One day closer to the beginning of the season and one day
closer to the inevitable Sunday hangover following the London Double Header –
where the London clubs provide background light entertainment to a
50'000-strong binge-athon. Harlequins
and London Irish will both be there to kick off proceedings, whilst Leicester
open their title defence at Welford Road.
How will each side fare this year?
Check out Part 2 of RuckedOver's Premiership Preview…
Harlequins
Coach: Conor O’Shea. The Irishman has done wonders with the
Harlequins side over the years and his dedication to blooding young English
talent has won him many admirers from opposition fans as well. He’ll need to be at his sharpest this season
as it promises to be one of the tightest yet.
Captain: Chris Robshaw. According to my girlfriend, he should have
gone on the Lions tour. And be made to
play shirtless. I have to say I agree
with half of that statement (you choose which half) but the England man must
overcome the disappointment of missing out and rediscover his immense 6 Nations
form – his place in the national set up may also be up for grabs.
What happened last
year? A little hot and cold from the
young Londoners, who impressed with an LV=Cup win (as one of 4 teams who took
it seriously) and they made the semi-finals in the Premiership once again, only
to take a pasting from Leicester.
Perhaps it was fatigue, but there were a couple of noticeable cracks in
the latter stages of last season.
How do they look this
year? It’s not been a particularly
busy summer in terms of new faces, but the players they have brought in are
experienced heads who will certainly add depth to the squad. Once again, though, O’Shea seems to be
looking towards his kindergarten for answers and there looks to be bags of
talent available. The question is
though, how quickly will they settle?
Players out: James Johnston (Saracens), Chris Brooker
(Worcester Warriors), Peter Browne, Seb Stegmann (London Welsh), Rory Clegg
(Newcastle Falcons), Olly Kohn, Will Skinner (retired)
Players in: Paul Doran-Jones (Northampton Saints),
Nick Kennedy (Toulon), Paul Sackey (Stade Francais)
Key Player: Danny Care. With Nick Evans now occasionally starting to
have the odd off-day, the man with worst haircut in the Premiership needs to
reach the levels of consistency he hit last year to lead the Quins’ attacking
threat. If he can work on bringing his
teammates into the game, rather than looking to go himself when it’s not on, he
will have a great shot at the England 9 shirt.
One to Watch: Charlie Walker. A little bit of an unknown, perhaps, but,
trust me, the kid has serious wheels and phenomenally balanced running
style. He’s been tearing it up in
pre-season and in sevens (see below), and with an injury to Ross Chisholm there’s every
chance young Walker might see some action and hopefully, for Quins fans, some
space. Keep an eye out for the
outstanding number 8 Jack Clifford as well, who captained the U20s to World
Championship success.
Prediction: 5th. Yikes, I change my mind about this every 2
minutes – one second they’re potential winners, the next they’re out of the
playoffs. I just think that the men from
West London looked a little bit lightweight and vulnerable towards the tail end
of last year – teams seemed to figure them out.
If they can get off to a flyer, they’ll be hard to catch, but I think it
will be an almighty scrap for the top 4 this season.
Leicester Tigers
Coach: Richard
Cockerill. ‘The egg’ is generally
disliked by everyone aside from Leicester fans, but even his detractors admire
his honesty. The fourth official at the
Premiership final probably didn’t though, as he took a verbal bashing from the
Leicester coach that landed him a ban that will see him miss the first 5
Premiership games of the season.
Captain: Toby
Flood. With Geordan Murphy making his
way onto the coaching staff, the Tigers 10 with ears like the FA Cup will take
over on a full-time basis. He handled
the role superbly last season and, being a fly half, enjoyed yapping at people
all the time anyway. The only worry is
his liability to pick up injuries – he’s likely to miss the start of the season
after being knocked out by a brutal forearm from Dan Tuohy in pre-season.
What happened last
year? Predictably, the Tigers hit a
great run of form towards the back end of the season and comfortably clinched 2nd
place, before bulldozing their way through Harlequins for their 9th
consecutive final and turning over Northampton for their 10th
English title. They also managed to play
some decent rugby as well as they topped the try-scoring charts for the 3rd
time in 4 years.
How do they look this
year? There’s been no major signings
to particularly impact the first choice team, but as usual the Tigers seem to
have ridiculous strength in depth.
Established players such as Jamie Gibson, Ryan Lamb and David Mele might
expect first team rugby from other teams but they’ll be very much squad players
for the East Midlanders – but they’ll be key to Leicester’s success. Also look out for Miles Benjamin (remember
him?) who will be looking to make his debut after picking up a neck injury
after signing 14 months ago.
