Saints v Bristol Match Thread - Teams up

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2021:12:03:07:59:20 by Saint Ted.

We're virtually first choice team v a Bristol team shorn of key players. Bristol still aren't firing on all cylinders.

If there was ever an ideal opportunity to win away v Bristol, this is it.

COYS!!!

They are missing 7 top quality players
Harry thacker
John afoa
Kyle sinkler
Steven luatua
Semi radradra
siva naulago
luke morahan
We have got a strong squad coys

Quote:

saint buck
They are missing 7 top quality players
Harry thacker
John afoa
Kyle sinkler
Steven luatua
Semi radradra
siva naulago
luke morahan
We have got a strong squad coys

Nathan Hughes not selected either.

Like our side, you could argue that’s our strongest backline

Exciting back three.

Feel far more confident with Proctor in his rightful place.

Not 100% sold on the starting front row, would have much preferred Sam to start at Hooker.
and the more mobile Hill coming on at 50 when the game starts to break up.
Although looking at the bench no Painter or Auterac.

But still a good looking side, really hoping we can get the win and find the form of earlier games.

Hard one to call this, we have certainly gone back to having the edge with unavailable players, really depends which team can get back to something like their best.

I do feel this is a pretty big match for both sides.

Blimey, they have a lot of starting XV'ers out.
We look pretty good aside from front row. Backrow combo could be fantastic.
Pity its not televised.

Nathan Hughes has been out of form all season, hes currently in the prem cup side. We have some young guys in the back row really on fire, so hes out based on form. It should be a free flowing game. Safe travel to all the Saints fans coming down to the South West.

Quote:

hooker 72
Nathan Hughes has been out of form all season, hes currently in the prem cup side. We have some young guys in the back row really on fire, so hes out based on form. It should be a free flowing game. Safe travel to all the Saints fans coming down to the South West.

Thanks bud, unfortunately won't be travelling down. Working sat morning is no good, which is a shame as Bristol are a good team to wactch, so it should be fun.

15. Charles Piutau (52 apps)
14. Toby Fricker (21 apps)
13. Piers O’Conor (88 apps)
12. Alapati Leiua (88 apps)
11. Henry Purdy (26 apps)
10. Callum Sheedy (114 apps)
9. Andy Uren (121 apps)
1. Jake Woolmore (89 apps)
2. Jake Kerr (9 apps)
3. Max Lahiff (34 apps)
4. Joe Joyce (131 apps)
5. Chris Vui (73 apps)
6. Sam Jeffries (38 apps)
7. Jake Heenan (c) (60 apps)
8. Fitz Harding (14 apps)

A few players missing, but still a quality team and not to be under estimated, especially at Ashton Gate.

Quote:

SaintsAsh
15. Charles Piutau (52 apps)
14. Toby Fricker (21 apps)
13. Piers O’Conor (88 apps)
12. Alapati Leiua (88 apps)
11. Henry Purdy (26 apps)
10. Callum Sheedy (114 apps)
9. Andy Uren (121 apps)
1. Jake Woolmore (89 apps)
2. Jake Kerr (9 apps)
3. Max Lahiff (34 apps)
4. Joe Joyce (131 apps)
5. Chris Vui (73 apps)
6. Sam Jeffries (38 apps)
7. Jake Heenan (c) (60 apps)
8. Fitz Harding (14 apps)

A few players missing, but still a quality team and not to be under estimated, especially at Ashton Gate.

Still a quality team, but they have at least 6 starters out for them.

Real shame it isn't televised, even with a few key players missing for Bristol there's plenty of talent on both sides which should make for a good game.

Ps. Anyone else see big T has posted a post-op pic so he's now definitely out for a while.

Quote:

SaintsAsh
15. Charles Piutau (52 apps)
14. Toby Fricker (21 apps)
13. Piers O’Conor (88 apps)
12. Alapati Leiua (88 apps)
11. Henry Purdy (26 apps)
10. Callum Sheedy (114 apps)
9. Andy Uren (121 apps)
1. Jake Woolmore (89 apps)
2. Jake Kerr (9 apps)
3. Max Lahiff (34 apps)
4. Joe Joyce (131 apps)
5. Chris Vui (73 apps)
6. Sam Jeffries (38 apps)
7. Jake Heenan (c) (60 apps)
8. Fitz Harding (14 apps)

A few players missing, but still a quality team and not to be under estimated, especially at Ashton Gate.

