Quins vs Bath - Sat 3pm

[Puja]

1. Joe Marler (265)
2. Jack Walker (43)
3. Will Collier (218)
4. Dino Lamb (81)
5. Irne Herbst (22)
6. Luke Wallace (196)
7. Will Evans (62)
8. Alex Dombrandt – Captain (112)
9. Danny Care (357)
10. Marcus Smith (138)
11. Cadan Murley (98)
12. Andre Esterhuizen (68)
13. Joe Marchant (151)
14. Louis Lynagh (42)
15. Josh Bassett (14)

Replacements:
16. Sam Riley (28)
17. Fin Baxter (24)
18. Simon Kerrod (94)
19. George Hammond (39)
20. Jack Kenningham (40)
21. Lewis Gjaltema (27)
22. Luke Northmore (57)
23. Nick David (30)



Bath Rugby: 15 Matt Gallagher, 14 Joe Cokanasiga, 13 Ollie Lawrence, 12 Max Ojomoh, 11 Ruaridh McConnochie, 10 Orlando Bailey, 9 Ben Spencer ©; 1 Beno Obano, 2 Tom Dunn, 3 Will Stuart, 4 Josh McNally, 5 GJ van Velze, 6 Ted Hill, 7 Chris Cloete, 8 Miles Reid

Replacements: 16 Niall Annett, 17 Juan Schoeman, 18 D’Arcy Rae, 19 Will Spencer, 20 Richard de Carpentier, 21 Max Green, 22 Piers Francis, 23 Josh Bayliss

[Puja]

Bath on a roll, two wins in a row, a decent-looking side named, and a chance still of making European qualification. Hopefully Northampton lose on Friday so Quins still have something to play for, cause this looks like it could be a really good game.

Puja

[Which Tyler]

Bath on a roll, two wins in a row, a decent-looking side named, and a chance still of making European qualification. Hopefully Northampton lose on Friday so Quins still have something to play for, cause this looks like it could be a really good game.

Puja

I disagree. Dream time...

​Northampton to beat Newcastle, confirming their place in the play-offs.
Bath can then beat a dispirited Quins the following day*
Exeter beat Bristol through home advantage.
Sale give Glos a bit of a hammering as they fight for home advantage in the SF.

Then next week...
Saracens rest most of their first XV as they've already secured a home SF, and they tend to do that if their last match is away from home.
Glos beat Bristol - neither have much to play for, but Glos are hurting after their defeat this weekend.
LIrish are just too good for Exeter with nothing really to play for, and no home crowd to gee them up.

Bath end up as Best in the West.

* I did say dream time, but played at Twickenham, with Qu9ins just having been denied a SF place, I can just about see it, if I squint hard enough.

[fivepointer]

Could be a good tussle in the front row and the centre matchup should be interesting.

[Puja]

Is it just me or was the pass for that break that led to the try very, very forwards?

Puja

[morepork]

at least they are passing it. The Excretia Vs. Bristol game did infect mine eyes with their "passing" game.


Lawrence looks a lively centre.

[Mr Mwenda]

Lynagh has some wheels. Cocka did darn well.

[Puja]

at least they are passing it. The Excretia Vs. Bristol game did infect mine eyes with their "passing" game.


Lawrence looks a lively centre.

Why on earth would you have the choice between these two games and actively choose to watch the Exeter game?!

Puja

[Mikey Brown]

Well fair enough. That’s about all we deserve.

[Banquo]

fun match. Lawrence as MP says looked like a proper centre today.

[Puja]

Bath are a weird side to watch. They have so many system issues - defence, maul, etc - but every so often they turn up and play to the sum of their parts.

Puja

[Which Tyler]

Huzzah!

That is all

[fivepointer]

Great entertainment. Some good tries and some very fine individual performances.

Fair play to Bath they have turned around their season and are starting to look half decent. The components are there for a top 4 side.

Also well done karl Dickson. Thought he handled the game very well today.

[Banquo]

Great entertainment. Some good tries and some very fine individual performances.

Fair play to Bath they have turned around their season and are starting to look half decent. The components are there for a top 4 side.

Also well done karl Dickson. Thought he handled the game very well today.

when you watch Spencer you wonder what might have been with his gas and boot.

Coka has to be worth looking at again surely.

[Oakboy]

Great entertainment. Some good tries and some very fine individual performances.

Fair play to Bath they have turned around their season and are starting to look half decent. The components are there for a top 4 side.

Also well done karl Dickson. Thought he handled the game very well today.

when you watch Spencer you wonder what might have been with his gas and boot.

Coka has to be worth looking at again surely.

Agreed. I have always rated Spencer. Is Coka finally over his injury? He looked tentative in earlier matches making one wonder if he came back too early.

[TheNomad]

Of the EQP 9s this year, I’d say Mitchell and Spencer have looked better than most. Quirke, if he refunds his groove, could be better than both

Lawrence and Coka looked great though, really nice to see. Smith had his moments too.

Some real talent there

[fivepointer]

Thought Spencer should have been given an extended run in the England side a few years ago such was his excellent club form. Youngs was rubbish and we didnt have that many options. Jones thought different.

[FKAS]

Of the EQP 9s this year, I’d say Mitchell and Spencer have looked better than most. Quirke, if he refunds his groove, could be better than both

Lawrence and Coka looked great though, really nice to see. Smith had his moments too.

Some real talent there

I like Spencer, thought he could have been a bolter for the England 6N squad. Does have games where he's anonymous as well as the games where he's the beating heart of the Bath side. Similar to Mitchell though his mixture of presence on the pitch tends to be in the same game.

Gus Warr has been the standout EQ 9 for me in the league. Is deservedly keeping Quirke on the bench.

[Banquo]

Of the EQP 9s this year, I’d say Mitchell and Spencer have looked better than most. Quirke, if he refunds his groove, could be better than both

Lawrence and Coka looked great though, really nice to see. Smith had his moments too.

Some real talent there

I like Spencer

he has all the natural talent...imo he didnt get enough rugby in his key development years.

[Which Tyler]

8 years ago, I thought he was nailed on to be a regular in the national side (enough that I in 2014-15 ish I put a sneaky bet on him scoring points in the 2019 RWC final).

As he developed, I can't say that Eddie was wrong not to use him more (still should have had Heinz's caps though). I think he would have been better than Youngs, but a} it would have taken 10-ish caps to get there; and b} I have a particularly low opinion of Youngs

I do think he showed too much loyalty to Sarries in his early years, and spent just too much time as 2nd / 3rd choice there when he would have likely been 1st choice in at least half the league, and would have developed better, and had a better shout at international honours.
He'd also, of course, have had many fewer trophies on his mantelpiece at home.

[Mellsblue]

Agreed. He was never going to set the world on fire, imo, but given who we’ve seen stink up the place at scrumhalf…