Your Team for Bristol

[Vespula Vulgaris]

Who do you think Dai will pick?

I'm gonna go with:

9) Simmo
10) Gopps
11) Bassett
12) Beale
13) Daly
14) Wade
15) LeRoux
1) Mullan
2) Taylor
3) Swainston
4) Launchbury
5) Myall
6) Young
7) Hasks
Hughes

16) Bristow
17) Cruse
18) JCW
19) Symons
20) Reider
21) Robson
22) Cips
23) Leiua

Pretty much the same as last week, but Hughes to start in place of Smashley, and I'm really hoping we'll see JCW back on the bench.

What do you think?

[Raggs]

Mullan, Taylor, Swainston
Symons, Launch
Hask, Thompson, Hughes

Robson, Cips
Gopps, Daly
WLR, Wade, Beale

Cruse, Bristow, JCW, Gaskell, Young, Simmo, Leiua, Bassett

1st team from here on out, they have the euro playoff weeks to rest (niggles excluded of course).  Gaskell may break back into first XV, Johnson, McIntyre, Moore and Jones all potential/likely bench options by the end of the season.

[Chilham]

15. le Roux
14. Wade
13. Daly
12. Beale
11. Bassett
10. Gopperth
9. Robson
1. Mullan
2. Taylor
3. Swainston
4. Launchbury
5. Myall
6. Haskell
8. Hughes
7. Young

16. Cruse
17, Bristow
18. JCW
19. Symons
20. Thompson
21. Simpson
22. Cipriani
23. Leiua

[Vespula Vulgaris]

You're right about Thompson, for some reason I stil had him as injured in my head even though I watched him play like a beast last weekend.

I know you always prefer Robson to Simmo, but I think Simmo is one of the few players that has that spikey edge a lot of our guys seem to be lacking.  I'd rather start him and bring Robson on when people are tiring.

As to the Cips/Gopps thing again I'd probably go for the more direct, harder hitting route first up.  Cips gets the brunt end of a lot of hard hits and it sometimes seems to faze him.  Gopps will just shrug that off.  And then when the opposition is tiring and bruised from bouncing off ourt man of steel we can bring the golden boy on.

That being said I think that if we start with Launch and Symons we are playing two similar players.  They both perform best in the breakdown and whilst Launch is clearly the technician and Symons the brute, I think we need a lineout specialist, and unless Gasks is miraculously better then we need Myall to start.

[Raggs]

Robson seemed pretty pumped when he came on against Saints.  For me Simpson will play at tempo if the tempo is high, Robson will drive the tempo to be high, and given our fitness levels (I honestly believe we are one of the fittest sides, and benefit most from tired defences), I'd rather have Robson driving that pace for the first 60, which then should mean tempo is high for Simpson to step into.

You can read my thoughts on Gops/Cips in the long analysis.  I don't think Cips get's fazed easily at all, whereas mistakes such as the intercept do seem to change Gops style of play.

I'm of the opinion that Gask is our number 1 option with Launch, and Symons is our bench, but Gask is only just back, so I want him on the bench.  Symons and Launch for me offers us a tighter game to smash through Bristol should we need to just get the win, and Symons is very useful in the lineout (surprisingly so for such a big guy).

[Doctorkmt]

I think leiua and reider deserve a start against Bristol. Keep the bench strong should it be required. Hopefully an easy 5 points

[Raggs]

We have a week off after Bristol, and then 2 weeks on, and a week off before the semi finals.  Just 3 more AP games, and 2 weeks off, before knock out rounds and we need to be on our game.  Only the England boys haven't had a decent break, and they all had a week off 2 weeks ago (and some a week/bench last week).  Obviously if there's niggles, rest them, but if they're fit, for me they play.

[Chilham]

15. le Roux
14. Wade
13. Daly
12. Beale
11. Bassett
10. Gopperth
9. Robson
1. Mullan
2. Taylor
3. Swainston
4. Launchbury
5. Myall
6. Haskell
8. Hughes
7. Young

16. Cruse
17, Bristow
18. JCW
19. Symons
20. Thompson
21. Simpson
22. Cipriani
23. Leiua

Close, but no cigar!