Aviva Premiership - Round 11

[Tony Manx]

Blimey, just turned on the Quins game to see them in front, and Mike Brown tearing Saints' defence to shreds!

That was more like the Brown of old..........Saints now moved ahead!

Saints scrum is dominant but loved Barnsie bending down to watch the "put in" go crooked and totally ignore it!!!

 

[Maverick1987]

Yarde seems to be having a good game too ... Be nice to see him end his run of bad form . Can be a really important player for England even though May has really impressed me of late

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

ANd with the talk of English wingers Benjamin had a good game today and is getting his confidence back which is very good to see.

 

[Tony Manx]

Strange how that prop (Ma'hafu?) has his arm so well bound up just where it hit the guy's head...........I am not sure it is bound for any other reason as its a very strange place to have strapping that thick? Fully desreved yellow when you consider he almost had to jump up to get him around the neck!!

 

[Maverick1987]

Jack Clifford looking a top player too . Doesn't look out of depth at this level at all .

 

[jonny24]

Great game so far. Come on Quins!

 

[ratsapprentice]

Oh look... Corbisiero's back is facing the crowd again....

 

[Maverick1987]

Oh look... Corbisiero's back is facing the crowd again....

As long as he does it vs Sam Lee in February I don't really care .... Lol

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Oh look... Corbisiero's back is facing the crowd again....

There's a certain irony about a Bath fan saying that, considering you have Paul James there...

 

[Wendigo7]

How on earth did we lose that?

Played so well

 

[Maverick1987]

There's a certain irony about a Bath fan saying that, considering you have Paul James there...

I'm not sure it's always Corbisieros fault I think sometimes he's too powerful and the TH has nowhere to go but inside

 

[j'nuh]

How on earth did we lose that?

Played so well

When you played at pace, you made a lot of breaks and went up the field quite fast. But I thought that any lull in the pace and Quins struggled to handle the physicality of the Saints pack. The Quins pack had to work really hard to remove the Saints players from the breakdown, and the Saints defensive line kept catching Quins players behind the gain line and shunting them backwards. Individually, quite a few of the Quins pack looked impressive. Just not sure it came together as a unit.

 

[ratsapprentice]

There's a certain irony about a Bath fan saying that, considering you have Paul James there...

I call PJ out when he does it too.

And actually, he does it worse than James does, and James has actually stopped being so ****ing blatant because he was getting pinged for it.

 

[Patchey]

Just got in from the Quins game, losing when you have 75% possession, make four times as many carries and the oppo do roughly three times as much tackling is tough.

Fair play though, Saints looked like defending champions. tough, determined and physical, they took their chances. We were very good in attack, especially in the second half. Clifford was immense, while Yarde and Brown looked in better nick than any other game so far this season. Great to see Monye back. Sweil was at times excellent but also gave away another charge down.

 

[Tony Manx]

First time I have seen Sweil and thought that overall he had a cracking game.

OK there was a charge down and his tee kicking was not great but the pluses were greater than the minuses by far and he has time on his side....he tackled, passed, broke and has speed.

Nick Evans has a serious rival at last for the 10 spot..........and that is a good thing!

Now if only they could get a cohesive scrum and some tactical nous.........

 

[Peat]

He's got some serious talent, but (obviously) he's got to work on his fly-half basics - those missed kicks and charge down can be considered the difference, and he's got to eradicate those. Hope he stays in England.

 

[Maverick1987]

I see Swiel pulled out of the u20s SA team so he could keep his options open as a British passport holder . Interesting stuff

 

[Draggs]

Glad to hear it regarding Swiel. Looked great prior to U21, just needs to find his feet. Could be a good competitor for Zeilinga and eventually Lambie for us.

 

[Patchey]

Yeah, he was a real bright spark and is starting to look much more at home than in his first few appearances. But that is the third (?) time he's been charged down under little pressure in about a month. As Peat says, basics. As a team we often tend too much towards relying on flair to get us out of sticky situations. In a way, Sweil is a very 'Quins type' player.

The place kicking should be less of an issue though. He is fairly accurate up to medium distance/difficulty (see the win over Falcons where he scored all of our points). However, his accuracy goes off a cliff when asked to take long or wide kicks. That isn't a deal breaker for a fly-half, it just means you need to cultivate a second kicking option in your starting 15. Most good teams have that but, inexplicably, we never seem to bother. In fact we don't even have a bench fly-half at the moment, despite Grimoldby being fit! We are a strange club...

Rumours flying that Sweil will stay, but I don't see that happening until the 2014/15 season. Way I understand it, he has to go back to the Sharks for the 2015 Super Rugby, regardless of any money we could offer or if he can be persuaded to stay.

 

[ratsapprentice]

Well... he's better than Botica.

Swiel staying at Quins and Cips staying at Sale would be great.