By Olyy
#10098
Gloucester:
15. Tom Marshall; 14. Tom Seabrook, 13. Billy Twelvetrees, 12. Mark Atkinson, 11. Ollie Thorley; 10. Danny Cipriani, 9. Callum Braley; 1. Josh Hohneck, 2. Franco Marais, 3. Fraser Balmain; 4. Ed Slater, 5. Franco Mostert (capt); 6. Ruan Ackermann, 7. Jake Polledri, 8. Ben Morgan

Replacements: 16. Todd Gleave, 17. Val Rapava Ruskin, 18. Ciaran Knight, 19. Alex Craig, 20. Lewis Ludlow, 21. Charlie Chapman, 22. Lloyd Evans. 23. Matt Banahan
By Surbiton_Shark
#10099
Glouc team looks strong

I'm happy with our team - Rohan still hopefully on daily catching practise including weekends :-)

Should be a good competitive game - be huge for us to win though have a sneaking feeling we are targetting certain games......
By stevene
#10100
Pretty much expected except no wilson or ashton. still not sure why solomona doesn't start esp with ashton not in the squad.

clearly Coenie has no lasting head injury from last week. seems to be edging it as first choice at loosehead over Harrison, probably as he gives us an extra ball carrying option. he is very marmite with refs at the scrum though.

interested to know how long AVDM is out for.

nice to be able to rotate at tighthead.

suspect it might be a few weeks before we see RJVR again as looked like a hamstring had gone vs sarries.

need to win the forward battle tomorrow and give Cips back foot ball. be nice to have a decent start after last couple of games.
By Haylingshark
#10119
stevene wrote:
Thu Feb 27, 2020 12:25 pm

interested to know how long AVDM is out for.
We spoke to Akker at the ruck truck last week. He said the boot was precautionary and that it wasn't too bad. He expected to be available by the Premiership Cup final, so hopefully this week and next week are the last weeks out.
Olyy, Thekeg liked this
By StalyShark
#10192
The world’s end is nigh. Ross Harrison has failed a fitness test. Replaced by the muscles from the east: Valery Morozov.
By StalyShark
#10202
Just noticed Dugdale on the bench as travelling reserve. Is Nield that far out of the thinking?

Edit: Nield is there too. My bad.
Last edited by StalyShark on Sat Feb 29, 2020 8:13 am, edited 1 time in total.
By Olyy
#10204
Luke James has a real turn of pace - his acceleration to get on the grubber for the try was very impressive, gassed Byron!
By twn
#10205
A reasonable enough half in what appear to be very difficult conditions, particularly when we were playing into the wind for those 40 minutes. The commentators are quite right by saying the team who makes the fewest errors will triumph.

Our defence looks solid and our attack the more dangerous, though clearly this is and has been tempered by the conditions.

I'm struggling to see why we continue to place Cliff in such crucial positions when receiving box kicks however. He's decent enough under the high ball but is first of all lacking in height, and secondly it means we have no scrum half for the ensuing ruck. Surely Hammersley as our best fielder of the high ball should be in that position instead.
By 45jumper
#10207
I think we've played the conditions brilliantly.
If the wind is as bad as Dimes says, a 10-0 advantage is pretty huge. That's a big 'if', mind :lol
By Olyy
#10208
Definitely learned how to play in crap weather over the last couple of weeks

Think WB has been pretty kind to us so far
By Olyy
#10221
Thought we'd thrown it away between that almost intercept and then the carried back kick
Great defence to keep them out/turn it over on their last stint in our 22

Good win, played the conditions far better than in the past, and a held(or better) pass away from a BP win.
I'll take that
Last edited by Olyy on Fri Feb 28, 2020 9:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
By H's D
#10222
Great effort,determination after a couple of wayward kicks let Gloucester back in, and a valuable away win. When did we last win away at Gloucester? :dance: :dance:
By StalyShark
#10223
H's D wrote:
Fri Feb 28, 2020 9:39 pm
Great effort,determination after a couple of wayward kicks let Gloucester back in, and a valuable away win. When did we last win away at Gloucester? :dance: :dance:
Last season!
By Clutch
#10226
That knock on off almost intercept is a blatant yellow. One handed is always judged as deliberate and he stooped a massive overlap.

First off best we have played away considering conditions for years. Probably since the pragmatic PSA days.

And it hold on comfortably enough when the momentum swung.

Outstanding effort.

I’m not the biggest Cliff fan but bar one kick he was excellent. Proper JLDP game as well. He was mom for me.
By Elgar
#10228
Take Ackerman's point in post match interview that we weren't made to work for our tries apart from the rolling maul.

And did our error strewn period that nearly let them back in happen around the time that most teams unload their bench, whereas we had front rowers and half backs playing 75/80 mins. Dimes still doesn't use the bench in a modern way despite having a deeper squad.

Not to take away from a cracking result in really difficult conditions.

Rob Webber mom for me.
By Basilbullneck
#10233
I thought Connie was excellent tonight, and MOM. He does such an effective job in all the gritty places - scrum, tuck and maul. And while Bryan rules the line outs, someone gets him up there.

