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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2021:09:17:07:28:55 by Saint Ted.

Furbank starts both warm ups at 10. Interesting.

Litchfield at 14? The coaches must see him as promising with so much game time

We have limited 2nd row and back row options but the back row is unbalanced for me with no big brute 6/lineout option. Reminds me a little of when Richards, Rodber and Clark played for England. Great individually but collectively it didn't work. Hope I'm wrong but I can see our lineout struggling with this back row once the season proper starts if this is Boyd's preferred back row.

COYS!!! Even if it is just a warm-up!

Couple of things for me

Ball retention, wasn’t the best against Bedford

Patience
Let’s see some phase play rather than trying the match winning pass every time we get the ball

Clear the breakdown quicker get continuity

Speed of pass from the 9

The score is immaterial

Think selections shows a fair number of injuries in play before season starts. Enjoy the game.

No sign of Nansen?

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Expeeler
No sign of Nansen?

Nor Piers or Chris Cook and I don’t recall them being mentioned as being injured

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Saint Maul
Furbank starts both warm ups at 10. Interesting.

I'm assuming it's to give him more 'real life' exposure instead of just training and also to an extent wrapping Grayson in cotton wool at this point

I agree it is wrapping Grayson. We can't afford for him to get injured in a friendly before the season starts.

Much better game so far
Litchfield and Proctor catching the eye
Furbank looking ok at 10

Forwards are half a yard off the pace
Need to sharpen up

How did we do? Spent the day reconstructing a shoulder. Just got home? Could we actually hold on to the ball? Who looked good?

Final score 31:26. Second half very disjointed with changes. Changed the front row at half time and went badly wrong. I think it will be fairly straightforward starting line up next week

A win and I suppose we should be happy, but I was really concerned about the amount of times Ospreys broke through our midfield and even more concerned about the amount of penalties we gave away, especially at scrum time, both these issues were problems in the past have we progressed?, Back three seemed sharp also Woody and Lewis come out with lots of credit. Not sure why we didn't have a defined first team as now no more friendlies, not full of optimism, but friendlies are hard to judge compared to the "real" games.

I say this with trepidation, but how were our lineouts???

Very interested in how Augustus, Proctor, Tupai (who I think has a lot of potential), and Litchfield. All can - and hopefully will be - difference makers and hopefully plus up the club.

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Saint Gordo
I say this with trepidation, but how were our lineouts??? They were ok think we lost 1 the whole game, Ospreys had a good rolling maul from their line outs and we defended them ok, we mainly threw to first jumper and quick ball off the top.
Very interested in how Augustus, Proctor, Tupai (who I think has a lot of potential), and Litchfield. All can - and hopefully will be - difference makers and hopefully plus up the club.

Augustus had HIA early in first half came back on second half and looks the real deal, gets over the game line every carry, reads the game well wil fit in well.

Proctor had a steady game had a few runs up the middle, hopefully he will keep this spot in the centre rather than wing.

Tupac came off early not sure if injury but only 15-20 minutes but linked well with furbank at 10

Lichfield had a good first half scored a good team try, looks a unit that could become a regular, good under high ball

Thought the line out worked well in the first hall as did the pack and we won a few penalties and looked ok. Was a big change when the players rotated and then gave penalties away. Suggest to me the starting pack?

So good news overall then. Really want to see the replay, but still cleaning up after work and a report to write. I think we are really hoping Augustus is the real deal (with a name like that!). Have our two new SH signings arrived yet?

Thanks for the info Chris and spraggster, outside the country until next year so will be calling on solid reviews!

Enjoyed that. I thought we were the better team by more than the scoreline. Totally dominant first half. We gifted a couple of tries.

I really liked our lineout maul defence
Ludlam on the wing worked really well and I can see us deploying him there
Really good close ruck tackling so Ospreys rarely broke the gainline.

A number of good performances
Tom Collins has been man of the warm up games for me.
Furbank looked class when he was on. Playing flat and taking the ball to the line he created some great tries (and kicked well). Interesting Lenny thinks Furbank is ahead of Grayson
Lineout looked a lot better with Matavesi throwing in
Api gets better with age
Augustus breaks the gainline even without a running start. His tackling stops people in their tracks and he is rapid and seems to work hard in defence. So very promising.
Mitchell looked in good form with some lovely weaving runs and some fast accurate passes to put people into space
Dingwall's option-taking is so impressive. Lovely distribution .
Litchfield is one to watch. He's looked decent in both warm ups
I didn't realise Ace had long COVID. So great to see him back firing.

In the negative column, like said above we still are too easy to break through in midfield. Hopefully just warm up cobwebs.
Unnecessary penalties persist, like last season, when Opsreys weren't threatening e.g. the ref penalised Moon for bumping the catcher in the lineout. At the resulting lineout he does the same thing.

Re the new laws; Has there been one 50/22 kick in either warm up or a player held up over the line?

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HammerSaint
A win and I suppose we should be happy, but I was really concerned about the amount of times Ospreys broke through our midfield and even more concerned about the amount of penalties we gave away, especially at scrum time, both these issues were problems in the past have we progressed?, Back three seemed sharp also Woody and Lewis come out with lots of credit. Not sure why we didn't have a defined first team as now no more friendlies, not full of optimism, but friendlies are hard to judge compared to the "real" games.

That's how I saw it.

Tupai came off early after a couple of cock-ups (someone will say that's unkind, but it's true).

Litchfield's talent has been obvious since his cameo at the end of last season, shame he didn't get an opportunity at 12.

I may be mistaken, but I think I saw Api jump at a lineout.

Trokkie has some finesse - not just brute power.

