[Bucks1861]

https://www.rugbypass.com/news/steve-di ... e-falcons/

I feel for Dimes.

[dinogyro]

Yes, it must be very depressing for all involved and the fans. No-one wants to see a team with zero wins.

[SSR]

I don't want to see them win one next Sunday.

[dinogyro]

yes, you are obviously correct!

[DavenportSharky]

Smales again !

Sunday 3pm

Referee: Anthony Woodthorpe.

Assistant referees: Hamish Smales, Greg Macdonald.

TMO: Dean Richards.

Time keeper: Alan Hughes.

[Flumpty]

Smales again !

His Swiss pornstar 'tache his make me smile on Sunday.

His mileage claim will be rubbish for Sunday - isn't he local to that part of the world ?

[dinogyro]

My wife calls Rob DP pornstar due to his 'tache!

[chris1850]

My wife calls Rob DP pornstar due to his 'tache!

I think I'd be more concerned that my wife knew so much about pornstars!

[SSR]

Teams up on the Offy,

Sale Sharks Starting XV:  

15. Joe Carpenter, 14. Arron Reed, 13. Rob du Preez, 12. Manu Tuilagi, 11. Arron Reed, 10. George Ford, 9. Raffi Quirke, 1. Bevan Rodd, 2. Luke Cowan-Dickie, 3. James Harper, 4. Cobus Wiese, 5. Josh Beaumont, 6. Ben Curry ©, 7. Sam Dugdale, 8. JL du Preez.  

Replacements:  

16. Tommy Taylor, 17. Si McIntyre, 18. WillGriff John, 19. Ben Bamber, 20. Hyron Andrews, 21. Gus Warr, 22. Sam James, 23. Tom O’Flaherty.

[Olyy]

Reed's in for a busy afternoon

[SSR]

Typical Offy proofreading. Roebuck mentioned as a starter in the blurb.
Mind you we could do with Reeds speed for Falcons back three.

[RinTin]

Like the consistency (save Raffi for Gus). Very rare occurrence for us this season!

Bench begs the questions of what's happened to Asher? Is Creevy no longer up to it either after declaring he won't be extending past this season?

EDIT - Offy providing some ridiculous stats. We haven't won away from home in any competition since 11 November, and we haven't won at Kingston Park since 2016

[Olyy]

Raffi, George and Manu on a plastic pitch will have me wincing in every contact

Can understand wanting to get another start under Raffi's belt, complete opposite conditions from the Ospreys game so we'll see where he's at here

Would've liked to have seen Cam get a game, but guess with Hyron they can move whichever of Wiese/Beaumont is still on to the backrow when he comes on

Asher being missing is an odd one, but it's easy to forget he's only just turned 19 - he's played a fair amount of senior rugby this season, could be he has a niggle they don't want to become anything more serious, could be that they have X amount of minutes they feel comfortable putting him through in Y period and he's his that limit
I read an interesting piece about how young front rowers shouldn't play too much in their teens/early 20s as their skeletons aren't yet fully matured and it can cause long lasting physiological issues (and i think you can see that with front rowers who are blooded early often having a torrid time with injuries)

[Oh Danny Boy]

Teams up on the Offy,

Sale Sharks Starting XV:  

15. Joe Carpenter, 14. Arron Reed, 13. Rob du Preez, 12. Manu Tuilagi, 11. Arron Reed, 10. George Ford, 9. Raffi Quirke, 1. Bevan Rodd, 2. Luke Cowan-Dickie, 3. James Harper, 4. Cobus Wiese, 5. Josh Beaumont, 6. Ben Curry ©, 7. Sam Dugdale, 8. JL du Preez.  

Replacements:  

16. Tommy Taylor, 17. Si McIntyre, 18. WillGriff John, 19. Ben Bamber, 20. Hyron Andrews, 21. Gus Warr, 22. Sam James, 23. Tom O’Flaherty.

Just as Dugdale has taken his chances very well, it's great to see Harper starting. He gave a fantastic account of himself last week against a front row that aren't exactly slouches. Want to see Weise go full animal on them. Considering their run of results, a great opportunity to start Quirke.

Come on the Albanians

[poyntonshark]

Would've liked to have seen Cam get a game, but guess with Hyron they can move whichever of Wiese/Beaumont is still on to the backrow when he comes on

Was never really likely to happen though, what with him signing for them next season.

The surface should suit Raffi more than Gus, but agree, I will be looking away every time he goes into contact.

Harper was good last week, up against quality opposition, but both front rows seemed to want to, mostly, stay straight and get the ball away. Will need the ref to not have any pre-conceptions against a Dimes from row.

