Bath v Leinster Sat 3.15 BT Sports

[wixfjord]

Back to Europe and back to a familiar foe in Bath.

Presuming Leavy & McCarthy are fit and Conan isn't, I think we might see the following:

Healy, Cronin, Furlong, Toner, Ryan, Fardy, VDF, Ruddock, McGrath, Sexton, Lowe, Reid, Ringrose, Larmour, RK
McGrath, Tracy, Porter, Molony, Leavy, McCarthy, Byrne, DK

Wouldn't have any issue with COB starting at 12 considering his performance yesterday, but I think Reid not playing shows he's earmarked for that role. Will have a big job on his hands against Roberts.

Bath are a handy enough side with a great backrow and two electric wingers, but likely to be missing important players like Faletau, Priestland, Homer, Joseph, Watson.

I think if our pack show up we should take it.

Bath had a fairly tough game at home to Sale today in sticky wet conditions. Considering we rested pretty much all our guys should be interesting to see how that plays out.

[hugonaut]

Struck me that Hughie O'Sullivan will be on the bench for the game, and that was why Pat Patterson was benching against the Dragons. Nick McCarthy looked pretty ropey coming off at halftime against the Ospreys [and turned in a pretty ordinary 40 minute performance]; I reckon he's out of commission. O'Sullivan is in our European squad as it stands at the moment and has done well with his chances this season thus far.

[wixfjord]

Looked like Zach Mercer was struggling a bit with an injury today.

Came off on 5 mins and Louw went to 8.

They drew 7-7 with Sale in an absolutely dire game.

[Blue not red blood]

Rain forecast all week in that area but sat seems ok.
Pitch will be very heavy so maybe a day for forwards. If so then Lowe to lose out?

[wixfjord]

Rain forecast all week in that area but sat seems ok.
Pitch will be very heavy so maybe a day for forwards. If so then Lowe to lose out?

I don't see how we can't pick Lowe tbh.

Fardy is in serious form too and we might need some of his dog in the backrow.

So JGP the odd one out for game one for me.

And I'd probably start him in game two at home.

[Serb]

I watched Bath vs Sale today too and thought that Bath were awful. They have a solid enough set piece (although Sale started to dominate their line out towards the end) and are a decent threat at the breakdown and had a bunch of turnovers, but I feel if we negate that threat, they look quite poor in almost every other area.

The conditions did look pretty manky so maybe that’s responsible for some of the poor play, but Bath’s defence was shocking. They had something like a 60% tackle success, I think a win should be very doable and realistically we should be targeting all 5 points this weekend.

[desperado]

Game was certainly dire. Weather was also dire, but couldn't account for all the direness. Not sure what Girve has got himself into. Lots of things about Bath were just plain strange. Fotualii takes an age to move the ball from the ruck, and I mean an age... it looked like waiting for the snap in American football.

[wixfjord]

Game was certainly dire. Weather was also dire, but couldn't account for all the direness. Not sure what Girve has got himself into. Looks of things about Bath were just plain strange. Fotualii takes an age to move the ball from the ruck, and I mean an age... it looked like waiting for the snap in American football.

Use to really rate him but looked well past it today.

Bath doesn't seem like a good setup at the moment at all.

[blockhead]

Game was certainly dire. Weather was also dire, but couldn't account for all the direness. Not sure what Girve has got himself into. Lots of things about Bath were just plain strange. Fotualii takes an age to move the ball from the ruck, and I mean an age... it looked like waiting for the snap in American football.

Maybe they're hiding all their big plays for the weekend.

[mildlyinterested]

Struck me that Hughie O'Sullivan will be on the bench for the game, and that was why Pat Patterson was benching against the Dragons. Nick McCarthy looked pretty ropey coming off at halftime against the Ospreys [and turned in a pretty ordinary 40 minute performance]; I reckon he's out of commission. O'Sullivan is in our European squad as it stands at the moment and has done well with his chances this season thus far.

Yeah thought that myself, certainly an option with McCarthy out and if they want Fardy/Lowe.

[curates_egg]

Presuming Leavy & McCarthy are fit and Conan isn't.

Any reason for this presumption (honest question)? I thought McCarthy was injured?
Leavy looks ok. No news on Conan's injury, but it doesn't look good.

[mildlyinterested]

COB not registered for Europe. FYI

[artaneboy]

Struck me that Hughie O'Sullivan will be on the bench for the game, and that was why Pat Patterson was benching against the Dragons. Nick McCarthy looked pretty ropey coming off at halftime against the Ospreys [and turned in a pretty ordinary 40 minute performance]; I reckon he's out of commission. O'Sullivan is in our European squad as it stands at the moment and has done well with his chances this season thus far.

Yeah thought that myself, certainly an option with McCarthy out and if they want Fardy/Lowe.

