Aviva Premiership 13/14 season thread

matthew8

Try for Barritt. All Saracens this half so far.

matthew8

Quality kick from Farrell there. 21-17 despite Saracens missing 14 points off the tee.

Davei141

21-17 Sarries 58 mins gone. Momentum is all Sarries way.

matthew8

Could be another Saracens try!

Davei141

Looks like he is onside. Edit: Metre in front? I would like what that TMO is having.

matthew8

Off side called. Right call for me.

Davei141

Looked level to me. Quins are imploding so it might not matter anyway.

irishbucsfan

He was pretty clearly offside. A couple of season ago it would have stood though.

Bosch deserved something there after creating that break in the first place.

danthefan

Saracens are just strangling the life out of the game now. Their defence is so bloody organised, and starting to pick holes in Quins now. This game is only going one way imo.

matthew8

It was marginal, I thought marginally in front, but I thought they might just give him the benefit of the doubt.

Saracens through again and knock on. Harlequins have to do something fast or they'll be out of this match.

Davei141

Ash splash! Game over here.

matthew8

Ashton try. This is brilliant from Saracens. Very entertaining team. Bosch looks a really top quality player too.

sock puppet

Good work by the Wolfpack to set that up for the Try Machine.

Davei141

Saracens are rightly disliked for their off field stuff but I love watching them play rugby.

irishbucsfan

I hope Quins can pick up their play off the ball again to bring the contest back into the game. They're falling out of this very quickly.

matthew8

Saracens look an awful lot fresher than Quins. The only rugby their first team has had to play since Clermont has been an easy win at home to Worcester while Quins fought desperately for their place in the playoffs.

irishbucsfan

How dare Harlequins keep their best player on the pitch in the biggest game of the season!

Davei141

irishbucsfan wrote: »

How dare Harlequins keep their best player on the pitch in the biggest game of the season!

Well he is a liability in his current state.

matthew8

Nothing is going Quins way right now. Saracens make a mess at the base of the scrum and they manage to get one down at the 5 metre line.

irishbucsfan

Davei141 wrote: »

Well he is a liability in his current state.

Yeah, but the commentators made it sound as if he should be taken off for Stuart Lancaster's sake!

3 great players all go off at the same time there. Hopefully Borthwick is alright for the finals.

Davei141

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Yeah, but the commentators made it sound as if he should be taken off for Stuart Lancaster's sake!

3 great players all go off at the same time there. Hopefully Borthwick is alright for the finals.

Didn't hear the Lancaster bit, that's stupid alright.

sydneybound

Not really about the Aviva Prem but as the game was played in England I'll post here.

Anyone see the piss poor crowd at the London Wasps V Stade European playoff match? Game seemed to have been a triller ended 30-29 to Waps but only a crowd of 5,000 odd turned up.

Considering Wasps are a London club, I use the term lightly as their really based a good bit out, with such poor support their a nothing club. Connacht get better turn outs for what would be deemed a fairly big match against a decent French side.

irishbucsfan

sydneybound wrote: »

Not really about the Aviva Prem but as the game was played in England I'll post here.

Anyone see the piss poor crowd at the London Wasps V Stade European playoff match? Game seemed to have been a triller ended 30-29 to Waps but only a crowd of 5,000 odd turned up.

Considering Wasps are a London club, I use the term lightly as their really based a good bit out, with such poor support their a nothing club. Connacht get better turn outs for what would be deemed a fairly big match against a decent French side.

They're absolutely not a "nothing club". They're based in Wycombe, not in London. The game wasn't advertised because there was no body to advertise it and there were planned disruptions to rail services in the area making it impossible for some to travel (made it impossible for me, I happen to live around the corner from them, although I ended up heading in to work yesterday anyway).

Their attendance figures this season have been pretty good considering the very low capacity of Adams Park, might be worth actually looking them up.

sydneybound

I know the club and that part of London quite well as it goes. It seems we don’t live too far apart.. very defensive post in fairness.

Adams Park is one of the less glamorous grounds in the prem and holds just over 10,000 which Wasps have ever got near this season. http://www.premiershiprugby.com/matchcentre/fixtures/fixtures.php
Even a high profile game against Leicester back in October which I watched on BT Sport when Andy Goode had a brilliant game only 7,000 attended. Two weeks later they played Bath another high profile club and had 5,000 to attend.

What artificially boosts their overall attendance figures is the London double header at the start of the season and the other game played in Twickenham in April against Gloucester and only got 35,000 odd. This was heavily promoted in the Evening Standard (free paper) in the two weeks leading up and the tickets where dirt cheap and yet they couldn’t get near the 74,000 Harlequins got when they played their Christmas match albeit at a different time of year

I feel a club coming up like Bristol, which is a good rugby town, will offer more to the Aviva more than Wasps. They’ll have a steady crowd of 7 to 8,000 (which they got against London Welsh) and upwards of 10,000 for big games against Leicester or West Country derby’s.

matthew8

Bristol are in massive trouble in the promotion playoff. Ryan Jones looks like he's broken his leg and they're down 22-5 away to London Welsh.

thomond2006

matthew8 wrote: »

Bristol are in massive trouble in the promotion playoff. Ryan Jones looks like he's broken his leg and they're down 22-5 away to London Welsh.

There's a few Irish players going there next year so I hope they can turn it around.

What a cluster**** it will be if they don't go up. There will be a lot of contracts to rip up or pay off.

Grandpa Hassan

My old man lives in Bristol. Tells me about the local expectation. Promotion to the premiership is almost an assumption, and with the new stadium the chat is about Bristol becoming a force in English rugby. I still fancy them to overcome this in the 2nd leg (if it is dry and they can play their expansive game), but they are making it hard for themselves and one mores score by the welsh, or a rainy day in Bristol, and it's all over for Andy Robinson. Would be a monumental disaster

Grandpa Hassan

And there's a yellow and another 3

Buer

27-8.

Looks very likely that this tie is done and dusted after the first leg. Bristol will need to do something special in the return leg. LW know they can just play a very tight game, wind the clock, play territory and make sure they don't lose by a big margin.

There will surely have to be one or two contracts torn up (or were signed on the basis that Premiership rugby was achieved). Jack Lam surely cannot still join them. Guys like Dwayne Peel, Matthew Morgan and Ross Rennie must be trying to figure out how to get out of it.

Very disappointing for JOC and Hudson. They'll have signed their deals with the aim of establishing themselves in the AP.

matthew8

I wouldn't say it's quite done and dusted. Bristol have scored a lot of tries this year and are capable of putting up a big score. Just over a month ago they won at home to Welsh 25-21 but it was 25-0 after 70 minutes.