Week 1: Roundup
Tight Five Team of the Week Round 1
Bristol Bears 9 vs 26 Saracens
MOTM: Alex Lozowski
Saracens Top Performers: M.Riccioni, N.Isiekwe, N.Tompkins,
Bristol Top Performers: H.Thacker, C.Piutau
McCall’s game plan involved reverting to their defence and tactical kicking game with a swarming D, slowing the ruck ball down and winning collisions, especially as the game went on. Lozowski and Aled Davies’ execution of the kicking game was excellent.
Marco Riccioni had a fantastic performance, terrorising Bristol’s pack with 4 scrum penalties.
Obatoyinbo was solid for Sarries on his Premiership debut, Charles Piutau was electric but limited to 60 minutes.
Nick Tompkins was excellent in attack and defence, a real defensive leader but also 8 defenders beaten.
Bristol played unlike their typical selves engaging in the territorial kicking game rather than deploying their expansive running rugby.
Harry Thacker was Bristol’s best player along with Piutau.
Tough day at the office for Sheedy and Uren. They could not get into their groove and Bristol’s attack was far too lateral for Saracens quick line speed.
Northampton 34 vs 20 Gloucester
MOTM: George Furbank
Saints Top Performers: T. Wood, A.Mitchell, J.Grayson
Gloucester Top Performers: L.Ludlow, B.Meehan, K.Moyle
Beautiful set-piece move for Northampton’s first try:
Back ball off the line out,
Big carry off 10 by Teimana Harrison - their best ball carrier,
All but two forwards flood around the corner drawing all the Gloucester defenders to the openside,
Alex Mitchell peels back to the blindisde and links with Tom Wood who puts Furbank in space,
Furbank walks it in.
Ben Meehan was excellent in a losing side, he provided quick ball and a spark in attack that kept Gloucester in the game at times. Great signs for a team without Joe Simpson for the first month.
Composure from both sides in attacking positions was poor, particularly in the first half, early-season rust...
Gloucester has major discipline issues that ultimately cost them the game. 12 penalties conceded in the first half alone along with two yellow cards for an accumulation of team penalties
Kyle Moyle played really well, great footwork at the line and always looking to take on defenders.
Furbank really good, any ball in space he took on the line and beat defenders, also excellent in defense including a ridiculous try-saver.
Gloucester’s defensive decisions on ‘out the back’ plays were really poor, the key defensive decision that had to be made by the defender was wrong most of the time.
James Grayson controlled the game really well, linking play, kicking when it’s right.
Gloucesters line speed on the inside was terrible, none of them pushed up and when the ball went back that way Northampton took advantage
Juarno Augustus was really good, some BRUTAL carries for only a short stint.
Furbank MOTM and potentially player of the round.
Leicester Tigers 34 vs 19 Exeter Chiefs
MOTM: George Martin
Tigers Top Performers: E.Genge, N.Dolly, N.Nadolo, F.Steward
Chiefs Top Performers: D.Armand, J.Hodge
Leicester came out all guns blazing, looking crisp from min 1.
Powerful forward play led by Dolly, Liebenberg, Genge in attack and Cole, Wells, Martin in defence. Combined with precise back moves orchestrated by Youngs and Ford.
Exeter made a lot of errors, unable to get in rhythm mainly because of Leicester’s tough defence and strong ball retention at their own attacking rucks.
Beginning of the second half is a different story. Tigers’ attack was largely nonexistent for the first 15/20 mins but their defence was class. Absorbing pressure to the point that they literally blunted the Chiefs' attack. Exeter tried a lot but they made lots of unforced (forced) errors such was the pressure from the Tigers’ defence.
Borthwick fantastic gameplan, clearly had 4 quarter targets:
Q1 All Guns Blazing - Energy and power play, show Exeter that they’re going to have a tough day.
Q2 Open it up, score tries, loosen the game and make them move.
Q3 Absorb, defence only, play territory absorb and frustrate Exeter with lockdown defence. Do not exaggerate on own possession, retaining possession is key.
Q4 Tigers have the Chiefs right where they want them, tired and frustrated and down on the scoreboard. Tercio de Muerte, inflicting their final blows for a convincing victory.
Worcester 36 vs London Irish 24
MOTM: Willi Heinz
Warriors Top Performers: S.Lewis, M.Kvesic, M.Nanai
Exiles Top Performers: M.Van Der Merwe, A.Tuisue, C.Rona
Melani Nanai was excellent at fullback, I had questions whether his positional play would be good enough but he proved me wrong. He attacked the defensive line all game and really helped open things up for Worcester.
Marcel Van Der Merwe had an instant impact at the set-piece, London Irish had dominance at the scrum for most of the game.
