Aviva Premiership 2010-2011

[TheRiddler]

Flicking through my Foxtel EPG, I noticed that this weekend sees the kick-off of the English Aviva Premiership (formerly known as the Guinness Premiership) and also the Magners League (this year featuring the Italian club teams).

Maybe my origins but I still love watching the northern hemisphere game and my Foxtel IQ is now crammed with numerous recordings for the coming weekend. Hopefully Setanta can get a decent feed this year that includes all the cut away shots that the commentators are describing but werent shown last year. Also living in hope that they will show the Boots n All roundup/preview show (similar to the Rugby Club here).

Would be great if a knowledgeable poster could give us the good oil on who the likely contesters are for this year's titles. I am still a big Bath fan and hope that the some of the $$$$ that the new owner has invested can make an in impact.

Unfortunately, I think we need a new icon for the thread. Would also be interested to know why Guinness are no longer the sponsor. Much prefer my rugby to be supported by a brewery than an insurance company!

 

[RugbyFuture]

moses, i put a new icon up in the icons thread

 

[WESTCOMBE RANGER]

Flicking through my Foxtel EPG, I noticed that this weekend sees the kick-off of the English Aviva Premiership (formerly known as the Guinness Premiership) and also the Magners League (this year featuring the Italian club teams).

Maybe my origins but I still love watching the northern hemisphere game and my Foxtel IQ is now crammed with numerous recordings for the coming weekend. Hopefully Setanta can get a decent feed this year that includes all the cut away shots that the commentators are describing but werent shown last year. Also living in hope that they will show the Boots n All roundup/preview show (similar to the Rugby Club here).

Would be great if a knowledgeable poster could give us the good oil on who the likely contesters are for this year's titles. I am still a big Bath fan and hope that the some of the $$$$ that the new owner has invested can make an in impact.

Unfortunately, I think we need a new icon for the thread. Would also be interested to know why Guinness are no longer the sponsor. Much prefer my rugby to be supported by a brewery than an insurance company!

Riddler,

Unaccustomed as I am to making predictions, I reckon that this year's premiership will be the most evenlyt contested in years. Leicester Tigers will always be there or thereabouts. Bath will be much stronger this year with Moody and Vesty taking up new challenges. Northampton, I believe will be better than last year, as will Wasps, but my outright fancy are Saracens to end a long drought. All depends, as ever, on International call ups and who plays who when the Internationals are being played.
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If you want good coverage of whats happening in Blighty, I think you can subscribe on line to weekly papers, funnily enough called 'The Rugby Times' or 'The Rugby Paper'
The Rugby Times comes out on Fridays and previews all games down to the third tier of English Rugby with a round up of divisions below.
The Rugby Paper, on Sundays, gives results of every league game played on the Saturday, with match reports of every game down to the 4th tier.
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If you would like to send me a private e-mail with your address I will send this coming weeks issues to you to have a look at.
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Shame about you being a Bath man though.
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[Lee Grant]

I'm a bit of a Bath fan too. It's been a bit hard to follow a team in the GP in Oz, or rather AP as it is now, unless you do you know what, and you can't pick and choose which games to watch. I tend to watch the ML and T14 more but it's good to watch any pro team that has an Oz connection with players – or even a coach.

Bath coach Meehan is an Aussie but when I watched them early last season they were a basket case. Lo and behold they finished with a wet sail and made the finals. It's good that Moody is going to the team and because he's one Pom player I admire a lot, but their best acquisition might be Ian McGeechan who has some advisory role.

My favourite team though last year was Northampton. It was terrific rugby when Ashton and Foden combined for tries and the whole team always had a go. I couldn't work out why Johnson didn't use those two guys earlier than he did as they were just the type of players that England needed.

I'm making them my official team this year and it's appropriate that they are the Saints because my rugby league team is still known to the Kogarah faithful as "Saints."

Was it Saracens who started playing some expansive rugby last year after playing like hatfuls at the beginning? I liked the rugby they played too after they stopped boring everybody; in fact one game I deleted halfway through as their rugby was an abomination of the sport.

I suppose that Leicester will be the favourites again so I'll be going for any team that plays them.

 

[dobduff11]

Lee saracens played springbok up and under rugby for about 8 months and then they started playing expansive rugby and were awesome. They got to the final and were robbed in the final minutes.

MJ is an idiot and didn't pick the two form players in england until the last game of the 6 nations, he's nearly as bad as PDV sometimes

London irish are the team i support, i spent a bit of time in their academy before being dropped for being too skinny, i know a few of their squad and i am backing them for the title this year.

Losi tagicakibau is so good and i believe is the best winger in world rugby when on form and equal to caucau. The stuff he does is unbelievable.

Leicester will be up there, bath will be good, northampton will be good, saracens, wasps and irish will be good. Quins will also be pushing for a place in the top 4. Everyone else is a bit rubbish this year.

