Preseason 24/25

[TRF_Olyy]

We're playing Caldy and Connacht away and Newcastle at "home" (double header at Heywood Road, along with the women's side, part of the 25th anniversary of the Sale Sharks brand)

 

[Which Tyler]

Munster, Saturday 31 August
Ealing, Saturday 7 September
Dragons, Friday 13 September

All at home.
I've not spotted any announcements for any away matches, so presumably they'll be 15 changes at each HT.

 

[Saintjay]

Saints home games -

Leinster - Sat 7th Sep, 1400hrs
Bedford Blues - Fri 13th Sep 1945hrs

Feel like we are missing one but dammed if i can find it.

 

[Geordie]

We've only announced 1 so far v sale as mentioned above...and an inter club game where the squad is split up and play against each other.

 

[Scotty]

Exeter Chiefs Fixtures:

• London Scottish – Saturday, August 24th – KO 14:00
• Cornish Pirates – Saturday, August 24th – KO 16:00
• Ospreys – Saturday, September 7th – KO 15:00
• Ulster – Saturday, September 14th – KO 17:00

Looks like back to back games in August so I wonder how that will work. Can't be 2 full 23s?

 

[Which Tyler]

Of course it can.
Especially against 2 Championship teams, everyone gets a game

 

[Scotty]

Chiefs teams for the double header on Saturday, 2 very mixed teams, especially without Slade, Wyatt, IFW, Tshiunza, Jenkins, Tua(new NZ guy) And I'm sure some I've missed.
Exeter Chiefs v London Scottish:

15 Josh Hodge

14 Campbell Ridl

13 Ben Hammersley

12 Joe Hawkins

11 Kian Gentry

10 Will Haydon-Wood

9 Sam Maunder


1 Scott Sio (c)

2 Max Norey

3 Josh Iosefa-Scott

4 Joe Bailey

5 Lewis Pearson

6 Richard Capstick

7 Martin Moloney

8 Kane James


Replacements:

16 Jack Yeandle

17 Billy Keast

18 Jimmy Roots

19 Oscar Beckerleg

20 Jack Forsythe

21 Tom Cairns

22 Ben Coen

23 Nick Lilley

24 Noah Fenton

17 Josh Mann

20 Louie Gulley


Exeter Chiefs v Cornish Pirates:

15 Dan John

14 Paul Brown-Bampoe

13 Zack Wimbush

12 Will Rigg

11 Olly Woodburn

10 Harvey Skinner

9 Tom Cairns


1 Will Goodrick-Clarke

2 Dan Frost

3 Ehren Painter

4 Jack Dunne

5 Rusi Tuima

6 Finn Worley-Brady

7 Jacques Vermeulen (c)

8 Greg Fisilau


Replacements:

16 Jack Innard

17 Kwenzo Blose

18 Marcus Street

19 Eoin O'Connor

20 Lucas Dorrell

21 Niall Armstrong

22 Ben Coen

23 Nick Lilley

17 Josh Mann

19 Louie Gulley

21 Noah Fenton

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Very much a team-for-the-future side put out vs Caldy

Sale Sharks Starting XV:

15. Luke James, 14. Obi Ene, 13. Rekeiti Ma'asi White, 12. Joe Bedlow, 11. Alex Wills, 10. Tom Curtis ©, 9. Nye Thomas, 1. Tumy Onasanya, 2. Ethan Caine, 3. Patrice Bell, 4. Ben Bamber, 5. Tom Burrow, 6. Will Riley, 7. Tristan Woodman, 8. Rouban Birch.

Replacements:

16. Harry Thompson, 17. Ralph McEachran, 18. Tye Raymont, 19. Le Roux Roets, 20. Jos Gilmore, 21. Yande Nkonge, 22. Will Wootton, 23. Osian Roberts, 24. Tom O'Flaherty, 25. Albert Bradshaw.