Players out: Martin Castrogiovanni (Toulon), Jimmy
Stevens (London Irish), Rob Andrew (London Welsh), Richard Thorpe (London
Welsh), Micky Young, George Ford (Bath Rugby), Andy Forsyth (Sale Sharks),
Geordan Murphy (Retired)
Players in: Tim Bristow (London Welsh), Jérôme
Schuster, David Mele (Perpignan), Neil Briggs (London Welsh), Sebastian De
Chaves (Stade Montois), Jamie Gibson (London Irish), Ryan Lamb (Northampton Saints),
Owen Williams (Scarlets), Gonzalo Camacho (Exeter Chiefs)
Key Player: Ben Youngs. Every time I watch the Tigers play it is
obvious how critical he is to their gameplan – his speed around the fringes and
ability to put players through gaps is the platform for Leicester’s attacking
game, whilst his strong box-kicking provides a strong exit strategy. The only problem is that, when he gets
ruffled, the Tigers struggle – if he can cut out the odd flap and keep his head
under pressure, then he and his side will enjoy great seasons.
One to Watch: Ed Slater. OK, so he isn’t exactly a newbie at 25, and
he’s not exactly hard to keep an eye out for at 6 foot 6 and almost 18 and a
half stones, but the abrasive lock was phenomenal last season and this one may well
be his breakthrough at international level.
The man with a jaw line to put Desperate Dan to shame has all the
aggression and physicality you would want of a ‘grafter’ but also a surprising
turn of pace and a cheeky set of hands.
Prediction: 1st – Champions. Yes, it’s the easy choice to make, but
Leicester haven’t lost any real front-line players – the fading Martin
Castrogiovanni apart – and have brought in some sharp talent to already
complement a surprisingly young squad that’s only going to be better after one
more year’s experience. The only
question will be how they cope with a fight on 2 fronts – European and domestic.
London Irish
Coach: Brian Smith. The ex-England backs coach had a pretty
miserable time at the helm last year and it's difficult to see many more
reasons to be optimistic this year, with half of his first choice side shipping
out to different clubs. It looks like he
tore most of his hair out last season, but there's every chance he may picking
out whatever's left throughout the next 8 months.
Captain: Declan Danaher and George Skivington. I've never understood having a shared
captaincy – especially not between 2 of the biggest bruisers on the park. At least if it was with a lock and a scrum
half you know who would have the final say…However, veteran Danaher may well be
hanging up his boots at the end of this season and so will be keen to go out
with a bang whilst ex-Tiger Skivington proved himself as one of the club's rare
success stories last year. Both men will
lead from the front.
What happened last
year? The best of a bad bunch was as
good as it got for the Irish, as they clawed their way to the top of the
'relegation pack' following a nightmare start to the season which saw them
arm-wrestling with Sale in a contest of who could produce the most inept displays.
How do they look this
year? Pretty different, it's fair to
say. If you look at the quality of
players who have left, the vast majority were first team shoe-ins for Irish and
Smith seems to have only replaced them with fringe Premiership players or
ambitious chaps from the Championship.
Of course, how they gel as a team is more important but there's no
substitute for out and out quality.
Players out: Alex Corbisiero (Northampton Saints), Max
Lahiff (Melbourne Rebels), Jerry Yanuyanutawa (Glasgow Warriors), James
Buckland (London Scottish), Scott Lawson (Newcastle Falcons), James Sandford
(Cornish Pirates), Matt Garvey, Jonathan Joseph, Anthony Watson, David Sisi
(Bath Rugby), Jack Moates (London Wasps), Steven Shingler (Scarlets), Joe
Ansbro (Retired)
Players in: In: Jamie Hagan (Leinster), Johnny
Harris, Jimmy Stevens, Patrick Phibbs, Alex Lewington (Leicester Tigers), Matt
Parr, Nic Rouse (Nottingham), Blair Cowan (Worcester Warriors), Myles Dorrian
(Exeter Chiefs), Eamonn Sheridan, Fergus Mulchrone (Rotherham), Andy Fenby
(Scarlets)
Key Player: George Skivington. With the excellent Matt Garvey part of the
4-strong raid by Bath in the off-season, Big Skiv will need to step up to the
mark and offer physical domination in both the set-piece and the loose. With a relatively inexperienced side, Irish
cannot afford to play on the back foot too often, and so it will be up to the
likes of Skivington to ensure that the Irish pack doesn't get bullied.
One to Watch: Marland Yarde. He took his chance for England in the summer
with both hands and, with Chris Ashton showing all the confidence of a new-born
foal last year, he must know that there are international spots up for
grabs. If he can continue to show the
speed, balance and power he demonstrated last year, then it could not only see
him emerge as a first-choice England winger, but also provide Irish with the
attacking threat they will desperately need to stay up.
Prediction: 12th. Brian Smith has rightly talked about having no
egos in his team and how they will all play for each other – but I struggle to
see how losing half of your better players can possibly be conducive to
that. They are going to need to find a
gameplan that makes them competitive quickly, or else we may be seeing the
Reading-based club in the Championship next year.
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