 

[Lee Grant]

I used to follow the Exiles too starting from when Hewat went over there. Hewie used to play for my Super team, the Tahs, and we liked him but our hearts were in our mouths half the time. It was funny to see him playing flyhalf sometimes for the Irish as he looked like a pig playing the piano playing the position, but he was still better than another Aussie, Chris Malone. Chris wasn't much good here and he hasn't improved a lot I'm afraid.

They played a nice brand of rugby too. The Armitage lads were always good value and Geraghty was good to watch too a couple of seasons ago. I liked Nick Kennedy also but he has to get a bit more physical for Jonno to pick him again for England. I nearly choked on my cornflakes last year when Mike Catt ran on once. He's not quite as old as me but you could hear his legs creaking as he ran on.

Yeh Tagi is a good player but he was hurt a lot last year wasn't he?

Geez - reminiscing is getting me ready for the AP. Bring it on.

 

[Thomond78]

Glaawwwwsttterrrrr have tidy backs, but their pack's gash.

The Not-Nots - meh. They must be crushed.

Northants play nice rugby, but are also prone to cheap-shotting, have one of the dirtiest players not to wear a Tigger jersey on the planet in Dylan Hartley and are generally a bit of a pain in the arse.

The Tiggers - well, you have to respect them. But no-one can like them. They're the biggest shower of scum-bags going. I'd support the Blou Bulle before the Tiggers. They'd be favourites, but considering pretty much their full team had to rely on the ref bottling out of two straight reds for a kick and a knee-drop to the head in the open and off the ball to beat our academy team, it's a reflection on the AP.

I'd like to see Bath, Glaws or Saracens win. And I always have a bizarre soft-spot for Reading Pests.

 

[TheRiddler]

And I always have a bizarre soft-spot for Reading Pests.

Brings a smile when I think of Reading as being the centre of Irish population living in London.

 

[Thomond78]

Reading Pests = London Wasps.

London Irish = the Not Nots; not Irish, and not London...

 

[TheRiddler]

Reading Pests = London Wasps.

London Irish = the Not Nots; not Irish, and not London...

Stupid me. Thought The Irish played at Madjeski Stadium?

 

[Lee Grant]

London Irish = the Not Nots; not Irish, and not London...

:lmao:
:lmao:
:lmao:

 

[dobduff11]

Yeh Tagi was hurt for nearly all of last year and he was a big loss,

Chris Malone is the worst player ive ever seen ,including sam harris and tom carter, he is absolutely useless and I don't know why we haven't released him

There is a new armitage to add to the clan, he is 18 6ft 4 about 105 kgs, he plays centre and last year when my school played his he handed my friend off to the face and broke his nose lol, hes called Guy by the way if you wanted to look him up

 

[Lee Grant]

Wow. Just looked him up. Where is he in the pecking order for his position?

Another favourite Exile player I forgot to mention was Mapusua. Is he still with the team?

I saw Delon A. at the ground playing against Australia A a few months ago. Was not as fast as I thought he was.

 

[dobduff11]

Maps still plays with us and is a key performer, he is our main line breaker in the centres

Guy is 4th in the pecking order at the moment but he will get some game time this season because irish are in the heineken cup and will need to rest the main players in the lv cup (anglo welsh competition)

Delon is rapid usually but he bulked up a bit towards the end of last season and lost some zip, a couple of weeks back he played in a sevens comp for us and looked back to his usual speed.

 

[TheRiddler]

Some great games to start the season off and how wonderful did Twickers look with 75,000 people there supporting club rugby. Interesting focus from the commentators on how the refs are policing the breakdown this year. Thought the ref in the first game (cant remember his name) was much better than Chris White who, just for a change, seemed intent on making the game all about him. Talking of commentators, thought Ben Kay was excellent and Austin Healy was, well, Austin Healy!

Great start from the Nots Nots beating the Springboks 3rds (AKA Saracens) and what a wonderful introduction to the Premiership by Exeter knocking off Gloucester. Think they might have a harder task next weekend taking on Leicester.

Was interesting to see the Setanta coverage in Australia came from ESPN. Have Sky Sports 'lost' the rights this year? Whatever the case, we got to see the full live feed including replays and analysis which often wasnt the situation with last year's coverage.

Based on this weekends games, this could be a great season. Am still intrigued as to why Guinness dropped their sponsorship (or where they just outbid by Aviva?)

 

[dobduff11]

Sky Sports didn't lose the rights they just couldn't be bothered to get more games

So ESPN paid for it and now they have 43 live Aviva Prem matches this year, some of the autumn internationals and the top 14. Austin was good and ben kay was also good.

