Sale Sharks Team News

Posted on Apr 20, 2012 in Latest Rugby News

Sale Sharks have named their side to play in the Aviva Premiership Round 21 match against Gloucester at Kingsholm on Saturday (kick off 3 p.m.).

Sharks: 15.Rob Miller, 14.Tom Brady, 13.Will Addison, 12.Sam Tuitupou (capt.), 11.Mark Cueto, 10.Nick Macleod, 9.Cillian Willis, 1.Andrew Sheridan, 2.Joe Ward, 3.Tony Buckley, 4.Andrei Ostrikov, 5. Kearnan Myall, 6.Mark Easter, 7.David Seymour, 8.Andy Powell.
Replacements: 16.Marc Jones, 17.Lee Imiolek, 18.Henry Thomas, 19.Tom Holmes, 20.Tommy Taylor, 21. Scott Mathie, 22. Andrew Higgins, 23.Charlie Amesbury

Sharks CEO Steve Diamond said, “Kingsholm is always a difficult place to visit. A win would be the ‘icing on the cake’ for everybody at our club, but we know we’ll have to produce our best performance of the season. “

Horstmann skippers Warriors in Sixways farewell

Posted on Apr 20, 2012 in English Rugby, Premiership, Worcester Warriors

Long-serving back row Kai Horstmann will captain Warriors in his final game for the club at Sixways Stadium as Worcester welcome London Irish in the Aviva Premiership on Saturday afternoon (kick-off 3pm).

Horstmann will lead the side and his vice-captain will be hard running centre Dale Rasmussen who also plays his final game for Warriors at Sixways.

Head Coach Richard Hill makes a total of five changes to the side narrowly lost out to Exeter Chiefs.

A new-look back row sees Horstmann play at Number Eight while flankers Sam Betty and Jake Abbott win recalls.

The other change in the pack comes in the front row where Ed Shervington will join forces with Matt Mullan and Tevita Taumoepeau.

Scrum half Jonny Arr is the final change in a back division that will also see farewell games for wing duo Miles Benjamin and Marcel Garvey before they start new challenges in the summer.

“We need a good result and have plenty of incentive to perform against a dangerous London Irish team who I fully expect to play without pressure and with real ambition,” said Hill.

“When we played them at the Madejski Stadium back in October we saw the clinical attacking threat they possess and so we must be strong defensively and look to build on an encouraging attacking display against Exeter Chiefs.

“It is sad to see a number of Warriors play their final game for the club at Sixways. I hope we can give them a good send-off with our fans given the chance to show them their respect while they get the chance to say goodbye.”

Warriors vs. London Irish

15 Chris Pennell

14 Marcel Garvey

13 Alex Grove

12 Dale Rasmussen

11 Miles Benjamin

10 Andy Goode

9 Jonny Arr

1 Matt Mullan

2 Ed Shervington

3 Tevita Taumoepeau

4 James Percival

5 Craig Gillies

6 Sam Betty

7 Jake Abbott

8 Kai Horstmann (c)

Replacements:

16 Aleki Lutui

17 George Porter

18 Bruce Douglas

19 Ben Gulliver

20 Matt Kvesic

21 Shaun Perry

22 Danny Gray

23 Ravai Fatiaki

Esher’s Schmid – We can do it!

Posted on Apr 20, 2012 in Championship, English Rugby, Esher

By MARK BENGOECHEA

Mike Schmid is backing his Esher side to complete a sensational escape from relegation in Saturday’s winner-takes-all showdown at London Scottish.

Esher snatched a relegation lifeline with their emphatic seven-try bonus-point 42-17 destruction of Plymouth last weekend that closed the gap on Scottish to five points.

Now Esher need to repeat that feat in the final play-off game at Scottish and deny their local rivals any kind of bonus point to stay in the Championship.

It is a tall order but Esher coach Schmid believes his side can rise to the challenge and complete a remarkable escape from relegation.

Schmid said: “We know exactly what we have to do, the type of game we need to play, and that sets the mindset for the game, for the players.

“We can do it. We have the skills and the athletes to do it. We have just got to carry the momentum forward from last Saturday.

“Obviously, it’s our biggest game of the year. You can look back and think ‘if we’d only done this or that we might not be in this position’. But we are where we are. We can’t control the past. We have just got to take this as a one-off cup final.

“Scottish are a good side, a tough side to break down but the challenge is there for us and I firmly believe the boys can pull it off.

“The two teams are desperate for Championship survival so things are going to be tense and tough.

“Generally those games are tight anyway. The onus is on us to try and make sure it isn’t tight against a team that bases their game around a strong defence so it’s not an easy challenge at all.

“They beat us here but we had a lot of try-scoring opportunities that we didn’t take in that game which was disappointing. We have to take them this time. If we don’t, we go down.”

Schmid wants his side to play without fear and believes the side who can handle the pressure will win.

He said: “We showed what we could do last Saturday and we have to take that confidence with us into this game and improve upon it.

“It’ll be down to who can handle the pressure best and we must challenge ourselves to live in the next moment. Too often in the play-offs, when there’s been a mistake in a game, we’ve let that get to us and impact on us going forward.

“But there’s nothing we can do about that, just as there’s nothing we can do about those points we might have picked up in past games. All that matters is what you do next and that’s what you are judged on.

“We must just keep focused on the next job and try to do that one to the best of our ability.

