city any more so I might be missing something but it's gone very quiet again on talk around the new ground despite the release of some pretty tidy-looking new plans. The stumbling block is always the same - the land is owned by a charitable trust which just kyboshes any substantial change. There was an historical outside chance of building something on the old stothert and pitt land on the other side of the town centre, but it needed a lot of cleanup of industrial waste (which is what delayed its redevelopment ) but the escalating house and land values in Bath mean it's all been built on now. Other than that, all I can see is up on Lansdown near the racecourse but the wind is beyond a joke - I've had football games cancelled it's been so bad - or out of town. Bath is in a valley so there's just no suitable land to work with, even Twerton (Bath City Football) is on a fecking slope. And groundshare would be out - despite being raised as an option - as capacity is around 3.5-4k and its boxed in on all sides.

There are just no real options, save moving out of town, which no-one wants to do.

What about building a stadium on the University site at the top of the hill? I did a few pre-season camps up there back in the early-90s. Good laugh, got a life ban from The Grapes pub!

Uni facilities are awesome, I was an undergrad when they first opened the Sports Training Village and it's been continually invested in. It's the best gym/sports club I've ever been a member of, when I left in 2017 I was paying £50 per month for gym, Olympic pool, LTA tennis club etc. Just amazing. Pretty much every international team has trained there, usually when about to play Wales in Cardiff, I've shard the sports hall with the all blacks shooting some basketball when they hired the practice pitches for their autumn tour way back about 2010.

But the uni is totally, absolutely full, to the point they can't find room for undergrads (seems mad to to those of us who went there in the late 90s and earlier, where it was mostly playing fields, but it's just grown and grown). I worked there in the late 2000s and thy closed all the staff bars and common rooms to squeeze in facilities for the undergrads - thy were chasing student satisfaction survey results so did everything to keep the undergrads happy even if it did piss off most of the staff. (successfully, I should add, it's been no1 ranked by the guardian in many years).

An option would be something called the sulis club, which was the old civil service sports club, it's where I played a few cricket matches and went to the absurdly cheap but very knackered bar. Again, not been there in many years but it was quite derelict and I thought Team Bath were going to sell it off. It's also quite tricky to get to from town, it's further past the uni on a pretty small back road.

Also worth noting the uni land is owned by the city council - the uni pay a peppercorn rent - so it'd be hard to se support for a private sports club on the land.

You've done well to get barred from the grapes - it's a bit colourful!

Sulis Club! Played my first University cricket match there, one of the tourist red buses got lost along the road next door then broke down. Cue 22 players attempting to show off/chat up the American girls on the bus with limited success.

Barring any more injuries this is the team I'd pick for Tonga, Eddie I'm expecting will go for something entirely mental

Genge
George
Stuart
Lawes
Hill
Martin
Curry
Dombrandt
Randall
Smith
Radwan
Tuilagi
Marchant
May
Steward

Marler, Blamire, Sinks, Ewels, Simmonds, Quirke, Atkinson, Malins

Madness wrote: ↑Mon Oct 25, 2021 10:28 am Barring any more injuries this is the team I'd pick for Tonga, Eddie I'm expecting will go for something entirely mental

Genge
George
Stuart
Lawes
Hill
Martin
Curry
Dombrandt
Randall
Smith
Radwan
Tuilagi
Marchant
May
Steward

Marler, Blamire, Sinks, Ewels, Simmonds, Quirke, Atkinson, Malins

Nah! You just know he'll start Lawes at 6!!! Mind you he had a stormer there for Saints on Friday night. But then it was against Warriors!
Assuming you are resting Itoje for this match?

Lawes at 6 works at Prem level, I'm still not convinced it works at International. Furthermore, Lawes is played at 6 with two workhorses. Lawes + BIlly V/Dombrandt/Simmonds is not going to work as well.

Lawes doesn't really need to play against Tonga at all, give the guy a rest, he took a slight knock against Worcester and is knocking on a bit now.

SaintK wrote: ↑Mon Oct 25, 2021 4:24 pm

Madness wrote: ↑Mon Oct 25, 2021 10:28 am Barring any more injuries this is the team I'd pick for Tonga, Eddie I'm expecting will go for something entirely mental

Genge
George
Stuart
Lawes
Hill
Martin
Curry
Dombrandt
Randall
Smith
Radwan
Tuilagi
Marchant
May
Steward

Marler, Blamire, Sinks, Ewels, Simmonds, Quirke, Atkinson, Malins

Nah! You just know he'll start Lawes at 6!!! Mind you he had a stormer there for Saints on Friday night. But then it was against Warriors!
Assuming you are resting Itoje for this match?

