Premiership Rugby Cup

[fivepointer]

...starts tonight with Glos v Bath.

Generally a chance for some youngsters to get some game time.

Bath 15 Darren Atkins, 14 Ruaridh McConnochie, 13 Max Ojomoh, 12 Will Butt, 11 Gabriel Hamer-Webb, 10 George Worboys, 9 Max Green; 1 Arthur Cordwell, 2 Tom Dunn ©, 3 Kieran Verden, 4 Ewan Richards, 5 Will Spencer, 6 Jaco Coetzee, 7 Thompson Cowan, 8 Nahum Merigan

Replacements: 16 John Stewart, 17 Will Vaughan, 18 D’Arcy Rae, 19 Josh Dingley, 20 Richard de Carpentier, 21 Tom Carr-Smith, 22 Ciaran Donoghue, 23 Gabe Goss

Glos taking it a lot more seriously

15 Kyle Moyle, 14 Alex Morgan, 13. Tom Seabrook, 12 Billy Twelvetrees, 11 Jake Morris, 10 Lloyd Evans, 9 Charlie Chapman; 1 Harry Elrington, 2 Santiago Socino, 3 Fraser Balmain, 4 Freddie Clarke, 5 Andrew Davidson, 6 Ruan Ackermann, 7 Lewis Ludlow (c), 8 Ben Morgan

REPLACEMENTS
16 Henry Walker, 17 Val Rapava-Ruskin, 18 Jamal Ford-Robinson, 19 Freddie Thomas, 20 Jack Clement, 21 Ben Meehan, 22 George Barton, 23 Louis Hillman-Cooper

[Raggs]

Don't think it's Glos taking it more seriously, than a case of Bath simply cannot afford to play anyone else.

I'm expecting a similar scoreline for Wasps against Falcons. Simply can't afford to play senior players.

[Puja]

Gloucester scored another try in the time I spent looking for that gif.

Puja

[Raggs]

There was a bath player, either Hamer-Webb or Ojomoh, who still tried to charge down that last conversion. They've shown some determination at least.

[FKAS]

There's some horrific mismatches this weekend. Tigers have named SIX props and only two locks in their 23 man squad. No first team starters in sight. Sale have named a much stronger pack so I expect that to get ugly.

[Which Tyler]

The mismatches are even more exaggerated this year as most of those academy kids and 4th chicie players have had essentially no game time in 20 months.

It's a bloody pointless competition, prone to serious mismatches at the best of times. It's just been dialled up to 11 this year with last night a particularly egregious example.

Once the teams were announced, Glos by 50 seemed about par. I fail to see what benefit it had for either team.
That Glos pack had about as much experience as Bath's entire 23. As did the Glos backs, and as did the Glos bench. Ridiculous.

[fivepointer]

That was no fun at all. Felt for the Bath youngsters.

If this Comp has any value, then surely it should be primarily an U25 team (with a few older heads) otherwise games like last night do no one any good.

[Dan. Dan. Dan.]

Surely the Championship should be utilised more for getting these players experience. Do away with this nonsense and make the loan/dual registered system more flexible...

[Danno]

To echo every other post, a worse than pointless competition. I can't imagine it generates any real revenue and the matches it leads to are a terrible advert for the sport - not that anyone but diehard fans would bother anyway. It needs binning along with whoever gave it the green light.

[FKAS]

I'd like to see it rebranded as an under 23s competition where teams can include two over 23s maximum. That way you do allow for a long term layoff coming back to get game time or maybe a little front row help if you've got very young options. Otherwise force teams to actually use it as a development competition.

[Tigersman]

Tigers get the W

[Puja]

Tigers get the W

With Whitcombe at flank?! Gods, that must've been a hell of an effort. Symptomatic of the good feeling around the club in general.

Puja

[Which Tyler]

The solution to this cup is still (IMO) simple.
Invite the championship clubs.
Orthodox format.
For the Prem clubs, anyone who's played 4+ of their last 8 matches is ineligible for selection.

[Puja]

The solution to this cup is still (IMO) simple.
Invite the championship clubs.
Orthodox format.
For the Prem clubs, anyone who's played 4+ of their last 8 matches is ineligible for selection.

Spot on. I'd be tempted by a group stage to guarantee a minimum number of games for the Champ clubs/each Prem club's youngsters, but other than that, utter agreement.

Puja

[Raggs]

Wasps actually almost won that apparently... 34-27 final score, but falcons only took it right at the end I believe.

[FKAS]

Tigers get the W

With Whitcombe at flank?! Gods, that must've been a hell of an effort. Symptomatic of the good feeling around the club in general.

Puja

Apparently Whitcombe did more than 70 mins in the backrow and moved to 8 at scrum time to give extra weight to the shove.

Tigers led for the entire game. Interested to see the highlights but Hegarty failed a HIA early on the second half which is concerning.