“Can we do it? Of course we can. It’s very much within our capabilities. Scottish are a good team and we respect them and we know it’s not going to be easy but we can do it.”

Schmid was thrilled with the display against Plymouth that kept their survival hopes alive after four successive play-offs defeats.

Esher took a firm grip on the game from the start and tries from Seb Stegmann, Pete Synnott, Mark Atkinson, Ian Kench, Ignacio Elosu, Jonny Hylton and Sam Stitcher gave them a huge confidence boost going into their final clash.

Schmid added: “It was a great performance from us. We scored seven tries, went out with the right ambition because we wanted to push the tempo from the start and that’s what we did.

“Scottish getting the losing bonus point at Moseley takes the ambiguity out of what we have got to do this week. We have got to push the tempo, we have got to play and play well to win.

“I firmly believe in the boys and if we can pick off where we left off it’s going to be an exciting day. I loved watching them play on Saturday. They played with passion and did everything they needed to do and I was exceptionally proud.

“For the most part on Saturday our defence was good, our physicality was good and our discipline was good and we will need those things at Scottish.”

15 Luke Daniels

14 Seb Stegman

13 Tom Cheeseman

12 Mark Atkinson

11 Charlie Walker

10 Nicky Little

9 Clive Stuart Smith

8 Mike MacFarlane

7 Sam Stitcher

6 Peter Synnott

5 Matt Symons

4 Ian Kench

3 Ignatio Elosu

2 Stuart Mackie

1 David Millard

16 Kevin Corrigan

17 Ricky Nebbett

18 Perry Parker

19 Tom Alexander

20 Andy Garner

21 Jonny Hylton

22 Arran Cruickshanks

Titans look to finish on a high

Posted on Apr 19, 2012 in Championship, English Rugby, Rotherham Titans

Titans travel to Goldington Road on Saturday for their final Championship game of the season against Bedford Blues, kick-off 3pm.

Titans have made just one change to the team that narrowly lost to Leeds Carnegie 18-21 at Clifton Lane last time out. The change sees Jamie Kilbane come in at loose head prop for the injured Shane Cahill.

Titans will be looking to round off their season on a high by taking the scalp of the stand-out side of the play-offs to date. Earlier in the season Rotherham produced a terrific display at Goldington Road, going down by a solitary point in their 25-24 defeat.

A similar type of performance would certainly give the Clifton Lane outfit an excellent opportunity of creating a shock result. However, Titans coach Andre Bester is acutely aware of the challenging task ahead as he said, “Bedford are the stand-out side in the play-offs and it is going to be a very difficult encounter down there. They lost by a point at Pirates last time out and they will be smarting from that.
They will want to get back to winning ways immediately and that means we are in for a challenging afternoon on Saturday.

“People may assume we don’t have anything to play for, but they’d be wrong. We have our passion and we have our pride. It’s not about money, it’s not about results, it’s about passion and pride. That’s the most important thing in your life and if you lose that, then you have nothing. So yes, we have everything to play for at Bedford!”

Rotherham Titans: 15 Dave McCall, 14 Peter Homan, 13 Shane Monahan, 12 Pale Nonu, 11 Ed Tellwright, 10 Stephen Hamilton, 9 Jimmy Williams, 1 Jamie Kilbane, 2 Dan Baines, 3 Ben Hooper, 4 Neale Patrick, 5 Barney Maddison, 6 Carl Kirwan, 7 Sean Dougall (Capt.), 8 Semisi Taulava.

Replacements: 16 Ted Stagg, 17 Ben Harris, 18 Talite Vaioleti, 19 Adrian Griffiths, 20 Robin Copeland, 21 Matt Rhodes, 22 Byron Godfrey.

Dai Young Previews London Wasps v Bath

Posted on Apr 19, 2012 in English Rugby, London Wasps, Premiership

London Wasps Director of Rugby Dai Young says a strong start is vital this weekend if his side are to go away from home and beat Bath in the penultimate round of the Aviva Premiership.

In recent games against Harlequins and Biarritz, Young has watched his side struggle early on only to burst into life late in the game, and he says his side simply cannot afford a slow start on Saturday.

“We haven’t been accurate enough in the first half of our last couple of games and we’ve allowed teams to build pressure on us. We have been finishing games strongly but that won’t be enough against a very good Bath side. Our first half an hour is hugely important and we’ve got to look to play the game in the right areas in that period.”

Young believes that Bath will be gunning for a win at The Rec.

“I have no doubt that Bath will be desperate to get a good win in their last home game of the season. They aren’t where they would like to be in the table and they are bound to have a few doubts about themselves at the moment so it is up to us to make sure that they are massively tested. They are a quality team with quality players so if they start well and get their confidence up it could be a very tough afternoon.”

Young saw his side stumble to league leaders Harlequins at the weekend and his young team faces a stern test of its ability to pick up a result under pressure with just four points separating Wasps and Newcastle at the bottom of the table.

“It is my job to try and take all of the external pressure away from the team and just make sure they are focused on playing to the best of their ability – that is all you can ask of the players. Everyone knows what is at stake and everyone is aware of the pressure in terms of the league position, but the players just need to focus on their roles in the team and deliver quality performances individually and collectively and hope it will be enough. We are still in a position where everything is still in our hands and you can’t ask for much more than that at this stage.”