Irish Vs Wuss

[FKAS]

15 James Stokes, 14 Will Joseph, 13 Curtis Rona, 12 Benhard van Rensburg, 11 Ollie Hassell-Collins, 10 Paddy Jackson, 9 Ben White, 1 Facundo Gigena, 2 Matt Cornish, 3 Lovejoy Chawatama, 4 Rob Simmons, 5 Adam Coleman (c), 6 Ben Donnell, 7 Tom Pearson, 8 Josh Basham.

Replacements: 16 Agustin Creevy, 17 Danilo Fischetti, 18 Ciaran Parker, 19 Api Ratuniyarawa, 20 Jack Cooke, 21 Caolan Englefield, 22 Luca Morisi, 23 Henry Arundell.

15 Jamie Shillcock, 14 Perry Humphreys, 13 Ollie Lawrence, 12 Francois Venter, 11 Alex Hearle, 10 Billy Searle, 9 Gareth Simpson, 1 Valeriy Morozov, 2 Hame Faiva, 3 Murray McCallum, 4 Joe Batley, 5 Andrew Kitchener, 6 Fergus Lee-Warner, 7 Cameron Neild (C), 8 Matt Kvesic.

Replacements: 16 Curtis Langdon, 17 Rory Sutherland, 18 Jay Tyack, 19 Graham Kitchener, 20 Tom Dodd, 21 Will Chudley, 22 Owen Williams, 23 Noah Heward.

[Epaminondas Pules]

Good battle of the 13s!

[fivepointer]

Like that Irish back row very much.

Just what kind of state, physically and mentally, can Wuss be in?

[Puja]

Surprised not to see the messiah starting for Irish, although that may be partly to keep his head wound on. Joseph at 14 is odd too - I wouldn't've said it was his most likely position and would've thought him at 13 and Rona on the wing was more balanced, but that may just be seniority.

Puja

[Margin_Walker]

Surprised not to see the messiah starting for Irish, although that may be partly to keep his head wound on. Joseph at 14 is odd too - I wouldn't've said it was his most likely position and would've thought him at 13 and Rona on the wing was more balanced, but that may just be seniority.

Puja

New season, new forum...

Arundell's had a short pre season, so probably makes sense. Stokes went well against Munster the other day. Scored a nice long range try and is a steady presence at the back. Would expect to see Arundell starting in a few weeks though as we get into the season.

Joseph's also had a short pre season, but we're a little more stretched on the wing with several out injured. Rona and him that way round makes sense. Joseph's probably played more minutes on the wing for us than he has at 13, although will likely end up in midfield long term. He's also significantly quicker than Rona and actually faster than any of the actual wings on our books.

Bit of a banana skin first up, with Worcester likely very keen to release some frustration on the pitch. Wouldn't surprise me if they put in a performance.

[Scrumhead]

Welcome Margin_Walker. Nice to see you join us here (I remember you well as one of the good contributors from Planet Rugby).

I agree with you re. Worcester having the potential to put in a big performance, but I could just as easily see it going the other way if Irish get the upper hand early on.

Had the fantasy still been running I’d almost certainly have picked 6 LI players in my 23.

[Margin_Walker]

Hey Scrumhead. Yeah, recognise a few on here from various places.

Worcester tend to be a bit of a problem side for us. We rarely look good against them, even when we win.

As always, it'll be won and lost up front. Certainly not a first choice front row for us, so will be interesting to see how the set piece goes. Very mobile (and slightly lightweight) back row without Fa'aso'o fit yet at 8. Same trio looked decent in pre season, but this is a different test altogether.

[Puja]

Had the fantasy still been running I’d almost certainly have picked 6 LI players in my 23.

Same. I can definitely see Worcester putting in a big first half effort, but I can't see their fitness lasting them or their coordination being very good with the disrupted preseason they've had and I can see Irish putting 60 plus on them.

I miss the Fantasy Rugby already.

Arundell's had a short pre season, so probably makes sense. Stokes went well against Munster the other day. Scored a nice long range try and is a steady presence at the back. Would expect to see Arundell starting in a few weeks though as we get into the season.

Joseph's also had a short pre season, but we're a little more stretched on the wing with several out injured. Rona and him that way round makes sense. Joseph's probably played more minutes on the wing for us than he has at 13, although will likely end up in midfield long term. He's also significantly quicker than Rona and actually faster than any of the actual wings on our books.

I hadn't considered that Arundell would've had a shorter preseason - makes sense and I do like Stokes as a player. Joseph's such a talent so I'm not surprised he's ahead on the empty wing. Really looking forward to seeing him go this year.

Welcome to the board btw. Can we tempt you with the Predictions thread before I lock it for the season?

Puja

[Margin_Walker]

I hadn't considered that Arundell would've had a shorter preseason - makes sense and I do like Stokes as a player. Joseph's such a talent so I'm not surprised he's ahead on the empty wing. Really looking forward to seeing him go this year.

Welcome to the board btw. Can we tempt you with the Predictions thread before I lock it for the season?

Puja

Most interesting thing about Joseph is how actually good he looks defensively. Very reminiscent of his brother on that front. Think he'll end up being seriously good.

Cheers for the welcome. Sure will take a look, but I fear for the ACL of any player I end up tipping. I've some form on that front.

[Puja]

I hadn't considered that Arundell would've had a shorter preseason - makes sense and I do like Stokes as a player. Joseph's such a talent so I'm not surprised he's ahead on the empty wing. Really looking forward to seeing him go this year.

Welcome to the board btw. Can we tempt you with the Predictions thread before I lock it for the season?

Puja

Most interesting thing about Joseph is how actually good he looks defensively. Very reminiscent of his brother on that front. Think he'll end up being seriously good.