SaintAsh do you know where the apps stats come from against the Bristol players? Or what they relate to? Some seem a little high for certain players

Quote:

Awaywin

Quote:

SaintsAsh
15. Charles Piutau (52 apps)
14. Toby Fricker (21 apps)
13. Piers O’Conor (88 apps)
12. Alapati Leiua (88 apps)
11. Henry Purdy (26 apps)
10. Callum Sheedy (114 apps)
9. Andy Uren (121 apps)
1. Jake Woolmore (89 apps)
2. Jake Kerr (9 apps)
3. Max Lahiff (34 apps)
4. Joe Joyce (131 apps)
5. Chris Vui (73 apps)
6. Sam Jeffries (38 apps)
7. Jake Heenan (c) (60 apps)
8. Fitz Harding (14 apps)

A few players missing, but still a quality team and not to be under estimated, especially at Ashton Gate.

SaintAsh do you know where the apps stats come from against the Bristol players? Or what they relate to? Some seem a little high for certain players

Those apps stats are from Bristol. They relate to 1st team appearance's in championship, premiership, cup and friendly matches.

Bear in mind Sheedy, Joyce and Uren all came through our academy and have been playing 1st team rugby from a young age.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2021:11:25:17:16:14 by memnoch.

15. Charles Piutau (52 apps)
14. Toby Fricker (21 apps)
13. Piers O’Conor (88 apps)
12. Alapati Leiua (88 apps)
11. Henry Purdy (26 apps)
10. Callum Sheedy (114 apps)
9. Andy Uren (121 apps)
1. Jake Woolmore (89 apps)
2. Jake Kerr (9 apps)
3. Max Lahiff (34 apps)
4. Joe Joyce (131 apps)
5. Chris Vui (73 apps)
6. Sam Jeffries (38 apps)
7. Jake Heenan (c) (60 apps)
8. Fitz Harding (14 apps)

A few players missing, but still a quality team and not to be under estimated, especially at Ashton Gate.

Good balanced team. Also Good to see a speedy winger in Gillespie at 23 who is probably more specialist at that position than Freeman. Back 3 future is bright.
Let's hope for a win.

Uren for example made his debut at about 16. D.O.B. 20 February 1996. Made his debut in 2013.

Peter

C'mon you Bristol Boys!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2021:11:25:21:09:55 by Peter_B.

Unfortunately driving right past Bristol on my way to Somerset on Friday, suggested to Mrs I we delay arrival in Somerset via Bristol but that didn’t fly at all so going to be listening on radio 😭

Good to see 3 backs on the bench.

Saints have a really good team from 4-15. Speed and skill everywhere. Happy to see Dinger getting a run with this group. Points out that our front row, and this isn't our best, really has been neglected.

Very quiet on here - but now in the lead and sounds like we're playing pretty well. 20-13 to Saints with 3 mins to HT.

Sounding like too many penalties again undoing all the good work being done

Silly by Biggs at the end of the half there. Kicked a goal line drop out into touch. Still, we mullered Lahiff in the scrum and won the penalty. No idea how Lahiff is still on. Looked concussed a few mins earlier and stayed down for a while.

Ahead at half time

Behind the score
Still giving away silly penalties
Still some poor basic skills

I do wonder about our ability at the breakdown
A lot of our problems come from rushed plays
because of hurried ball



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2021:11:26:20:35:51 by Deesaint.

I only have the commentary to go on, but to me it sounds like our discipline has been better on the whole tonight. Scrum going well too. Execution still sounds like it could be tightened up though.

Awful kick off. Looked like Waller bit in and Piatau ran past him.

We seem to be blitzing but not drifting. Frustrating.

Yes, discipline better, but fundamentals weirdly on and off. Again.

