By Olyy
#35157
Image



Only surprise, for me, is the midfield
Based on pre-season I thought our centre combos would be the Sams together, and the Bosh Brothers Mk. 2

Disappointing to see Langdon drop out of the 23, especially after the pre-season Akker had, but Akker is pretty much nailed on starter so was always going to happen
By Surbiton_Shark
#35158
Really hope someone changes the font for the team sheets - maybe it's just my age catching up but find it hard to read

Looks a nice team - is Josh B already injured? was hoping Denny would be involved
ale shark liked this
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By Flumpty
#35160
A good opportunity for some "fringe/squad players" to grasp.

Bleugh to the font !!!
By DavenportSharky
#35161
Bath Rugby Team to face Sale Sharks

15 Tom de Glanville, 14 Semesa Rokoduguni, 13 Jonathan Joseph, 12 Max Ojomoh, 11 Will Muir, 10 Danny Cipriani, 9 Ben Spencer; 1 Beno Obano, 2 Tom Dunn, 3 Johannes Jonker, 4, Mike Williams, 5 Charlie Ewels ©, 6 Miles Reid, 7 Sam Underhill, 8 Josh Bayliss

Replacements

16 Jacques du Toit, 17 Juan Schoeman, 18 D’Arcy Rae, 19 Tom Ellis, 20 Jaco Coetzee, 21 Ollie Fox, 22 Orlando Bailey, 23 Max Clark
By FarnhamShark
#35162
It would be really nice to get an injury update. Missing Lood and the twins, we're light at Lock and no.8, and as far as I know Josh, Pos., and Phillips are all injured. We're going to need them back soon!
By Clutch
#35164
If we can do ok now imagine how good we will be when everyone returns.

Team as expected. Pleased for 2 players on bench who left the club under Dimes. Nice turnaround.

The Manu auto start is frustrating me. At his peak we know what he can bring but Rohan has been significantly better the last 18 months. Manu really needs to start delivering. Which I’m sure he will. Looking forward to watching him.
By AonM
#35168
Clutch wrote:
Fri Sep 17, 2021 12:34 pm
If we can do ok now imagine how good we will be when everyone returns.

Team as expected. Pleased for 2 players on bench who left the club under Dimes. Nice turnaround.

The Manu auto start is frustrating me. At his peak we know what he can bring but Rohan has been significantly better the last 18 months. Manu really needs to start delivering. Which I’m sure he will. Looking forward to watching him.
In fairness to Manu he was injured for most of last season with a very serious injury. I think with a full pre-season he will be a different animal. Also as good as Rohan is he is very one dimensional, and often spills the ball in contact and isn't known for offloading
By Clutch
#35169
True. Looking forward to seeing him at full pelt. Sort of agree with Rohan but he’s the best at what he does. If we keep those 2 fit and Lood this season I think we win the league. Think we would have last year with Lood
By Elgar
#35174
With those apparent injuries I suppose the loose forwards pick themselves.

On the RJVR/Tuilagi thing I guess they'll rotate in and out of the 12/13 and 22/23 shirt. Suppose it might make sense for Manu to more often play 50 or 60 than 20 or 30 as his game can be a little more varied whereas RJVR will take the hardest and shortest line 100% of the time.

What are we going to do about this 15 shirt. Hammer needs to have a good game.
By Van Cannonball
#35177
The thing I hate about hammers is he’ll have a good game and you think he’s been harshly judged and then he’ll be blurgh again for the next 3 matches...
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By Van Cannonball
#35178
Hope Carpenter at least gets a shot this year, and I really don’t know what to do with Luke James.
By Bronzbronx
#35185
Luke James is still a fine player, surely he will get game time rotated with Hammers. It wasn't long ago that he kept popping up up in the right place and scoring plenty. That one against quin's was a belter
By Van Cannonball
#35189
Sure. I like Luke a lot - I remember pushing for Luke to replace Hammers ages back when most were still happy with him.