Cheers for the welcome. Sure will take a look, but I fear for the ACL of any player I end up tipping. I've some form on that front.

Yeah, I wouldn't worry about that. We've been doing the predictions for a few years now and the winner has generally been "least worst" rather than any of us showing any particular skills!

Puja

[FKAS]

I hadn't considered that Arundell would've had a shorter preseason - makes sense and I do like Stokes as a player. Joseph's such a talent so I'm not surprised he's ahead on the empty wing. Really looking forward to seeing him go this year.

Welcome to the board btw. Can we tempt you with the Predictions thread before I lock it for the season?

Puja

Most interesting thing about Joseph is how actually good he looks defensively. Very reminiscent of his brother on that front. Think he'll end up being seriously good.

Cheers for the welcome. Sure will take a look, but I fear for the ACL of any player I end up tipping. I've some form on that front.

Yeah, I wouldn't worry about that. We've been doing the predictions for a few years now and the winner has generally been "least worst" rather than any of us showing any particular skills!

Puja

Yeah one of the young wingers I tipped last summer smashed up his knee got released by his club and is now playing in National League 1.

[Margin_Walker]

Yeah one of the young wingers I tipped last summer smashed up his knee got released by his club and is now playing in National League 1.

Passman or Aspland-Robinson?

I tipped Matt Williams and Ben Donnell last season to have breakout years. Both picked up serious injuries in the first few months of the season.

[Raggs]

Hah, I've already picked 2 long term injured players that were already injured! I wasn't paying much attention...

[Margin_Walker]

Hey Raggs. Yeah, saw that when reading through. At least you're not putting the mockers on a fit player. It's probably the kindest approach really.

[FKAS]

Yeah one of the young wingers I tipped last summer smashed up his knee got released by his club and is now playing in National League 1.

Passman or Aspland-Robinson?

I tipped Matt Williams and Ben Donnell last season to have breakout years. Both picked up serious injuries in the first few months of the season.

Passman, he looked big and quick and Falcons don't seem to mind giving young backs a shot. Aspland-Robinson never seemed to be rated by Borthwick, I think Murphy liked him but he was very much on the out once Steve took over. Not sure why, maybe didn't have the kick chase game he likes. Generally the Tigers have a powerful left winger and then a kick chase right winger and SAP never really fit either.

[Margin_Walker]

Aspland-Robinson was definitely an odd one. Looked superb at U20, moved to Tigers and was never seen again*

*Presumably injury/not being good enough related.

[Puja]

Aspland-Robinson was definitely an odd one. Looked superb at U20, moved to Tigers and was never seen again*

*Presumably injury/not being good enough related.

He had a couple of seasons of being mostly injured while not kicking on at Quins as well. The move to Leicester was supposed to be his big reset, only to then suffer another huge injury again. Poor sod.

Puja

[Scrumhead]

Yeah, I was disappointed when he left Quins but that was based upon his England U20 games rather than anything he did for us. I think he was good enough - as Puja said, I think the second injury killed off his chances of top level rugby. No idea what he’s doing now/if he’s still playing?

[FKAS]

He's at Rosslyn Park.

He was getting game time under Murphy but then broke his leg. Got a lot of respect from the Tigers faithful for rejoining the defensive line with a broken leg before coming off at the next break in play. Nutter.

[Margin_Walker]

Pretty straightforward win in the end for LI 45 - 14, with tries for Arundell (2), Donnell, Joseph, Hassell-Collins, Creevy, White. Langdon and Shillcock with second half tries for Worcester.

Worcester actually had a bit of ball to play with in the game, but largely looked like a team short on real quality and without any pre season games under their belt. After building a bit of a lead, LI played fast and loose and chucked it about. Some stuff worked and some didn't.

Arundell scored a cracking try with his first touch just after coming off the bench. OHC was my MOM for LI though. Scored a nice try, was involved in several others and put in a superb defensive performance, both in the tackle and over the ball.

Not sure you can read too much into the game other than us not choking. Next week will be much tougher. Hopefully Worcester's off field issues get sorted in the next week or two.

[Epaminondas Pules]

Lovely connection from Arundell from OHC kick. Great controlled kick and then pace to score.

[Margin_Walker]

Lovely connection from Arundell from OHC kick. Great controlled kick and then pace to score.

Yeah, it's not even that lucky. He's a superb footballer. He almost scored from a chip and chase after this.

[Puja]

Not sure you can read too much into the game other than us not choking. Next week will be much tougher. Hopefully Worcester's off field issues get sorted in the next week or two.

Yeah, it looked very much like a walkover in the first half (thanks for putting the highlights up, btw - very nice!) with very little proven, other than you can bully an underprepared side. Still, at least the fixture got played, which is good.

Who's the guy doing the kicking at the end - Engelfield? Is he academy with promise? Was a decent kick to finish it off and I wouldn't mind you have someone coming through to replace Jackson, whom I'd prefer was not in the Premiership on personal grounds.

Puja

[Margin_Walker]

Not sure you can read too much into the game other than us not choking. Next week will be much tougher. Hopefully Worcester's off field issues get sorted in the next week or two.

Yeah, it looked very much like a walkover in the first half (thanks for putting the highlights up, btw - very nice!) with very little proven, other than you can bully an underprepared side. Still, at least the fixture got played, which is good.

Who's the guy doing the kicking at the end - Engelfield? Is he academy with promise? Was a decent kick to finish it off and I wouldn't mind you have someone coming through to replace Jackson, whom I'd prefer was not in the Premiership on personal grounds.

Puja

Yeah, that's Englefield the reserve 9. Kicked two conversions like that and has that skillset in his locker.

22yo. Came through the academy and played U19s for Ireland. Lightweight Peter Stringer type 9 with a good quick pass and a decent kicking game. Could be a good year for him if he can force himself into match day contention.