I suspect that the "2-from-3 Kolpak" for the away Bath match will be JGP and Lowe- with Fardy resting. Ross has led the team magnificently over the last fortnight, but we probably are not reliant on him for this game.

There's enough evidence form the youngsters in the back-row queue (Doris, Deegan, Penney, Murphy) that they are more than capable of coming on for the last 20 to 30 minutes and making an impact. And I thought Moloney was also excellent ovber this little run- with Kearney good too. So the second row is covered fairly well on options- once Ryan and Dev are locked and loaded.

I could see Fardy coming back into the equation for the return fixture though.

[the spoofer]

Struck me that Hughie O'Sullivan will be on the bench for the game, and that was why Pat Patterson was benching against the Dragons. Nick McCarthy looked pretty ropey coming off at halftime against the Ospreys [and turned in a pretty ordinary 40 minute performance]; I reckon he's out of commission. O'Sullivan is in our European squad as it stands at the moment and has done well with his chances this season thus far.

.

[mildlyinterested]

Struck me that Hughie O'Sullivan will be on the bench for the game, and that was why Pat Patterson was benching against the Dragons. Nick McCarthy looked pretty ropey coming off at halftime against the Ospreys [and turned in a pretty ordinary 40 minute performance]; I reckon he's out of commission. O'Sullivan is in our European squad as it stands at the moment and has done well with his chances this season thus far.

I didn't see any pictures of Lancaster in Newport and I reckon he was working with the A squad while the lads did the business in Newport. Not travelling probably gave them two extra sessions (Friday and Saturday). It's likely that only Porter, Tracey, Fardy and Ross Byrne will be involved this weekend so it made sense to work with the "starters".

he was there

Show Spoiler:

[the spoofer]

Struck me that Hughie O'Sullivan will be on the bench for the game, and that was why Pat Patterson was benching against the Dragons. Nick McCarthy looked pretty ropey coming off at halftime against the Ospreys [and turned in a pretty ordinary 40 minute performance]; I reckon he's out of commission. O'Sullivan is in our European squad as it stands at the moment and has done well with his chances this season thus far.

I didn't see any pictures of Lancaster in Newport and I reckon he was working with the A squad while the lads did the business in Newport. Not travelling probably gave them two extra sessions (Friday and Saturday). It's likely that only Porter, Tracey, Fardy and Ross Byrne will be involved this weekend so it made sense to work with the "starters".

he was there

Yeah, spotted that so my theory is complete cr@p!

[CiaranIrl]

I suspect that the "2-from-3 Kolpak" for the away Bath match will be JGP and Lowe- with Fardy resting. Ross has led the team magnificently over the last fortnight, but we probably are not reliant on him for this game.

There's enough evidence form the youngsters in the back-row queue (Doris, Deegan, Penney, Murphy) that they are more than capable of coming on for the last 20 to 30 minutes and making an impact. And I thought Moloney was also excellent ovber this little run- with Kearney good too. So the second row is covered fairly well on options- once Ryan and Dev are locked and loaded.

I could see Fardy coming back into the equation for the return fixture though.

Yeah, I agree. As in, the team would be something like:

Healy, Cronin, Furlong, Toner, Ryan, Leavy, VDF, Ruddock, McGrath, Sexton, Lowe, Reid, Ringrose, Larmour, RK
McGrath, Tracy, Porter, Molony, Doris, JGP, Byrne, DK

[OTT]

The Bath pitch is renowned for being boggy and heavy at the best of times, with another week of pissing rain on it I can only see it getting worse.

Bath could be cr@p but they could also be competitive you can never tell with them so you have to plan that they will be competitive. So for that reason I want a hard nosed f'er like Fardy there to keep up the relentlessness up front also he has been brilliant the last few weeks and it helps with the continuity a bit when so many changes are going to be made anyway.

The pitch is narrow so you would wonder would we get enough advantage with playing James Lowe but on saying that he pops up all over the place so we probably would see a fair bit of him anyway even if it was not out wide but I think we could survive with Dave Kearney (great to see him get a few scores at the weekend) and Larmour on the wings. So I would have JGP on the bench.

Hopefully we have enough guys fit that there is a selection headache and it is not just needs must scenario.

[carlow man]

Not sure I would fancy larmour defending against the giant number 11 for bath. Not even going to attempt spelling his name! Also big decision whether to go with reid or cob. Roberts going at Reid could be ugly and cob seems to get yards in contact albeit against lesser oppostion in last 2 weeks. Roll on Saturday thou. Min 4 points required!!

[carlow man]

Hoping conan is fit aswell as leavy. Heavy pitch will make it a game for the pack so we need those lads fit if possible. Could end up with fardy, Josh and doris at this rate which isn't ideal.