Bristol vs Saracens, Friday 19.45

[jimKRFC]

First match thread of the season! The match day officals have been announced:

Referee: Wayne Barnes (242nd Premiership game).

Assistant Referees: Paul Dix and Jamie Leahy.

TMO: Tom Foley.

Citing Officer: Paul Hull.

Bristol have a few players out: Semi, Sinkler (both in rest periods), Naulago (broken arm), Byrne (op recovery), Joyce and Purdy

Sarries missing a few as well: Daley, Farrell, Itoji, Mako Vunipola, and Jamie George.

[Puja]

Keener!

Looking forward to having some rugby back on again too - I've missed it. Saracens will also be missing Van Zyl after his pre-season red card. Be interested to see how BillyV goes - he'll be under pressure to be a leader in a depleted Sarries side and also to respond to challengers for his England shirt.

Puja

[fivepointer]

Big couple of months for BillyV. Saracens will be depleted for the opening games and will need him to step up.

Really interesting match first up.

[Timbo]

I read that Sarries will also be missing Goode, Malins and Maitland.

I’m thinking this might be a reasonably comfortable win for Bris.

[jimKRFC]

Keener!

Well that's an insult that takes me back about 40 years!!

I read that Sarries will also be missing Goode, Malins and Maitland.

I hope that's true!

[jimKRFC]

Bristol side:
15. Charles Piutau; 14. Luke Morahan, 13. Piers O’Conor, 12. Alapati Leiua, 11. Ioan Lloyd; 10. Callum Sheedy, 9. Andy Uren; 1. Jake Woolmore, 2. Harry Thacker, 3. Max Lahiff, 4. Ed Holmes, 5. Chris Vui, 6. Steven Luatua (c), 7. Dan Thomas, 8. Nathan Hughes.

Subs: 16. Will Capon, 17. Yann Thomas, 18. Jake Armstrong, 19. Dave Attwood, 20. Jake Heenan, 21. Harry Randall, 22. Sam Bedlow, 23. Niyi Adeolokun.

Unavailable: Bryan Byrne, John Afoa, Kyle Sinckler, Joe Joyce, Tom Whiteley, Tiff Eden, Semi Radradra, Henry Purdy, Siva Naulago.

Sarries:
Saracens Men team to play Bristol Bears:
1 Ralph Adams-Hale, 2 Tom Woolstencroft, 3 Marco Riccioni, 4 Nick Isiekwe, 5 Tim Swinson, 6 Jackson Wray (c), 7 Ben Earl, 8 Billy Vunipola
9 Aled Davies, 10 Alex Lozowski, 11 Rotimi Segun, 12 Nick Tompkins, 13 Dom Morris, 14 Alex Lewington, 15 Elliott Obatoyinbo

Replacements:
16 Kapeli Pifeleti, 17 Richard Barrington, 18 Alec Clarey, 19 Callum Hunter-Hill, 20 Sean Reffell, 21 Joe Simpson, 22 Manu Vunipola, 23 Ben Harris

Not sure what to make of that side. Without Afoa and Sinckler we already look weak at prop!
Don't recognise a lot of Sarries names so assume it's as weak a team as we're going to see from them.

[Puja]

Lahiff is more of a "can play tighthead" than an actual 3, but Saracens have not got a vintage pack there to take advantage.

It's not a strong Sarries side at all and I'd say it's a real opportunity for you to hand out a decent cuffing to them. This is the difference the salary cap made - Saracens may have kept their big names and be able to field a formidable first XV, but previously they could have whipped out the likes of Tolofua, Kruis, Liam Williams, Tompkins, etc to stiffen that 2nd string. It is Saracens, so the team spirit and "something special" may see them through, but they feel like they're there for the taking.

Interesting to see Lozowski's at 10. I had been assuming Vunipola III would be there with Loz at 13.

Puja

[fivepointer]

Bristol should fancy their chances based on the line ups.

I think Ashton Gate is going to be very near to capacity so they wont lack for support.

[Mikey Brown]

I think Lozowski played mostly 10 in France and was certainly kicking goals, so I’m interested if he’s reverted back to being a full time flyhalf? He must have played every other backs position for them previously.

