I'm not sure whether I would start him over Maitland (whose form this season has also been incredible) but who would've thought we'd be even entertaining this at the beginning of the season
Definitely, given his age I thought the one year contract extension he signed at the end of last season was great. But with Malins off and Segun's injury problems this season do you think we'll sign him for another year? I know we have a(nother) winger coming from London Irish, but would be good to have more depth if possible
the super rugby system is ref gives a yellow. game restarts, TMO automatically continues reviewing it to see if it should be upgraded to a red card. if he thinks its a red, lets the ref know, next break he tells the players/crowd and thats that
This sounds like a good approach. In terms of practicalities how does it work? Is there a second TMO who handles the restarted game? After the review does the TMO present the findings to the on-field referee or do they just say whether it's a red or yellow card and then continue? Apologies I don't get to watch much super rugby so interested in how its implemented
Hartley did an amazing offload in front of me, like a basketball player who rolls the ball behind the head of the opposition player then passed it out the back of the hand. Definite potential there.
I was out and planning to watch the game later, but we've had a couple of games this season where we race to the four try bonus points in the first half then completely park the bus in the second. Is that what happened today?
I just read this and the discussion paints a grim picture. The same alanine point mutation in the polymerase observed in the infected mink was observed in the 2009 swine flu. Further, it seems that this T271A PB2 mutation seems to help other influenza viruses acquire a critical HA point mutation at position 226 leading to human “receptor recognition”. I’m really surprised this isn’t the top headline on every news source considering that this influenza strain has shown a 53% mortality in humans infected with it so far. Guess I’ll go ahead and order masks and bleach before there’s a run.
Whilst you are right this same mutation was found in the 2009 H1N1 swine influenza virus, the gene segments present in these two viruses are very different. So whilst this mutation could have a potential impact on the ability of this virus to replicate in mammalian cells this may also require other mutations or a different genetic backbone.
I know Dunc is a massive talent when he's fit, but we should probably have thought 'we've had a good 50 mins out of him today, might be best to take him off and rest him given the 6 nations'. Alas, I hope this one isn't too serious but it did not look good.
Kitchener took a very hard hit when jumping for a bouncing ball in the very first few mins. He went down about three times in the first half for the physio, I do wonder if the landing concussed him a bit.
Just watched the game this morning and Kitchener was taken out in the air jumping for the ball so I'm not sure why that wasn't looked at. After that he didn't look with it at all.
Manu has to prove himself but he needs the opportunity to do so. I think moving Loz to 10 would be a bit too much re-jigging to the backline and we’d lose that distribution he brings.
I think that's fair, and I do agree that Manu needs more time (that's had a really positive impact for other players like van Zyl and Lewington). I guess it's just a bit harder in the short term where there is such a difference between the two.
Fair enough, classic Mako. I had to double check Taylor wasn't named in the squad after your post and thought that someone needed to tell McCall that we'd all agreed to not name or reference him.
At lock we'll still have Tizard (who has really hit some good form the last couple of games). I'm guessing Hunter-Hill is out injured for a while, leaving us with Cameron Boon and maybe Jackson Wray who can play lock. But not a lot of depth there.
Gonna be tough without them for the four Premiership games against Bristol, Leicester, Newcastle and Sale - although some squad players may get released.
Potentially looking at missing 11 players in total, which will definitely be difficult for those games. Wales, Scotland and Italy are normally better at releasing players for the 6 nation break weekends which could help a bit.
Yeah Wray went off last week and obviously McFarland is injured, we haven’t got a massively deep squad. Somewhat surprised Knight or Stonham haven’t been picked (if fit) but Dan has proved himself earlier in the season so I can see the reasoning.
I forgot about Wray last week. Dan played great during the autumn nations fixtures so definitely deserves the place in the squad. Both he and Woolstencroft have provided back row cover in the past so good flexibility in the absence of McFarland, as well as Pifeleti being somewhat out of form.
Definitely, I just took a look at the report for the Coleman red and it states that the recovery period for the player was still unknown at the time of the panel. How does that not constitute a high entry point.
