Tigers Vs Bath - Sunday

[FKAS]

“It’s a special day for Ollie Chessum making his 50th appearance for the club, particularly given he’s a local boy who’s come through our Academy.

“Playing New Year’s Eve in front of a packed house at Mattioli Woods Welford Road, there’ll be a massive buzz come 3pm on Sunday and we’re looking forward to it.”

STARTING XV

15 Freddie Steward [78]
14 Harry Simmons [35]
13 Dan Kelly [69]
12 Solomone Kata [8]
11 Mike Brown [17]
10 Handré Pollard [21]
9 Tom Whiteley [18]

1 James Cronin [23]
2 Julián Montoya (c) [48]
3 Joe Heyes [133]
4 George Martin [70]
5 Ollie Chessum [49] *
6 Matt Rogerson [11]
7 Tommy Reffell [106]
8 Jasper Wiese [67]

REPLACEMENTS

16 Finn Theobold-Thomas [3]
17 Francois van Wyk [42]
18 Will Hurd [34]
19 Harry Wells [186]
20 Kyle Hatherell [9]
21 Olly Cracknell [30]
22 Joe Powell [7]
23 Jamie Shillcock [14]

Bath Rugby XV: 1 Juan Schoeman, 2 Hame Faiva, 3 Will Stuart, 4 Quinn Roux, 5 Josh McNally, 6 GJ van Velze ©, 7 Chris Cloete, 8 Jaco Coetzee, 9 Louis Schreuder, 10 Orlando Bailey, 11 Matt Gallagher, 12 Will Butt, 13 Max Ojomoh, 14 Tom de Glanville, 15 Sam Harris

Replacements: 16 John Stewart, 17 Thomas du Toit, 18 Johannes Jonker, 19 Ewan Richards, 20 Miles Reid, 21 Tom Carr-Smith, 22 Louie Hennessey, 23 Brendan Owen (debut)

[Which Tyler]

Blimey - that's A LOT of rotation.
I mean, we were pretty much expecting a fair bit, with some really important matches coming up, but still, I count 2 1stXV players in there, and one of them is out of position!

[Epaminondas Pules]

Blimey - that's A LOT of rotation.
I mean, we were pretty much expecting a fair bit, with some really important matches coming up, but still, I count 2 1stXV players in there, and one of them is out of position!

I'm genuinely quite surprised. I thought you'd have gone full out for this as we're there for the taking at the moment, and it would absolutely cement your momentum. I'm pretty pleased you haven't mind

[Puja]

Wild to see that Chessum's only played 49 senior domestic games, given he's considered a seasoned international now. Testament to how quickly he's stepped up. Really looking forward to seeing him and Martin as the second row pairing.

Are we short at hooker, or has FTT started stepping up and impressing in training?

Puja

[Which Tyler]

I'm genuinely quite surprised. I thought you'd have gone full out for this as we're there for the taking at the moment, and it would absolutely cement your momentum. I'm pretty pleased you haven't mind

I agree, it's a huge fixture, Leicester and Gloucester are Bath's big rivals, and I always want to win all 4 of those.
But I understand JvG not having the emotional history with the club, and going for the pragmatic approach - full-on for home matches and Euro Cup matches, aim to pick up wins away to the bottom half of the table, but rest and rotate away to the top half (presumably, those are "as expected when planning for the block of matches - given that he likes to send the rested players off on an actual holiday.
I don't like it, but it makes sense.


ETA: As I don't expect anyone to look at Bath's upcoming fixtures...
Home vs Gloucester
Home vs Racing
Away to Toulouse
Away to Bristol

[FKAS]

Wild to see that Chessum's only played 49 senior domestic games, given he's considered a seasoned international now. Testament to how quickly he's stepped up. Really looking forward to seeing him and Martin as the second row pairing.

Are we short at hooker, or has FTT started stepping up and impressing in training?

Puja

Fit backs and fit hookers are looking scarce at the minute. Hence FTT and Brown at wing.

[Banquo]

Blimey - that's A LOT of rotation.
I mean, we were pretty much expecting a fair bit, with some really important matches coming up, but still, I count 2 1stXV players in there, and one of them is out of position!

how many saffers is that btw! And I see you have nicked Ewan Richards back from us! Doh!

I know the reasons, but kinda depressing to see Mike Brown on the wing at this point in his career for one of our leading sides

[Oakboy]

Blimey - that's A LOT of rotation.
I mean, we were pretty much expecting a fair bit, with some really important matches coming up, but still, I count 2 1stXV players in there, and one of them is out of position!

how many saffers is that btw! And I see you have nicked Ewan Richards back from us! Doh!

I know the reasons, but kinda depressing to see Mike Brown on the wing at this point in his career for one of our leading sides

I didn't think any other coach could be as stupid as Jones (in playing him there).

[Puja]

Blimey - that's A LOT of rotation.
I mean, we were pretty much expecting a fair bit, with some really important matches coming up, but still, I count 2 1stXV players in there, and one of them is out of position!

how many saffers is that btw! And I see you have nicked Ewan Richards back from us! Doh!

