L.I vs Bristol, GP rd 15 - Sun 3pm

[jimKRFC]

Bristol's all court attacking game has disappeared. Right now they have scored fewer points (237) than anyone else in the league. The points difference is -95.
in fairness they are missing players and havent had much of a settled side, but the drift isnt a good one and they look like a team seriously out of sorts.

I think injuries are a bit of scape goat - every side has them and they make a difference. But they shouldn't affect playing patterns, awful discipline or basics like restarts too much.

The attacking fair started to tail off after the departure of Reihana. I really like Sean Marsden but he was never half the player Bruce was and the skills and plays have withered since then. As always, stories start to leak when things go bad and it sounds like Reihana's departure was due to a falling out with PL and a Bruce challenging PLs ideas. This has come from a few places so might well have truth to it.

Personally, if I was PL, I'd be looking at changing at least Marsden (attack/skills), Muldoon (forwards), and McPhilips in an effort to buy some time for myself.

[Banquo]

Lock. We're not so flush with no 5s that we can afford to piss about putting them at 6.

Puja

Tigers missed the memo but fair enough . He has looked good at 6 when I have seen him tho

Given the number of backrow injuries currently we didn't have a lot of choice. He's bulked up quite a bit over time and has played less backrow as time has gone on. He'd be a great bench option for England covering lock and 6.

Personally I'd have Ted Hill at 6 for the first 50ish mins and then go Kamikaze Kids second half and really increase the intensity as the opposition start to fatigue. Load the bench with aggressive and mobile forwards, maybe even bomb squad the front row.

He's played 14 times backrow, 16 times lock from what I've read. As I said, he looks like a decent 6, but if he's going to be a second row, fair enough. I do think we need to find a way of getting an authentic third lineout option, but as said a lot before, no reason why we can't hoist Tom Curry up more often.
Not sure who our bomb squad would be tho.

[FKAS]

Tigers missed the memo but fair enough . He has looked good at 6 when I have seen him tho

Given the number of backrow injuries currently we didn't have a lot of choice. He's bulked up quite a bit over time and has played less backrow as time has gone on. He'd be a great bench option for England covering lock and 6.

Personally I'd have Ted Hill at 6 for the first 50ish mins and then go Kamikaze Kids second half and really increase the intensity as the opposition start to fatigue. Load the bench with aggressive and mobile forwards, maybe even bomb squad the front row.

He's played 14 times backrow, 16 times lock from what I've read. As I said, he looks like a decent 6, but if he's going to be a second row, fair enough. I do think we need to find a way of getting an authentic third lineout option, but as said a lot before, no reason why we can't hoist Tom Curry up more often.
Not sure who our bomb squad would be tho.

Chessum certainly can play backrow, you're not wrong. In his first two seasons as a squad man (one of which was the Covid effected one) he played primarily as a backrow. As he's filled out though he's played there. Only twice in ten appearances this season and both of those were down to a number of absentees in the Tigers backrow. It's a useful thing for him to be able to do.

For an England bomb squad could we start with VRR, George, Cole and then at half time switch to Genge, Blamire, Sinckler?

[Banquo]

Given the number of backrow injuries currently we didn't have a lot of choice. He's bulked up quite a bit over time and has played less backrow as time has gone on. He'd be a great bench option for England covering lock and 6.

Personally I'd have Ted Hill at 6 for the first 50ish mins and then go Kamikaze Kids second half and really increase the intensity as the opposition start to fatigue. Load the bench with aggressive and mobile forwards, maybe even bomb squad the front row.

He's played 14 times backrow, 16 times lock from what I've read. As I said, he looks like a decent 6, but if he's going to be a second row, fair enough. I do think we need to find a way of getting an authentic third lineout option, but as said a lot before, no reason why we can't hoist Tom Curry up more often.
Not sure who our bomb squad would be tho.

Chessum certainly can play backrow, you're not wrong. In his first two seasons as a squad man (one of which was the Covid effected one) he played primarily as a backrow. As he's filled out though he's played there. Only twice in ten appearances this season and both of those were down to a number of absentees in the Tigers backrow. It's a useful thing for him to be able to do.

For an England bomb squad could we start with VRR, George, Cole and then at half time switch to Genge, Blamire, Sinckler?

more like a couple of light mortars at intl level.

[Timbo]

Even Landsdowne might need to dip into his overdraft if they do decide to give Lam the boot. That’s going to be some payoff. 5 years left on one of the biggest coaching contracts around.

[Puja]

Even Landsdowne might need to dip into his overdraft if they do decide to give Lam the boot. That’s going to be some payoff. 5 years left on one of the biggest coaching contracts around.

It all went to pot almost to the second that the ink was dry on that 7 year contract, didn't it?

Puja

[Margin_Walker]

Cunningham-South certainly has a raw energy that is quite striking.

Yeah, you don't often see a teenager with that kind of physicality. Will be interesting to see how well his all round game develops in the next season or two.

That bump on Radradra @ 70 minutes on the game clock. One of several decent carries.

https://video.premiershiprugby.com/cont ... s-round-15

[Puja]

Cunningham-South certainly has a raw energy that is quite striking.

Yeah, you don't often see a teenager with that kind of physicality. Will be interesting to see how well his all round game develops in the next season or two.

That bump on Radradra @ 70 minutes on the game clock. One of several decent carries.

https://video.premiershiprugby.com/cont ... s-round-15

1hr28m35s on the video, to save anyone else from searching.

Very impressive, as is the fact that it's from first phase, so LIrish trust him enough to deliberately send him in on that ball. Good signs from an U20.

Puja

[FKAS]

Blimey that's an impact isn't it.