Champions Cup - Week 1

[Digby]

Minutes 0-10 were as above bad, just bad.

Minutes 10-20 saw Exeter have a lot of ball in the opponent 22 and come back to within 3 points. Though also as above their initial territory stemmed from what looked a mistake from the ref, but then after scoring they claim the restart and White puts up a terrible box kick that lands way infield but nobody claims and could have gone anywhere, and then he kicks the ball away badly again and Glasgow expose Exeter with a very attacking pass from Russell but then the Glasgow 15 makes a needless handling error. From he resulting scrum I think Steenson makes a needless handling error but it isn't called up and the ref allows play to continue until Glasgow make a handling error and Exter get the scrum. From the scrum Exeter go nicely left through White and then Whitten, but Woodburn knocks on trying to go over the try line.

Essentially there remain plenty of errors in the Exeter game, they don't start badly and then sort out the next 70, they are, to pick a word at random, patchy.

[Timbo]

Yeah, but i’d question the ref’s interpretation of an entire facet of the game; the maul. Not the vagaries of whether, on one occasion, the ball went marginally forwards or not...

Anyway, I thought the pillars of Exeter’s game were largely spot on throughout, there will always be a few mistakes around the edges. Anything less than very good doesn’t beat this Glasgow team imo.

[Timbo]

Minutes 0-10 were as above bad, just bad.

Minutes 10-20 saw Exeter have a lot of ball in the opponent 22 and come back to within 3 points. Though also as above their initial territory stemmed from what looked a mistake from the ref, but then after scoring they claim the restart and White puts up a terrible box kick that lands way infield but nobody claims and could have gone anywhere, and then he kicks the ball away badly again and Glasgow expose Exeter with a very attacking pass from Russell but then the Glasgow 15 makes a needless handling error. From he resulting scrum I think Steenson makes a needless handling error but it isn't called up and the ref allows play to continue until Glasgow make a handling error and Exter get the scrum. From the scrum Exeter go nicely left through White and then Whitten, but Woodburn knocks on trying to go over the try line.

Essentially there remain plenty of errors in the Exeter game, they don't start badly and then sort out the next 70, they are, to pick a word at random, patchy.

If you were so inclined you could do this for pretty much any game ever played...i’m not so inclined.

[Digby]

I'm not so inclined to continue,in this regard my analysis much like Exeter is patchy.

[fivepointer]

Just caught up with Quins-LaRochelle. Enjoyable game with some fine play and good tries. Defensively Quins will be a bit disappointed, while in attack they got into good positions but didnt convert. Marler and particularly Robshaw were outstanding but the game was symptomatic of Quins season so far.

[fivepointer]

Francois Louw is going to be in trouble with the citing commissioner for contact with the eye area. He looks bang to rights on the video footage.

[Adam_P]

Yeah that video of Louw doesn't look good at all, much worse than Sinckler.

The French ref in the Saints game has just given away the quickest penalty for not rolling away I think I've ever seen.

[twitchy]

Sarries just relentless.

[Adam_P]

Many awful restarts from Saints so far, giving all the possession to Saracens

[Digby]

Moments when you just want teams to play, and instead they're just ready to go with a pre planned call not to play continue to frustrate.



Glasgow have two defenders on the blindside when defending the scrum, and black 9 has come right up to try and put pressure on pink 9 assuming they'll just boot the ball off the pitch. That being the case Slade and Steenson would I'd have hoped have realised they can easily shift right and have a numbers advantage on the openside, and that black 9 can't recover from that position to sweep across.

But no, the ball is just passed back and booted off. And there just had to be space to attack.

[Adam_P]

North is fucked. Hurt his knee in a tackle, tried to run it off then went down in agony the next time he tried to accelerate. Not great.

[twitchy]

G north down again.

[bitts]

Am I the only one with a problem with that tackle?

[Adam_P]

I've seen plenty of tackles like that given a yellow. Legs were clearly above the horizontal.

[Adam_P]

Hopefully that incident will wake Saints up, just looked lazy apart from Lawes so far

[Mellsblue]

By the letter of the law that should be a yellow, but the law, in this case, is an ass. I'd give Farrell a yellow for his passing.

[Adam_P]

I agree, I think it should be the torso that should be above the horizontal, anyone can fling their legs up. But the law is the law and Farrell should be off

[kk67]

Am I the only one with a problem with that tackle?

I'm listening to Paul Grayson on the radio....he thought it was 2 yellows. One for the forearm smash and one for the tackle.

[Mellsblue]

Am I the only one with a problem with that tackle?

I'm listening to Paul Grayson on the radio....he thought it was 2 yellows. One for the forearm smash and one for the tackle.

If that forearm is worth a yellow I'm off to watch netball.

[Adam_P]

The tackle isn't a yellow, but Ribbans has copped one for bringing down 1 maul. Joke.

[kk67]

Am I the only one with a problem with that tackle?

I'm listening to Paul Grayson on the radio....he thought it was 2 yellows. One for the forearm smash and one for the tackle.

If that forearm is worth a yellow I'm off to watch netball.

In fairness,...he did retract the forearm smash accusation while he was watching the replay.

[Adam_P]

Am I the only one with a problem with that tackle?

I'm listening to Paul Grayson on the radio....he thought it was 2 yellows. One for the forearm smash and one for the tackle.

If that forearm is worth a yellow I'm off to watch netball.

Would have been red if it was Dylan

[Oakboy]

Saints are absent from 9-13. Sarries are walking through them. Lawes is scrapping well but he's the only one.

Sarries are the most functional club side by miles. They just do the right thing at the right time collectively. They could be stopped but only if Saints front up man-for-man. They can't do that if they don't believe in themselves.

[bitts]

I'm listening to Paul Grayson on the radio....he thought it was 2 yellows. One for the forearm smash and one for the tackle.

If that forearm is worth a yellow I'm off to watch netball.

In fairness,...he did retract the forearm smash accusation while he was watching the replay.

I can understand wanting to yellow the forearm just for being twatty.

It irritates me that he never gets called out on this though. He did a terrible kick under no pressure, lost his cool, did something stupid and should have got a a yellow for it. Yet apparently that's just a sign of him being a competitor.

[kk67]

You always wonder how seriously the French team's take Europe. I can categorically state that La Rochelle are taking it very seriously.......Ryan Lamb starts at 10.

Good call. 'One of England's best imps...' said the Observer.