Bristol vs Exeter Sunday - 3pm

[twitchy]

[Beasties]

Impact players, uuuurgh. Thanks Eddie.

[Renniks]

I assume Chiefs front row is going to be shunt with the number of players missing…

[fivepointer]

They still have 2 international props to call upon, plus Street is an excellent prospect.
Exe are a bit vulnerable, though. Bris were good last week at Wasps. They will fancy their chances of getting something out of this game.

[Digby]

Brizzle look horribly reliant on 3, 6 and 15

[twitchy]

Amazing finish.

[fivepointer]

That was a humdinger. Very enjoyable, very closely fought game. Credit Exe for pulling it around in the last quarter, and to Bris for playing well enough to give themselves a great chance to win.
Lawday was very good for Exe.

[Oakboy]

That was a humdinger. Very enjoyable, very closely fought game. Credit Exe for pulling it around in the last quarter, and to Bris for playing well enough to give themselves a great chance to win.
Lawday was very good for Exe.

I think Baxter gets close to 100% from whomever he puts on the park. That's not a bad item at No 1 on a head coach's CV. All good teams are dangerous for 80 minutes. Exeter just would not lay down and admit defeat.

I agree about Lawday. What do you think of White? I've not been a fan but he was superb when he came on, I thought.

[Puja]

What do we think of Andy Uren? I knew nothing of him before this season, but he's got a good pass, gets to breakdowns quickly, and has an eye for a break. No idea whether he can kick as Bristol don't do it as a matter of policy, but there are far worse EQ scrum-halves out there.

Puja

[fivepointer]

I've not been overly impressed with White but he got Exe going yesterday.

I really like Uren. Been impressed. He seems a good all round player and at just 22 (he does look older) has capacity to improve.

[Stom]

What do we think of Andy Uren? I knew nothing of him before this season, but he's got a good pass, gets to breakdowns quickly, and has an eye for a break. No idea whether he can kick as Bristol don't do it as a matter of policy, but there are far worse EQ scrum-halves out there.

Puja

Yeah, he's not bad at all, tbh. There are a few in the AP who look decent now, which is good for the future.

[Mellsblue]

What do we think of Andy Uren? I knew nothing of him before this season, but he's got a good pass, gets to breakdowns quickly, and has an eye for a break. No idea whether he can kick as Bristol don't do it as a matter of policy, but there are far worse EQ scrum-halves out there.

Puja

You taking the piss?

[jimKRFC]

Uren and Randall seem to have jumped Stirzaker for the 9 shirt now.

Not happy about the result.. think the ref lost it a touch at the end. He was trying to yellow someone after the final whistle but no-one seemed to know what for. Lam also mentioned he'd apologised for the penalty try....

Hopefully we can covert the pressure into more points a winn against Wasps and Tigers.

[Peej]

Uren and Randall seem to have jumped Stirzaker for the 9 shirt now.

Not happy about the result.. think the ref lost it a touch at the end. He was trying to yellow someone after the final whistle but no-one seemed to know what for. Lam also mentioned he'd apologised for the penalty try....

Hopefully we can covert the pressure into more points a winn against Wasps and Tigers.

I'll meet you halfway and let you have a win at Tigers only. Fair?

[Oakboy]

Uren and Randall seem to have jumped Stirzaker for the 9 shirt now.

Not happy about the result.. think the ref lost it a touch at the end. He was trying to yellow someone after the final whistle but no-one seemed to know what for. Lam also mentioned he'd apologised for the penalty try....

Hopefully we can covert the pressure into more points a winn against Wasps and Tigers.

Somebody recently mentioned refereeing the same way after 7 minutes or 77 (or something similar). With the match standing to be won and lost on one single ping after the 80, that must be difficult. Maybe, the ref deemed the foulplay in stopping the maul to be worthy of yellow and would have waved one in the first minute. Would he have awarded a penalty try though?

My guess without being able to see enough on TV to confirm, was that there were several Bristol players doing their utmost to stop the maul any way they could (illegally). If that was the case you could argue that two or three yellow cards at that stage were irrelevant. That means the clock and the state of the game affected things in all sorts of ways, not unreasonably.

Watching at the time, I thought Exeter got the ball down anyway for 5 points but it was not confirmed that they had while I was watching. If they did not, at the least it was an attacking 5 yard scrum with at least one Bristol forward in the bin, possibly 2 or 3. If they did it was just about 2 points for the conversion.

I don't blame the ref for awarding the penalty try. It was probably the easiest solution.

[Puja]

Uren and Randall seem to have jumped Stirzaker for the 9 shirt now.

Not happy about the result.. think the ref lost it a touch at the end. He was trying to yellow someone after the final whistle but no-one seemed to know what for. Lam also mentioned he'd apologised for the penalty try....

Hopefully we can covert the pressure into more points a winn against Wasps and Tigers.

Somebody recently mentioned refereeing the same way after 7 minutes or 77 (or something similar). With the match standing to be won and lost on one single ping after the 80, that must be difficult. Maybe, the ref deemed the foulplay in stopping the maul to be worthy of yellow and would have waved one in the first minute. Would he have awarded a penalty try though?

My guess without being able to see enough on TV to confirm, was that there were several Bristol players doing their utmost to stop the maul any way they could (illegally). If that was the case you could argue that two or three yellow cards at that stage were irrelevant. That means the clock and the state of the game affected things in all sorts of ways, not unreasonably.

Watching at the time, I thought Exeter got the ball down anyway for 5 points but it was not confirmed that they had while I was watching. If they did not, at the least it was an attacking 5 yard scrum with at least one Bristol forward in the bin, possibly 2 or 3. If they did it was just about 2 points for the conversion.

I don't blame the ref for awarding the penalty try. It was probably the easiest solution.

If it's a penalty, then it's a penalty try - Exeter were motoring and a try would probably have been scored. And if it's a penalty try, then it has to be a yellow, regardless of how pointless it was to the game.

While I think Bristol deserved a better result for their general play, I thought the ref did well both overall and at the end.

Puja

[fivepointer]

I thought Exe had got over the line and scored the try. It was clear there were Bristol forwards coming in offside but that didnt actually stop the ball from getting over the line.
I can see why a pen try was given as there were clear cut penalty offences committed. Equally I could see a ref awarding a try and then the conversion being attempted.
Usually you would only award a pen try if a try hadnt been scored so it did seem a little out of the ordinary.

[jimKRFC]

The ball was nowhere near the ground, and the decision was that 10 came in from the side, but as it was over the try line (I thought) that you're allowed as there's no offside in goal. He also said the 12 went in but he didn't. I think the odd thing is that normally there's a million replays while the TMO looks at it, but the ref was running to the posts before anyone (even the Exe players) knew what was going on.

The George Smith pen was dubious as well and the throw in was taken from the wrong line (the football is visable down the side) but too late now.....

[Mellsblue]

Yes, but was Lawes offside against NZ?