[RinTin]

Falcons Team:

15 Elliott Obatoyinbo, 14 Adam Radwan, 13 Matias Moroni, 12 Rory Jennings, 11 Ben Redshaw, 10 Brett Connon, 9 Sam Stuart; 1 Adam Brocklebank, 2 Jamie Blamire, 3 Eduardo Bello, 4 Philip van der Walt, 5 Sebastian de Chaves, 6 Sam Cross, 7 Guy Pepper, 8 Callum Chick (captain).

Replacements: 16 Bryan Byrne, 17 Mark Dormer, 18 Richard Palframan, 19 Tim Cardall, 20 Freddie Lockwood, 21 James Elliott, 22 Oli Spencer, 23 Tom Penny.

Wiese will be having flashbacks of the blurry ginger ball hitting him out of no where when looking at this sheet. Remember Cobus, just get the ball down.

[Olyy]

Pepper vs Ben will be a very interesting matchup (I know Ben's in the 6 shirt, but still)

[dinogyro]

Their team doesn't look that bad on paper.

[SimonG]

Their team doesn't look that bad on paper.

but it hasn't looked very good on the pitch this season!

[DavenportSharky]

Not on TNT???

[Olyy]

Tigers and Saints doing us no favours, can't go higher (or lower) than 6th tomorrow

[RinTin]

All 3 games almost went our way. Bristol Sarries next weekend is huge.

[Surbiton_Shark]

Northants need to lodge a formal complaint against Dicko and maybe improve on not dropping the ball when it matters

No pressure on our lads to get 5 points tomorrow

[Olyy]

Him not carding Care for a second time was crazy - literally had his hand on his pocket before realising it was Care

In the Tigers game Brown got a (rightful) second yellow and it cost them the game

[Major Bloodnok]

Tigers and Saints doing us no favours, can't go higher (or lower) than 6th tomorrow

Exeter are two points behind us and play Gloucester tomorrow...

[Olyy]

Tigers and Saints doing us no favours, can't go higher (or lower) than 6th tomorrow

Exeter are two points behind us and play Gloucester tomorrow...

D'oh, for some reason thought we were the only game tomorrow

I don't know if I can lower myself to wanting Gloucester to win

[JohnJ of HM]

Him not carding Care for a second time was crazy - literally had his hand on his pocket before realising it was Care

In the Tigers game Brown got a (rightful) second yellow and it cost them the game

Yes, quite the most blatant cynical (I won't call it Professional' bit of play I've seen in a long time.

[ledzepsfr]

Northants need to lodge a formal complaint against Dicko and maybe improve on not dropping the ball when it matters

No pressure on our lads to get 5 points tomorrow

This is when the TMO should have come into play.
Hopefully the Citing Oficer and Referee Assessor will do their jobs correctly.

[Olyy]

Not sure the citing comission can get involved - you can only get cited for a red card offence whereas Care's was a yellow card offence (which would've then led to a red - but that's separate to the incident)

[Surbiton_Shark]

Safe travel to all fans heading up!

[Flumpty]

Safe travel to all fans heading up!

I've packed my Norwegian Army Winter survival kit !

[dinogyro]

Not on TNT???

I think it's PRTV only

[wrinklieshark]

Is PRTV working? I've bought a pass, but cant get the match.

[Olyy]

Working for me, sadly - watching on the premiership Android app

Poor so far, discipline in the toilet

Possible red for Harper now too

[Olyy]

Yellow for Harper, lucky boy - very big collision and likely would've been the same hit without the late step

[dinogyro]

Working for me too, but wishing I hadn't bothered so far!

[dinogyro]

Team yellow coming soon too.

[wrinklieshark]

Got it now but.....wish I hadn't

[RugbyMarvel]

God this is turgid stuff.

[Olyy]

Failed HIA for Harper so WGJ on for the rest of the afternoon - going well in the scrum so far

BC over from a maul for the first points of the day, finally!

[RinTin]

Is TC water/tee boy? IGNORE - close up shows not.

[RinTin]

Manu will be haunting Jennings’ dreams for months after this.

[Olyy]

Seems to have woken us up a bit

[RinTin]

Someone explain to me how that touched the line?

[RugbyMarvel]

That wasn’t dead. How on earth the TMO said it was after reviewing is beyond me

[RugbyMarvel]

Someone explain to me how that touched the line?

Genuinely made zero sense. TMO totally bottled it. You could see daylight

[RinTin]

His wording ‘point of the ball touched’. Right…. Imagine the scrutiny on that decision if it happened during Quins Saints for example? Poor.

[RugbyMarvel]

After yesterday’s shocking decisions, it is really showing up how poor officiating is in the Prem. Every match there are just more and more shockers than ever before.

[Centenary Shark]

Dean Richards proving he's just as good at the TMO job as he was at reffing!

[RinTin]

PRTV can’t even get the clock right. What a shit show.