London Irish v Exeter Tuesday

[fivepointer]

London Irish: Parton; Loader, Rona, Cokanasiga, Hassell-Collins; Jackson, Phipps; Goodrick-Clarke, Creevy, Chawatama, Munga, Simmons, Rogerson (capt), Donnell, Tuisue

Replacements: Cornish, Gigena, Hoskins, Nott, O'Brien, Groom, Atkins, Stokes

Exeter: Hogg; Cuthbert, Slade, Devoto, O'Flaherty; J Simmonds (capt), Maunder; Moon, Cowan-Dickie, Williams, Kirsten, Lonsdale, Ewers, Vermeulen, S Simmonds

Replacements: Yeandle, Hepburn, Francis, Price, Capstick, Townsend, Skinner, Whitten

[Puja]

Not the heaviest second row pairing ever by Exeter - outweighed by both flankers! There's an awful lot of rotation in general there and I think Irish are too dangerous to take lightly.

Interested to see some of the young English talents for Irish go. I've been a PCokanasiga fan for a while (and would 100% pick him for the England A match), but there's also Parton, Loader, Hassell-Collins, and Munga who'll be looking to catch Eddie's eye if he's among the crowd.

Puja

[switchskier]

Whatever happened to Will Witty? Is he injured? I thought that Exeter would have been a good move for him but I can't remember the last time he featured

[fivepointer]

Whatever happened to Will Witty? Is he injured? I thought that Exeter would have been a good move for him but I can't remember the last time he featured

I think he's fit. He did come off the bench last week. I thought he'd go well at Exe but it just hasnt happened for him.

[Oakboy]

Whatever happened to Will Witty? Is he injured? I thought that Exeter would have been a good move for him but I can't remember the last time he featured

I think he's fit. He did come off the bench last week. I thought he'd go well at Exe but it just hasnt happened for him.

It looks as though he's apologetic for being several levels below Hill and Gray. Other options like Armand just get stuck in knowing what the team requirement is. Witty seems a bit lost.

[Scrumhead]

Whatever happened to Will Witty? Is he injured? I thought that Exeter would have been a good move for him but I can't remember the last time he featured

I think he's fit. He did come off the bench last week. I thought he'd go well at Exe but it just hasnt happened for him.

Yeah. Same here.

3 or 4 years ago, Witty looked like he was going to be a very good player. Now he’s just an also ran.

[Oakboy]

Simmonds hat-trick!

[Puja]

Fun first half for the neutral, absolutely dire second. Simmonds was the highlight - took his hat trick well and was strong in every aspect. Hogg was the comedy highlight and Gatland will be hoping that he was using up all his blooper reel for the next 6 months in one go.

O'Flaherty and Loader pressed their cases for the summer (their one cock-up each notwithstanding). PCokanasiga was weird to watch - so much talent and skill, but his positioning and understanding of where to be on the pitch was shocking. Lost count of the number of rucks he inspected by getting somewhere just too late to actually do anything and he was barely involved in attack. Oddly reminiscent of watching [Redacted] play - when he happened to get onto the ball or into the play, he was dangerous, but otherwise spent the match looking slightly lost and half a second behind his teammates. Hopefully a symptom of not having had much rugby this year rather than a malaise in his development.

Puja

[Magic_sponge]

I actually managed to get to the game tonight, which was absolutely fantastic to be able to do again.

Had to settle for seats right behind the posts though, so interesting to see how differently the game is viewed in person Vs on TV. From where I was sitting, hassel-collins had a better game and looked more promising than Loader.

As a complete aside, i feel they need to look at how they use the TMO now I've experienced it at the stadium (my team is division 1, not much experience of TMO there!). I actually don't mind its use when watching on TV as you see and hear the rationale and the whole conversation. Live, it was an absolute killer. I have no idea how they'd fix it, but the difference was jarring to me. Thinking back to the Bristol Gloucester game and the amount of reviews, it must have been awful in the stadium. But like I said, I offer no solutions!

[Puja]

Did they have the reflink as an option there? I've got no idea whether that's a thing outside of internationals.

