Leicester Tigers v London Irish

First topic message reminder :

Round 8 of the premiership is almost upon us and on Bonfire Night the Tigers will be hosting London Irish at Welford road, which is yet another 'must-win' match if Leicester are to mount a serious challenge for a top 4 spot this year.

To say we have gotten off to a rotten start is something of an understatement. Now there have been numerous reasons around the RWC and injuries which have been covered in some detail already in other posts, but with our (more or less) first choice players back and fit we have started to perform better and have notched up our first win in the AP since scraping past Newcastle at the death.

London Irish currently sitting at 6th have had an indifferent start to the year and have had some good wins, but also lost a couple that maybe they should have won but are not in any immediate danger.

I am reasonably confident that we have the firepower to produce a win at home with a strong squad, but what's the prospect of picking up that all important bonus point win? For Tigers this is a big challenge as I'm sure we will notch up wins but those BP's are gold plated for us at the moment. We NEED them to put us in contention at the back end of the season when no doubt we will be stripped of our Internationals yet again.

If Tigers were to pick up the full 5pts there are only 3 teams we can jump ahead of, Exeter on 16pts, Gloucester on 15pts and Saints are on 14pts.

Interestingly the Chiefs are hosting Glaws this weekend too. A hard one to call this as Chiefs are quite strong at home and I think may edge this one in a close game. Glaws to pick up a LBP. Saints are away to Wasps, but I think they are going rack up the win by more than 7, but not a BP win.

That means that the bottom half of the table should look something like this.....

7. Exeter Chiefs 20pts.
8. Northampton Saints 18pts.
9. Leicester Tigers 17pts (if... and I mean IF we can get a BP win).
10. Gloucester 16pts.
11. Worcester 14pts.
12. Newcastle 6pts.

Let the discussion begin........

As to the match on Saturday - not sure that Tigers ever really created men over to use.

Having a view from behind the posts gives a good idea of where the space is - and LI usually committed few men to the breakdown and had good cover across the pitch. One time Tigers had men over a floaty pass was intercepted - but players were ofside.

Sometimes however Tigers were narrow in defence, but LI failed to spot this with Hape running back in to traffic.

Tigers did over use the inside pass - but obviously felt this was the best way to counter the ferocious (and almost always illegal) rush defence.

It was a poor perfrmance from 9-15.

You might well be correct young man (my memory is not what it once was )

It's just really hard for me to put Sale and Play offs in the same sentance

I think what is important here is that Barnes was made to look like the one eyed fool he is.

LondonTiger wrote:As to the match on Saturday - not sure that Tigers ever really created men over to use.

Having a view from behind the posts gives a good idea of where the space is - and LI usually committed few men to the breakdown and had good cover across the pitch. One time Tigers had men over a floaty pass was intercepted - but players were ofside.

Sometimes however Tigers were narrow in defence, but LI failed to spot this with Hape running back in to traffic.

Tigers did over use the inside pass - but obviously felt this was the best way to counter the ferocious (and almost always illegal) rush defence.

It was a poor perfrmance from 9-15.

I had to watch it on Sky as I was playing in the 1/4 finals of the Vets County Cup for my local side (we lost to a bunch of underage ringers! still sulking about that one. I may have not endeared myself to the ref either... )

As for Tigers, only 1 or 2 text book overlaps but it definitely looked like had we had decent quick hands in the 3/4 with the IC/OC straightening up we would have created them... but hey ho. I agree poor performance 9 to 15 which I think is partially down to over relying on the inside ball and the pack to win the day. As for London Irish rush defence... it is something we have always seemed to struggle with (thinking back to the dark, dark days when Wasps were getting above themselves by winning titles... how dare they!!)

I thought Harrison did ok at 9 actually. He gave quick ball to Flood and the backs he just needs the experience to boss that pack a little more and that experience will help his confidence and then we should hopefully see him snipe a bit more. Compared to Grindal he played brilliantly which is more of a testament to how poor Grindal was.

Cockers sums it up pretty well;

http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/Richard-Cockerill-slams-Leicester-Tigers/story-13779068-detail/story.html

To be honest if we can't win games when our pack is dominating then the likes of Clermont are going to run in more points than Sarries did. I hope Billy returns for the HEC games that was Agulla can move onto the wing and Hamilton can take his zimmer frame back to the stands.

Harrison struggled at times to get his hand on the ball - and the height of his pass was erratic. Flood seemed to be alternating between stooping to take the ball and stretching high.

Yeah that's true the passing wasn't the most accurate but I think that is down to Harrison trying to raise the tempo without having control over his forward pack. Means he is getting scrappy ball and then passing it on. Better control of the forwards and he would be able to dictate the presentation of the ball at the breakdown better and facilitate a faster pass. That's going to come with experience though.

I'd rather give him game time and get him that experience than field Grindal who seemed to be trying to count each blade of grass under the ball before passing.

Agreed, I would rather see Harrison getting game time over Grindal.

I would also like to see Flood being more flexible - if the opposition are rushing then rather than just standing flat and slipping an inside pass, how about adding a kicking game - little dinks through or dropping back a touch and putting the ball over the defence. Until he went of injured Ojo looked susceptible to the high ball as well.

LondonTiger wrote:Agreed, I would rather see Harrison getting game time over Grindal.

I would also like to see Flood being more flexible - if the opposition are rushing then rather than just standing flat and slipping an inside pass, how about adding a kicking game - little dinks through or dropping back a touch and putting the ball over the defence. Until he went of injured Ojo looked susceptible to the high ball as well.

Andy Goode used to be quite good at the little chips over & toe pokes through against a rush defence, I think it is something TF could learn from.

Had we played Ben Youngs do you think it would have made any difference? I am concerned that BY seems to have adopted the Dany Care Two Step before passing and this would have been awful against a rush defence.

Had we played Ben Youngs do you think it would have made any difference? I am concerned that BY seems to have adopted the Dany Care Two Step before passing and this would have been awful against a rush defence..

Don't know, he developed that whilst away with England and we all now know he wasn't fully fit so we will have to wait and see.

I would have liked to see Floody just stand a bit deeper and play for territory, Tigers had the better lineout and with WR packed and cheering it would have been a serious advantage to just be in the LI half forcing them to soak up pressure. Where as we let the play continue far to much in the centre of the pitch. We were 24-7 up, don't play in your own half just put it down field and set up another lineout. Goode used to do that and it really saps the spirit out of the opposition.