Premiership Shield 2018/19

[Stom]

Bristol Bears ‘A’ team to face Harlequins at the Stoop on Monday, September 10th (7.45pm KO):
15. Tom Pincus; 14. Charlie Powell, 13. Jack Tovey, 12. Matt Welsh, 11. Maliq Holden (Cornish Pirates); 10. Sam Bedlow, 9. Reiss Cullen; 1. Jake Woolmore, 2. Nick Fenton-Wells, 3. Ollie Dawe, 4. Joe Batley, 5. Ehize Ehizode, 6. Dan Thomas, 7. Jake Heenan (c), 8. Sam Graham.
Replacements: 16. Tom Lindsay, 17. Tom Rowland, 18. Nick English, 19. George Kloska, 20. Jack Capon, 21. Ben George (Hartpury), 22. Nathan Chamberlain, 23. Robbie Smith (Hartpury).

Quins:
15. Ross Chisholm 14. Gabriel Ibitoye 13. Alofa Alofa
12. Henry Cheeseman 11. Tim Visser
10. Tim Swiel 9. Dave Lewis

1. Lovejoy Chawatama (Guest) 2. Jack Musk 3. Manasa Romumu Saulo (Guest)
4. Mat Luamanu 5. Hugh Tizard
6. Semi Kunatani 7. Jack Kenningham 8. Alex Dombrandt

Game changers

16. Brad Clements (Guest) 17. Daniel Hobbs-Awoyemi (Guest) 18. Kieran Sassone 19. Jack Cooke (Guest) 20. Luke James 21. Niall Saunders
22. Cadan Murley 23. Harry Barlow


Bristol not as strong as last time out & don't know enough about Quins to know if the bench really are game changers...

Freeview channel 95
Sky channel 442
Virgin media channel 553

For those who cannot get Freesports on their TV (it's in SD but broadcast on an HD channel, so you need an HD Freeview receiver), you can watch on the TV Player app.

Interesting to see Luamanu at 4 and Dombrandt at 8...

[Mikey Brown]

Yeah I thought that was odd. Can’t even blame EJ for that one.

[Tigersman]

Leicester Tigers Development XV (v Worcester Cavaliers, Loughborough University, Monday 7.30pm)
15 Robbie Povey (Coventry)
14 James Neal (Coventry)
13 Sam Aspland-Robinson
12 George Worth (c)
11 Jonah Holmes
10 Joe Ford
9 Ben White
1 Facundo Gigena
2 Ross McMillan
3 Joe Heyes
4 Cameron Jordan
5 Sam Lewis
6 Thom Smith
7 Taylor Gough
8 Freddie Tuilagi

Replacements
16 Jake Kerr
17 Keston Lines
18 James Gallagher (Loughborough Students)
19 Cameron Gray (Coventry)
20 Harry Mahoney
21 Will Flinn (Coventry)
22 Isaac McNulty (Coventry)
23 Sam Wager (Doncaster Academy)

Wager was in our U18's last season, in fact played for us in the AWC.
11 Academy Grad's (12 if you include Wager)

Very young forward pack outside of McMillan,
Gigena 23
Tuilagi 21
Lewis, Heyes 19
Jordan, Gough, Smith 18

[fivepointer]

This weeks results -
Exe 50 Bath 35
Glos 12 Saracens 41
Wasps 39 Falcons 36
Tigers 26 Wuss 32
Sale 17 Saints 41
Quins 59 Bristol 21

Quins - Bris was pretty entertaining and even up until about 50 mins. Quins ran away with it in the last half hour. Dombrandt looked pretty good, as did Kunatani and Ibitoye.

[Mikey Brown]

And Chisholm played (goal-kicking) fly-half?

[Tigger]

Worcester Vs Sale live tonight on Free Sports.....

https://www.salesharks.com/2018/09/24/t ... le-jets-2/

[Tigersman]

Tigers/Coventry team.

Leicester Tigers Development XV (v Newcastle Falcons, Kingston Park, Monday 7.45pm)
15 Joe Lane (Coventry)
14 Sam Aspland-Robinson
13 Rob Povey (Coventry)
12 Matt Smith
11 James Neal (Coventry)
10 Dan Lewis (Coventry)
9 Will Flynn (Coventry)
1 Campese Ma’afu
2 Jake Kerr
3 Facundo Gigena
4 Fred Tuilagi
5 Cameron Jordan
6 Thom Smith
7 Taylor Gough
8 Valentino Mapapalangi

Replacements
16 Stefan Younghusband (Loughborough Students)
17 Sam Grahamslaw
18 Keston Lines
19 Scott Russell (Coventry)
20 Henri Lavin
21 Dave Brazier (Coventry)
22 Isaac McNulty (Coventry)
23 Louis Roach (Coventry)

[Adam_P]

Wasps pulled out of the game against Saints, as they did last season. We played Irish instead and lost 26-29, with Wood making his return from injury.

[Raggs]

Wasps pulled out of the game against Saints, as they did last season. We played Irish instead and win 14 - 10, with Wood making his return from injury.

Why does the fact it happened last season as well mean anything? We'd run out of props, and couldn't get any more, Dai Young has been looking for weeks. Gloucester had to call off theirs for the same reason.

[Mellsblue]

It means the league is still a farce. Leicester Tigers fielded a backline with six Coventry players and a bench with only 1/2 Tigers players. What is the point.

[Tigersman]

It means the league is still a farce. Leicester Tigers fielded a backline with six Coventry players and a bench with only 1/2 Tigers players. What is the point.

