RugbyRebels

Exeter: 15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Alex Cuthbert, 13 Henry Slade, 12 Ollie Devoto, 11 Tom O’Flaherty, 10 Joe Simmonds (c), 9 Jack Maunder, 8 Sam Simmonds, 7 Jannes Kirsten, 6 Dave Ewers, 5 Jonny Hill, 4 Sam Skinner, 3 Harry Williams, 2 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 1 Alec Hepburn
Replacements: 16 Jack Yeandle, 17 Ben Moon, 18 Marcus Street, 19 Sean Lonsdale, 20 Richard Capstick, 21 Stu Townsend, 22 Harvey Skinner, 23 Ian Whitten

Sale: 15 Simon Hammersley, 14 Byron McGuigan, 13 Sam James, 12 Manu Tuilagi, 11 Arron Reed, 10 AJ MacGinty, 9 Faf de Klerk, 8 Daniel du Preez, 7 Tom Curry (c) 6 Cameron Neild, 5 Jean-Luc du Preez, 4 Cobus Wiese, 3 Coenie Oosthuizen, 2 Akker van der Merwe, 1 Ross Harrison
Replacements: 16 Curtis Langdon, 17 Bevan Rodd, 18 Will-Griff John, 19 James Phillips, 20 Ben Curry, 21 Will Cliff, 22 Robert du Preez, 23 Rohan Janse van Rensburg

So both sides taking this playoff rehearsal very seriously.

Surprised at that. i thought there would be some rotation but this is going to be full on.

Was fully expecting Sanderson to take a decent chunk of that side out if the firing line.

Seems like slightly foolhardy behaviour. Especially for Sale where you'd think first 15 and best subs are the only chance of winning the play off game, regardless of where its played, and the chances of a 5pt win to bring it home are remote.

Interesting second row choices from sale. Does JL du Perez often play there?

Magic_sponge wrote:Interesting second row choices from sale. Does JL du Perez often play there?

Yes

Magic_sponge wrote:Interesting second row choices from sale. Does JL du Perez often play there?

Eh? He’s spent the majority of his time at Sale playing at lock.

Oh really! I'm sure I've only ever seen him play flanker, but I haven't seen that much to be fair. In that case, not such an interesting selection...

16th man wrote:Was fully expecting Sanderson to take a decent chunk of that side out if the firing line.

Seems like slightly foolhardy behaviour. Especially for Sale where you'd think first 15 and best subs are the only chance of winning the play off game, regardless of where its played, and the chances of a 5pt win to bring it home are remote.

Sale currently 3 tries to the good...

Puja

Puja wrote:

16th man wrote:Was fully expecting Sanderson to take a decent chunk of that side out if the firing line.

Seems like slightly foolhardy behaviour. Especially for Sale where you'd think first 15 and best subs are the only chance of winning the play off game, regardless of where its played, and the chances of a 5pt win to bring it home are remote.

Sale currently 3 tries to the good...

Puja

Absolutely blowing them off the pitch at this point.

Ref pinging Exeter at the breakdown and they look confused by it

Sale taken their eye off the ball a bit since the red

4 pens before the red not getting a warning for Exeter.

3rd would have done it for Sale apparently. Shows why getting this back up to Salford is so important.

As an aside I’m liking the way Curry as captain is communicating with the ref. Much better than the petulant one for England.

Yeah Dickson trying to even it up now.

What ref?

The irony of the sealing off pen going against Sale.

Red card has absolutely thrown Sale's concentration.

Since the red card Dickson has basically gone looking for any way to even it up.

Clash of knees has hurt Macginty.

Sale's chances have disappeared over the last 20 minutes of poor concentration since the red card.

The Warthog lost in the first half too.

Tbf I thought Exe got some bad calls from Dickson too.

The game itself only came to life in the last 20 minutes. Sale were completely on top for 60 and bossed the game. They lost the plot a bit, but credit Exe for showing the resilience and coming back to get a very unlikely win. Injury to McGinty is bound to have an impact next week.

I've heard that the citing officer has upgraded Ewers card to a red - will see if I can find a link...

Not a surprise. I thought Ewers lucky and that a red should have been issued at the time.

The injuries and bans make this very interesting ...

Anyone know the situation with Vermeulen? If he and Kirsten are injured and Ewers and Skinner are banned, that dramatically changes Exeter’s back row and will surely limit the effectiveness of their usual gameplan.

MacGinty will be a huge loss for Sale, but Rob du Preez is a capable 10 and if Akker is out, the drop off to Langdon isn’t that big (I’d argue it actually improves their set piece).

Scrumhead wrote:The injuries and bans make this very interesting ...

Anyone know the situation with Vermeulen? If he and Kirsten are injured and Ewers and Skinner are banned, that dramatically changes Exeter’s back row and will surely limit the effectiveness of their usual gameplan.

MacGinty will be a huge loss for Sale, but Rob du Preez is a capable 10 and if Akker is out, the drop off to Langdon isn’t that big (I’d argue it actually improves their set piece).

From a relatively reliable source Vermuelen isnt good at all.

Can't find a link to support it so I'd assume the Ewers Red is a load of rubbish.

I thought it was confirmed TBH.

If Ewers, Vermeulen, Kirsten and Skinner are all out, that’s a hefty blow to Chiefs.

And no Jonny Gray, presumably meaning Lonsdale is in to the second row?