RugbyRebels

Dragon should win easily away in Moscow.

Ospreys have their work cut out to get anything out of Saracens.

The Blues look like they'll lose away to Toulouse.

The only game which looks interesting is the Scarlets v Bath match, with the weather due to be poor that could be to Bath's advantage, the Scarlets really need 5 points from this one.

Bath fielding 5 Welsh players in their starting line-up.

Saracens: Goode; Williams, Taylor, Barritt (c), Wyles; Farrell, Wigglesworth; Vunipola, Brits, Figallo; Isiekwe, Kruis; Itoje, Clark, Wray

Replacements: George, Barrington, Koch, Skelton, Burger, Spencer, Lozowski, Tompkins

Ospreys: Evans, Hassler, Fonotia, Watkin, Allen, Biggar, Habberfield; Smith, Parry, Arhip;Beard, Jones (c); Lydiate, Tipuric, King

Replacements: Baldwin, James, Fia, Ashley, Mercer, Leonard, Davies, Hook

It's as good as the Ospreys can put out at the moment but it will need a second week of a solid display to even stay at a reasonable scoreline .

SCARLETS: L. Halfpenny; J. McNicholl, J. Davies, H. Parkes, S. Evans, R. Patchell, G. Davies; W. Jones, K. Owens (capt), S. Lee, J. Ball, L. Rawlins, A. Shingler, T. Beirne, W. Boyde.
Reps: R. Elias, D. Evans, W. Kruger, D. Bulbring, J. Macleod, J. Evans, P. Asquith, S. Williams.

BATH: A. Watson; S. Rokoduguni, J. Joseph, M. Clark, A. Brew, R. Priestland, K. Fotuali'i; B. Obano, T. Dunn, A. Perenise, C. Ewels (capt), L. Charteris, Z. Mercer, T. Faletau, S. Underhill.
Reps: J. Walker, N. Catt, S. Andrews, E. Stooke, P. Grant, D. Allinson, J. Lewis, M. Banahan

Strong sides on both ...it will be a great match and a good measure of the Scarlets.

ALunpg wrote:Saracens: Goode; Williams, Taylor, Barritt (c), Wyles; Farrell, Wigglesworth; Vunipola, Brits, Figallo; Isiekwe, Kruis; Itoje, Clark, Wray

Replacements: George, Barrington, Koch, Skelton, Burger, Spencer, Lozowski, Tompkins

Ospreys: Evans, Hassler, Fonotia, Watkin, Allen, Biggar, Habberfield; Smith, Parry, Arhip;Beard, Jones (c); Lydiate, Tipuric, King

Replacements: Baldwin, James, Fia, Ashley, Mercer, Leonard, Davies, Hook

It's as good as the Ospreys can put out at the moment but it will need a second week of a solid display to even stay at a reasonable scoreline .

SCARLETS: L. Halfpenny; J. McNicholl, J. Davies, H. Parkes, S. Evans, R. Patchell, G. Davies; W. Jones, K. Owens (capt), S. Lee, J. Ball, L. Rawlins, A. Shingler, T. Beirne, W. Boyde.
Reps: R. Elias, D. Evans, W. Kruger, D. Bulbring, J. Macleod, J. Evans, P. Asquith, S. Williams.

BATH: A. Watson; S. Rokoduguni, J. Joseph, M. Clark, A. Brew, R. Priestland, K. Fotuali'i; B. Obano, T. Dunn, A. Perenise, C. Ewels (capt), L. Charteris, Z. Mercer, T. Faletau, S. Underhill.
Reps: J. Walker, N. Catt, S. Andrews, E. Stooke, P. Grant, D. Allinson, J. Lewis, M. Banahan

Strong sides on both ...it will be a great match and a good measure of the Scarlets.

Aye, the two backlines are quality, the weather tho may come into play as there is supposed to be quite heavy rain and the wind is due to be nearing 20mph.

Really looking forwards to the Scarlets Bath game. Would say it's one of those Wales v England club clashes but it's as much Wales v Wales.

A must-win game for the Scarlets, as all the home games are really, if they are going to qualify from the group.

Big game for the Scarlets, hopefully they can get something up of this game, but the weather does look terrible.

Very disappointing from the Scarlets. Bath controlled the game & they never really looked like winning. Priestland MOTM to run salt into the wound.

Great & unexpected 15-17 win for the Blues out in France though!

Any win at Toulouse is an outstanding performance. .. well done the Blues

Toulouse: M Médard; W Mjekevu, J Poi, G Fickou, S Guitoune; J-M Doussain, A Dupont; R Neti, L Ghiraldini, D Aldegheri, P Faasalele, Y Maestri, S Kunatani, G Galan, F Cros.

Reps: D Roumieu, C Castets, M Van Dyk, F Verhaeghe, R Elstadt, S Bézy, R Ntamack, L Tauzin.

Cardiff Blues: M Morgan; A Cuthbert, R Lee-Lo, G Smith, B Scully; J Evans, T Williams; C Domachowski, K Dacey (capt), T Filise, J Down, D Welch, M Cook, J Navidi, N Williams.

