Aviva Premiership: something exciting happens

[paddyor]

Geordan Murphys Leicester suffered a 54-7 defeat away to Wasps. Don't think he is long for this coaching business. Us with long memories wont give a fcuk!

BTW Leicester No14? Harry Potter, I kid you not. What a burden.

In another game Stuart Hogg limped off with a leg injury in the 2nd half, now he would be a loss for them.

Did Hogg leave chiefs?

No mention of chiefs in the post though>

[blockhead]

No mention of chiefs in the post though>

Didn't want to be mansplaining.
Everyone knows Hogg play for the Chiefs right?

[hugonaut]

Sale, with 16 positive Covid-19 tests, want to fulfil their weekend fixture against Worcester [source: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/ ... ugby-union ].

The PRL has no regulation with regards to cancelling/postponing matches for multiple Covid-19 positive tests within one of the competing squads.

[wixfjord]

Wasps have given Pat Lam's Bristol an absolute whupping in the Prem SF.

Old Jimmy G running the show with 25 points.

Wasps have moved from 10 to 2nd in the league and now are into a final.

Interesting points made by BT panel at the end of the game, they believe it's largely because of the breakdown rule changes.

The Wasps young backrow Willis has almost 3x the number of breakdown turnovers than the next best in the league.

[Ruckedtobits]

One-way traffic in Sandy Park with Chiefs 35-6 and 5 tries against Bath. They're a class above Bath but seriously unimpressed by the Ref who, the BT cheerleaders in their commentary team believe, should be canonised. Personally, I'd settle for Luke Pearce having to wear a mask and apply the Laws as they're written at present.

I can see a problem looming for Heineken Final as Exeter are allowed play totally illegally at every maul and most breakdowns

[Ruckedtobits]

Well done to Pat Lam and his Premiership Bears.

Astute coaching and targeting of specific Toulon weaknesses resulted in a convincing 19-32 victory, despite having two tries, legitimately, disallowed.

Very good performance from Joe Joyce in 2R for Bears and Adeolucken picked up another medal for his collection. Smart tactical and emotional leadership from Lam.

[cormac]

Bristol really should have won even more comfortably. Both disallowed tries really should have been scored, especially the first which was incredibly sloppy play from Thacker.

Toulon rode their luck to lead at half-time but ran out of gas and ideas in the last 20 minutes.

[OTT]

Really don’t care who gets the win and the cup, either team would be worthy winner but as a neutral it is driving me nuts watching Exeter tacklers being allowed to compete at rucks while off their feet. It’s really taking the pace off the Racing ball and it’s so obvious what they are doing, Harry Williams coming through like a centipede there a minute ago but they are all at it. Nige needs to penalise them once or twice to get them to stop.

[Dave Cahill]

With the possible exception of ourselves, no team is as illegal at the breakdown as Exeter, they're masters at it

[domhnallj]

Zeebo is on fire

[FLIP]

Zeebo is on fire

Hogg is having a defensive mare. How can you miss a tackle on something that big?

[cormac]

Russell having an up and down sort of game

[cormac]

Have teams completely forgotten about the drop goal?

[OTT]

Nige cluster f%~k?

[fourthirtythree]

Yeah, I think he made a right balls of that.

[CiaranIrl]

The penalty for hidalgo cleyn towards the end is up there with some of the worst decisions I've seen. It should have been scrum racing for being held up first of all, and then he comes in so blatantly from the side that he should have been given a yellow card. What happens? Penalty Exeter. Shocking.

Circa 7th minute.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=you ... iAXJ0#menu

[Twist]

The clock said 79.51 rather than 79.57 at the end. Dunno why the timekeeper wasn’t listening to Nige, he was very clear.

Anyway Im glad Exeter won. Racing aren’t cheats like someone we could mention, but their success is built on a rich man’s chequebook like Toulon before them. I just don’t want to see that model rewarded.

I’d say Racing will take some stopping next year though. They must be getting fixated on winning it now, to the exclusion of all else.

[domhnallj]

I’d have liked to see Ryan get a winners medal. The Hidalgo Kline incident was a shocker but Nigel let Exeter away with loads of ruck infringements so perhaps not that surprising.

[Dave Cahill]

The clock said 79.51 rather than 79.57 at the end. Dunno why the timekeeper wasn’t listening to Nige, he was very clear.

Anyway Im glad Exeter won. Racing aren’t cheats like someone we could mention, but their success is built on a rich man’s chequebook like Toulon before them. I just don’t want to see that model rewarded.

I’d say Racing will take some stopping next year though. They must be getting fixated on winning it now, to the exclusion of all else.

Yep its preferable that a club owned by a wealthy entrepeneur who took over the club when they were in the second tier, got them promoted and built them a new purpose built stadium are successful over a club owned by a wealthy entrepeneur who took over the club when they were in the second tier, got them promoted and built them a new purpose built stadium.

[Ruckedtobits]

Well done to Exeter and Bristol. Two Premiership teams winning European Cup Finals is an excellent achievement.

However, watching both games with a dispassionate outlook I was surprised at the manner in which the two English teams out-thought and out-played their possibly more talented opponents in each final.

Lam and his fellow Coaches identified and exploited the inexperience of the Toulon right wing (more regularly a centre) and scored one try within15 secs of kick off and then made three key counter-attacks on the wing for massive territorial gains in the first 30 mins. In addition, the Bristol coaches minimised the impact of their limited line-out by keeping the ball out of touch as much as possible. In the 2nd half their protected possession sufficiently by putting more bodies over the tackled player thereby reducing turnovers. Not rocket science, but highly effective.

Exeter, led by Rob Baxter a man whom I admire profoundly, were every bit as accurate in their analysis and execution. Jack Nowell & Henry Slade minimised the effects of the strength of each of the Racing92 backs and limited the effectiveness of Russsell's skills. The replacement front-rows did a really good job on their opponents and the Exeter scrum was sound all night.

Once again the French side seemed to adopt the outlook of "let's just focus on our game and not worry about stopping their game". This was a game Racing could have with better tactical awareness and execution.

The English representatives were the more deserving teams in both finals. They did their homework and looked more focusssed on winning. In both Final, the French team had a greater number of talented players but were out-thought tactically and emotionally.

Let's hope that the French national team exhibits the same attitude when they play Ireland in a fortnight's time.