Lawes at 6 for England has never really worked, we've got way too many fantastic back row players to shoe-horn him in, especially now we are a bit weaker than normal at lock.

Team for Aus

Marler
George
Sinks
Lawes
Itoje
Curry
Underhill
Dombrandt
Youngs (he's normally excellent against Aussies)
Smith
Radwan
Tuilagi
Slade
May
Malins

Genge, Blamire, Stuart, Hill, Simmonds, Randall, Farrell, Marchant

I just don’t think Eddie will be that experimental against Aus/SA, he’ll stick to what he knows and that Smith/Steward will be the only inexperienced starters, something like:

Marler
George
Sinckler
Itoje
Hill
Lawes
Underhill
Curry

Youngs
Smith
May
Farrell
Tuilagi
Malins
Steward

Subs Blamire, Genge, Stuart, Ludlam, Dombrandt, Randall, Slade, Marchant

I don't think he'll make Curry play 8 again, with two 8s at his disposal. It'll be Curry +1 on the flanks - my guess is Underhill joins him, Lawes in the 2nd row and dropsies Hill on the bench. Pick one of Dombrandt/Simmonds - I'd say Dombrandt on this season's form because Simmonds looks pretty jaded at times.

I don't have a Times sub but attention was drawn to these quotes in an article on Renaldo Bothma:

Paul Gustard came in. He just broke my love for rugby and made everything difficult for me.

He [Gustard] clearly had issues with me, but I wasn’t the only one . . . He got rid of a lot of guys

The club fired him eventually — which I think they should have done a lot earlier, and then I probably wouldn’t have stopped playing rugby when I did.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rena ... -mkq8qvfv7

Coaches can do more damage than just affecting results...

Simmonds was really off it at the weekend. No real impact with ball in hand and Rona straight up ran through him for one try.

Only one game though.

JM2K6 wrote: ↑Wed Oct 27, 2021 3:58 pm I don't think he'll make Curry play 8 again, with two 8s at his disposal. It'll be Curry +1 on the flanks - my guess is Underhill joins him, Lawes in the 2nd row and dropsies Hill on the bench. Pick one of Dombrandt/Simmonds - I'd say Dombrandt on this season's form because Simmonds looks pretty jaded at times.

I don't have a Times sub but attention was drawn to these quotes in an article on Renaldo Bothma:

Paul Gustard came in. He just broke my love for rugby and made everything difficult for me.

He [Gustard] clearly had issues with me, but I wasn’t the only one . . . He got rid of a lot of guys

The club fired him eventually — which I think they should have done a lot earlier, and then I probably wouldn’t have stopped playing rugby when I did.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rena ... -mkq8qvfv7

Coaches can do more damage than just affecting results...

Folowed a non-paywalled link to that article via reddit. Damning stuff. Doesn't seem like he was suited to being a head coach at all.

https://archive.ph/9ngkB here's a link to it. It's a good read.

What i like about curry and Underhill is they'll both actively impose themselves on a game. They won't let it go past them.

Jack Willis does the same. As increasingly does Tom (i don't know if he's international quality yet though).

Itoje is another good example of that sort of player.

It's what i really want to see in an international player.

Raggs wrote: ↑Wed Oct 27, 2021 5:41 pm What i like about curry and Underhill is they'll both actively impose themselves on a game. They won't let it go past them.

Jack Willis does the same. As increasingly does Tom (i don't know if he's international quality yet though).

Itoje is another good example of that sort of player.

It's what i really want to see in an international player.

Yup. Smith was doing that in spades last season, probably his biggest improvement - just raging at the dying of the light in each game that Quins were spannering their way through. Dombrandt I'm still not sure about in the same terms, I think he can drift a bit. Think you can say the front rows England have are all of a similar attitude (especially when LCD is available again). Not sure you can say the same in the (non-Smith) backs, bar Farrell.

Think you can say it about Ford. He almost singlehandedly made Leicester look respectable last season, carrying an injury too.

I'd agree about Dombrandt. When the game falls his way he's dominant, but if it doesn't he seems to sometimes go missing.

Kenningham looks like he's got the right attitude ( not yet all the ability of course, like Tom Willis).

Ojomoh looks like he might have a bit of fight about him too.

I was putting Ford in the "no longer an England player" bracket, but absolutely