 

[Scotty]

Exeter Chiefs 45 London Scottish 19
Exeter Chiefs 46 Cornish Pirates 24

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Caldy 24 - 42 Sale
Decent run out for a largely academy side - can't read anything into it in general but Curtis hit 6/6 from the tee so happy with that

 

[Booboobang]

13. Rekeiti Ma'asi White,

Hope he has a breakout year this year, profile england are calling out for.

Sale have a cracking academy, any other youngsters you think kick on this year?

 

[TRF_Olyy]

I don't rate RMW tbh, much more excited about Joe Bedlow coming back off loan from the championship, apparently he went very well there.
Hopefully a full preseason/good run of time without injury means RMW will kick on, but he looked really bad last season - IMO he should be out on loan for the season this year to get game time and get his head into senior rugby

Players I'm hoping to see more of this season:
Wills on the wing, had a good u20s campaign - likely to get some more game time this season with Reed no longer EQP
Burrows at 5 - not sure how much game time he'll get but he's highly rated. Hopefully see him in the Prem cup
Nye Thomas at 9 - he's tiny but scrappy as hell, you can tell he learned from Faf. Got some decent periods of game time last year, hoping he's our starter in the Prem cup
Tristan Woodman at 7 - spent last season out playing for various local clubs (Caldy, Fylde, Sale FC) to get used to senior rugby - Looks top draw

 

[Scotty]

Exeter Chiefs 45 London Scottish 19
Exeter Chiefs 46 Cornish Pirates 24

Anyone see the games? Who looked like a good prospect? I've only seen the results and scorers.

 

[BPM]

I don't rate RMW tbh, much more excited about Joe Bedlow coming back off loan from the championship, apparently he went very well there.
Hopefully a full preseason/good run of time without injury means RMW will kick on, but he looked really bad last season - IMO he should be out on loan for the season this year to get game time and get his head into senior rugby

Players I'm hoping to see more of this season:
Wills on the wing, had a good u20s campaign - likely to get some more game time this season with Reed no longer EQP
Burrows at 5 - not sure how much game time he'll get but he's highly rated. Hopefully see him in the Prem cup
Nye Thomas at 9 - he's tiny but scrappy as hell, you can tell he learned from Faf. Got some decent periods of game time last year, hoping he's our starter in the Prem cup
Tristan Woodman at 7 - spent last season out playing for various local clubs (Caldy, Fylde, Sale FC) to get used to senior rugby - Looks top draw

I feel like RMW is the subject of some lazy assumptions - 'he's a centre from a PI background so he must be a big, physical beast and automatically good'. In theory, he has good genes for rugby but that doesn't necessarily mean he's particularly good. Name and genetic potential only gets you so far.

My big hope from Sale is for a proper breakthrough season from Harper. You might argue he's already had that in part, but the time he's spent out with injuries mean he hasn't really cemented a spot which is there for the taking.

It would be nice to see Quirke get back on the road to achieving his potential too.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

I feel like RMW is the subject of some lazy assumptions - 'he's a centre from a PI background so he must be a big, physical beast and automatically good'. In theory, he has good genes for rugby but that doesn't necessarily mean he's particularly good. Name and genetic potential only gets you so far.

100000%, the amount of "He's the next Manu!" that comes from journos/commentators when he doesn't play that play style at all is crazy

My big hope from Sale is for a proper breakthrough season from Harper. You might argue he's already had that in part, but the time he's spent out with injuries mean he hasn't really cemented a spot which is there for the taking.

Yeah, good shout - his career so far has been so disjointed hopefully he can get a good solid run of no injuries

 

[stus768]

Anyone see the games? Who looked like a good prospect? I've only seen the results and scorers.

Didn't see game but Paul Brown Bampoe getting a hat trick is fun. Hopefully he kicks on. Also apparently 8k fans for the games is pretty impressive.