Winners this week were:
Lirish beat Sarries
Wasps drew Quins
Saints beat Tigers
Exeter beat Glos
Sale beat Newcastle
Bath beat leeds

 

[Lee Grant]

Have just had time to finish my viewing of the Avira Premiership games.

Northampton against Bath was supposed to be a close game between the two semi-finalists from last season but the Saints won 31-10. Winger “Ash The Dash” Ashton was in the top form he was last season and with England in Oz; so Northamption ended the weekend as the only unbeaten team after 3 games. Against Bath the Saints proved, as Munster did v. Ospreys, what we in the SH already knew: that counter-rucking has value under the law crackdown on not releasing the tackled player.

***

Either Wasps or Leicester have won the premiership in 9 of the last 10 years and this was supposed to be a close game too, but the visiting Tigers jumped ahead 18-30 in the 1st half. After oranges Wasps had what will become one of the best comebacks of the season. Flyhalf Walder directed them in meat and potatoes rugby to tick the scoreboard over whilst denying the visitors any more points to level at 30-30. Then replacement winger Haughton scored a remarkable try for Wasps to win their first game of the season and embarrass Tigers fullback Dempsey whilst doing so.

It wasn't quite Howley v Pointrenaud in the 2004 HC final but Dempsey won't remember his gaffe with fond memories. If anybody can source the try on U-tube it will be worth posting it.

Aussie scrummie Nick Berry had a top game for Wasps and underlined what a pity it was for Oz rugby that Cordingley was recruited by the Rebels and not him. He's not as good a scrummie as his Tigers opponent Ben Youngs, who has a long career for England in front of him, but he is very bloody good at bossing and passing - and definitely Super quality.

***

London Irish beat Gloucester 23-16 in a low skill game at Madjeski Park though the Exiles set pieces were good. Gloucester incurred too many penalties and they were lucky to earn a losing bonus point. The Irish were clever dicks at the end because they kept playing after the bell and they turned the pill over to enable the visitors to score their only try.

The highlight for me was a funny comment from commentator Nick Mullins, The Exiles share the ground with Reading FC and you could see the faint non-rugby lines still on the pitch. At one point Mullins said that Gloucester were having trouble getting out of their penalty area.

The commentary team of Mullins and ex-players Ben Kay and Austin Healey is very good. Kay alone is worth listening to: few experts are better on the scrums and lineouts, and that cheeky bugger Healey is quite astute also.

***

Saw the highlights of other matches on the weekend and the newly promoted Exeter Chiefs continued to surprise by beating Newcastle and going to 5th in the AP. They will fancy visiting The Stoop on the weekend as Harlequins haven't won a game yet.

 

[Lee Grant]

Further to my comments about Exeter I hear that "second-rower Peter Kimlin will join English club Exeter on loan to regain lost match time after being sidelined with a shoulder injury on the Brumbies tour to France last year."

This is good news for both Kimlin and the Chiefs. It will take Kimlin a while to find his feet, having just returned to rugby recently, but once he does he will have good value for the newly promoted side until the end of the calendar year. Kimlin will be available if the Wallabies run short of players on their end of year tour and will return to Oz in early January.

Meantime 29 y.o. winger Sireli Naqelevuki will join Exeter from Western Province and will play for them for the rest of the season.

 

[Lee Grant]

Exeter 9 – London Irish 12
I was hoping that Peter Kimlin would get a big stint but he got just 10 minutes at the end of the game. In wet conditions it was 3 penalties to 4 but it had a few good moments, though not for the Exeter fullback who had a shocker.

The most exciting thing was when a ball was kicked into the commentators box which discombobulated Barnes and Harrison.

Leeds 3 – Sale 6
A boring groan of a game of poor skill from both sides. Sydney Uni would have beaten one side on Saturday and the other on Sunday. Commentator Healey said something like: “If I was from Leeds and came here to enjoy a game of rugby I'd think twice about coming back.”

Leicester 21 – Bath 15
Only penalties again but a gripping game in the wet and a lot of wet game skill. Aussie Matt Carraro made a couple of bloopers but otherwise had a fine match. He is a regular starter for Bath now.

Interesting points:

• Leicester LHP Stankovich went off for blood and Bath challenged it; so the ref had to come off the park to OK it.

• Ref Andrew Small had a poor match but one thing I liked was when he penalised an attacking pillar. They are often allowed to stand not behind last feet to protect the scrummie doing his box kick; so it's good to see it getting pinged.

• Luke Watson made sure that gun scrummie Youngs of Leicester stayed down after a tackle (which was late anyway) which meant Youngs was slow to the next ruck. The Wallabies should do the same at Twickenham if they can get away with it because this guy is dynamite as we saw in Sydney.


Not to the point but I hope that the Wallabies do some practice of wet weather skills when they arrive in the NH.

 

[dobduff11]

Maybe they can contact Lirish on how to train for wet weather
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPZuBipNn68