Saints v Brizzle

[Stom]

[fivepointer]

Bristol Bears team to face Northampton Saints at Franklin’s Gardens on Saturday, March 9th (2.45pm KO):

15. Charles Piutau; 14. Luke Morahan, 13. Piers O’Conor, 12. Siale Piutau (co-capt), 11. Luke Daniels; 10. Callum Sheedy, 9. Andy Uren; 1. Yann Thomas, 2. Harry Thacker, 3. John Afoa, 4. Joe Batley, 5. Chris Vui, 6. Steve Luatua, 7. Jake Heenan, 8. Jordan Crane (co-capt).

Replacements: 16. Sam Parry, 17. Jake Woolmore, 18. Lewis Thiede, 19. George Smith, 20. Jack Lam, 21. Harry Randall, 22. Ian Madigan, 23. Mat Protheroe.

Likely to be a very entertaining game. Tries aplenty i'd say. Bris have a very good chance of taking something from the game.

[jimKRFC]

We've not been great on the road yet, but hopefully the better mix of practicallity and "run everything" will get us 2 bp at least.

[Banquo]

Moon Ribbans......wider than a mile....

[Adam_P]

Interesting to see Eadie and JFR chucked in against their old club, having not really seen them in the first team at all this season.

[jimKRFC]

Ribbans out, Api in, Craig to the bench. Ribbans calls the lineout so could be good for Bris.

0-5 to Bris after 4 mins - good start but need to keep it up!

[jimKRFC]

0 - 12, 16mins. Batley and Crane the try scorers. Going to stop listening now before it all goes wrong....

[Adam_P]

This game is littered with unforced errors from both sides

[Adam_P]

Ref out of his depth. Saints down to 11 players

[jimKRFC]

Ref out of his depth. Saints down to 11 players

Or homer ref desperate not to give penalty try keeps bottling it....

Pressure on Worcester now.

[Adam_P]

Would have preferred him to give a penalty try at 75 mins so we had a chance to get one back and win rather than watching the shit show he put on

[fivepointer]

Priceless 5 pts for Bris. They are edging towards safety but its very tight at the bottom.

[jimKRFC]

Leicester looking like they'll get dragged into the fight now.

[Puja]

Ref out of his depth. Saints down to 11 players

Just watched the highlights and every single one of those was 100% justified.

Puja

[Adam_P]

Ref out of his depth. Saints down to 11 players

Just watched the highlights and every single one of those was 100% justified.

Puja

Yes but it should never have got to that. Penalty try should have been awarded long before the 4th yellow, and we could have watched some tense rugby for the last few minutes rather than the dross we saw. You can't tell me the guy wasn't out of his depth, as it took him an age and a lot of persuasion that he actually needed to remove a Saints player when Waller came off to be replaced by Van Wyk for the scrum. It was painfully bad refereeing.

[Puja]

Ref out of his depth. Saints down to 11 players

Just watched the highlights and every single one of those was 100% justified.

Puja

Yes but it should never have got to that. Penalty try should have been awarded long before the 4th yellow, and we could have watched some tense rugby for the last few minutes rather than the dross we saw. You can't tell me the guy wasn't out of his depth, as it took him an age and a lot of persuasion that he actually needed to remove a Saints player when Waller came off to be replaced by Van Wyk for the scrum. It was painfully bad refereeing.

But what should the penalty try have been given for? Watching it on the highlights, all of the offences that were yellowed were committed early on before the maul/scrum got going - offences at the lineout or immediately coming round offside. Unless there was one which was clearly going over the line but for the offence, which wasn't shown on the highlights, I don't see how he could have given the try.

I think I'd prefer to blame Saints players for continually cheating rather than go backwards, rather than the referee for not giving a penalty try without cause.

Puja

[fivepointer]

Ref seemed to get it pretty much spot on i thought. Saints were obviously cheating like mad and really left him with little choice.
Yet again Bris scored some cracking tries.