London Irish were very sloppy throughout large periods of the game, there was a recurring theme of unnecessary offloads going astray. As a result Irish weren’t able to establish attacking momentum inside the 22, particularly in the first half.
Willi Heinz may end up being one of the signings of the season, his Rugby IQ makes him excellent at balancing his running game and kicking game. His ability to identify space behind the defensive line and execute kicks to pin back London Irish won the territorial battle for the Warriors.
London Irish are much better than that performance, too many errors along with a horror finish to the first half was the issue but still a team packed with talent.
The last 10 minutes of the first half set up the rest of the game for London Irish, two tries conceded just before half time both through ill discipline
Sale Sharks 20 vs 19 Bath
MOTM: Byron McGuigan
Sharks Top Performers: C.Wiese, J.Ross, R.Quirke, M.Tuilagi
Bath Top Performers: S.Underhill, J.Bayliss
Sale got the better off in the first half in what was a scrappy start to the game. Raffi Quirke was exceptional sniping around the ruck for a number of breaks that also led to Sale’s two tries as well as providing crisp service to Bob Du Preez.
Manu Tuilagi took a hefty load of Sale’s ball-carrying duties making 13 carries in the match, exemplifying the hard-yards that they made him go through. Jono Ross and Cobus Wiese were exceptional with the former hitting a number of rucks and generating turnovers and the latter was a nuisance all over the park - worthy mention for the TOTW.
Bath defended well throughout the game, except for the first 30 minutes where they really suffered Raffi Quirke’s snipes off the back of quick and clean rucks. Bath were especially vulnerable when they could not make positive tackles and Sale’s ruck ball was quick, this led to Sale’s second try where Quirke identified a one on one with a retreating Cipriani left him for dust and got in behind, where there was no chance for Bath’s defence.
Bath grew as the game went on with Sam Underhill excelling as usual in defence but also showing a much-improved running game. Bath expressed some of their ‘style’ as they have emphasized over the pre-season and often tried a little too much, leading to unnecessary offloads and knock-ons. However, their game plan was encouraging as these mistakes will be fixed as they remove some of the pre-season rust and gel as a team. Overall they did create and identify space, it was mainly their execution which was lacking - this is a positive sign for Bath.
Josh Bayliss was excellent, I think he may have the best ‘support’ game for a back-row forward in the entire premiership. He’s exceptionally quick and powerful, he also is very often the first man at the ruck for Bath allowing them to secure position after they have gone on expansive runs.
Newcastle Falcons 20 vs 26 Harlequins
MOTM: Tommy Allan
Falcons Top Performers: L.Schreuder, A.Radwan, I.Stephens
Quins Top Performers: M.Symons, J.Kenningham, D.Care, T.Green
Newcastle looked strong early on the back of good defense that generated turnovers and forced errors from a Quins side looking to go wide too early.
Falcons almost capitalised on their early edge with a rolling maul that was very poorly dealt with by Quins. Throughout the game Quins were targeted at the maul and they ought to improve or they will be punished by many teams this year. In fact, the try Radwan set up also came off the back of a lineout, this area of defence requires vast improvements.
Harlequins, however, survived the early Falcons barrages showing improved defensive resilience and set out on their typical try-scoring way.
Quins showed in the first half that they can score tries without any build-up momentum, however after those tries they slumped and let Newcastle back into the game largely because of lack of go-forward and the inability to generate this momentum despite their try-scoring threat from anywhere at any point.
Esterhuizen and Symons stood out as key ball carriers for Quins along with Jack Kenningham who also provided a crucial turnover and great overall workrate in defence. This allowed for Care’s to control the tempo of the game and Allan had the platform to set up Lynagh’s second try.
Falcons’ game relied on their defence generating pressure that resulted into turnovers, if they can continue this type of defence and use the likes of Schreuder, Radwan and Stephens to take advantage on the counter-attack they can bother sides - however, it should be said that without their counter-attacking creation and the rolling-maul, they created very flew threatening plays and looked far-too one dimensional.
Quins put serious pressure on Falcons in the latter stages of the match but their lineout maul failed on a number of occasions despite Walker hitting his man 100% of the time.
Following Quins inability to put Falcons to the sword they look tired in the last 10 minutes and if it weren’t for a Dombrandt turnover in Quins’ 22 they may well have lost this game.
Takeaways:
Quins: Despite a frustrating performance Quins come away with a Bonus point victory with a capital B, which is golden. Plus, despite a clearly rusty performance and lots of work-ons I can guarantee you they didn't win this type of game in the early stages last year and they were also missing a lot of starters.
Falcons: great effort, strong defence, talent out-wide. Do not underestimate them but they need to find a way to score points more efficiently.
Tight Five Highlighted Player of Round 1 - Adam Radwan (Newcastle Falcons)