London Irish

[Robespierre]

These Premiership matches are effectively a pre-season.
I'd start Henry at 10 and Steward at 15 behind a strong pack including Leatigaga and see what occurs.

Why not? Henry is far more of a 10 than 15 and can be a reliable goal kicker, although that wasn’t evident yesterday.

[JP14]

He rushed his kicks but has a beautiful left foot when he gets into his stride.

[Hot_Charlie]

I just wish there had been some sort of balance though. Cole starting in the front row, B Youngs at 9 or Scott in the midfield, etc. Give those young players that bit of experience around them to at least make it a contest and allow them to learn from the internationals. Lavanini aside though that was missing every starter from our full strength XV at current.

I get you, I just think yesterday was a particular circumstance where sending that team out made sense in the bigger picture and plan of this particular 8 day period.

We’ll know when the squads are announced on Tuesday and Friday.

[BG01]

These Premiership matches are effectively a pre-season.
I'd start Henry at 10 and Steward at 15 behind a strong pack including Leatigaga and see what occurs.

I agree with the idea but don't think you can ask Henry to start on Wednesday when he just did 80 minutes yesterday.

[ay2oh]

Think ford will be at 10 on Wednesday

[Hot_Charlie]

Think ford will be at 10 on Wednesday

And possibly Sunday too.

[Robespierre]

Think ford will be at 10 on Wednesday

Undoubtedly, but I would like Henry to be a replacement and establish himself as the number two fly half. McPhillips has blown his chance and Hardwick may find himself vying for one of the centre positions.

[CrumblingTerrace]

I'm not really into this 'these matches are a pre-season' mode of thinking.

It's 9 rounds of a 22-round Premiership - 40% of the season!

We don't want to waste 40% of the season preparing for the next one. We might be rubbish then, too. It's sufficient time for Borthwick to show how he can turn the team around.

[sam16111986]

These Premiership matches are effectively a pre-season.
I'd start Henry at 10 and Steward at 15 behind a strong pack including Leatigaga and see what occurs.

Why not? Henry is far more of a 10 than 15 and can be a reliable goal kicker, although that wasn’t evident yesterday.

He kicked well out of hand. Might just need to settle into the pace and find his rhythm. If not Hardwick in at 12 and he could kick off the tee instead.

I hope we give the starters from yesterday a week off rather than ask them to play again on Wednesday. One of the props might have to bench though.

[CitizenSmiff]

I'm not really into this 'these matches are a pre-season' mode of thinking.

It's 9 rounds of a 22-round Premiership - 40% of the season!

We don't want to waste 40% of the season preparing for the next one. We might be rubbish then, too. It's sufficient time for Borthwick to show how he can turn the team around.

20 points off the Heineken Cup places, a European campaign to try and win and a huge turnaround in the squad, realistically we don't have anything to play for in the league. I definetly think we're on the up but there's no point stressing about where we finish in the table. Personally I'd rather use the games as valuable development opportunities that we can use to push on for the next campaign.

[ABClub]

I just wish there had been some sort of balance though. Cole starting in the front row, B Youngs at 9 or Scott in the midfield, etc. Give those young players that bit of experience around them to at least make it a contest and allow them to learn from the internationals. Lavanini aside though that was missing every starter from our full strength XV at current.

I get you, I just think yesterday was a particular circumstance where sending that team out made sense in the bigger picture and plan of this particular 8 day period.

We’ll know when the squads are announced on Tuesday and Friday.

If there's more of a mix for Wednesday and Saturday then I'll feel less frustrated. My worry will be if we see basically 1st XV on Wednesday with LI being viewed the most winnable. Then another 2nd XV thrown out against Gloucester away.

There were definite positives from individual performances yesterday. I just hope those individuals are rewarded with chances in stronger XVs.

I'd really like to see Cam Henderson get a start behind Genge and Cole. Thom Smith getting a go in a more balanced back row with Liebenberg and Taufua as carriers would be great to see too. Porter at 13 outside Scott would be a good measure of where he is as a centre option. Similar with Simmons getting more chances in the back three in stronger back lines.

I'd say the biggest positive was probably how good Henry looked when he moved to 10. Tigers need a fly-half who can take the ball to the line and attack when Ford isn't available. Henry seems to have the passing and running game to do that. Hardwick was physical in defence from 12 when he came on too. 10.Henry 12.Hardwick could be a well balance pairing and good understudies to Ford and Scott.

[wellstiger]

Li will target a W against Tigers and field their strongest available team.
Most want us to target this as a chance to get a W and to field our strongest team. I can see the argument for doing this.
SB is his own man,he will do what he thinks is in the interest of the teams development.
The counter argument would be ( at this time ) if we field our strongest available XV and still fail to get a W, what would that do to our mindset and development. As we've heard were not concentrating on our attacking play until we get the basics of our game plan nailed down.

I will wait and see. Tues team announcement will be an indicator.

[BG01]

Yes, although LI put out a strong team against Saints on Saturday and so will have to rotate a bit vs us. Hopefully SOB plays as that would be good to see. I think Naholo is still injured. Most of TBC, OHC, Loader, Cowan, and Jackson will need to be rested.

Suspect we're partly locked into having an A and B team of sorts over the next couple but but then we have a week gap so can 'reset' if we want and start playing more mixed squads.

[sam16111986]

Yes, although LI put out a strong team against Saints on Saturday and so will have to rotate a bit vs us. Hopefully SOB plays as that would be good to see. I think Naholo is still injured. Most of TBC, OHC, Loader, Cowan, and Jackson will need to be rested.

Suspect we're partly locked into having an A and B team of sorts over the next couple but but then we have a week gap so can 'reset' if we want and start playing more mixed squads.

I think LI rotated 10. They played both flyhalfs at 10 and 12 though so don't know what team we'll see from them. Suspect it'll be pretty strong. If Jackson is starting again then our big ball carriers should be going straight down his channel to see how fresh or not he's feeling.

[sapajo]

Well if we are not doing much work in attack how is our attack coach now gainfully employed? Furthermore we must win some matches and the idea that we should be able to do so without doing much work in attack is simply bonkers to me.