Sale vs Bath

[Which Tyler]

AJBell; 5.00pm Saturday
Ref: Christophe Ridley (42nd Premiership game).
TJs: Hamish Smales and Wayne Falla.
TMO: Jack Makepeace.


Sale:
1. Bevan Rodd
2. Akker Van der Merwe
3. Nick Schonert
4. Cobus Wiese
5. JP du Preez
6. Cameron Nield
7. Ben Curry
8. Jono Ross ©

09. Raffi Quirke
10. Rob du Preez
11. Marland Yarde
12. Manu Tuilagi
13. Sam James
14. Byron McGuigan
15. Simon Hammersley

16 Tommy Taylor, 17 Ross Harrison, 18 Cal Ford, 19 Rouban Birch, 20 Sam Dugdale
21 Will Cliff, 22 Kieran Wilkinson, 23 Rohan Janse van Rensburg


Bath:
1. Obano*
2. Dunn*
3. Jonker
4. Williams
5. Ewels* (c)
6. Reid*
7. Underhill
8. Bayliss*

09. Spencer
10. Cipriani
11. Muir(*)
12. Ojomo*
13. Joseph
14. Rokoduguni(*)
15. De Glanville*

16. Du Toit, 17. Schoemann, 18. Rae, 19. Ellis*, 20. Coetzee
21. Fox*, 22. Bailey*, 23. Clark*


ETA: As I see GK did this for Glos, and it's quite interesting
* denotes Bath academy products (even though Obano and Fox started off in other people's academies, they still spent a couple of years in ours before being considered for selection on merit)
(*) denotes first senior professional XVs contract for Bath


Out of interest, when I compare the starting XV to our pecking order, I make it a 1.6th choice starting XV:
9 first choice starters
3 second choice starters
3 third choice starters

[Gloskarlos]

Be interested to see how Cips goes, and how much of an influence on Bath's back play he is/will have.
Ross is always good for a yellow, think Bath might sneak this one.

[fivepointer]

Not sure who will win this but it has a lot of possibilities. Can Cips get the best out of those around him? Going to be very interesting to find out.
Hope Wilkinson gets a decent run from the bench for Sale. No Harper but another young TH Ford gets named as a sub.

[Which Tyler]

Be interested to see how Cips goes, and how much of an influence on Bath's back play he is/will have.
Ross is always good for a yellow, think Bath might sneak this one.

Lots of good noises coming from the club, about both Cip.s and Dave Williams (new attack coach, who actually seems to have a voice).
If Spencer and Cips can create a good partnership, then we might suddenly, and rather unexpectedly, have the best halfback partnership in the Prem.

It sounds like we're going for a more expansive, offloading game plan this year - which I hope to god is right; but it's a big change (from virtually no idea of what to do with the ball) so I'm not expecting us to be firing on all cylinders this season. Hopefully it'll build the blocks for next (hopefully with Cips being happy and playing well, and playing a 2nd season with us)

I'd be more confident with Coetzee starting at 8 - not that Bayliss is a bad player, just not a specialist there.
50% academy products for Bath a year ahead of the famous and much maligned plan (general squad, tomorrow it's 7 from 15 and 11 from 23, so as near as dammit.

[Peej]

Think Sale might edge this

[Which Tyler]

Think Sale might edge this

I'm going for home wins across the board this week.

[Stom]

Be interested to see how Cips goes, and how much of an influence on Bath's back play he is/will have.
Ross is always good for a yellow, think Bath might sneak this one.

Lots of good noises coming from the club, about both Cip.s and Dave Williams (new attack coach, who actually seems to have a voice).
If Spencer and Cips can create a good partnership, then we might suddenly, and rather unexpectedly, have the best halfback partnership in the Prem.

It sounds like we're going for a more expansive, offloading game plan this year - which I hope to god is right; but it's a big change (from virtually no idea of what to do with the ball) so I'm not expecting us to be firing on all cylinders this season. Hopefully it'll build the blocks for next (hopefully with Cips being happy and playing well, and playing a 2nd season with us)

I'd be more confident with Coetzee starting at 8 - not that Bayliss is a bad player, just not a specialist there.
50% academy products for Bath a year ahead of the famous and much maligned plan (general squad, tomorrow it's 7 from 15 and 11 from 23, so as near as dammit.

I think Quins will have something to say about that...

[Which Tyler]

And Leicester.
Let's call it "one of... the best halfback pairings in the prem"

[Beasties]

I see Sale are giving Manu the chance to injure himself in the first game of the season. Might as well get on with it I suppose.

[Puja]

Just tuned into the radio to learn that both Spencer and Quirke have gone off injured, the former now reappearing on crutches. Hope Quirke isn't too badly injured - this is a massive chance for him with de Klerk away.

Puja