RugbyRebels

Bristol Bears team to face Harlequins at the Twickenham Stoop on Friday, September 20th (7.45pm KO):

15. Mat Protheroe; 14. Tom Pincus, 13. Sam Bedlow, 12. Tiff Eden, 11. Toby Fricker; 10. Ian Madigan, 9. Harry Randall; 1. Yann Thomas, 2. Shaun Malton, 3. Max Lahiff, 4. Aly Muldowney, 5. Ed Holmes, 6. James Dun, 7. Jake Heenan (c), 8. Joe Batley.
Replacements: 16. Will Capon, 17. Ollie Dawe, 18. Nicky Thomas, 19. John Hawkins, 20. George Kloska, 21. Nic Stirzaker, 22. Harry Ascherl, 23. Jack Bates.

Good mix of experience and youth, very glad to see Ollie Dawe, but some out of position players in there (Batley - 8, Kloska - back row).

Harlequins Starting XV:
1 Nick Auterac (11 App.)
2 Max Crumpton (18 App) CAPTAIN
3 Phil Swainston (23 App.)
4 Glen Young (Debut)
5 Dino Lamb (16 App.)
6 Tom Lawday (Debut)
7 Will Evans (Debut)
8 James Chisholm (73 App.)
9 Niall Saunders (7 App.)
10 Brett Herron (Debut)
11 Gabriel Ibitoye (19 App.)
12 Ben Tapuai (22 App.)
13 Joe Marchant (80 App.)
14 Ross Chisholm (103 App.)
15 Aaron Morris (30 App.)

Game Changers:
16 Jack Musk (0 App.)
17 Santiago Garcia Botta (0 App.)
18 Simon Kerrod (0 App.)
19 Toby Freeman (0 App.)
20 Jack Clifford (98 App.)
21 Charlie Mulchrone (37 App.)
22 Francis Saili (24 App.)
23 Louis Lynagh (0 App.)

As expected, both sides featuring plenty of young/fringe players.
The Quins back row looks interesting. Will Evans is someone to keep an eye on this season.

Are any of these games on television, or have they decided it's a waste of time with the RWC going on?

Puja

This one is and Exeter v Bath on Saturday is too.

So good to see Herron get a chance at the top(ish) level. Horrible knee injury really decimated his late age grade career. Very talented fly half!

I actually forgot the prem was back with all the WC excitement.

twitchy wrote:I actually forgot the prem was back with all the WC excitement.

It's not real Prem - it's just the Mickey Mouse cup

Puja

Puja wrote:

twitchy wrote:I actually forgot the prem was back with all the WC excitement.

It's not real Prem - it's just the Mickey Mouse cup

Puja

Or a chance for fringe players and recent academy graduates to get game time and stake a claim.

Epaminondas Pules wrote:

Puja wrote:

twitchy wrote:I actually forgot the prem was back with all the WC excitement.

It's not real Prem - it's just the Mickey Mouse cup

Puja

Or a chance for fringe players and recent academy graduates to get game time and stake a claim.

True and I do enjoy it for that, but I'm getting slightly irked that I've seen it advertised several places as, "The Premiership's back!" which it definitively is not.

Puja

Fair dos! That would annoy me too!

Awful body position from Protheroe over the ruck, especially as a little guy.

Quins forwards are taking a knee when extending the ruck for the box kick. A clever opponent and a sympathetic ref could lead to some interesting "balls out" calls.

Raggs wrote:Quins forwards are taking a knee when extending the ruck for the box kick. A clever opponent and a sympathetic ref could lead to some interesting "balls out" calls.

Called it.

Dunno who the woman commentator is but she is getting annoying filling in every gap of silence. It’s the only time I have ever felt sorry for Austin Healy. Poor lad can’t get a word in edgeways.

Shiny wrote:Dunno who the woman commentator is but she is getting annoying filling in every gap of silence. It’s the only time I have ever felt sorry for Austin Healy. Poor lad can’t get a word in edgeways.

Filtering her out a bit, there again, she's the commentator, Austin is the colour, so she's supposed to be talking a lot.

Raggs wrote:

Shiny wrote:Dunno who the woman commentator is but she is getting annoying filling in every gap of silence. It’s the only time I have ever felt sorry for Austin Healy. Poor lad can’t get a word in edgeways.

Filtering her out a bit, there again, she's the commentator, Austin is the colour, so she's supposed to be talking a lot.

Suppose so and she seems to know her stuff. She could take a breath though.

That's harsh. Ball was out, and player had the ball in hand.

Raggs wrote:That's harsh. Ball was out, and player had the ball in hand.

Very harsh.

Ibitoye is a bit rapid isn’t he?