Leicester Tigers

Strong XV bar Brown on the wing, he's going to need all his experience for this one. The bench looks weaker than I'd have liked. No impact from the front row subs, Wells and Cracknell are in squad filler form (I'd have preferred Hatherall and Carnduff). No Benny means we're hoping JvP plays the ful...

Was the salary cap not reduced? Ultimately to make like for like swaps was always going to be unlikely. For me loose head is our biggest weakness. Cronin is a decent bench option but rarely injury free and looks unfit. Behind him the others are even weaker. We have effectively failed to replace Gen...

That 21/22 winning squad also had insane strength in depth. Mainly because academy players were breaking through so were probably paid below their worth. Plus we picked up Moroni etc after Covid who again were probably on reduced contracts. I would be hard to get that sort of quality under the sala...

Strong XV bar Brown on the wing, he's going to need all his experience for this one. The bench looks weaker than I'd have liked. No impact from the front row subs, Wells and Cracknell are in squad filler form (I'd have preferred Hatherall and Carnduff). No Benny means we're hoping JvP plays the ful...

There will always be what ifs with academy leavers Look at Lavin and Smith both where gonna be big losses, and honestly could have been great for us we will never know but they also could’ve been at their ceiling already Smith seemed to hit his ceiling. He's was mobile and aggressive but didn't qui...

I think when 3 games from the end of the season is the first time we've had our first choice pack on a pitch together it says something.

Cronin Montoya Cole
Martin Chessum
Liebenberg Wiese Reffell

Bristol Bears team to face Leicester Tigers at Mattioli Woods Welford Road on Saturday (3pm KO): 15. Max Malins (31 apps), 14. Siva Naulago (32 apps), 13. Benhard Janse van Rensburg (22 apps), 12. James Williams (39 apps), 11. Gabriel Ibitoye (38 apps), 10. AJ MacGinty (35 apps), 9. Harry Randall (...

This is the first time we've had our best combination of pack out together this season!

The only other two who can argue to be in there are Heyes or Henderson.

https://twitter.com/premrugby/status/17 ... nCS7A&s=19

After winning last weekend, Bristols odds of reaching the top 4 have dropped from 47% to 42%

Quins after taking a loss have risen from 39% to 45%.

Well he's in the England Students team so seems a fairly consensus best 10 at that level. Given that's the level of rugby we arranged for him this season it does seem reasonable to ask what more he could have done to get another year. The best players in BUCS do have a decent record of stepping up....

Interesting point on wingers and Watson. According to the salary cap report, not a single winger last season was over 300k. So we know Watson wasn't on more than that last season. This season we have paid I expect considerably less. Now I'm not saying this season he has been value for money but he's...

In terms of opportunity, what’s the difference between the A league and Prem Cup? Number of games. Thr difference in how seriously clubs take it. Especially this season most clubs played a full strength side at least once... Also the frequency of when they are relative to league games, ensuring the...

https://twitter.com/adamjwhitty/status/ ... tEITg&s=19

McKellar says we'll hopefully have Martin in selection consideration this week

With Meredith, look at his season. Spent a fair bit of the BUCS season as the backup 10. Why is that, at a guess, he was training primarily with us and then not up to speed with Loughborough's attack. Once Tigers have an extended break so he trains more with Loughborough, he's suddenly their startin...

I suppose there is an argument that we might now be better off with JvP and White than JvP and Youngs, but I don't think anyone would have argued that back when White left. Yeah now we'd have two people competing for the 9 jersey if we had both, and a 3rd choice in the international periods... &quo...