Prem Cup Semi Finals

[FKAS]

First up Tigers Vs LI.

STARTING XV
15 Bryce Hegarty [14]
14 Joe Browning [1]
13 Kini Murimurivalu [35]
12 Juan Pablo Socino [8]
11 Hosea Saumaki [11]
10 Dan Lancaster [4]
9 Jack van Poortvliet (c) [44]
1 James Whitcombe [20]
2 Tom Cowan-Dickie [7]
3 Nephi Leatigaga [63]
4 David Douglas Bridge [1]
5 Lewis Chessum [1]
6 Scott Hall [1]
7 Emeka Ilione [1]
8 Sean Jansen [3]

REPLACEMENTS
16 Archie Vanes [3]
17 Dan Richardson [4]
18 Will Hurd [6]
19 Tomiwa Agbongbon [4]
20 Simon Koroiyadi [2]
21 Sam Edwards [3]
22 Joseph Woodward [1]
23 Jacob Cusick [4]

London Irish: 15 Henry Arundell, 14 James Stokes, 13 Will Joseph, 12 Curtis Rona, 11 Lucio Cinti, 10 Noel Reid, 9 Ben White; 1 Marcel van der Merwe, 2 Mike Willemse, 3 Ciaran Parker, 4 Chunya Munga, 5 George Nott, 6 Jack Cooke (c), 7 Ben Donnell, 8 Albert Tuisue

Replacements: 16 Matt Cornish, 17 Allan Dell, 18 Ollie Hoskins, 19 Steve Mafi, 20 Chandler Cunningham-South, 21 Caolan Englefield, 22 Jacob Atkins, 23 Phil Cokanasiga

Both teams have drafted one or two stronger options in this week. LI look to have loaded up significantly more though, particularly on the bench to the point where I suspect Mafi's rumoured wage would cover a significant part, if not all, of the cost of the Tigers bench.

[Peej]

Very interested from a Wasps perspective thinking ahead to what team Irish might put out at the weekend!

[Scrumhead]

I’m surprised Rona and Cinti are starting. 3 starts for Rona in 8 days would be a big ask so I’d assume he won’t start vs. Wasps? I think OHC went off injured vs. Falcons so I’d have expected Cinti to be the obvious replacement. Maybe it’s not serious and OHC will be fit for Wasps anyway?

[Puja]

Difficult in the back 5 of the scrum - one lock and one flanker borrowed from Nottingham, no locks on the bench, our number 8 backing up 80 minutes from Saturday and our bench options are very, very green.

Very big ask against a (relatively speaking) strong Irish side. We'll do well to get a result here.

Puja

[Mellsblue]

Would have loved to see JvP come off the bench to inject some pace in the final 20/25 mins.

[fivepointer]

Surprisingly strong side from Irish, featuring players who were on duty at the weekend and some who will surely be required for the next Prem game.
Quite a few guys who played for the u20s involved.

[Puja]

Surprisingly strong side from Irish, featuring players who were on duty at the weekend and some who will surely be required for the next Prem game.

Dangerous gamble as well - they're playing Wasps at the weekend and that's pretty close to a must-win if they want top Europe next season.

Puja

[fivepointer]

8 players were involved against Newcastle. I guess that game on Friday and the Wasps game on Sunday does give them a few extra days to recover. But, yes, a bit of a gamble when the Wasps game is crucial.

[FKAS]

Difficult in the back 5 of the scrum - one lock and one flanker borrowed from Nottingham, no locks on the bench, our number 8 backing up 80 minutes from Saturday and our bench options are very, very green.
Puja

The lock is from Loughborough University, will be back studying Wednesday.

Jansen only played 40 odd mins at the weekend, he went off fairly early in the second half for Weise. Even so he's going to have a big game following up going toe to toe with Dombrandt with going toe to toe with Tuisue three days later. He'll do well to get out of bed Wednesday morning.

Would have loved to see JvP come off the bench to inject some pace in the final 20/25 mins.

could have worked that way round as Edwards the 19 year old scrum half on the bench plays very much like Wigglesworth, seeing him run with the ball is a novelty. Given the age difference could be Wigglesworth's son. Edwards has already overtaken Law who came through in the same age category as JVP. Suspect he'll be pushing for the third scrum half spot next season, he's already had a little game time for Notts and England under 20s this season.

[Puja]

Difficult in the back 5 of the scrum - one lock and one flanker borrowed from Nottingham, no locks on the bench, our number 8 backing up 80 minutes from Saturday and our bench options are very, very green.
Puja

The lock is from Loughborough University, will be back studying Wednesday.

Jansen only played 40 odd mins at the weekend, he went off fairly early in the second half for Weise. Even so he's going to have a big game following up going toe to toe with Dombrandt with going toe to toe with Tuisue three days later. He'll do well to get out of bed Wednesday morning.

Useful knowledge, thank you. I stand corrected.

Puja

[Spiffy]

The LI 19 yr old FB Arundell looks a talented lad. He's already weighing in at 15 st and seems to have some gas and skills to go with it.
Interesting to see the ex-Leinster centre Noel Reid get a run at 10. Don't think I've seen him mentioned since his move. He had some potential once but has really missed the boat.

[francoisfou]

Ben White, Steve Mafi and Noel Reid are former Tigers, which’ll add a bit of spice to the encounter.

