Premiership Predictions Thread - 2022/23

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FKAS
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Re: Premiership Predictions Thread - 2022/23

Post by FKAS »

switchskier wrote: The Jerome Schuster Award for most valueless signing:
Moroni to Newcastle. Just don't rate him and think they've got better players.
Interesting call. Moroni is one of the more intelligent centres in the league, consummate team player. Every decision he makes is based around the team as opposed to personal stats or glory. Tigers didn't want to let him go but having signed him cheap after the Jags folded were forced into it.

Falcons do have some options at 13 but 12 is a bit sparce. I think they'll move Orlando into 12 and use Moroni at 13 to give them a much more secure midfield defence. Should allow a more rapid back three of Stevenson, Radwan and Stephens that will benefit from Moroni's skillset at 13.
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Re: Premiership Predictions Thread - 2022/23

Post by fivepointer »

Newcastle Falcons’ back-rower Freddie Lockwood will benefit from increased opportunities for game time after joining Jersey Reds on dual-registration.

FKAS had him down as possible breakthrough player this season and i thought he would be one to keep a close eye on. Very surprising Newcastle dont see him as a 1st team squad player right now.
FKAS
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Re: Premiership Predictions Thread - 2022/23

Post by FKAS »

fivepointer wrote:Newcastle Falcons’ back-rower Freddie Lockwood will benefit from increased opportunities for game time after joining Jersey Reds on dual-registration.

FKAS had him down as possible breakthrough player this season and i thought he would be one to keep a close eye on. Very surprising Newcastle dont see him as a 1st team squad player right now.
That's a really odd call, one of their best players towards the end of last season. Good option at 7 and 8, offers real impact ball in hand. Falcons aren't stacked with backrow options of real quality and it's not helped by Welch tendency to be injured.
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Puja
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Re: Premiership Predictions Thread - 2022/23

Post by Puja »

Not even as though it's a dual registration that can easily be recalled from either, like if he was being sent to Doncaster or Leeds. I suspect that Newcastle and Jersey are literally the two farthest apart clubs in the English league pyramid.

Not a place you'd send someone if you thought there was a chance you might be recalling them to sit on the bench from time to time.

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Re: Premiership Predictions Thread - 2022/23

Post by Epaminondas Pules »

Premiership Winner:
Bristol

Table order:
Saracens
Leicester
Bristol
Northampton
Gloucester
Exeter
Quins
Sale
Irish
Wasps
Bath
Newcastle
Worcester

European predictions - how will the English teams do?
Two semi-finalists

Top try scorer:
Adam Radwan

Top points scorer:
Paddy Jackson

Surprise of the season:
Jack Nowell staying fit

Biggest disappointment:
Worcester not surviving

Player having a breakthrough season:
Seb Atkinson or Phil Brantingham

Best signing:
Ellis Genge

Best unheralded signing:
Phil Cokanasiga

The [Redacted] Award for lowest performance to hype ratio from a new signing:
Handre Pollard

The Jerome Schuster Award for most valueless signing:
Piers Francis
Last edited by Epaminondas Pules on Thu Sep 08, 2022 10:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Puja
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Re: Premiership Predictions Thread - 2022/23

Post by Puja »

Epaminondas Pules wrote:Surprise of the season:
Both Wasps and Worcester are in business by the end of it.

Biggest disappointment:
Worcester not surviving
Is this not a contradiction?

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Re: Premiership Predictions Thread - 2022/23

Post by Peej »

You can be disappointed and not surprised, no?
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Re: Premiership Predictions Thread - 2022/23

Post by Epaminondas Pules »

Puja wrote:
Epaminondas Pules wrote:Surprise of the season:
Both Wasps and Worcester are in business by the end of it.

Biggest disappointment:
Worcester not surviving
Is this not a contradiction?

Puja
Ah that’s the one I forgot to change from the copy paste :D :D
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Re: Premiership Predictions Thread - 2022/23

Post by Margin_Walker »

Premiership Winner:
Saracens

Table order:
Saracens
Leicester
Northampton
Quins
Exeter
Gloucester
London Irish
Bristol
Sale
Bath
Wasps
Worcester
Newcastle

European predictions - how will the English teams do?
So so. One semi finalist in each comp.

Top try scorer:
Murley

Top points scorer:
Jackson

Surprise of the season:
England looking good in the 6n.

Biggest disappointment:
The inevitable key England player picking up a serious injury towards the end of the season, resulting in them missing the World Cup.

Player having a breakthrough season:
Matt Cornish for LI. He's been quietly excellent lately and have a feeling he'll start to push Creevy pretty hard this year. Further afield, Stephens at Newcastle

Best signing:
Would go for Genge if he wasn't going to spend so much time away with England. Probably go with O'Flaherty. Won't be selected for England and tends to be consistently excellent.

Best unheralded signing:
Fischetti. Very little fanfare, but he looks a superb all-court loosehead.

The [Redacted] Award for lowest performance to hype ratio from a new signing:
Comparatively few hyped signings this season, but will go with Pollard.

The Jerome Schuster Award for most valueless signing:
Ibitoye's the clear early favourite for me too.
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Re: Premiership Predictions Thread - 2022/23

Post by Scrumhead »

Ibitoye is a funny one. I can either see it working out really well and Bristol/Lam getting the best out of him or him being a complete flop. I don’t really see an in-between.