That is a slippery slope. Dane Haylett-Petty was concussed by Jordie Barrett in a Bledisloe a few years ago and never recovered. I think one you start bringing injury into it you are opening a can of worms.
I do get what you're saying and the long term effects of a head contact can never be accurately estimated. But the fact that it's mentioned in the report suggests it has a bearing on the outcome, and if it doesn't then it shouldn't be in there.
I know there were the stories of Maro asking for 1 million a year to go to Racing when we got relegated and I'm sure he's really pushing for a salary increase in his ongoing negotiations, given how good a player he is. However I don't see him leaving for France/Japan to chase the money as that will count him out of England contention especially going into another world cup cycle.
I know people are saying this makes it seem that Billy V is on his way out, and maybe so. Still though, quality signing. Also, with regard to salary cap space, I have to think that Duncan Taylor is leaving the club soon and that may free up a little. I’m not trying to sound ruthless, but he has the worst luck I’ve ever seen when it comes to injury. For his long term health, he may have to look at other options. Or something in an off field capacity.
On the salary cap side of things, Maitland only signed a one year extension, which would suggest he may be off the end of the season. Although given his recent form I wouldn't be surprised if he got another year.
Yeah it was abysmal, 1 in 3 taken at best, but he's almost totally eliminated it. He's gone from an extremely raw 18 year old to a pretty skilful 19 year old who is a nightmare to tackle. Yep, McFarland is probably his closest analogue at the moment for me.
Ah fair enough. Great work there then by all at LI! I hope he stays with you and continues his development. It would be good for LI to see some more of the benefit from their academy rather than them just get pillaged by other teams (I know we've benefitted from that in the past).
His handling was so bad when he arrived, but his general skillset has improved very rapidly. We're slowly introducing him, but if Borthwick wants a bulldozer of an 8 who is very useful elsewhere I'm not sure there's many better in the Prem. Handful in the line out and rucks as well.
Oh really? I wouldn't have said that from looking at hm play. Gives me Theo McFarland vibes with being able to smash people but also offload, at least from the very small amount I've seen him play.
Yeah Goode was 10 when Faz was banned in 2020 and for most of when he was injured last season. Loz is definitely at quality option but I just love him at 13 now, so solid and composed. Plus I’m fully in on Daly at 15 now.
That's fair, I do love that when you have Tompkins and Loz both playing you get two centres who run those really hard Brad Barrett lines, but are also ready to take it to the line and pop it out the back. Really nice to watch.
Dickson should have done much better, but honestly this is the result of everyone pushing to speed the game up and the unending bitching about TMO interventions.
You've hit the nail on the head here. I think the thing that annoys me the most though is the lack of consistency between refs and games. This will only be made worse by forcing refs to speed up the game, thereby giving them less time to actually consider events and discuss with the TMO.
That's effectively our strongest squad minus injuries.
I'm not sure whether I would start him over Maitland (whose form this season has also been incredible) but who would've thought we'd be even entertaining this at the beginning of the season
I think Maitland has consistently been great for us, so solid.
Definitely, given his age I thought the one year contract extension he signed at the end of last season was great. But with Malins off and Segun's injury problems this season do you think we'll sign him for another year? I know we have a(nother) winger coming from London Irish, but would be good to have more depth if possible
Two very strong teams there, should be a really good game. Only change I might have made is Segun on the bench ahead of Lewington.
It would've been nice to see Segun on the bench but he has been in and out with injury this season and Lewington's form has been incredible.
the super rugby system is ref gives a yellow. game restarts, TMO automatically continues reviewing it to see if it should be upgraded to a red card. if he thinks its a red, lets the ref know, next break he tells the players/crowd and thats that
This sounds like a good approach. In terms of practicalities how does it work? Is there a second TMO who handles the restarted game? After the review does the TMO present the findings to the on-field referee or do they just say whether it's a red or yellow card and then continue? Apologies I don't get to watch much super rugby so interested in how its implemented
Ah ok that makes sense to me and I think this is something we should try in the NH.
Is this being streamed through the website?