I know the reasons, but kinda depressing to see Mike Brown on the wing at this point in his career for one of our leading sides

I didn't think any other coach could be as stupid as Jones (in playing him there).

We're kinda lacking in any other fit options right now. The only other option would be moving Steward and I suspect that either he or England (or both) have requested him to be at 15.

Puja

[Banquo]

how many saffers is that btw! And I see you have nicked Ewan Richards back from us! Doh!

I know the reasons, but kinda depressing to see Mike Brown on the wing at this point in his career for one of our leading sides

I didn't think any other coach could be as stupid as Jones (in playing him there).

We're kinda lacking in any other fit options right now. The only other option would be moving Steward and I suspect that either he or England (or both) have requested him to be at 15.

Puja

no development lads at all? Any of the loanees at Nottingham?

[FKAS]

The other wing options available to Tigers are playing Cokanasiga out of position on the wing or calling up a development player. Gourlay or Cusick have been playing BUCS for Loughborough Uni whilst Satala has been playing for Leicester Lions in the National Leagues.

[FKAS]

I didn't think any other coach could be as stupid as Jones (in playing him there).

We're kinda lacking in any other fit options right now. The only other option would be moving Steward and I suspect that either he or England (or both) have requested him to be at 15.

Puja

no development lads at all? Any of the loanees at Nottingham?

Only back on loan at Nottingham is inside centre Joe Woodward. Sam Edwards is on loan at Cambridge but he's a 9.

Out injured are; OHC, Bassett, Browning, Porter and Watson (though that's thought to be just a knock). We don't have particularly deep stocks of back three players as is.

[Banquo]

We're kinda lacking in any other fit options right now. The only other option would be moving Steward and I suspect that either he or England (or both) have requested him to be at 15.

Puja

no development lads at all? Any of the loanees at Nottingham?

Only back on loan at Nottingham is inside centre Joe Woodward. Sam Edwards is on loan at Cambridge but he's a 9.

Out injured are; OHC, Bassett, Browning, Porter and Watson (though that's thought to be just a knock). We don't have particularly deep stocks of back three players as is.

Sam is doing well for us, good lad.

Bit careless on the back three- mind Saints had to get Garside off us as well. Championship sides returning quite a few lads back to prem home this weekend, good in some ways.

[FKAS]

Yeah for whatever reason we haven't produced much in the way of good back three players for a while. The Olowfela lads are up at Notts but no longer contracted to us. Other than that it's been a bit barren.

As an aside I'd much prefer to have Sam Edwards on the bench for this game than Powell.

[Banquo]

Yeah for whatever reason we haven't produced much in the way of good back three players for a while. The Olowfela lads are up at Notts but no longer contracted to us. Other than that it's been a bit barren.

As an aside I'd much prefer to have Sam Edwards on the bench for this game than Powell.

hush. Mind, think we have him for the season.

[FKAS]

Yeah for whatever reason we haven't produced much in the way of good back three players for a while. The Olowfela lads are up at Notts but no longer contracted to us. Other than that it's been a bit barren.

As an aside I'd much prefer to have Sam Edwards on the bench for this game than Powell.

hush. Mind, think we have him for the season.

How's his passing speed and running game coming along? Always had a good pass and kicking game but he tended to be a bit slower than would be ideal.

[Banquo]

Yeah for whatever reason we haven't produced much in the way of good back three players for a while. The Olowfela lads are up at Notts but no longer contracted to us. Other than that it's been a bit barren.

As an aside I'd much prefer to have Sam Edwards on the bench for this game than Powell.

hush. Mind, think we have him for the season.

How's his passing speed and running game coming along? Always had a good pass and kicking game but he tended to be a bit slower than would be ideal.

he makes breaks through strength. His usp is organising and driving the pack, disrupting fringe defence, creates opportunities. Pass and kick are fine- 10 knows optimum speed/ length trade offs in game situations.

[twitchy]

Blimey - that's A LOT of rotation.
I mean, we were pretty much expecting a fair bit, with some really important matches coming up, but still, I count 2 1stXV players in there, and one of them is out of position!

Yep, that's a tough test for some of those bath youngsters. Hopefully this is more competitive than it looks for the neutral.

[FKAS]

Bath interception after all Tigers early doors. Sadly not surprising.

[FKAS]

Christmas present from the Tigers attack, forwards are actually using little pops before contact to shift the point of attack. Creates the Tigers try for Rogerson.

[Which Tyler]

Poor couple of minutes for Dickson

[FKAS]

Poor couple of minutes for Dickson

He's been pretty iffy from the start.

[Which Tyler]

He's been pretty iffy from the start of his career.

FTFY

[FKAS]

Yay Bath finally penalised for having men in front of the kick not retreating.

[FKAS]

He's been pretty iffy from the start of his career.

FTFY

He has improved a lot in recent times but today is a bit hit and miss.