London Scottish v Saracens Preview
Jackson looks on
By saracensfan62
February 6 2025
After last week’s fiasco vs Ealing at StoneX, Saracens return to premiership rugby cup action away to London Scottish who play (rather confusingly) at the Richmond Athletic Ground. One of my favourite championship grounds, the Athletic Ground I’m sure will be packed ready to witness what should be an exciting Friday night under the lights.
Scottish currently sit in 7th spot in the Championship. Not a team who regularly come under the limelight, they do still possess some serious talent with Dan Nutton and ex Welsh international Will Talbot Davies in their backline. I suspect we will see some free-flowing exiting rugby on show - 2 fairly young teams with lots of young players going at it hammer and tongs to try and cement a spot in the first team. We technically are not out of the competition, but realistically we'd need 2 bonus point wins in the next 2 games and hope that Ealing and Harlequins do not both win their next games. Even then we'd likely only qualify as one of the lower ranked clubs and face a difficult away trip in the RO16.
Sarries are bolstered by the return of the legend Goodey at full back and Carwyn Tuipulotu remains at number 8 after impressing last week against Ealing. Charlie Bracken gets the nod at 9 ahead of Gareth Simpson and thus partners up with newbie Louis Johnson. Hartley and Hallett (the 2 Hs) in the midfield will hopefully cause the Scottish defence problems. Our 2 speedster wingers Tobias Elliott and Brandon Jackson start to provide some searing pace in attack. Our bench does feature several players who I’ve neither seen nor heard of before now (for instance Luke Davidson and Oscar Wilson) however I’m sure these younger guys are excited for their opportunity to burst onto the scene and hopefully make their impact on the game.
First things first, we must improve our kicking game to win. I’m going to be brutally honest and say it has been very sub-standard lately. That and the lack of attacking fluidity I feel have caused us the most problems. Once this is sorted, I feel we are not far away from ‘clicking’.
All that’s left to say is come on Sarries and enjoy, all those going to watch!
Saracens Men team to play London Scottish:
1 Eroni Mawi
2 James Hadfield
3 Alec Clarey
4 Kaden Pearce-Paul
5 Hugh Tizard
6 Max Eke
7 Nathan Michelow (c)
8 Carwyn Tuipulotu
9 Charlie Bracken
10 Louie Johnson
11 Brandon Jackson
12 Olly Hartley
13 Josh Hallett
14 Tobias Elliott
15 Alex Goode
Replacements:
16 James Isaacs
17 Sam Crean
18 Harvey Beaton
19 Kennedy Sylvester
20 Reggie Hammick
21 Gareth Simpson
22 Luke Davidson
23 Oscar Wilson
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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2025:02:16:21:10:15 by Darraghgirl.
1 Eroni Mawi
2 James Hadfield
3 Alec Clarey
4 Kaden Pearce-Paul
5 Hugh Tizard
6 Max Eke
7 Nathan Michelow (c)
8 Carwyn Tuipulotu
9 Charlie Bracken
10 Louie Johnson
11 Brandon Jackson
12 Olly Hartley
13 Josh Hallett
14 Tobias Elliott
15 Alex Goode
Replacements:
16 James Isaacs
17 Sam Crean
18 Harvey Beaton
19 Kennedy Sylvester
20 Reggie Hammick
21 Gareth Simpson
22 Luke Davidson
23 Oscar Wilson
"Saracens have won the race and beaten off United Rugby Championship sides to sign highly-rated teenage South African fly-half Luke Davidson, according to South African media outlet PlugSports.
Davidson, 18, is being educated at Michaelhouse, a private boarding school in Balgowan Valley in the Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal earned rave reviews for his form in the recent Craven Week.
His father, Brett, was a hugely successful schoolboy rugby player and, in 1990, was named in the Natal Craven Week team before going on to have a successful business career with interests in restaurants, takeaways and tyres."
[www.rugbypass.com]
23 Oscar Wilson
Any info ?
Quote:tigersimon
20 Reggie Hammick
23 Oscar Wilson
Any info ?
Academy backrower and back, respectively - that’s all I know.
23- 2nd year academy centre, played in the prem cup at 17
London Scottish v Saracens
Referee: Craig Maxwell-Keys
ARs: Jonathan Cook & James Pidding
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2025:02:06:19:09:21 by Darraghgirl.
It's hard to compare players at that age as you don't know the make up of the teams, but he was certainly lively, and a handful for their backs all match. One of our stand-out youngsters on the day, along with Tayo Adegbemile, another huge lock.
Quote:Sarriebone
Goode off after 25 minutes...
Nothing worry about, it was planned apparently
Might not look convincing but that has to be taken into account, and given it was two losses and a draw for the other premiership clubs, we've had a better friday night than the rest!
Tuipulotu very good carrying but lost the ball in contact unfortunately a couple of times. He’s off tomorrow to Pau for the rest of the season but said he’d love to come back.
Sadly the kicking game was if anything worse than last week, far too many simple ones for the receiver to mark with no pressure at all. Louis looks a bit short of confidence and we struggled for any continuity in the backs bar a couple of good moves that led to tries.
Quote:ICantBelieveItsNotBartyII
If Ealing beat Quins today and we do the same next round (without too many quins bonus points) we can finish 2nd. The best 3 runners up qualify for the quarter finals. Too many permutations to say too much but its half a chance right now
Cheers