Bath v Sarries; Friday night

[Which Tyler]

Ref: Luke Pearce
TJs: Craig Maxwell-Keys and John Meredith
TMO: David David Rose


Redpath back on the bench.
And in a surprise twist, Coetzee and Bayliss have swapped shirt numbers

[Oakboy]

The back row contest is intriguing. Earl and Willis at 7/8 for Saracens could be the future but Underhill and Barbeary will contest the idea.

[Banquo]

Hill, Earl/JWillis, Earl/TWillis would be great options I reckon.

[FKAS]

That's a pretty big Sarries bench. Matching Bath's 6-2 split. Going to be a very physical contest by the looks of things. Plenty of EQ talent in the backrows to be keeping an eye on will also be interesting to see if Bailey can get the better of Farrell. I thought Bailey played well back end of last season and last weekend for Bath. He's got a lot of potential and will hopefully learn a few things from Russell.

[Which Tyler]

Yep, very good in the latter 1/3 of last season.
His work-ons would have been his kicking, and his confidence to order senior players around, especially if that meant going off-script. Those didn't seem to be an issue last week.

His problem this year is game-time, and the potential for being overtaken by Sam Harris - especially when fighting for the only non-SH spot on the bench

[fivepointer]

Back row match up does look very tasty.

Looking forward to this one.

[twitchy]

Icey start from faz.

[Which Tyler]

Really nervey rugby. Both sides seem to be taking the "this is knock out rugby" way too far

[FKAS]

Itoje is a very lucky boy that wasn't red. Ref went looking for the mitigation.

[Which Tyler]

For some reason, I'm now less sanguine about Segun being on the pitch.
Initially I felt it was yellow, but Pearce had a great view of it, and trusted his read rather than going to TMO - which I approve of, even if I disagree with the decision.
Not now - he should have had a chat with his mates

[FKAS]

Segun and Parton have both really turned up tonight. Chasing kicks hard and ball in hand look dangerous. A lot of pace between the two.

[Which Tyler]

Guy in crowd is right.
Or Ur scrims on top, our li eout is shite

[FKAS]

Guy in crowd is right.
Or Ur scrims on top, our li eout is shite

Bath score two rolling maul tries...

Lineout improved with the introduction of Dunn. Adding Jacques du Plessis is a massive bonus to Bath as well.

[Which Tyler]

Happy to be proven wrong.


Question - is Dunn's scalp wound as infamous as Silky Ballsack'a nose wound yet?

[Which Tyler]

Not lookimg too clever

[FKAS]

Happy to be proven wrong.


Question - is Dunn's scalp wound as infamous as Silky Ballsack'a nose wound yet?

I bet you were happy to be wrong.

Not until Tom Dunn gets a litany of vaguely amusing nicknames based on his initials will his permanently bleeding scalp be as infamous as Slightly Bloodynose.

[Adam_P]

Funny that Pearce allowed Farrell to tick the clock down for that penalty (even counting the last few seconds down for him) , despite making Fin Smith kick one before the shot clock was up the other week (against Saracens) because it wasn't 'in the spirit of the game'. Consistency.

[fivepointer]

Mostly that was pretty dull, which suited Saracens just fine. Fair to say they did a professional job last night. Bath's attack was well contained and they did just enough with the ball to get over the line.

[Captainhaircut]

That was the best I’ve seen Farrell play since the World Cup semi. Thought he had a very good game.

[Mellsblue]

Enjoying the posts going from this:
‘Mostly that was pretty dull’
to this:
‘That was the best I’ve seen Farrell play since the World Cup semi. Thought he had a very good game.‘

[Oakboy]

Mostly that was pretty dull, which suited Saracens just fine. Fair to say they did a professional job last night. Bath's attack was well contained and they did just enough with the ball to get over the line.

Spot on. It was poor stuff for the neutral viewer, as highlighted by the commentator in his quoting of the kicking numbers. TNT can claim some substantial honesty in their presentation. The comment near the end of the 1st half that to a non-rugby spectator on debut 'it would be a hard sell' was fair.

I suppose playing not-to-lose, as distinct from playing to win, will always curb ambition. How much is the players being conservative from minute to minute and how much is coaching instruction is a reasonable question.

The game needed Russell!!!!

[Oakboy]

Enjoying the posts going from this:
‘Mostly that was pretty dull’
to this:
‘That was the best I’ve seen Farrell play since the World Cup semi. Thought he had a very good game.‘

Aren't the two complementary and therefore symptomatic of fans' dislike of Farrell? i.e. the duller the rugby, the better he plays! Nobody has ever argued that he is not good at controlling a club game, especially when ambition is largely absent.

[Mellsblue]

Enjoying the posts going from this:
‘Mostly that was pretty dull’
to this:
‘That was the best I’ve seen Farrell play since the World Cup semi. Thought he had a very good game.‘

Aren't the two complementary and therefore symptomatic of fans' dislike of Farrell? i.e. the duller the rugby, the better he plays! Nobody has ever argued that he is not good at controlling a club game, especially when ambition is largely absent.

Yep, that was my point.

[Which Tyler]

Main take aways from last nights match:

I still hate the 6:2 bench split. (but at least we handled the FH injury better this week, without a FH on the bench than we did against Exeter, with a FH on the bench).
I'm not sure why we tried to out Saracens the Saracens - but it nearly came off - though mostly by actually trying to play some rugby in the 2nd half.

I suppose playing not-to-lose, as distinct from playing to win, will always curb ambition. How much is the players being conservative from minute to minute and how much is coaching instruction is a reasonable question.

It's also an easy answer - it's coaching.
Both teams were treating it as a knock-out match, and terrified of making a mistake (excepting the few minutes of mayhem, and Bath's first attacking lineout). That just played right into Sarries' hands, and quite honestly, they should have won by more.

[Oakboy]

Main take aways from last nights match:

I still hate the 6:2 bench split. (but at least we handled the FH injury better this week, without a FH on the bench than we did against Exeter, with a FH on the bench).
I'm not sure why we tried to out Saracens the Saracens - but it nearly came off - though mostly by actually trying to play some rugby in the 2nd half.

I suppose playing not-to-lose, as distinct from playing to win, will always curb ambition. How much is the players being conservative from minute to minute and how much is coaching instruction is a reasonable question.

It's also an easy answer - it's coaching.
Both teams were treating it as a knock-out match, and terrified of making a mistake (excepting the few minutes of mayhem, and Bath's first attacking lineout). That just played right into Sarries' hands, and quite honestly, they should have won by more.

Fair comment but I'm surprised at Bath's HC if that is the case. I thought he was better than that.