Great defensive scrums on our 5, but open play is just not good. Giving up that try was terrible, right from the kickoff.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2021:11:26:20:52:33 by Saint Gordo.

60m kick from furbank goes dead for a scrum in our own half… but we win the penalty. I think we do this deliberately. 😅

What the hell is up with our scrum tonight!!!!

We’re winning penalties for fun 😂

Beautiful try by furbank. Lovely dummies from Mitchell. Gaps are opening up for us. Great to have api and Sam on - solid line out option, grunt and the try came from a matavesi turnover in our own half.

Quote:

Neil-H
What the hell is up with our scrum tonight!!!!
We’re winning penalties for fun 😂

Damn! Where has this been?

We need to close this out. Solid defensive effort now,....

Great kick from Dan, nothing silly now they need 3 scores

Great win
You could almost feel the confidence getting a grip
Onwards and upwards

After the poor start of the second half, Saints settled down and look fun to watch. When was the last time we said that?

Quote:

Saint Gordo
After the poor start of the second half, Saints settled down and look fun to watch. When was the last time we said that?

Against Worcester 2 prem games ago?

Woooo hooooo

Quote:

Neil-H
What the hell is up with our scrum tonight!!!!
We’re winning penalties for fun 😂

To be fair, it has been going well of late, even against a big Sale side.

Quote:

SaintsAsh

Quote:

Saint Gordo
After the poor start of the second half, Saints settled down and look fun to watch. When was the last time we said that?

Against Worcester 2 prem games ago?

Fair enough! But we were supposed to win that one.

Excellent second half. Some good tries and game management

Well done Saints! I didn’t expect that when we coughed up a try so early in the game.

Dominant scrum won us the game! Our 4th try is a thing of beauty. Freeman and Furbank did some nice things. Lewis and Courts were excellent. Still need to improve our basics (eg our kick off in the 2nd half). Entertaining game and a good win.

Sounds like Alex Moon had a good 45-50 mins too

Fantastic performance, brilliant from Mitchell, Furbank and Freeman and our front 5. If we can keep up this standard staying in the top 4 looks possible

Well that was a much more pleasurable away trip than Sale. 18,124 in attendance looks like Bristol have got things in the right place off the pitch. I do hope they can find some form on it.

[www.premiershiprugby.com]

highlights and full game

Hadn't realised that they received a yellow card on 65 minutes. Must have missed that on Radio NoddY

Great win!

Do we think Freeman will get a look in for the 6 nations? Having him and steward in the same back 3 could be very interesting.

Quote:

Chris Hoddle
Hadn't realised that they received a yellow card on 65 minutes. Must have missed that on Radio NoddY

Yes, multiple penalties at the scrum - the replacement prop went off. Not keen on yellows for being smashed in the scrum but we’ve been on the wrong end before so I’ll take it.

Quote:

Saint Gordo
Saints have a really good team from 4-15. Speed and skill everywhere. Happy to see Dinger getting a run with this group. Points out that our front row, and this isn't our best, really has been neglected.

This aged well!
A friend of mine (Bristol STH) was at the game and got to the point of dreading every scrum as we shoved them around at will, regardless of whose put in it was.

I missed the game due to a friend being over from Australia. That is a very good result, gives us some momentum going into Bath had we lost those two I think we could have really slipped downhill.

Thought Boyd’s comments

That was as close to how we train ever day

Gave a great view on what he is trying to achieve


He also commiserated with Bristol on their scrum issues

Missing Sinkler and Afoa was a huge loss
Then losing Max to injury meant they had a lose head playing tight ( might have been other way round)

He also said
We have had days like that

Good to have scrum dominance but we lost a few as well



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2021:11:27:10:08:29 by Deesaint.

The commentator annoyed me. He only got excited when Bristol had the ball.

Good game and best I have seen from us for a good while.

Quote:

shendy

Quote:

Saint Gordo
Saints have a really good team from 4-15. Speed and skill everywhere. Happy to see Dinger getting a run with this group. Points out that our front row, and this isn't our best, really has been neglected.