Yes, they've said it will be streamed
Perfect, thanks! Will be good to see how the younger lads get on.
Hartley did an amazing offload in front of me, like a basketball player who rolls the ball behind the head of the opposition player then passed it out the back of the hand. Definite potential there.
Ah so pretty text book then.
I was out and planning to watch the game later, but we've had a couple of games this season where we race to the four try bonus points in the first half then completely park the bus in the second. Is that what happened today?
Was brilliant when he played for us, quick at the ruck. Set up a try against Gloucester at home, if my memory serves me right.
Also scored a try as well I think. Great signing
I just read this and the discussion paints a grim picture. The same alanine point mutation in the polymerase observed in the infected mink was observed in the 2009 swine flu. Further, it seems that this T271A PB2 mutation seems to help other influenza viruses acquire a critical HA point mutation at position 226 leading to human “receptor recognition”. I’m really surprised this isn’t the top headline on every news source considering that this influenza strain has shown a 53% mortality in humans infected with it so far. Guess I’ll go ahead and order masks and bleach before there’s a run.
Whilst you are right this same mutation was found in the 2009 H1N1 swine influenza virus, the gene segments present in these two viruses are very different. So whilst this mutation could have a potential impact on the ability of this virus to replicate in mammalian cells this may also require other mutations or a different genetic backbone.
You and sale can put out B teams until the semi’s now !
Given our injury problems and the games during the six nations we're going to have to
I thought it was a weird decision to take Loz off for Tompkins instead of Dunc but it shows how important the latter is, especially with Daly injured.
I know Dunc is a massive talent when he's fit, but we should probably have thought 'we've had a good 50 mins out of him today, might be best to take him off and rest him given the 6 nations'. Alas, I hope this one isn't too serious but it did not look good.
Kitchener took a very hard hit when jumping for a bouncing ball in the very first few mins. He went down about three times in the first half for the physio, I do wonder if the landing concussed him a bit.
Just watched the game this morning and Kitchener was taken out in the air jumping for the ball so I'm not sure why that wasn't looked at. After that he didn't look with it at all.
I'm looking forward to seeing Hougaard hopefully getting some game time.
Manu has to prove himself but he needs the opportunity to do so. I think moving Loz to 10 would be a bit too much re-jigging to the backline and we’d lose that distribution he brings.
I think that's fair, and I do agree that Manu needs more time (that's had a really positive impact for other players like van Zyl and Lewington). I guess it's just a bit harder in the short term where there is such a difference between the two.
Did you also take a photo of Mako?
Hahaha, nah this was after the game. Mako off camera looking for his contact lense
Fair enough, classic Mako. I had to double check Taylor wasn't named in the squad after your post and thought that someone needed to tell McCall that we'd all agreed to not name or reference him.
He was chosen for the six nations before that game happened tbf
Really? I just assumed cos the announcement was this week it was more recent
https://www.reddit.com/r/rugbyunion/comments/zqxygk/6_nations_referees_announced/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
Thanks for that! Completely missed it.
6 out of our pack, possibly we get Christie back for some weeks. Need the young boys to step up. Not sure what we’ll be doing at lock.
At lock we'll still have Tizard (who has really hit some good form the last couple of games). I'm guessing Hunter-Hill is out injured for a while, leaving us with Cameron Boon and maybe Jackson Wray who can play lock. But not a lot of depth there.
Well there you go! Didnt5know that so thanks!
Before the injury though he was really beginning to fit into the team nicely
Yeah that rings a bell, pretty sure he said he didn’t want to travel all that way to hold tackle bags! 😂
Given the form he is in of late he's deserves the call up
Gonna be tough without them for the four Premiership games against Bristol, Leicester, Newcastle and Sale - although some squad players may get released.
Potentially looking at missing 11 players in total, which will definitely be difficult for those games. Wales, Scotland and Italy are normally better at releasing players for the 6 nation break weekends which could help a bit.
That is just vintage Itoje madness
Yeah Wray went off last week and obviously McFarland is injured, we haven’t got a massively deep squad. Somewhat surprised Knight or Stonham haven’t been picked (if fit) but Dan has proved himself earlier in the season so I can see the reasoning.
