Premiership 24/25 - Round 9

[TRF_Olyy]

​

 

[The Seeker]

Gloucester > Exeter

 

[Reiser99]

Gloucester > Exeter
View attachment 22439

Your boldest prediction yet.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Sale Sharks Starting XV:
15. Joe Carpenter, 14. Tom Roebuck, 13. Rob du Preez, 12. Luke James, 11. Tom O'Flaherty, 10. George Ford, 9. Raffi Quirke, 1. Bevan Rodd, 2. Luke Cowan-Dickie, 3. Asher Opoku-Fordjour, 4. Ernst van Rhyn, 5. Jonny Hill, 6. Tom Curry, 7. Ben Curry ©, 8. Dan du Preez.

Replacements:
16. Ethan Caine, 17. Si McIntyre, 18. WillGriff John, 19. Josh Beaumont, 20. JL du Preez, 21. Gus Warr, 22. Sam Bedlow, 23. Sam Dugdale.


6:2 so we're obviously gonna try and fight up front and starve the backs of ball - it's the way to beat Bristol but....I dunno, their pack's looking better as the season goes on. I'm not confident, our form is too erratic to expect us to be able to pull that level of performance out of the bag
That said: out side is getting more settled now that the injury crisis has chilled out, so hopefully we can actually start building

Also I just hate 6:2s in general, and am fully expecting a back 3 injury early in the game now

 

[TRF_Olyy]

LJ off inside 10
Not sure what the injury is - looked an innocuous enough contact area, maybe broken hand?

Edit: Comically big ice pack on his elbow on the bench, so guess it's that

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Bloody hell, now Bedlow off for a HIA so Quirke to the wing and Roebuck to 13

 

[West Country Wail]

Wow. Bristol. Your season is about to look very Chiefs.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Wow, I did not see that coming at all - what a performance
Byron McGuigan my MOTM - defence was phenomenal, 38-0 up and to still be defending like that was mad

Great to see Raffi getting a full 80 (even if about 25 was on the wing)

 

[Geordie]

Wow! That's a statement...

 

[BPM]

I should have known that result was coming a week after I tipped Bristol for the ***le .

Really impressive from Sale. Gloucester did well to nil Quins last week but I still feel like that result was largely to do with Quins being absolutely dreadful. I don't want to take credit away from Gloucester, but it was like we couldn't catch a cold and couldn't get through any phases due to basic handling errors rather than anything particularly exceptional from the Gloucester defence.

Tonight's game felt kind of similar but in this case I feel like that was almost entirely due to Sale being excellent rather than Bristol catching whatever Quins were suffering from last week. In other words, they were shut down rather than simply being crap. Fair play Sale.

 

[IT157]

MacGinty sorely missed for Bristol. Shows how important he is.

Still, one hell of a result for Sale. Puts them in 3rd before the rest of the weekend games.

 

[Geordie]

Quirke scored a nice try but what was his whole game like?

And how long will he be fit for?

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Thoroughly deserved. A victory for common sense, physicality and intensity.

Can't read too much into one result, but Bristol will be worried by the way they folded when the pretty stuff didn't come off.

 

[Rinkadink]

Wow, I did not see that coming at all - what a performance
Byron McGuigan my MOTM

As a Bris fan I probably agree with that selection. I also thought Hill was massively influential.

Sale are always our bogey team and you gamed the gutless officials to perfection. We were utter dogs*** and fully deserved to be nilled, although a maybe positive or two? Bates looked okay for the space and chances he was given in a team under the pump and great to see Kloska back after being out for a while.

Honestly wish I'd stayed at home, took my lad and my better half has been quite ill, in and out of hospital, was hoping for a nice distraction win or lose but that was thoroughly unenjoyable. I can't be the only one as 23,000 were served up a poor excuse for a match and performance. That was genuinely damaging to the club. A number of senior players should be ashamed of that. Home performances have not been as good as away for some time but that took the absolute **** and the fans deserve much better.

Well done Sale, players and coaches rightfully celebrating big time even before the final whistle. You should be in for a good night.

 

[BPM]

Quirke scored a nice try but what was his whole game like?

And how long will he be fit for?

I thought he was good. Alert and lively around the fringes and mostly pretty tidy. A few mistakes but nothing glaring.

As for the second question … who knows? That's his biggest issue.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Yeah he looked far more composed than he has recently - I guess part of his issue is he spends so much time injured he goes balls to the wall with every opportunity he gets
He said in the post game interview that that's something he's working on - controlling a game and not forcing it

 

[AngloScotsHybrid]

Fraser Balmain should play for Scotland with a name like that.

 

[BPM]

Trust me, if he had even the most tenuous claim to qualification Scotland would have capped him.

 

[Which Tyler]

Nice start
Good decision too

 

[Which Tyler]

Good to see one of those work, even if against my team

ETA, also good to see it disallowed, as it's against my team.