Issue is there’s a tonne of people ahead of him at centre, and he and the club seemed to have lost confidence at full back. I’d still play him at 15 as I think he has much more potential than Hammers, but if it’s not happening then I’d like one of the youngsters to get a shot.

So I’m just not sure where he fits in and didn’t seem to cope well with playing sporadically instead of getting a consistent run
By Elgar
#35194
ageinghoody wrote:
Fri Sep 17, 2021 6:45 pm
Van Cannonball wrote:
Fri Sep 17, 2021 5:48 pm
Hope Carpenter at least gets a shot this year, and I really don’t know what to do with Luke James.
Persevere.

I think that's the word.

For Luke, he's had some really excellent games at 15 in the last couple of years for us so we know it's only the challenge of consistency. Equally for Carpenter or Gourlay who may debut soon and even if they show potential may be a long way from the finished article and that can be particularly acute at fullback.

It's even applicable for Hammer whose been quite a late developer so his ultimate potential may be a bit greater than his age suggests (he's barely been a professional longer than Luke - if any longer at all).


But that's the frustrating thing. Because it feels like perseverance is the right thing to do but equally not necessary for us at the moment - with all our ambition whilst presumably having had the option this summer to have made some arrangements for some cap room and brought in a big hitter to wear 15 which would have made the back line look pretty much the finished article with everyone available.
By stevene
#35195
re Tuilagi vs Rohan I think the answer is simple to me. They are pretty comparable but Manu's hands are better therefore should give us more width. Should be good to bring Rohan off the bench later in the game. To me an option with the lack of carrying options in the pack would be to move Sam to 15 and play both Manu and Rohan in the centres.

I think when we have LDJ, Josh and the DP twins back we will see Tommy start for his more consistent line out throwing with Akker coming on as impact. However makes sense with this starting pack for Akker to start for his carrying.

Hopefully Denny can start to challenge Byron and Marland to start at some point soon.

Overall probably best team we can put out but worried about lack of carrying options in the pack. Big onus on Bevan, Akker and Cobus in that regard and Manu in the centre.
By Olyy
#35213
Think we've run more backs moves in the first 15 mins than we have in the last 15 games!
By Olyy
#35226
Hammersley binned for killing the ball on the line

Bath going for the posts so a reasonable trade off (so far) as there was no way they weren't going to score there
By StalyShark
#35227
What are Bath doing taking the three from there with a man up? Not complaining though.
By Olyy
#35229
Good first half,
More of the same please

Extra couple of mins of the yellow gone, as well, with Bath playing on after the 40
By Surbiton_Shark
#35230
A very Sale performance so far. De Preez with some dodgy kicks but seems to have got his radar working. Screwed up some chances and of course got a yellow

Hopefully Ben and Raffi are ok.

Super run at the end by Akker Manu was a bit silly picking up and going on his own with zero support.

We need to win with a BP as the lack of them killed us last season. Bath have barely offered anything
By Olyy
#35231
Bit of a harsh penalty, for me
I thought he had a very legitimate chance of catching that and going the length
By Olyy
#35232
Wait are they not checking that??
I thought JP scored it??


Also who is Rohan on for?


Edit: Apparently was a knock on - so close!
And Rohan is on for Sam James

Double edit:
Rohan on for Hammo, actually - SJ to fullback
By Olyy
#35234
I saw it on the line but I thought the bigger thing, that they didn't look at, was that the supporting player on the drive was offside and never got back on - ball carrier ran to him and they latched together and dropped onto the line
You can't get played onside by the ball carrier running into you
By StalyShark
#35235
Schonert isn’t having a good time and Ford isn’t that highly rated. Come on Coenie.
By Olyy
#35239
Howler of a kick at goal
Right in front and it threatened the corner flag more than the posts
By Olyy
#35243
McGuigan clearly taken in the air,
Bath player not in a position to catch the ball so just grabbed Byron instead - but because they both jumped the ref called it a fair contest??
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