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Saracens

Billy Vunipola the only England international picked by Saracens to face Ealing

(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)
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Billy Vunipola is the only England international participating in Saracens’ first match since their relegation from the Gallagher Premiership last season.

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Vunipola starts Saturday’s Trailfinders Challenge Cup opener against Ealing at number eight but his colleagues from Eddie Jones’ squad, such as Owen Farrell, Maro Itoje and Jamie George, are missing from the 23.

Scotland centre Duncan Taylor is present in midfield, while Wales scrum-half Aled Davies and South Africa prop Vincent Koch are also involved.

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Referee JP Doyle joins Simon Zebo and Ryan Wilson on RugbyPass Offload

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Referee JP Doyle joins Simon Zebo and Ryan Wilson on RugbyPass Offload

The Trailfinders Challenge Cup, which is completed by Doncaster Knights, is a round-robin competition that will take place over six weeks and serves as a curtain raiser to the Green King IPA Championship.

Saturday’s clash in west London will be the weekend’s only game involving English clubs because of the two-week break created by the cancellation of the final rounds of European group action because of coronavirus safety fears.

Saracens were relegated from the Premiership as punishment for repeated salary cap breaches and launch their campaign for an immediate return to the top flight on March 6.

SARACENS (vs Ealing, Saturday) 
15 Elliott Obatoyinbo
14 Ben Harris
13 Dom Morris
12 Duncan Taylor
11 Rotimi Segun
10 Will Hooley
9 Aled Davies
1 Eroni Mawi
2 Tom Woolstencroft (capt)
3 Vincent Koch
4 Jon Kpoku
5 Ollie Stonham
6 Janco Venter
7 Andy Christie
8 Billy Vunipola
Replacements
16 Kapeli Pifeleti
17 Sam Crean
18 Josh Ibuanokpe
19 Llewelyn Jones
20 Callum Hunter-Hill
21 Tom Whiteley
22 Harry Sloan
23 Charlie Watson

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Comments on RugbyPass

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NoLongerARuck 8 minutes ago
Shifting sands in the game - Kennedy Tsimba’s ‘shift theory’: Part one

The thing about the All Blacks that I have found pleasing is that they built plenty of rucks and barely box kicked playing more off counter and transition in the first games this year and relied on lightning quick ball. Then against Ireland they didnt rely on width or counter but ground the Irish down with brutality and long sequences consisting of massive phase counts which ultimately broke the dam wall. Then they played a bunch of rubbish against the stormers in cape town and got schooled at the high ball and conceded plenty of technical penalties. Against the Sharks though they played more off 9, kicked long for the corners and won multiple 50-22’s. Love put in a shift in that game in total contrast to other performances. They also kicked more through Barrett and put several box kicks up off 9 when clearing. Then when they saw the Sharks tiring they ramped it up, played wide and scored plenty. The All Blacks are showing more and more adaptability, they are playing whats in front of them and building their game and its clear that they are moving away from the rigid structures implemented under Razor. The Springboks already have that in them, their performances in Wellington and Ireland were polar opposites, their performance against France and Italy showed how they can adapt to adversity. Thats what makes this series so interesting, one team is becoming better at adapting to change while the other is already so good at it. Will the All Blacks have done enough to challenge the Boks? Cant wait for next week

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NoLongerARuck 11 minutes ago
Shifting sands in the game - Kennedy Tsimba’s ‘shift theory’: Part one

Thats absolute rubbish. Taking a concept from another sport and adapting it to a totally different one requires significant alteration to the original principle as its being purpose built for a totally different set of rules and play. That takes innovation and original thinking. Pep Guardiola has taken tactics from handball, water polo, chess and from total football and other footballing concepts to create his own unique style of play. Is he a pirate too? He has revolutionised football so much so that every stat in the premiership has altered to his style of play over the past 10 years. He is widely recognised as a football revolutionary. When Japanese engineers famously took inspiration from the Kingfishers beak and head to redesign their trains to eliminate tunnel boom they had to engineer the train head, materials etc. So are they pirates too? Every scientific concept developed is based on previous concepts, just because you didnt have the first idea it doesnt mean that what you create is unoriginal. It still requires innovation and thought.

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Wayneo 12 minutes ago
'Bit unfair': Bulls boss Johan Ackermann's vow before All Blacks clash

Such a long post just to explain why NZR is bankrupt today…

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Bazzallina 13 minutes ago
Two starting debuts and two timely returns for All Blacks against Bulls

And he has the perfect amount of swag to make the Boks fans jealous we look cooler haha

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Bazzallina 16 minutes ago
Richie Mo'unga receives long-awaited All Blacks call-up

So heard today that what ABs are getting pinged for is during NC you could move it a little bit just to hold weight better what refs on tour want to see is no movement of it at all

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RD 24 minutes ago
Two starting debuts and two timely returns for All Blacks against Bulls

So it could be any of them? :)

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RD 26 minutes ago
Two starting debuts and two timely returns for All Blacks against Bulls

What has Parker done wrong ? He has more bulk and experience than Hannah!