[TheNomad]

Where's Malins?

[jimKRFC]

Where's Malins?

Injured I think.

[Scrumhead]

I think Malins is recovering from a shoulder op (injury he got against USA).

Good to see Isiekwe at lock. Hopefully he stays there and is the obvious answer to the question of who partners Itoje.

[Puja]

Good to see Isiekwe at lock. Hopefully he stays there and is the obvious answer to the question of who partners Itoje.

Good point. For all the talk about BillyV having an opportunity to step up and lead while the core team are away, this is Isiekwe's time to lay a marker down.

Anyone know where Kpoku is? He was the next big thing a while back.

Puja

[FKAS]

I think Lozowski played mostly 10 in France and was certainly kicking goals, so I’m interested if he’s reverted back to being a full time flyhalf? He must have played every other backs position for them previously.

I think they wanted Lozowski in the side but with a lack of available flyhalfs he could do the job there and that would allow the physical Dom Morris to slot in at 13 and try to do the defensive role and try to stop Bristol getting to the wife channels. I think he'll play 13 when Farrell is back unless there's an adjustment to the game plan for a specific opposition. Goode or Malins would have both been options at 10 as well though given the side named one of those would have more likely gone to 15.

It's a very depleted Sarries team, Bristol will be well up for this.

[twitchy]

Good to have rugby back.

[Puja]

Underwhelming game so far. Lots of very unambitious kicking, combined with some very wooden handling and iffy basic skills. Last few minutes has shown a slight chance that a game of rugby might break out - hopefully more will be forthcoming. Stat just come up in the commentary - 44 kicks in 34 minutes.

Billy V's not covered himself in glory - two silly penalties and hasn't broken the gainline once, although one nice tackle. Not making a case for the England shirt.

Puja

[Puja]

The last 6 minutes were also kicking. It would indeed be good to have rugby back, if there had been more of it than one Charles Piutau break. And, let's be honest, the only reason that break happened is because he wanted to kick but the defence came up too quickly and he had no other choice but to run with it.

Both DoRs need a long hard look at themselves at half-time - Lam more than McCall, because kicking every bit of ball away is why a limited and understrength Saracens are level with a very good Bristol side at half time.

Puja

[Adam_P]

That was a dull game. So many handling errors from Bristol

[Scrumhead]

A real steaming turd of a game and not just because Saracens won …

Very few bits of quality in 80mins save for the Piutau and Thacker breaks and Lozowski’s grubber.

[Puja]

Utterly dire. I don't blame Saracens - they played with what was available to them - but Bristol are capable of so much more. It's like they looked at how the Lions attacked South Africa and learned every single wrong lesson from it.

Gods, I hope the match tomorrow is better. I was really looking forward to the return of the Premiership and that game has utterly dulled my keenness. My (6 and 8 year old) daughters wanted to sit and watch some of the game with me before bed, but I ended up sending them to bed after 10 minutes because I didn't want them forever turned off the game. Plus, I couldn't bear them asking, "Why are they just kicking it? I thought this was rugby, not football!" over and over.

Puja

[Adam_P]

Indeed - the kick fest was awful, and they couldn't even muster a single example of the 50 22 for all those kicks either

[TheNomad]

Didn’t enjoy that on any level

[fivepointer]

Jeez that was poor. An utterly forgettable opening game. Saracens will be pleased to get the win and, in fairness, they were easily the better side. Bristol looked ponderous, struggled in the scrums, kicked far too much and were short of ideas. Not playing any warm ups cannot have helped.

[Beasties]

Decided not to bother watching this thankfully. I did watch the law change explanations at the start though.

Wow, was I out of the loop. Pre-latching to be partially banned? I didn't realise it was ever officially allowed, just assumed it was one of those laws that nobody's been bothered to enforce for ages.

[jimKRFC]

See the result & was trying to decide whether or not to watch it. Reading the comments I'll give it a miss.

Sounds the concerns a lot of people have had for a while, about the props, and lack of a plan b bit us on the ass here.

I think top 6 is where we'll finish up.