Newcastle Sarries

[Stom]

Newcastle Falcons team to face Saracens

15 Simon Hammersley
14 Alex Tait
13 Chris Harris
12 Josh Matavesi
11 Vereniki Goneva
10 Joel Hodgson
9 Sonatane Takulua

1 Rob Vickers
2 Scott Lawson
3 Jon Welsh
4 Calum Green
5 Sean Robinson
6 Mark Wilson
7 Will Welch (captain)
8 Nili Latu

Replacements

16 Santiago Socino
17 Sami Mavinga
18 Trevor Davison
19 Will Witty
20 Ally Hogg
21 Sam Stuart
22 Juan Pablo Socino
23 Sinoti Sinoti


Saracens team to face Newcastle Falcons

15 Alex Goode (233)
14 Liam Williams (1)
13 Marcelo Bosch (98)
12 Brad Barritt (c) (197)
11 Chris Wyles (229)
10 Owen Farrell (153)
9 Ben Spencer (102)

1 Mako Vunipola (121)
2 Jamie George (173)
3 Juan Figallo (60)
4 Nick Isiekwe (8)
5 Maro Itoje (77)
6 Michael Rhodes (59)
7 Schalk Burger (28)
8 Billy Vunipola (78)

Replacements

16 Christopher Tolofua (1)
17 Hayden Thompson-Stringer (10)
18 Kieran Longbottom (6)
19 Dominic Day (2)
20 Jackson Wray (175)
21 Richard Wigglesworth (188)
22 Nick Tompkins (59)
23 Sean Maitland (22)

[Mellsblue]

Still no rest for Itoje. Disappointed that Williams is on the wing rather than 15.

[TheNomad]

Strange re: Itoje indeed

the potential in that second row is scary. Pretty handy pack all round really

[fivepointer]

Good to see Billy back. I'm surprised Itoje still starting, but am comforted by fact that Sarries do look after their players better then most.

Falcons have done well so far but this is definitely a step up.

[Mellsblue]

Empty stadium.

[Stom]

Terrible idea.

I mean, bad time for us. Bad time for them. A great defensive team against a...great defensive team. In a place that doesn't care about rugby.

Brilliant.

[Stom]

Yeah, I think I'm going to bed. This is a pretty poor game.

[Mellsblue]

Flats is worth the ticket price.

[Mellsblue]

Terrible idea.

I mean, bad time for us. Bad time for them. A great defensive team against a...great defensive team. In a place that doesn't care about rugby.

Brilliant.

Sarries can run up a score if in the mood but, yeh, you'd go for wasps v quins from this weekend's matches if you were intent on selling the game as a spectacle.

[Timbo]

American fans new to the sport might be wondering why rugby players can't catch.

[Puja]

What baffles me is that the US are having a second go at setting up a professional league in March next year, which is surely the obvious tie-in if we want to run this kind of event. Yet this game is nowhere near where any of the teams are going to be and a good 6 months off from any action. So on the off-chance that any Philadelphians are intrigued by this turgid turd of a match, there'll be absolutely no way to feed that piqued curiousity and it'll fade away to nothing.

Puja

[Banquo]

comedic

[Puja]

That may actually have been the worst game of Premiership Rugby that I have ever seen and I've been watching for the whole of the professional league.

Puja

[Raggs]

I'd say a Wasps Sale game would probably have been best. Neither side too hot on defence, both sides have a pretty looking attack that fires more times than it doesn't. Quins can sometimes get shut out of games.

It was on at midnight for me, worth watching (probably will anyway)?

[Mr Mwenda]

What is it with rugby (both codes) and the conviction that clocking up the air miles is inherently a good thing. To me it feels like an increasingly desperate such for a profitable model when perhaps one doesn't exist long-term... Good for the planet too.

[TheNomad]

Pretty dire game really. Good defending generally but...

Loads of kicking, I find Farrell such a boring player (yeah he's good, I know, but...), players couldn't hold onto the ball, the only try of note coming from first phase line out...

A few large Vunipola carries, good work rate from Itoje and periodically some zip. But generally I'm really annoyed I stayed up for that

[Mellsblue]

My biggest gripe with Farrell was the amount of times be stopped/checked the player he was passing the ball to. The kicking is just Sarries' game plan. If it wasn't Farrell it would just be someone else.

[Stom]

Pretty dire game really. Good defending generally but...

Loads of kicking, I find Farrell such a boring player (yeah he's good, I know, but...), players couldn't hold onto the ball, the only try of note coming from first phase line out...

A few large Vunipola carries, good work rate from Itoje and periodically some zip. But generally I'm really annoyed I stayed up for that

And on a bum note, George was pretty poor.

[Puja]

I'd say a Wasps Sale game would probably have been best. Neither side too hot on defence, both sides have a pretty looking attack that fires more times than it doesn't. Quins can sometimes get shut out of games.

It was on at midnight for me, worth watching (probably will anyway)?

Really really not worth your time. Watch the highlights - they'll probably only encompass 3 minutes and that's with a lot of replays of the first two tries.

Did anyone else notice that the BT team had become so bored that they actually lost track of the scoring? The commentators insisted that Sarries had 3 tries and were chasing a bonus point, there was even a graphic on the screen saying they'd scored 3, and everyone was so convinced that I thought I'd dozed off and missed one.

Puja

[Banquo]

That may actually have been the worst game of Premiership Rugby that I have ever seen and I've been watching for the whole of the professional league.

Puja

Unsurprising really- no atmosphere, long travel without much recovery, hot, poor handling conditions. Utter folly, on the whole

[bitts]

Only highlight for me was the commentator saying, with a straight face, that there was an Attendance of 10,000. If so that stadium must sit about half a million.

[Banquo]

Only highlight for me was the commentator saying, with a straight face, that there was an Attendance of 10,000. If so that stadium must sit about half a million.

[fivepointer]

There cant have been more than 4,000 there.

You do have to wonder who thought to schedule the game in that location. I cant see how anyone will be that satisfied by the venture.

[Mellsblue]

Only highlight for me was the commentator saying, with a straight face, that there was an Attendance of 10,000. If so that stadium must sit about half a million.

What Banquo said

[Digby]

You do have to wonder who thought to schedule the game in that location.

Seems an easy solution of hosting English league games in England, and US league games in the USA