I’m not with you, Elgar, on Dimes use of the bench. I think he reads the game more nowadays than he used to. There was a phase where two thirds or the whole front row changed at 50-55 mins irrespective of the way the game was going. Now there is much more variety over the timings - sometimes late on to blood the youngsters; sometimes earlier to give a tactical change; or sometimes not at all where someone is having an outstanding game.

The weather is generally spoiling rugby for everyone as a spectacle, but great result tonight and old-fashioned 10 man rugby. Great to see Marsland hare off from a standing start and leave everyone in his wake.
By StalyShark
#10234
I was surprised that the likes of Phillips and Morozov didn’t come on earlier as it would suit the former’s game and the latter has done well in the past plus Oosthuizen doesn’t play the Harrison role ever. JCW would have been on earlier if John hasn’t seen yellow. Langdon doesn’t compare favourably to Webber in those conditions, Evans is too good at the lineout compared to Postlethwaite and the rest bar Solomona were kids so hardly a game for them given how close it was. Therefore, largely as expected in terms of bench use.
By Thekeg
#10252
I think they have calmed down a bit on deliberate knock ons, looking more for a deliberate act and context than they did the previous year when it was a yellow card fest. I do think it was a penalty though
By ageinghoody
#10253
Yeah, at the time I was convinced, deliberate slap down, penalty try, yellow card, BUT that was from the slo-mo replay.

Later, seeing it in real time, I was less sure. One of those I would probably have thought harsh had it been given against us.
By Litzy Cole
#10255
When Evans was pinged for a penalty (playing off feet/not rolling away - I wasn't sure), he complained to Barnes, who I think said 'don't lie to me'. However, having seen the replay, it was clearly a Gloucester player's knock on. Did anyone else see/hear this, or was it my feverish imagination following an away win? Or was it the alcohol?
By Olyy
#10257
Didn't hear the "Don't lie to me" but the BT sports replay clearly showed the Gloucester 9 knock it on - commentary mentioned it as well and said it should be a penalty to us
By RugbyMarvel
#10263
Positives:

Some exceptional defensive work and good game management in the first half predominantly. Really thought the forwards put in a shift and we can clearly physically outmatch sides now.

Negatives:

A couple of times in the second half we tried to force things and it really put us on the back foot.

The lineout creaked and we lost field position numerous times.


It’s clear that we are a powerful side with some really talented attacking players. With over 33% of our first choice 23 to come back (Harrison, Akker, De Jäger, Beaumont, Wilson, T Curry, Faf, RJVR, Ashton), I genuinely think we can keep our spot on the top 4.

What we may need next year is an additional vocal leader in the back line and potentially a further replacement for Webber. Let’s hope we see that in the coming days after Dimes indicated international class signings on the way
By Thekeg
#10266
Aside from a few fine details I think Barnes handled the game well last night. Considering the weather I think it ended up being quite enjoyable to watch and I think his sympathetic referring helped that. I don’t mind the odd error if overall we get referees who allow the sport to be a decent spectacle

I don’t really see any negatives from last night. Both lineouts creaked in awful weather. I don’t think it was an issue in the same way as it was early season. We physically bullied a well regarded pack away from home and our relatively unfashionable half backs controlled the game well aside from 5 mins on madness around the 50-55 min mark. The JLDP situation is interesting, I had his as MOM last night as chief bully in the pack, I think he’s looking great in the second row and it could be the best place for him to play for us as it allows both twins to play. I don’t think we would ideally have both in the back row as that means no Ross or Wilson and the balance goes. Nice problem to have
chris1850 and 1 others liked this
By Surbiton_Shark
#10267
The away performance we've all been waiting for - Dimes referred to post match our attitude for the Sarries away game (thought we were 'Real Madrid') so perhaps that thumping has actually done us good

Forwards just magnificient. Ross is almost super human, can we not pursuade Evans to do one more year.......

Cliff was great - he was absolutely thumped early on taking a high ball but straight back to his feet.

Great pace from Yarde to take his try - Sam's kicks were great - just a super team performance

Irish at home next week - Cliff looks like he needs a breather but maybe the guy deserves to start and give Faff the second half - interesting for Faff now - one thing we absolutely CRAVE is the consistency Cliff gives us to build a foundation

Webber could prob do with a breather so oppurtunity for Langdon

We've still got a couple of things to sort out but that win will be a real confidence boost

Is it wrong I'm thinking about Prem final tickets.....?
By Litzy Cole
#10269
I was thinking about Prem final tickets too! Maybe best not to get too excited just yet.

I have my ticket for the Cup game, so let's win that first.
By chris1850
#10274
Quins and Sarries both do us a favour too. Is a 3-3 draw between Bris and Bath tomorrow too much to hope for?!
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By poyntonshark
#10326
Possibly our best performance of the season. Fewer errors than usual on a day when some errors were excusable. Worried at one point that we were going to throw it away, but, as we have managed to do for most of this season we regained composure and trusted the plan. Somebody must have been giving Jono ref handling lessons, I can't remember that last time we got the better of the 50:50 decisions for two games in a row.
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