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Bazzallina 26 minutes ago
Two starting debuts and two timely returns for All Blacks against Bulls

Rivez was excellent tonight Harkin last night was more bad than good his exit kicking was poor ( mind you was trying to take a lot in his shoulders ) but stil showed multiple flashes of that running game ..

I just think with Richie it was enough to warrant getting him over there whip him into shape at practice and throw him to the Lions in a week an a bit ..it’s a good investment and at the very least worth the punt there us akways going to be compromises



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Wayneo 27 minutes ago
Shifting sands in the game - Kennedy Tsimba’s ‘shift theory’: Part one

Key phrasolagy being “Smithy borrowed from the Los Angeles Lakers”

Basically stealing ideas of another team and then calling it your own, I think that’s called pirating is it not?



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RD 28 minutes ago
Dave Rennie: The All Blacks No.10 jersey won't change hands just yet

Reply UnRennie-like comments. “Most of our 15 cover comes from the 10s” - how about Moorby and Narawa? Scrambling for reasons why to bring a 5th 10 to SA? The “not yet” in the title -hmm - let’s dump the develping Love / DMac combo for a player who has never been that inspiring, is very disappointing. I smell a rat!

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Wayneo 32 minutes ago
Two starting debuts and two timely returns for All Blacks against Bulls

Fyi: The next two teams the ABs play are different to the Stormers and thrive on high pace rugby

If you have a bad day against either they will punish you just like the ABs do, so they're going to be 2 good games to watch



...

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NoLongerARuck 32 minutes ago
Shifting sands in the game - Kennedy Tsimba’s ‘shift theory’: Part one

What a load of nonsense. First of all when you train players to respond to whats in front of them you are training them. That means you are creating pitcures to which they will respond. Training rehearses scenarios so therefore what you are talking about is a preplanned response to a scenario. You are training players to be prepared for specific pictures and to create structure in what was previously unstructured situation. What is structure? well structure is when everyone sees the picture and responds in the same way. So if you see a tight forward in the chasing line and a fast back has that ball then attack that point and every other player knows that back will attack that point and starts to run support perhaps preparing for the offload or a breakdown. What Tsimba and Brown are doing are training players to create responses based on whats in front of them and not to play at default settings and thats exactly what Smith did so theres plenty of parrallels between the two whether you want to admit that or not

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Bazzallina 34 minutes ago
Two starting debuts and two timely returns for All Blacks against Bulls

No specifically test 1 if Dmac not right but saw him trotting around at practice and Cam and Jordan so think we will probs see the Ireland team trotted out again with naybe some changes in second and backrow mainly on bench

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Wayneo 36 minutes ago
Two starting debuts and two timely returns for All Blacks against Bulls

Mate, we have been out of SR 6 years playing in Europe not playing Mars so I don't know where you get your assessment from that SA teams don’t know anything about how you all play.

Also, do you not know that the current ABs blueprint is a copy and paste of Glasgow Warriors and Scotland blueprint?



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Ed the Duck 37 minutes ago
Shifting sands in the game - Kennedy Tsimba’s ‘shift theory’: Part one

Thriving in chaos doesn’t just happen by itself though Wayneo, it starts with analysing the default muscle memory of what players default to when the pressure and adrenaline kicks in, understanding what choices they might want to add to the repertoire and how all of this connects across the collective profiles of the team. In short, delivering success from chaos requires a pretty structured framework to train better and practise improvements.

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Bazzallina 41 minutes ago
Maddison Levi ‘excited’ to bring sevens skillset and winning mindset to Wallaroos

Thru going to have to figure out ways to get her into the game as much as they can

..Our beloved Bkack ferns 7s and the Oz girls right across the park are wicked but why I hate Maddi teoevtufully haha giver her an inch and she takes 100m to the bank the house the window to the wall



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Wayneo 42 minutes ago
Two starting debuts and two timely returns for All Blacks against Bulls

I know that, but I operate on a different plane than normal people.

I run complex simulations and predictive algorithms in my head and my fingers type out the results.



...

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Courtney20 47 minutes ago
'It's about maximising our talent': How the Wallaroos are approaching success at a home World Cup

Certainly concur with all of that TC, the culture and the environment suggests that the Wallaroos should be consistently dining at the top table, what they have lacked in the past is the support. It’s one thing being invited to the party, now they are being allowed to dance

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Wayneo 51 minutes ago
Shifting sands in the game - Kennedy Tsimba’s ‘shift theory’: Part one

​I was enjoying reading about Kennedy right up to the point the Wayne Smith parallel ruined it for me.

​We really don't need this ABs angle jammed into every piece about South African coaching innovation, especially when the comparison is like oil and water.



...

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Courtney20 51 minutes ago
2029 auditions and unpredictability: John Mitchell sets England's sights on the WXV Global Series

Given the global travel, given the integration of new players and new combinations, given the concentration of matches and given the opponents, don’t be surprised if the Red Roses finish the series with one or two Ls against their name.

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