I forgot about Wray last week. Dan played great during the autumn nations fixtures so definitely deserves the place in the squad. Both he and Woolstencroft have provided back row cover in the past so good flexibility in the absence of McFarland, as well as Pifeleti being somewhat out of form.
I think Knight is too old now, our only call ups were Bracken jr and Tobias Elliott from memory.
Ah complete confusion by me there. My bad.
Gareth Simpson is rumoured to be joining permanently next season.
I really hope this is true. I was really impressed by the little game time he did get.
Coleman’s was as bad as if not worse than Farrell’s hit on Atkinson, so absolutely should’ve been the high entry point
Definitely, I just took a look at the report for the Coleman red and it states that the recovery period for the player was still unknown at the time of the panel. How does that not constitute a high entry point.
That is a slippery slope. Dane Haylett-Petty was concussed by Jordie Barrett in a Bledisloe a few years ago and never recovered. I think one you start bringing injury into it you are opening a can of worms.
I do get what you're saying and the long term effects of a head contact can never be accurately estimated. But the fact that it's mentioned in the report suggests it has a bearing on the outcome, and if it doesn't then it shouldn't be in there.
Maro is out of contract at the end of this season, defo see him going to France/Japan for a season or two. Hopefully he will be back
I know there were the stories of Maro asking for 1 million a year to go to Racing when we got relegated and I'm sure he's really pushing for a salary increase in his ongoing negotiations, given how good a player he is. However I don't see him leaving for France/Japan to chase the money as that will count him out of England contention especially going into another world cup cycle.
I know people are saying this makes it seem that Billy V is on his way out, and maybe so. Still though, quality signing. Also, with regard to salary cap space, I have to think that Duncan Taylor is leaving the club soon and that may free up a little. I’m not trying to sound ruthless, but he has the worst luck I’ve ever seen when it comes to injury. For his long term health, he may have to look at other options. Or something in an off field capacity.
On the salary cap side of things, Maitland only signed a one year extension, which would suggest he may be off the end of the season. Although given his recent form I wouldn't be surprised if he got another year.
Yeah it was abysmal, 1 in 3 taken at best, but he's almost totally eliminated it. He's gone from an extremely raw 18 year old to a pretty skilful 19 year old who is a nightmare to tackle. Yep, McFarland is probably his closest analogue at the moment for me.
Ah fair enough. Great work there then by all at LI! I hope he stays with you and continues his development. It would be good for LI to see some more of the benefit from their academy rather than them just get pillaged by other teams (I know we've benefitted from that in the past).
His handling was so bad when he arrived, but his general skillset has improved very rapidly. We're slowly introducing him, but if Borthwick wants a bulldozer of an 8 who is very useful elsewhere I'm not sure there's many better in the Prem. Handful in the line out and rucks as well.
Oh really? I wouldn't have said that from looking at hm play. Gives me Theo McFarland vibes with being able to smash people but also offload, at least from the very small amount I've seen him play.
Relevant part here:
Interesting potential signing, not too familiar but would he be a decent fit at 8 for Sarries?
Yeah Ludlow got away with murder at the break down, Dallaglio was loving any shenanigans by Gloucester in that department.
Yeah Goode was 10 when Faz was banned in 2020 and for most of when he was injured last season. Loz is definitely at quality option but I just love him at 13 now, so solid and composed. Plus I’m fully in on Daly at 15 now.
That's fair, I do love that when you have Tompkins and Loz both playing you get two centres who run those really hard Brad Barrett lines, but are also ready to take it to the line and pop it out the back. Really nice to watch.
Dickson should have done much better, but honestly this is the result of everyone pushing to speed the game up and the unending bitching about TMO interventions.
You've hit the nail on the head here. I think the thing that annoys me the most though is the lack of consistency between refs and games. This will only be made worse by forcing refs to speed up the game, thereby giving them less time to actually consider events and discuss with the TMO.
Incredible kick there, honestly thought he'd overcooked it when I was watching live.