Well done Quins

[JP14]

Only 4 points behind second, playing against Sarries at home after Europe and Wasps play Glous at home in the same round.
Big chance to really close the gap between us and second, Bath playing at Sale which might be a banana skin for them.

I wouldn’t be so certain Bath have worked really hard on their away form and I know that Sale will certainly make it hard but I’ll be predicting for Bath to win that one.

[strawclearer]

Only 4 points behind second, playing against Sarries at home after Europe and Wasps play Glous at home in the same round.
Big chance to really close the gap between us and second, Bath playing at Sale which might be a banana skin for them.

Reporting (but certainly not rejoicing) from the Torygraph that "Maro Itoje suffered a badly cut mouth and damaged jaw, caused by Mike Brown’s shoulder. The giant forward was removed from the front line and was taken to hospital for apparent “reconstructive” surgery."

Hope he recovers completely but this might make him doubtful for playing lock, flanker or even Santa on Christmas Eve!

[TomWeston]

Good performance and resilience from the hairy queens

And Luke Pearce, who is certainly NOT my favourite Sir, even listened to his assistants...much of the time!

[ellis9]

On that performance Danny Care must be the best scrum half in England, no other scrum halves have his skill set.

If you want to find a scrum half with a better skill set than Care, then take a look closer to home. (If you're struggling, then just see who the current England number 9 is).

[LE18]

Only 4 points behind second, playing against Sarries at home after Europe and Wasps play Glous at home in the same round.
Big chance to really close the gap between us and second, Bath playing at Sale which might be a banana skin for them.

Reporting (but certainly not rejoicing) from the Torygraph that "Maro Itoje suffered a badly cut mouth and damaged jaw, caused by Mike Brown’s shoulder. The giant forward was removed from the front line and was taken to hospital for apparent “reconstructive” surgery."

Hope he recovers completely but this might make him doubtful for playing lock, flanker or even Santa on Christmas Eve!

My grandson suffered a very similar injury yesterday at Oakham, hospital informed him he cannot do anything physical for 4 weeks, including brushing teeth, so very unlikely to see Itoje on Christmas eve.

[strawclearer]

Only 4 points behind second, playing against Sarries at home after Europe and Wasps play Glous at home in the same round.
Big chance to really close the gap between us and second, Bath playing at Sale which might be a banana skin for them.

Reporting (but certainly not rejoicing) from the Torygraph that "Maro Itoje suffered a badly cut mouth and damaged jaw, caused by Mike Brown’s shoulder. The giant forward was removed from the front line and was taken to hospital for apparent “reconstructive” surgery."

Hope he recovers completely but this might make him doubtful for playing lock, flanker or even Santa on Christmas Eve!

My grandson suffered a very similar injury yesterday at Oakham, hospital informed him he cannot do anything physical for 4 weeks, including brushing teeth, so very unlikely to see Itoje on Christmas eve.

Ouch! Hope your grandson makes a full and speedy recovery too - and gets to eat his Christmas Day lunch!

[LE18]

Thanks Strawclearer, very nasty, :censored: injury, face contacted shoulder of opponent he was about to tackle.

[JP14]

Even if there’s no Maro, Saracens have still got Isiekwe, Kruis and Skelton to call on.

[Roly]

Only 4 points behind second, playing against Sarries at home after Europe and Wasps play Glous at home in the same round.

Meanwhile, back on planet Earth....

[voice of the crumbie]

Only 4 points behind second, playing against Sarries at home after Europe and Wasps play Glous at home in the same round.

Meanwhile, back on planet Earth....

Yes back on planet Earth there is a sense of perspective.

Just look at the Sarries starting line up for yesterday's match:

15 Alex Goode; 14 Sean Maitland; 13 Marcelo Bosch; 12 Brad Barritt (c); 11 Chris Wyles; 10 Owen Farrell 9 Richard Wigglesworth; 1 Mako Vunipola; 2 Jamie George; 3 Vincent Koch; 4 Nick Isiekwe; 5 George Kruis; 6 Maro Itoje ; 7 Calum Clark; 8 Jackson Wray.

With the exception of Billy Vunipola that's probably their full strength 1st team and they lost.

Just shows that on the day team in the Premiership can beat any other.

Tigers are still in the mix for the play offs and are not far off 2nd place so to repeat the mantra of a much respected former forum user KEEP THE FAITH!

[Roly]

Only 4 points behind second, playing against Sarries at home after Europe and Wasps play Glous at home in the same round.

Meanwhile, back on planet Earth....

Just shows that on the day team in the Premiership can beat any other.

Except when Tigers play Worcester. At home.

[L Smith]

Meanwhile, back on planet Earth....

Just shows that on the day team in the Premiership can beat any other.

Except when Tigers play Worcester. At home.

Considering that it wasn’t a draw, it demonstrates the point perfectly well.

[Roly]

On that performance Danny Care must be the best scrum half in England, no other scrum halves have his skill set.

If you want to find a scrum half with a better skill set than Care, then take a look closer to home. (If you're struggling, then just see who the current England number 9 is).

Both Care and Youngs are the 'current' England number 9's. It is quite clear that EJ sees most of his squad as interchangeable for any given position - hence his coining of the phrase 'finishers'.

They both have different skill sets but its Care's that add dynamism and injects pace into attacks. apart from the odd cheeky tap and go, Youngs is nothing other than a safe pair of hands. Another example would be Hartley over George - Hartley starts, but does he offer more than George? Many think not.

Do not be surprised to see Care starting more and more for England.

[Cardiff Tig]

Do not be surprised to see Care starting more and more for England.

Don't be surprised if you're wrong. Care doesn't have the game management that Youngs has, or as good a kicking game (I'm not talking about kicking through to score from). Care and Youngs haven't changed game styles in the last few seasons, there is a reason Youngs has been favoured to start and Care to come off the bench.

Care looked excellent at the end of the Aus game, but if he had played like that from the start then it would have been a very different, loose game and Aus would have scored more - we might well have scored more as well, but it would have been a very different game.

[Roly]

Do not be surprised to see Care starting more and more for England.

Care looked excellent at the end of the Aus game, but if he had played like that from the start then it would have been a very different, loose game and Aus would have scored more - we might well have scored more as well, but it would have been a very different game.

Now we've established that, can you give me the weekend's lottery numbers please?

As I said, they offer different skill sets, but to claim that Youngs's skill set is better than Care's is simply wrong.

If you watched the Quins v Sarries game, you'll see that Care isn't just a one trick pony - he's intelligent and has that spark to do quality things lacking in the majority of English scrum halfs. A little bit of magic. We saw it against Australia at the end (as you said) and turned the game against Saracens in the last 10 minutes on Sunday - but make no mistake, that was an 80 minute performance against a side that Youngs has struggled to manipulate. For example, if Youngs kicking game is so good, why did he repeatedly kick down the throat of what is arguably the best counter-attacking back three in the league on Saturday?

There are several positions within the England rugby squad where arguably, the incumbent starter is solid but not much else. Statistically, games are won in the last 20 minutes and this is why Jones quite often keeps some pretty handy talent on the bench.