I’m not sure how fair this assessment is in reality, but my impression is that he rated himself considerably higher than his actual ability and didn’t put enough effort in to improving the areas he needed to work on. Given the past couple of years he’s had, I really hope he’s had a bit of a reality-check and makes good on his potential, even if it’s not in a Quins shirt.
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Re: Premiership Predictions Thread - 2022/23

Post by Puja »

Time for the round up of who saw it coming and who got hit right in the eye.

Premiership Winner: No great prizes for this one. They might not be the favourite of everyone here, but they were favourites with the bookies, so I give just a polite golf-clap to Peej, Shiny, Raggs, Scrumhead, Mellsblue, Gloskarlos, Stom, Margin_Walker for picking the boring, if right, answer.

More hearty applause for being wrong, but very brave with it, go to Switchskier, Epaminondas Pules, and fivepointer for picking 9th place Bristol, and a special award to FKAS for picking second-bottom Gloucester, which in fairness did look like a much less risible pick just two months ago.

Table order: Raggs has form for being good at this competition and I hope they're still lurking despite the sad loss of Wasps. They managed to pick the correct top 4 (not the right order but one of only two to believe in Sale, well done Mells as the other), Falcons as the bottom (surviving team), Glaws near the bottom, and Exeter mired 7th in mid-table. Nobody did anything too comedic here - mostly just expressions of belief in an Exeter recovery that never occurred (Timbo picking them as top of the table!) - although saddest is to see all the tables with 13 teams in them.

European predictions - how will the English teams do? The correct answer was 5 teams to the second round, 3 teams to the quarters, and one team to the semis, which was about par based on the predictions (some were more pessimistic, but one idiot predicted Leicester would win the whole thing, so I guess it evens out!).

Top try scorer: Top try scorer was Murley with 15, who was picked by scrumhead, 5p, and Margin. Excellent work.

On the other end of the scale, Raggs picked Nic Dolly, who I don't think actually got to play a Premiership game this season, but the real loser here is myself for, not only picking 1-try Courtnall Skosan, but for leading FKAS astray with me.

Top points scorer: Everyone's favourite "The Mod is specifically deleting this comment about him being not proven of sexual assault, so please don't pay it any mind" Paddy Jackson came in clear as the top-scorer, getting a pat on the head for Shiny, Scrumhead, Tigersman, EP, and Margin. Don't know I'd go for a drink with him, but hell of a kicker.

Surprise of the season: Mine and Stom's picks of Manu being uninjured for most of it was something of a monkey's paw - wish granted, he'll be uninjured, but he'll also be mostly crap.
Raggs gets an honourable mention for predicting Newcastle would cause problems for the top 4 despite having a bad season - 2 of their 6 victories were against Leicester and Sale and they came close to turning over Sarries and Saints as well.
Timbo's pick of Leinster failing to win a trophy again was pretty prescient as well.

Sad failures from the people predicting the survival of one or both of Wasps and Wuss.

Biggest disappointment: EP, Puja, Gloskarlos - Worcester not surviving. :( We weren't pessimistic enough - no-one picked any other sides being in trouble.

Tigersman said "Reckon 2 head coaches will get sacked end of season," but I don't think anyone was particularly disappointed by the one big name who did go.

Player having a breakthrough season: Once again, I picked Phil Cokanasiga. Once again, I was utterly thwarted. Seemed to start well, but even when Leicester were down to their last few fit backs, he was still getting gametime at Nottingham. I think I'm a curse to that man.

Epaminondas Pules gets undoubtedly the right answer with Seb Atkinson, although probably wasn't expecting that to be with Glaws when they made that call

Best signing: Lawrence wasn't an option back when we started doing this. Most people suggested Genge, Gopperth, Tizard, or McGinty - all had good moments, but none really set the league alight. I'm going to say we all failed, as a team.

Best unheralded signing: Tie between Margin Walker picking Fisichetti and Gloskarlos predicting FSmith to Saints. Raggs lost their usual accuracy by picking Jason Woodward to Sale - did he even get a game before being released at the end of the season?

The [Redacted] Award for lowest performance to hype ratio from a new signing: Sadly, no big signing really flopped this year. People mentioned Pollard and Watson, but both were decent for Leicester, and it feels a bit cruel to give the award to people who said that Koch won't solve all of Wasps' problems.

The Jerome Schuster Award for most valueless signing: Scrumhead is the clear champion here, leaning into the board trope that Argentine prop signings disappoint, and picking Eduardo Bello who managed 4 games off the bench and has just been released by Saracens.



Overall, a complete mixed bag - most people's predictions assumed there'd be at least 12 teams by the end of the season, which obviously skewed a lot of stuff. I'd say the winner this year is Raggs, who hopefully still lurks on the board despite the pain of losing Wasps, for picking the closest league table.

The loser this year is, of course, still me. Hopefully see you all again to try this again in a few months' time!

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Re: Premiership Predictions Thread - 2022/23

Post by Which Tyler »

I'm just glad I didn't partake this year
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Re: Premiership Predictions Thread - 2022/23

Post by Gloskarlos »

What an outrageously weird season it has been.
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Re: Premiership Predictions Thread - 2022/23

Post by Shiny »

I did as well as usual.
The green, black and gold army.
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Re: Premiership Predictions Thread - 2022/23

Post by FKAS »

"Best unheralded signing:
Burger Odendaal for Wasps, not much chat about him but he could be very hand, Robbie Smith at Saints will be their starting hooker by end of the season. Cracknell at Tigers though, that looks a great fit."

My unheralded signings prediction was pretty much spot on. Odendaal looked good at Wasps before the collapse, Smith was indeed the preferred Saints hooker by the end of the season and Cracknell did fit Tigers very well.

Now might be best not to revisit the rest of the predictions though...
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