This aged well!
A friend of mine (Bristol STH) was at the game and got to the point of dreading every scrum as we shoved them around at will, regardless of whose put in it was.

I have to keep making comments like this every week, eh mate????
To be fair to Bristol, as said above, they were without their first string props, but Saints still had to take advantage. That hasn't always happened, but last night it all worked! And perfect lineouts, too.

Quote:

shendy

Quote:

Saint Gordo
Saints have a really good team from 4-15. Speed and skill everywhere. Happy to see Dinger getting a run with this group. Points out that our front row, and this isn't our best, really has been neglected.

This aged well!
A friend of mine (Bristol STH) was at the game and got to the point of dreading every scrum as we shoved them around at will, regardless of whose put in it was.

Yeah this week has really shown up our TH depth in all honesty. No Sinckler or Afoa through injury/rest periods leaving us with only Lahiff as a recognised prem TH. After Lahiff got injured midway in the first half he tried to stay on then promptly got penalised in two scrums as he couldn't take the pressure through his shoulder. Leading to him being replaced by Thomas who is primarily a LH who has made about 4-5 sub appearences total at TH in his 200 odd game career. After Thomas got taken apart we put Kloska on who until the close season was a hooker and has tried to retrain as a prop over break, felt a bit bad for the lad after he immediately came on and got carded!

The total inability to scrummage in the second half made the it something of a nonentity which was a bit of a shame after a really competitive first half. Your locks don't half carry with a lot of anger! Augustus looks like he could be a bit of a monster for you guys and your number 14 (Freeman?) Looked absolutely class. Biggar continues to be annoyingly consistently high standard every time I see him play. All the best for the rest of the season, enjoy watching the way you play and completely deserved winners yesterday.

Any team is going to struggle when they are down to their forth / fifth choice prop especially with so many other key players missing. All you can do is take full advantage of the situation which it sounds like we did.

Quote:

Chris Hoddle
Hadn't realised that they received a yellow card on 65 minutes. Must have missed that on Radio NoddY

Yes they missed it Chris, I only found out via a comment on the Bristol forum

Just watched the game back, we played well bossed the breakdown to a large extent and as many have mentioned set piece dominant which made it tough for Bristol. Not a big fan but thought James Fish played really well as did Alex Moon justifying starting spots. Very nice to be able to bring Sam & Api on to close the game out. We seemed to be running more from depth in the forwards rather than from a standing start which was nice to see

Nust watched the full game, I thought we was dominant in most areas without getting enough reward for it. Even at the scrum it felt more dominant than the rewards it gave (totally understandable from the prop issues they had.)

All in all we were playing against the prem semi finalists) (albeit not a full strength team) away from home, I will take the bonus point win everyday of the week.

Quote:

Statesman

Quote:

Chris Hoddle
Hadn't realised that they received a yellow card on 65 minutes. Must have missed that on Radio NoddY

Yes, multiple penalties at the scrum - the replacement prop went off. Not keen on yellows for being smashed in the scrum but we’ve been on the wrong end before so I’ll take it.

Perhaps notably in the home fixture a couple of seasons ago where we spent about 10 minutes being penalised at scrums on our own line until two of our players were carded and Bris scored the winning points!

Quote:

Saint Gordo

Quote:

shendy

Quote:

Saint Gordo
Saints have a really good team from 4-15. Speed and skill everywhere. Happy to see Dinger getting a run with this group. Points out that our front row, and this isn't our best, really has been neglected.

This aged well!
A friend of mine (Bristol STH) was at the game and got to the point of dreading every scrum as we shoved them around at will, regardless of whose put in it was.

I have to keep making comments like this every week, eh mate????
To be fair to Bristol, as said above, they were without their first string props, but Saints still had to take advantage. That hasn't always happened, but last night it all worked! And perfect lineouts, too.

:-)

Quote:

TheGent
Great win!
Do we think Freeman will get a look in for the 6 nations? Having him and steward in the same back 3 could be very interesting.

I hope not, I'd rather he stayed with us during the 6N but then again I'm very much a club over country supporter.