Puja

[fivepointer]

Simmonds was terrific. His all round game was highly impressive. Good contributions from a few others added up to a pretty routine win for Exe. Irish are in a bit of a slump and seem to have lost their attacking verve.
Cokanasiga looked fine on the ball. He carried effectively but i didnt see him make a pass. Still finding his feet perhaps.
The use of the TMO is getting a bit out of hand, but its difficult to know how to curb its use if you want to make sure that every key decision is examined from multiple angles to ensure the right call is made. There's a trade off: get more accurate decisions but lose some of the game's spontaneity.

[p/d]

TMO is a massive turn off. If it is employed for player welfare fair enough. Doesn’t outweigh the tedium of the whole thing but in modern sport it is now a given

As for on field run off the mill decisions it can eff off. The 3 officials have got to take back the responsibility and ‘we’ have to accept good and bad calls

[FKAS]

TMO is a massive turn off. If it is employed for player welfare fair enough. Doesn’t outweigh the tedium of the whole thing but in modern sport it is now a given

As for on field run off the mill decisions it can eff off. The 3 officials have got to take back the responsibility and ‘we’ have to accept good and bad calls

I think the TMO should only be allowed to interrupt the ref for serious foul play or in try scoring situations. The ref can request confirmation but the TMO can't just chime in whenever they feel like for run of the mill things. It's nearly always inconsistent when they do that and incredibly frustrating, particularly if it's your side that gets pulled back for a basic penalty the ref was happy to let go. If we could do away with the ref asking the old "is there anything further" which is so the TMO can effectively override the infield decision post replay that would be nice as well. The Tigers game at the weekend was reffed by committee more than it was Pearce, I'd prefer a ref and then assistants basis personally but maybe I'm old fashioned.

[Peej]

I always thought the TMO had to be asked specifically? I wouldn't want to get into a situation where all tries are automatically reviewed (not that you're suggesting that, but it's easy to see how we could end up there)

[FKAS]

I always thought the TMO had to be asked specifically? I wouldn't want to get into a situation where all tries are automatically reviewed (not that you're suggesting that, but it's easy to see how we could end up there)

We're at that point already. I've noticed a few refs tell captains, "it's being reviewed in the background". This is without them communicating anything to the TMO.

[Puja]

I actually managed to get to the game tonight, which was absolutely fantastic to be able to do again.

Had to settle for seats right behind the posts though, so interesting to see how differently the game is viewed in person Vs on TV. From where I was sitting, hassel-collins had a better game and looked more promising than Loader.

Was thinking about this. I guess the reason I rate Loader higher than Hassell-Collins is that I feel the latter appears to need space in which to move to be effective, which he might not get at the higher level. Loader is very busy and makes impacts even when he's not provided much by the rest of his backline - he strikes me as an uninjured Jack Nowell with a bit more gas.

I'll defer to anyone who's seen more of them than me, as I don't get to see very much of Irish.

I always thought the TMO had to be asked specifically? I wouldn't want to get into a situation where all tries are automatically reviewed (not that you're suggesting that, but it's easy to see how we could end up there)

We're at that point already. I've noticed a few refs tell captains, "it's being reviewed in the background". This is without them communicating anything to the TMO.

I'd just always assumed that was ref-slang for, "I don't care, leave me alone, stop whining at me." See also, "It's already been checked and there's nothing there," for things that the TMO blatantly hasn't looked at yet.

Puja

[Mikey Brown]

Hogg was the comedy highlight and Gatland will be hoping that he was using up all his blooper reel for the next 6 months in one go.

Puja

Oh dear. What was it this week? Desperation to prove he can pull a try out of his arse from absolutely anywhere? Thinking he has all the time in the world to make a clearing kick or dot the ball down?

Can I even bring myself to watch?

[Puja]

Hogg was the comedy highlight and Gatland will be hoping that he was using up all his blooper reel for the next 6 months in one go.

Puja

Oh dear. What was it this week? Desperation to prove he can pull a try out of his arse from absolutely anywhere? Thinking he has all the time in the world to make a clearing kick or dot the ball down?

Can I even bring myself to watch?

Thinking he had all the time in the world to make a clearing kick and getting tackled from behind mid-kick so that he ended up swinging at air. Plus assorted knock-ons, passes to touch/nobody in particular.

Not his best game all things told.

Puja

[fivepointer]

Think you get a wide range from Hogg when he plays for Exeter. Moments of undoubted class mixed in with some inexplicable sloppy errors.