 

[Which Tyler]

Munster, Saturday 31 August

Referee: Anthony Woodthorpe
Assistant referees: Andy Wrigley & Simon Harding

Starting XV:
1 Arthur Cordwell
2 John Stewart
3 Kieran Verden
4 Jacques du Plessis
5 Ross Molony
6 Ewan Richards
7 Thompson Cowan
8 Miles Reid (c)

09 Louis Schreuder
10 Orlando Bailey
11 Ruaridh McConnochie
12 Will Butt
13 James Short
14 Austin Emens
15 Ciaran Donoghue

Replacement forwards: Niall Annett, Jasper Spandler, Kepu Tuipulotu, Ioan Emanuel, Archie Stanley, Mikey Summerfield, Francois van Wyk, Charlie Ewels, Will Jeanes, Quinn Roux, Jaco Coetzee, Ted Hill, Arthur Green, Ethan Staddon
Replacement backs: Tom Carr-Smith, Ieuan Davies, Finn Russell, Louie Hennessey, Max Ojomoh, Joe Cokanasiga, Tom de Glanville, Luke Graham, Tyler Offiah, Jack Woods

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Sale Sharks Starting XV:

15. Will Addison, 14. Tom O'Flaherty, 13. Waisea Nayacalevu, 12. Rob du Preez, 11. Arron Reed, 10. George Ford, 9. Raffi Quirke, 1. Simon McIntyre, 2. Tommy Taylor, 3. James Harper, 4. Le Roux Roets, 5. Ernst van Rhyn, 6. Sam Dugdale, 7. Ben Curry (c), 8. Jean-Luc du Preez

Replacements:

16. Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17. Tumy Onasanya, 18. Asher Opoku-Fordjour, 19. Ben Bamber, 20. Tom Burrow, 21, Rouban Birch, 22. Tristan Woodman, 23. Gus Warr, 24. Tom Curtis, 25. Sam Bedlow, 26. Rekeiti Ma'asi-White, 27. Tom Roebuck, 28. Alex Wills.

Not a million miles from what I think our opening round XV will be, tbh.
Good to see Bedlow back, Addison in a Sale shirt again and interested to see how the Waisea/RdP midfield goes. I'm not keen on RdP at 12, and think we always look so much better with Bedlow there, but got a feeling Waisea is going to be our first choice 13 this season

 

[Which Tyler]

Bath's team

Munster

1. Jeremy Loughman
2. Diarmuid Barron (C)
3. John Ryan
4. Gavin Coombes
5. Fineen Wycherley
6. Ruadhán Quinn
7. John Hodnett
8. Jack O'Donoghue

09. Ethan Coughlan
10. Billy Burns
11. Shay McCarthy
12. Seán O'Brien
13. Tom Farrell
14. Liam Coombes
15. Patrick Campbell

Replacements: Scott Buckley, Max Clein, Niall Scannell, Josh Wycherley, Stephen Archer, Ronan Foxe, Conor Ryan, Jack Daly, Alex Kendellen, Jack Oliver, Luca Cleary, Tony Butler, Bryan Fitzgerald, Diarmuid Kilgallen, Mike Haley.

Bit of a mismatch on the starters. Will be a good learning experience for the lads.

 

[Groundhog]

Munster

1. Jeremy Loughman
2. Diarmuid Barron (C)
3. John Ryan
4. Gavin Coombes
5. Fineen Wycherley
6. Ruadhán Quinn
7. John Hodnett
8. Jack O'Donoghue

09. Ethan Coughlan
10. Billy Burns
11. Shay McCarthy
12. Seán O'Brien
13. Tom Farrell
14. Liam Coombes
15. Patrick Campbell

Replacements: Scott Buckley, Max Clein, Niall Scannell, Josh Wycherley, Stephen Archer, Ronan Foxe, Conor Ryan, Jack Daly, Alex Kendellen, Jack Oliver, Luca Cleary, Tony Butler, Bryan Fitzgerald, Diarmuid Kilgallen, Mike Haley.

Bit of a mismatch on the starters. Will be a good learning experience for the lads.

Yeah, it's a very 'I could almost see us fielding this team in a bad injury crisis during the 6N' selection from us. Pretty much all of our new players will get a shot. A few club players on the bench in Fitzgerald and Cleary, albeit Fitzgerald is on a 3m deal for us. Expect pretty much the entire team to swap at HT


Game being streamed on Bath's TikTok, which is great to see, dodgy choice of app aside.