Yes, multiple penalties at the scrum - the replacement prop went off. Not keen on yellows for being smashed in the scrum but we’ve been on the wrong end before so I’ll take it.[/quote]

Perhaps notably in the home fixture a couple of seasons ago where we spent about 10 minutes being penalised at scrums on our own line until two of our players were carded and Bris scored the winning points![/quote]

We had 4 in the bin at the end of that game!

Made an account to say:

1. My condolences for y'all not being able to watch the game.

2. I credit Moon for our power in the scrum. We smashed them on their put in even before Lahiff hurt his shoulder. Api has a (well deserved) reputation for being an excellent scrummaging lock but when he came on we went from utterly pulverizing them to being on top at scrum time. Hoping for more of the Ribbans/Moon combo in the future.

AmericanSaint is not me but I’d like to connect! Knows his onions

[quote twsaint]Yes, multiple penalties at the scrum - the replacement prop went off. Not keen on yellows for being smashed in the scrum but we’ve been on the wrong end before so I’ll take it.[/quote]

Perhaps notably in the home fixture a couple of seasons ago where we spent about 10 minutes being penalised at scrums on our own line until two of our players were carded and Bris scored the winning points![/quote]

We had 4 in the bin at the end of that game![/quote]

Blimey, even worse than I'd remembered!

Completely agree Moon is a lump - excellent in the tight and lineout and IMO needs game time to develop, Api is good to bring on in the last 20 when the game is breaking up, he backs up well and has good hands.

A very obvious point really, but we don't appear to have picked up any injuries. We need a big squad of fit players to cover the next few weeks.

White Lion, Augustus went off at the end with an HIA if he failed that he will be out next week?

I misses Augustus' HIA. He had a tremendous game and much of our scrum dominance can be put down to his raw power. Fingers crossed!

Quote:

AmericanSaint
Made an account to say:
1. My condolences for y'all not being able to watch the game.

2. I credit Moon for our power in the scrum. We smashed them on their put in even before Lahiff hurt his shoulder. Api has a (well deserved) reputation for being an excellent scrummaging lock but when he came on we went from utterly pulverizing them to being on top at scrum time. Hoping for more of the Ribbans/Moon combo in the future.

Welcome AmericanSaint!

As Boyd said from an outcome point of view this was excellent. Looked like we played a decent game too. Mitchell caused a lot of problems, Augustus is a pure brute who gets us over the gainline each time and Freeman looks the real deal.
I just hope we don't slip up against Bath next week, get some consistency and we'll be in a good place.

[quote Matthew][quote twsaint]Yes, multiple penalties at the scrum - the replacement prop went off. Not keen on yellows for being smashed in the scrum but we’ve been on the wrong end before so I’ll take it.[/quote]

Perhaps notably in the home fixture a couple of seasons ago where we spent about 10 minutes being penalised at scrums on our own line until two of our players were carded and Bris scored the winning points![/quote]

We had 4 in the bin at the end of that game![/quote]

Blimey, even worse than I'd remembered![/quote]

One of Christophe Ridley’s earlier games as a prem ref I believe. Was handing out cards like confetti.

I thought Boyd's interview was classy, yes we'll enjoy the win but it's hard to be on the end of scrum dominance and we've been on the wrong end a few times.

Haven't found time to watch the full highlights as yet but from the short ones it looked like some great execution and running lines from the backs from the good ball provided. Id hazard a guess there was an error or two somewhere but Mitchell had a big hand in two of the tries at least, fingers crossed his England experience/frustrations have fired him up.

Watched the game on Premiership web site and it was evident that game management has improved. Lewis opted for kicks at the posts rather than to the corners which kept the scoreboard ticking over until we led. The scrum dominance helped but it was an overall more controlled and more patient display from some of the recent games. If we can keep the majority of the squad fit we can turn out a very good team with good options on the bench.

Agree on some elements of game management
Could I just ask for one thing
On restarts when we receive the ball

CLEAR OUR LINES

The amount of times we put ourselves under pressure and loose points happens every game