[stevedog1980]

TMO is a massive turn off. If it is employed for player welfare fair enough. Doesn’t outweigh the tedium of the whole thing but in modern sport it is now a given

As for on field run off the mill decisions it can eff off. The 3 officials have got to take back the responsibility and ‘we’ have to accept good and bad calls

I think the TMO is essentially a real-time citing officer and, as you say, should only be bringing up points that would result in disciplinary action that have been missed by the referee. Other than that, if the referee hasn't asked for something specific they shouldn't be chiming in with knock on advice from 4 phases back and the like

[Oakboy]

TMO is a massive turn off. If it is employed for player welfare fair enough. Doesn’t outweigh the tedium of the whole thing but in modern sport it is now a given

As for on field run off the mill decisions it can eff off. The 3 officials have got to take back the responsibility and ‘we’ have to accept good and bad calls

I think the TMO is essentially a real-time citing officer and, as you say, should only be bringing up points that would result in disciplinary action that have been missed by the referee. Other than that, if the referee hasn't asked for something specific they shouldn't be chiming in with knock on advice from 4 phases back and the like

Are there rules/guidelines from the Premiership/RFU or does each ref determine the system he requires?

[stevedog1980]

TMO is a massive turn off. If it is employed for player welfare fair enough. Doesn’t outweigh the tedium of the whole thing but in modern sport it is now a given

As for on field run off the mill decisions it can eff off. The 3 officials have got to take back the responsibility and ‘we’ have to accept good and bad calls

I think the TMO is essentially a real-time citing officer and, as you say, should only be bringing up points that would result in disciplinary action that have been missed by the referee. Other than that, if the referee hasn't asked for something specific they shouldn't be chiming in with knock on advice from 4 phases back and the like

Are there rules/guidelines from the Premiership/RFU or does each ref determine the system he requires?

I've got to be honest and say that I really don't know. Some of it seems to come from the level of seniority of the TMO / referee and their prior officiating relationships

[Spiffy]

Think you get a wide range from Hogg when he plays for Exeter. Moments of undoubted class mixed in with some inexplicable sloppy errors.

Such is Hogg's reputation (I think deserved) that he is expected to play brilliantly every time he takes the field. That's a bit hard on him. Like every other rugby player he will make mistakes. He makes less than many others but also produces moments of match-winning brilliance. Despite his errors, he is still probably the best all-round FB in Europe and an outstanding rugby player who obviously has an out-and-out attacking approach to the game. Safety-first is not his thing - that is why he is the player he is. Unfortunately he will get pilloried by those looking for the slightest error at every opportunity while some dull performers who are mediocre at best (e.g. Farrell) keep getting kudos for doing nothing.

[Danno]

Think you get a wide range from Hogg when he plays for Exeter. Moments of undoubted class mixed in with some inexplicable sloppy errors.

Such is Hogg's reputation (I think deserved) that he is expected to play brilliantly every time he takes the field. That's a bit hard on him. Like every other rugby player he will make mistakes. He makes less than many others but also produces moments of match-winning brilliance. Despite his errors, he is still probably the best all-round FB in Europe and an outstanding rugby player who obviously has an out-and-out attacking approach to the game. Safety-first is not his thing - that is why he is the player he is. Unfortunately he will get pilloried by those looking for the slightest error at every opportunity while some dull performers who are mediocre at best (e.g. Farrell) keep getting kudos for doing nothing.

Just like Daly!

(/s)

[Puja]

Think you get a wide range from Hogg when he plays for Exeter. Moments of undoubted class mixed in with some inexplicable sloppy errors.

Such is Hogg's reputation (I think deserved) that he is expected to play brilliantly every time he takes the field. That's a bit hard on him. Like every other rugby player he will make mistakes. He makes less than many others but also produces moments of match-winning brilliance. Despite his errors, he is still probably the best all-round FB in Europe and an outstanding rugby player who obviously has an out-and-out attacking approach to the game. Safety-first is not his thing - that is why he is the player he is. Unfortunately he will get pilloried by those looking for the slightest error at every opportunity while some dull performers who are mediocre at best (e.g. Farrell) keep getting kudos for doing nothing.

I think that's a little generous - he does make regular significant mistakes, which look even worse because they're contrasted with the excellence of the rest of his play.

Puja