[Which Tyler]

Spot on. I'd be tempted by a group stage to guarantee a minimum number of games for the Champ clubs/each Prem club's youngsters, but other than that, utter agreement.

Sadly, a pool stage IS orthodox these days.
I'd have the pool stage, and have shield and plate aspects for the knock-outs; again, to guarantee a decent number of games, and remove any dead rubbers

[fivepointer]

The other games were well contested.
Bristol beat Exeter 33-27
Saracens beat Quins 28-21
London Irish beat Saints 36-26
Tigers beat Sale 32-23 (good result looking at the line ups)
Newcastle beat Wasps 34-27

[Puja]

Fun old game this evening - Irish were 21-0 up at halftime, then ended up backs against the wall, defending their own tryline, at 26-20. Managed to close it out at 29-20 with a last minute kick, but another ding-dong between Saracens and Irish after their Prem game.


Interesting selections from Leicester this week:

WASPS: 15 Cameron Anderson, 14 Luke Mehson, 13 Rekeiti Ma’asi White, 12 Olly Hartley, 11 Ollie Dawkins; 10 Tommy Mathews, 9 Sam Wolstenholme (c); 1 Gordon Reid, 2 Michael van Vuuren, 3 Biyi Alo, 4 Tim Cardall, 5 Sebastian de Chaves, 6 James Tyas, 7 Mario Pichardie, 8 James Tunney

Replacements: 16 Dan Eckersley, 17 Zac Nearchou, 18 Pieter Scholtz, 19 Alfie Bell, 20 Fyn Brown, 21 Greg Fisilau, 22 Ollie Monye, 23 George Simpson

LEICESTER TIGERS: 15 Kini Murimurivalu, 14 Kobus van Wyk, 13 Guy Porter, 12 Dan Kelly, 11 Hosea Saumaki; 10 Dan Lancaster, 9 Jack van Poortvliet (c); 1 James Whitcombe, 2 Charlie Clare, 3 Joe Heyes, 4 Ollie Chessum, 5 Calum Green, 6 Francois van Wyk, 7 Tommy Reffell, 8 George Martin

Replacements: 16 Archie Vanes, 17 Dan Richardson, 18 Will Hurd, 19 Harry Wells, 20 Tomiwa Agbongbon, 21 Sam Edwards, 22 Juan Pablo Socino, 23 Jacob Cusick

George Martin at 8? Could be interesting to see that tried. Francois Van Wyk at 6 is the most fun selection. Second week in a row that we've played a loosehead at blindside, but entertainingly enough, despite having the same two players as last week, we're playing them the other way round, with Whitcombe getting to play 1 this time and Van Wyk exiled to the back row.

Good to see Burt Jnr getting a run at 10 and have Clare back from injury. Wasps playing their academy and short-term loans team as they desperately try to save some players for their next Prem game, so hopefully should be another win and a chance to get some match fitness into players before our perfectly timed bye week.

Puja

[FKAS]

George Martin has talked about Borthwick wanting him to work on his carrying. His selection at 8 in pre season and now plus one off the bench adventure there the other week suggest that Borthwick is giving him opportunity to show what he's been working on in game. He certainly looked good ball in hand Vs LI earlier in the season, definite improvement in other games.

Francois van Wyk might be the least mobile backrow option since Fonua lumbered into the 8 shirt.

Wasps put up a good fight Vs Falcons last week. There's players there with no expectation but every chance to show off and try to earn new deals or more game time. Can be an awkward combination to play against sometimes plus the Wasps tight five aren't exactly rookies.

[Raggs]

No big fight from Wasps this week, just too much by the looks of it.

[fivepointer]

Worcester gave Bristol quite a hiding and Glos comfortably beat Exeter.

[FKAS]

No big fight from Wasps this week, just too much by the looks of it.

First half was Tigers up 10-0. Second half I presume the Wasps side tired and capitulated in the second half which they lost 45-7. So Wasps must have gone hard in the first half and not been able to back it up after the break.

[jimKRFC]

Bristol have taken a mixed approach to this. Pat put out a stronger side against Exeter and their 2 inception tried put a bit of a gloss on the result for them. Against Worcester is was a very young team - only 6 of what you'd call the first team squad and then Charlie Powel was way out in front with 16 appearances compared to the bench that 2 between them. Just checked and there was a total of 22 club caps between the players outside the first team squad - excluding Kloska making his first appearance at tight head.

Worcester put out a side with 10 players from the side they played in the Bris prem game, the red card just before half time (Charlie Powel) finished Bris off. I hear that the young pack did ok but just not organised enough in defence and generally a bit of miss match against a much more experienced side.

[Tigersman]

No big fight from Wasps this week, just too much by the looks of it.

First half was Tigers up 10-0. Second half I presume the Wasps side tired and capitulated in the second half which they lost 45-7. So Wasps must have gone hard in the first half and not been able to back it up after the break.

Tigers could've scored 3 more tries that first half if passes went to hands in the final stage