Replacements: E Lewis, B Thyer, D Lewis, S Davies, O Robinson, L Williams, S Shingler, W Halaholo.

On recent form, very unexpected from the Blues but very welcome. Scarlets are in a poor position now and need some luck. From match reports it seems like their Achilles heel was against the issue and in poor weather, the Bath pack was dominant.

On the other hand, I wonder if Priestland might get a Wales call in the near future?

Sandydragon wrote:On recent form, very unexpected from the Blues but very welcome. Scarlets are in a poor position now and need some luck. From match reports it seems like their Achilles heel was against the issue and in poor weather, the Bath pack was dominant.

On the other hand, I wonder if Priestland might get a Wales call in the near future?

he's the form Welsh 10 I think but when has Gatland ever been concerned with that?

wayneha50 wrote:

Sandydragon wrote:On recent form, very unexpected from the Blues but very welcome. Scarlets are in a poor position now and need some luck. From match reports it seems like their Achilles heel was against the issue and in poor weather, the Bath pack was dominant.

On the other hand, I wonder if Priestland might get a Wales call in the near future?

he's the form Welsh 10 I think but when has Gatland ever been concerned with that?

It will be interesting to see if he does get a sniff . I think Gatland actually likes the way Preistland plays. ..it is his inner confidence that is his achilles .However when he is on form he has shown that he gets the attack going the most effectively of any 10 for Wales in recent years.
I would be happy to see him given a few chances to see what differance he makes.

One other thing.. congrats to the Dragons ...probably expected ..but a close affair.

wayneha50 wrote:Very disappointing from the Scarlets. Bath controlled the game & they never really looked like winning. Priestland MOTM to run salt into the wound.

I wasn't entirely surprised by the result. I'd thought that home advantage was the only difference between these two teams. They are both flattering to deceive and more importantly, they are both less than the sum of their parts.
It's only a quarter of the season.....they could both end up having a good year.

Well not a win for the Ospreys but reports seem to show a reasonable performance. I didn't see it myself so would be interested in those who did.

Whatthe actual feck.

Ospreys were hugely impressive for the most part.
Considering the huge injury problems & losing Lydiate just prior to kick off it was a superb performance.
Quite why it took them to mid October to put in a performance like this should be the talking point.
Sam Cross who was meant to be a travelling reserve started at 7 and was brilliant. The other flanker Mercer also put in a huge shift.
Owen Watkin was fantastic in midfield, such a shame he missed all of last year with injuries.
They made the best team in Europe look decidedly poor for Long parts of the game.
The deciding factor in the victory for me was the strength to the Sarries bench & the highly dubious penalty try decision.
Hope the O's will kick on now & start playing with some confidence.

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PoolerSaint wrote:Ospreys were hugely impressive for the most part.
Considering the huge injury problems & losing Lydiate just prior to kick off it was a superb performance.
Quite why it took them to mid October to put in a performance like this should be the talking point.
Sam Cross who was meant to be a travelling reserve started at 7 and was brilliant. The other flanker Mercer also put in a huge shift.
Owen Watkin was fantastic in midfield, such a shame he missed all of last year with injuries.
They made the best team in Europe look decidedly poor for Long parts of the game.
The deciding factor in the victory for me was the strength to the Sarries bench & the highly dubious penalty try decision.
Hope the O's will kick on now & start playing with some confidence.

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That is good info.. I listened to some commentry but it was sporadic reception
It is still a loss and it doesn't move the fact the Ospreys need to take this as a minimum standard.

Ospreys only the 2nd side to ever take a try bonus from Saracens at this home ground. The other Wasps in 2016.

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Better from the Ospreys, it they need to find some consistency. Hopefully Watkin can keep fit and on form this season as I think he has real potential.

Otherwise a useful win for th Dragons.

Well the Ospreys certainly stood up, unlucky not to get a win, they shipped 14 points when Dan Evans was in the bin which really lost them the game, can't blame Evans though as he scored two of the Os tries (and dropped a walk in pass).

I thought Arhip was outstanding, Owen Watkin had a good game, AWJ was excellent, Beard was quite good, Mercer was physical also and Nicky Smith was better than last week.

They finished the game with Cross playing on the wing and a front rower playing in the backrow, all after losing Lydiate and Tipuric prior to the game.

All in all a very good performance, let's hope they can keep on the upward curve.

I'm disappointed with the Scarlets result but thought they may struggle to play with the weather conditions, their one try was superb however (amazing flick from Boyde). I don't know when James Davies or Barclay are back but we're missing those two at the breakdown.

I'm pissed off the Challenge Cup seems to have zero TV coverage, I would have liked to have seen the other two regions in action, especially seeing as the Blues put together a very good performance in France.

Overall a good weekend for all but the Scarlets really who now need to win all their remaining games for a chance of qualifying imo.

Numbers wrote:I'm pissed off the Challenge Cup seems to have zero TV coverage, I would have liked to have seen the other two regions in action, especially seeing as the Blues put together a very good performance in France.

Agreed. Since SKY and BT are presumably convinced no one wants to watch these matches (which is nonsense) they really ought to sell them cheap to the Beeb. Oh wait, they're restricting the availability of the product to keep the price up, just like those bloody construction companies.