Pre-season friendlies: Episode 3

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Exeter Chiefs:

15 Josh Hodge

14 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso

13 Ben Hammersley

12 Joe Hawkins

11 Olly Woodburn

10 Harvey Skinner

9 Niall Armstrong


1 Will Goodrick-Clarke

2 Dan Frost

3 Marcus Street

4 Rusi Tuima

5 Richard Capstick

6 Ethan Roots

7 Jacques Vermeulen (c)

8 Ross Vintcent


Replacements:

16 Jack Yeandle

17 Kwenzo Blose

18 Josh Iosefa-Scott

19 Christ Tshiunza

20 Martin Moloney

21 Tom Cairns

22 Will Haydon-Wood

23 Will Rigg

Ulster Rugby

15. Ethan McIlroy,
14. Zac Ward*,
13. Jude Postlethwaite,
12. Ben Carson,
11. Aaron Sexton,
10. Aidan Morgan,
9. Nathan Doak;
1. Andrew Warwick,
2. James McCormick,
3. Corrie Barrett*,
4. Alan O’Connor (C),
5. Kieran Treadwell,
6. Matty Rea,
7. Marcus Rea,
8. James McNabney.

Replacements:

John Andrew,
Eric O’Sullivan,
Scott Wilson,
Henry Walker,
Harry Sheridan,
Reuben Crothers,
David McCann,
Nick Timoney
Dave Shanahan,
James Humphreys,
Mike Lowry,
Stewart Moore,
Werner Kok,
Ben Moxham

Weather Forecast

Sunny intervals and a gentle breeze from the south south west
Temperature 15 degree
Precipitation is not expected

Capstick at lock again...

It was a masterstroke to move Rus Tuima to the engine room. It would be great if it works for Cappers but I remain to be convinced.

Rigg off the bench in the final twenty. So glad I hung up my boots at fourteen! Haha.

Some odd selections given Tigets just a week away or have we picked up a raft of injuries? Dunne must have upset the coaches as overlooked again. I hope I’m proved wrong but that would not be my midfield selection. A great shame we haven’t named a much larger bench like Ulster, other players deserve some more game time imo, like Brown.
Should be a nice evening for running rugby, let’s hope we can be entertained this week.

Are the likes of Sio, Painter, Wimbush, PBB and possibly others being kept back for Tigers?

Quote:

Chief Bert
Are the likes of Sio, Painter, Wimbush, PBB and possibly others being kept back for Tigers?

You'd hope so. That starting XV is hardly going to put the fear of god into Michael Cheika

Great to see Chris T back though. He played at lock for Wales in Australia. Would be great if he really stayed fit and pushed on this season. Could make big difference and now really should be his time?

Fisilau?

Quote:

Not Manichean
Capstick at lock again...
It was a masterstroke to move Rus Tuima to the engine room. It would be great if it works for Cappers but I remain to be convinced.

He is only there because of injuries

IYO.

Quote:

Chief Fire Water

Quote:

Not Manichean
Capstick at lock again...
It was a masterstroke to move Rus Tuima to the engine room. It would be great if it works for Cappers but I remain to be convinced.

He is only there because of injuries

Its odd that he's starting ahead of Tshiunza and Moloney then. Both of them are experienced at lock. AFAICR this is only Capsticks third start in the row.

Although moving Tuima has been massive success. Who knows. Personally would like to see how Tuima and Tshiunza go as a second row pairing. Really hope see some positive rugby v Ulster. Would also love to know how many season tickers are sold. Think I saw somewhere was quite an increase on last year.

Reckon it’s a way of getting him game time as we are well covered in the back row. He is 6’5” and 18 stone so the shape for a lock. Reckon Rob and our forward coaches know where to play him!

Went to my first match of the season. Difficult to assess as a result. I thought our scrum generally held up well. Although we won ?all the line out ball on our throw, often with Capstick the jumper, we rarely competed on their throw until Tschiunza came on and were significantly poor at countering their drives and mauls after line-outs. We gave away quite a few breakdown penalties and several offsides which were needless. We still won comfortably but for quite long periods in the game seemed to lack any real cutting edge. I cannot fathom why Skinns played 77 minutes; surely the coaches know what he is about. In friendlies why isn't he on the bench to give others experience - baffling to me. Players on both sides looked fatigued which I suppose is unsurprising. Next week against Leicester should give a better idea of our season to come. Our maul-defence and breakdowns are big 'work -ons' before next week

Who did Brown-Bampoe replace in the named squad?

A much better game than last week and largely down to the perfect playing conditions and our ambition to play running rugby at times.
Yes lots of errors and too many penalties but a positive performance. Rugby is simple at times get the ball out from each breakdown quickly and we look dangerous when it is slow we struggle as defenders are in place. Hawkins was very good and is a certain starter at 12 for next week imo but 13 is still up for grabs, Dunne’s cameo when he came on should cement his place in the 23. We also need to find a place in the 23 for Brown, a brilliant finisher, can tackle and catch the ball. It’s a total waste having WHW on the bench who is never going to feature unless Harvey is injured, others can cover 10 like Hodge and Hawkins if needed so Brown can be a useful bench player he could easily cover 11,14,13 or 15, as he needs as much exposure as possible imo. He is going to be a star performer and is another iFW in the making. I don’t hold many hopes as our coaches are so predictable in selection on the 10 spot and bench cover.

It’s hard to predict the back 5 line up in the pack as we don’t have a clue as to who is injured in our squad, Jacques hobbling off was a worrying feature yesterday I hope it’s not serious. Vincent injected so much needed pace yesterday in the back row ( should be a certain starter) and Roots was outstanding. We have very good front row options so no issues there. Cairns to start at 9.
Will we be good enough to trouble Tigers with the injuries to our star players is the acid test and we won’t know that until next week but certainly unless we can defend the driving maul we will be vulnerable to their big pack. The obvious answer is to play fast running rugby from the outset, kicking the ball away should be our last option if in a good attacking position as our line out is never going to trouble opponents as we have so little height compared to others.
Let’s hope for a dry day next week.

Against an under strength Ulster we seemed to make hard work of it untill the latter stages. A few areas need work, maul defence, break down and ball retention in particular. But our scrum and lineout looked solid and our first up tackling was generally good. I do think we can be a little over zealous in our blitz defence and against a good handling attack we can get caught out wide. Expecting a very tough test against a Tigers side who underperformed last season.