It was either that or postpone the game, we have played every player that is fit either today or yesterday.

End of the day most teams are having to cut back on players due to wage increases and therefore the depth has become to the point where a second comp will be very hard to field once a couple injuries happen.

[Mellsblue]

It means the league is still a farce. Leicester Tigers fielded a backline with six Coventry players and a bench with only 1/2 Tigers players. What is the point.

It was either that or postpone the game, we have played every player that is fit either today or yesterday.

End of the day most teams are having to cut back on players due to wage increases and therefore the depth has become to the point where a second comp will be very hard to field once a couple injuries happen.

I’m not blaming Leicester individually. More PRL pressing ahead with the league and still encountering the same problems.

[Raggs]

There needs to be a schedule for team depth games. At the same time there needs to be acceptance that through the season depth may not be available.

[fivepointer]

Results from last night -
Bristol 32 Saracens 33
Bath 22 Quins 31
Newcastle 54 Tigers 13
Wuss 41 Sale 31

2 games called off due to availability issues.
Cant blame clubs for using guests to fulfil these fixtures. Its disappointing, but some clubs dont have much depth and a few injuries will put them in real difficulty.
Unless squad sizes increase i think we are bound to see postponements and teams put out with guests.

[Puja]

Yet this is supposed to be part of the Prem clubs' masterplan to replace the Championship and get a home fixture every weekend. Great.

Puja

[fivepointer]

This is an interesting idea - https://www.rugbypass.com/news/the-solu ... in-the-sky

"Per The Guardian, this proposal suggested a 14-team Shield competition, which would be contested by the 12 reserve or ‘A’ sides of the current Premiership clubs, plus the 13th member of PRL and the next best finishing side in the Championship. To use this season as an example, that would mean the 12 reserve sides, London Irish and Ealing Trailfinders, who finished second in the Championship last season.

The idea would be that if any of the 12 reserve sides were to finish top of the Shield competition, then no side would be relegated from the Premiership, but if Irish or Ealing were to top the competition, they would earn Premiership status for the next season.

At the other end of the competition, the team at the bottom of the table would face a playoff with the winner of the Championship, opening the door for the likes of Yorkshire Carnegie, Bedford Blues, Cornish Pirates, Coventry or any other ambitious side to earn the way up into the Shield and to have a shot at promotion to the Premiership"

I like the idea of Championship clubs being involved in the Shield but i'm not sure this would be workable.

[Puja]

That's the one that I was literally just mocking the post above!

Puja

[Mellsblue]

Terrible idea.

[Tigersman]

IMO they should scrap the A league and have a U25 league instead (With a maximum of 2 overs in the match day 23).
increase the maximum wage for development players from 30K to 50K and increase the actual size of the development cap to encourage more signings from the academy.

[Scrumhead]

Given so many teams either drop out or use wholesale guests, I wonder whether there might be some mileage in creating some kind of regional competition managed by the RFU?

I’m sure there would be some resistance from the clubs but I’d say a game between the pooled resources of ‘London’ i.e. Saracens & Quins reserves vs. ‘East Midlands’ i.e. Tigers & Saints reserves would be a far higher standard and therefore more meaningful for the players.

A half-baked idea but I could see merits to it.

[Raggs]

I don't see the point in adding age limits etc, since that's just going to make it harder to get players. As for increasing caps etc, then you're spending someone else's money. Home grown senior academy players already don't count towards the cap.

[Tigersman]

I don't see the point in adding age limits etc, since that's just going to make it harder to get players. As for increasing caps etc, then you're spending someone else's money. Home grown senior academy players already don't count towards the cap.

Isn't that wage dependant If they are earning less than 30K a year.

[Raggs]

Possibly, but then we run into wage inflation issues again if we just raise the limit.

[fivepointer]

2 results from yesterdAY -

Exeter 47 Bristol 26
Glos 37 Bath 44

Tonights game on TV
Newcastle Falcons A-Team to face Northampton Wanderers (Monday, 8pm, Kingston Park Stadium)

15 Tom Arscott
14 Adam Radwan
13 Ben Stevenson
12 Pedro Bettencourt
11 Zach Kibirige
10 Brett Connon
9 Sam Stuart
1 Trevor Davison
2 Jamie Blamire
3 Craig Mitchell
4 Will Montgomery
5 Glen Young
6 Tom Marshall
7 Connor Collett
8 Ryan Burrows (captain)

Replacements
16 Kyle Cooper
17 Jack Payne
18 David Wilson
19 Nemani Nagusa
20 Guy Graham
21 Michael Young
22 Charlie Wilson
23 Josh Hodge

Northampton Wanderers

15 Tom Emery
14 Matt Worley
13 Ollie Sleightholme
12 Fraser Strachan
11 Jack Spittle (Nottingham)
10 George Furbank
9 Connor Tupai
1 Will Davis
2 Reece Marshall
3 Jamal Ford-Robinson
4 Alex Moon
5 Devante Onojaife
6 Joe Wallace
7 Paddy Ryan
8 Tom Wood (captain)

Replacements
16 Samson Ma’asi
17 Jack Culverhouse (Ampthill)
18 Karl Garside (Ampthill)
19 Alex Coles
20 Olly Povoas (Coventry)
21 Morgan Dayes (U18)
22 Ciaran Whyte (Ampthill)
23 Sam Evans (Blackheath)

[fivepointer]

Latest results -
Glos 15 Bristol 30
Leicester 24 Wasps 13
Bath 31 Saracens 24
Saints 50 Worcester 7
Sale 7 Newcastle 28
Quins 13 Exeter 17