[Gloskarlos]

Gloucester

15. Kyle Moyle
14. Alex Morgan *
13. Louis Hillman-Cooper *
12. Giorgi Kveseladze
11. Jacob Morris *
10. George Barton *
9. Stephen Varney *

1. Ciaran Knight *
2. Henry Walker *
3. Jamal Ford-Robinson
4. Arthur Clark *
5. Cameron Jordan *
6. Freddie Thomas *
7. Jack Clement *
8. Jack Bartlett *

Replacements

16. Seb Blake *
17. Olly Adkins *
18. Bryan O’Connor *
19. Rob Nixon *
20. Josh Gray *
21. Matty Jones *
22. Morgan Adderly-Jones *
23. Reece Dunn*

[Gloskarlos]

Warriors

15 Noah Heward, 14 Tom Howe, 13 Alex Hearle, 12 Seb Atkinson, 11 Duhan van der Merwe, 10 Fin Smith, 9 Gareth Simpson, 1 Ethan Waller (C), 2 Isaac Miller, 3 Jack Owlett, 4 Andrew Kitchener, 5 James Scott, 6 Jack Forsythe, 7 Sam Lewis, 8 Sione Vailanu.

Replacements | 16 Niall Annett, 17 Kai Owen, 18 Christian Judge, 19 Graham Kitchener, 20 Kyle Hatherell or Harvey Cuckson, 21 Ollie Wynn, 22 Jamie Shillcock, 23 Francois Venter.

[Gloskarlos]

Glad we have stuck to the side that got us to the semis more or less, not sure Worcester have taken the exact same stance.... but there are a few academy guys in their XV

[Puja]

Glad we have stuck to the side that got us to the semis more or less, not sure Worcester have taken the exact same stance.... but there are a few academy guys in their XV

Worcester have clearly decided that they want a trophy this season. Can't really blame them too much, but it does feel a bit dickish that they're busting out 6-7 of their first XV (with an even more experienced bench) to play a mostly Gloucester academy side. Will be cheering for your lot tomorrow, I think.

Puja

[fivepointer]

Wuss bench hardly short of 1st team experience either. No rules against it of course and teams will pick the sides that suit their purpose.

[Timbo]

Looking forward to this. Can’t beat a bit of midweek rugby.

[FKAS]

LIs more senior side making this very much one way traffic.

[Epaminondas Pules]

Really baffles me why we keep playing Lancaster at 10. He’s a bloody good centre in the making. But he’s not a 10.

And yeah Irish making light work of this. They look like a team that kind of knows each other and are winning up front and collisions.

[FKAS]

Yeah it's men Vs boys up front.

Agree on Lancaster, think he could make a good 12. I'd have liked to see us go with Meredith but I'm guessing they wanted experienced centres with a young 9 and 10. Shame we couldn't spare some more experience up front, Ilione going off early has definitely hurt us as well as we don't have anyone to compete over the ball. LI have had too good a platform to launch their backs and Tuisue.

[Epaminondas Pules]

Always going to be a tough night that. The BT Sport crew showing amazement that Tuisue was playing well against a back 5 of the pack with a whole 7 games between them. And a pack with hardly any time together getting munched was no real surprise.

Pleased that Woody got a few mins and a couple of touches, but why bring him on at 13 when he’s a 12. Yeah play the school kid out of position!! Even though it was 9 mins it still made little sense.

[Puja]

A mixture of us having a cobbled together forward pack and Irish being exceptionally good. A slightly different run of injuries/fixtures and we could've easily have had Clare, Green, Martin and Robinson playing, which would've made us a very different proposition. However, even that team would've struggled against Irish in that mood. Everyone will focus on Arundell, and rightly, but Will Joseph impresses me every time I see him play. Just constantly gets his arms free for the offload.

Saumaki is just utterly terrible at everything that's not him running with the ball, isn't he? No sense of balance or positioning in defence (cf. Cinti embarrassing him twice), iffy under the high ball, doesn't really kick, can't/won't pass, but just loves having the ball in his hands. Don't know what we can do with him or if there's any way we can carve a half-decent overall player out of him, but he's tempting to have in the 23 shirt in a knockout just in case you need a moment of magic.

Puja

[FKAS]

Yeah Woodward got a touch and showed a bit of a step which is nice. Koroiyadi looked dynamic and held his own pretty well considering the gulf on weight and age, looking forward to seeing what he can do in a couple of years when he's filled out a bit. Cusick looked solid again and Edwards had something about him at 9. Vanes looked better than TCD already, can't see TCD being retained for next season but Vanes covering fourth choice and getting game time at Notts (he's just won their young player of the year).

Could be Leatigaga's last game for the club. He doesn't look up to speed and I think he could get more cash over in France and more game time. On the up side Hurd did alright off the bench and is another early 20s player coming along.

Arundel will have done his reputation no harm with another rapid showing. Tuisue breaking tackles from kids isn't massively a surprise. Tigers had a couple of students and a Notts player in the pack for a lot of the time he was on, he skittles bigger more experienced players on a weekly basis. Joseph again looked good at 13, seems to be flying under the radar a bit.

Puja, Saumaki's getting better. I think he was signed as a project player. His finishing is top level as evidenced by the ridiculous try he scored tonight. He's definitely got more to work on before next season if he wants to be a mainstay. He's 29 but has played all his senior rugby in Japan so should be physically fresh and have a good five years in him.

[fivepointer]

No surprise that Irish had too much for a much less experienced Tigers.

Arundell is very good and seems to have matured a bit physically just in the last few months. Joseph is one to watch. Great feet and a real desire to keep the ball alive.