RugbyRebels

Bristol Bears team to face Saracens at Ashton Gate on Saturday, August 15th (4.30pm KO):

15. Charles Piutau; 14. Luke Morahan, 13. Semi Radradra, 12. Siale Piutau, 11. Henry Purdy; 10. Callum Sheedy; 9. Harry Randall; 1. Jake Woolmore, 2. Bryan Byrne, 3. John Afoa, 4. Dave Attwood, 5. Chris Vui, 6. Steven Luatua (c), 7. Dan Thomas, 8. Nathan Hughes.

System players: 16. Harry Thacker, 17. Max Lahiff, 18. Kyle Sinckler, 19. Ed Holmes, 20. Ben Earl, 21. Andy Uren, 22. Ioan Lloyd, 23. Alapati Leiua.



Saracens team to take on Bristol Bears at Ashton Gate:

15 Sean Maitland (73)
14 Alex Lewington (47)
13 Dom Morris (18)
12 Juan Pablo Socino (0)
11 Rotimi Segun (30)
10 Alex Goode (297)
9 Richard Wigglesworth (246)
1 Mako Vunipola (168)
2 Jamie George (226)
3 Vincent Koch (81)
4 Maro Itoje (119)
5 Callum Hunter-Hill (15)
6 Mike Rhodes (93)
7 Jackson Wray (245)
8 Billy Vunipola (110)

Replacements

16 Tom Woolstencroft (34)
17 Eroni Mawi (0)
18 Alec Clarey (0)
19 Joel Kpoku (30)
20 Sean Reffell (19)
21 Aled Davies (0)
22 Harry Sloan (0)
23 Elliott Obatoyinbo (10)

System players Bristol? Really?

Puja

Is this Dom Morris’ first Prem start? If so, imagine doing that against Radradra!

Stupid name for replacements I agree.

Real lack of flyhalf options for Sarries. If Goode has to go off will it be Whitely or Socino that goes in to play 10?

Think it might be a first start for Morris. Wish him well but he's got his hands full.
The starting XV's look relatively well matched but the Bristol bench looks far stronger. Fascinating to see how Earl gets on.

Sarries seem to have taken a real liking to Hunter-Hill. He’s getting a lot of game time I’d prefer to see going to Kpoku.

"system players" does sound stupid...

The Twitter account not coming over great there imho

It does feel like a bollocks term. Finishers and game changers are a bit try hard but it's not using a different phrase just to use a different phrase.

System players sounds nearer to bin juice than bench.

Tale of 2 penalty tries. Bristol get one and Saracens dont despite Lahiff being binned for collapsing a forward moving maul about 2 meters from the tryline.
I dunno.....
Despite their absentees, Saracens are likely to upset one or two high flying sides this season if they show this level of cussedness.

Would be interesting if the ref would make the same calls if Sarries wasn't already relegated

Well of course that game ends with a tight-head prop doing a leaping volley.

fivepointer wrote:Tale of 2 penalty tries. Bristol get one and Saracens dont despite Lahiff being binned for collapsing a forward moving maul about 2 meters from the tryline.
I dunno.....
Despite their absentees, Saracens are likely to upset one or two high flying sides this season if they show this level of cussedness.

Frankly, I think it's justice. Hunter-Hill was blatantly offside in setting up that Saracens maul - he lifted Itoje and then swivelled round to block Bristol from driving into him as he landed. Absolutely blatant and it'd've been a travesty if it'd led to a Saracens try.

Puja

Didn't see (or follow) the game as I'm in a valley near Mevagissy with no signal bit always happy to beat the current cheats champs!

Just seen the Morahan clip, think he was a bit unlucky to have that disallowed. No way was Itoje going to get him.

Puja wrote:

fivepointer wrote:Tale of 2 penalty tries. Bristol get one and Saracens dont despite Lahiff being binned for collapsing a forward moving maul about 2 meters from the tryline.
I dunno.....
Despite their absentees, Saracens are likely to upset one or two high flying sides this season if they show this level of cussedness.

Frankly, I think it's justice. Hunter-Hill was blatantly offside in setting up that Saracens maul - he lifted Itoje and then swivelled round to block Bristol from driving into him as he landed. Absolutely blatant and it'd've been a travesty if it'd led to a Saracens try.

Puja

Agreed. Also George’s intervention directly prevented Siale Piutau from scoring. Bristol were guilty of a string of offences that were definitely worthy of the yellow but not a penalty try IMO.

I do agree that Saracens will have a big say in the title race. They’ll definitely take points off a lot of the contenders.

jimKRFC wrote:Just seen the Morahan clip, think he was a bit unlucky to have that disallowed. No way was Itoje going to get him.

Fully agree. Even with his Go Go Gadget arms Itoje isn't getting to him

I was sort of hoping there was an in joke within the Prem League that the Sarries squad was formerly known as the System Players when they were accidentally 70% over the wage cap

Peej wrote:

jimKRFC wrote:Just seen the Morahan clip, think he was a bit unlucky to have that disallowed. No way was Itoje going to get him.

Fully agree. Even with his Go Go Gadget arms Itoje isn't getting to him

I thought it wasn't especially material, but also why give the ref a chance to ping you when there's no gain and only risk?

Puja wrote:System players Bristol? Really?

Puja

As a Quins fan I approve of this, solely so we don't have the silliest term anymore