No injuries tonight (though Tonks' injured his knee v Bedford), no red cards and a good workout. So job done. Bring on Gloucester

With Lawes and Biggar not available, Skosun and Lomani isolating, Freeman and Sleightholme still recovering, v Gloucester I'd go with

15 Collins
14 Big T
13 Hutchinson
12 Francis
11 Proctor
10 Furbank
9 Mitchell
8 Augustus
7 Ludlam
6 Coles
5 Api
4 Ribbans
3 Hill
2 Matavesi
1 Waller

16 Auterac
17 Fish (unless Mikey or Marshall are fit)
18 Painter
19 Moon (unless Nansen is fit)
20 Harrison
21 Cook
22 Grayson
23 Tuala

Hard on Wood and Dingwall but we'll rotate.

For me the easy in which Ospreys broke through, highlights still an issue at 12 and not been solved.
Lots to work on with forwards.
Proctor plays much better at 13 and should be 1st choice. Effectiveness reduced at wing. We need to have wingers not centers playing wing.
Collins was good tonight at 15 but kicking game needs to be raised.
Think Big T injured so may be not available next week.
Ollie S has been injured 50% of last 3 seasons. I can see why club signed Skosun.
Looking forward to season but keeping expectations in mid range.

I think Furbank is ahead of Grayson on that performance. I think Grayson is trying to hard to make things work. That’s understandable.
Litchfield looks good.
I thought TC was in the twilight of his career. How wrong was I!

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Saint Maul
Enjoyed that. I thought we were the better team by more than the scoreline. Totally dominant first half. We gifted a couple of tries.
I really liked our lineout maul defence
Ludlam on the wing worked really well and I can see us deploying him there
Really good close ruck tackling so Ospreys rarely broke the gainline.

A number of good performances
Tom Collins has been man of the warm up games for me.
Furbank looked class when he was on. Playing flat and taking the ball to the line he created some great tries (and kicked well). Interesting Lenny thinks Furbank is ahead of Grayson
Lineout looked a lot better with Matavesi throwing in
Api gets better with age
Augustus breaks the gainline even without a running start. His tackling stops people in their tracks and he is rapid and seems to work hard in defence. So very promising.
Mitchell looked in good form with some lovely weaving runs and some fast accurate passes to put people into space
Dingwall's option-taking is so impressive. Lovely distribution .
Litchfield is one to watch. He's looked decent in both warm ups
I didn't realise Ace had long COVID. So great to see him back firing.

In the negative column, like said above we still are too easy to break through in midfield.

Hopefully just warm up cobwebs.
Unnecessary penalties persist, like last season, when Opsreys weren't threatening e.g. the ref penalised Moon for bumping the catcher in the lineout. At the resulting lineout he does the same thing.

Re the new laws; Has there been one 50/22 kick in either warm up or a player held up over the line?

A couple of neat 59/22 kicks by Grayson (iirc) at Bedford, and one held up drop out from under the posts. The fact that the defending team also get the line out that follows the drop out makes being held up expensive. Might cause Chiefs to tweak their tactics.

Back up Hooker is a problem, thought Fish had a poor all round half last night, Matevesi nailed on to start largely due to lack of competition. Francis hasn’t played either game so suspect we’ll see Proctor and Hutchinson in the centre. 10 is interesting, had Freeman been fit it would be easier to say it’s a straight shoot out between Grayson & Furbank for the 10 shirt. Given he’s not fit I’d rather play George at 15 with Grays at 10. My back line would be;
Mitchell, Grayson,
Hutchinson,Proctor
Collins, Furbank, Big T (although I think Litchfield has definitely put his hand up for a spot on the wing)

Like the back row of Ludlam, Augustus, Harrison. Hopefully Ribbans fit and raring to next week

Didn't watch it, but interesting that Vesty has said it will be close between Grayson & Furbank in who starts at 10, alas with Lennie Newman also apparently saying the same thing.

Big season for Grayson.

Big season for Boyd. We have the animals to compete, but do we have the coach?
Results so far are mixed....

Think Boyd will be off at the end of the season anyway.

I do too.

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Sans Culottes

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Saint Maul
Re the new laws; Has there been one 50/22 kick in either warm up or a player held up over the line?

A couple of neat 59/22 kicks by Grayson (iirc) at Bedford, and one held up drop out from under the posts. The fact that the defending team also get the line out that follows the drop out makes being held up expensive. Might cause Chiefs to tweak their tactics.

Cheers. I'm surprised we didn't use the warm ups to experiment and try and capitalise on the new laws more.

With the pick and go close to the line allowing the player to go over the line (even pulling them over) but focusing on getting under the attacker's body to hold the ball up. Kicks through into in goal for 50/50s given the drop out is from the goal line (if I've understood it correctly). Positioning kickers in midfield just behind the halfway to kick into the 22 touch at a good angle forcing defenders back or risk giving away a lineout.

I didn't see us really try any of this, which are my first thoughts on how to try and exploit the new laws.

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Saint Maul
Cheers. I'm surprised we didn't use the warm ups to experiment and try and capitalise on the new laws more.

Interestingly of you read other game threads this seems a common theme. Certainly we (Saracens) were held up twice in the last game against Ulster and they used the new kick 50/22 kick against us a couple of times effectively. We looked like unprepared although given that quite a few Premiership teams did I am hoping it was a case of keeping our hands hidden till the Premiership starts.

I thought both Laws would have quite an impact but tbh watching the Rugby Championship and the Premiership warm-ups it's been pretty minimal. I also expect Chiefs to deal with the Law quite well as they have become experts of going in low anyway. The issue, as we found out, is a maul that when it goes over the line is still quite upright as it's quite easy for some defender to get under the ball.