Tigers vs Wasps Teams are up

Leicester Tigers (v London Wasps, Welford Road, Saturday 5pm)
15 Geordan Murphy (c)
14 Horacio Agulla
13 Matt Smith
12 Anthony Allen
11 Alesana Tuilagi
10 Billy Twelvetrees
9 Ben Youngs
1 Boris Stankovich
2 George Chuter
3 Dan Cole
4 Steve Mafi
5 Geoff Parling
6 Tom Croft
7 Julian Salvi
8 Thomas Waldrom

Replacements
16 Rob Hawkins
17 Julian White
18 Logoviii Mulipola
19 Ed Slater
20 Ben Woods
21 Sam Harrison
22 Jeremy Staunton
23 Scott Hamilton

Tigers team is up on the offy forum. Tigers going mobile and rotating the squad again ahead of the Ulster match. A big set of forwards on the bench as well.

London Wasps team to play Leicester, Saturday, January 7, 17.00
15 Hugo Southwell
14 Tom Varndell
13 Elliot Daly
12 Riki Flutey
11 Richard Haughton
10 Ryan Davis
9 Nic Berry
1 Tim Payne
2 Rob Webber
3 Ben Broster
4 Richard Birkett
5 Marco Wentzel (c)
6 Tinus Du Plessis
7 Jonathan Poff
8 Sam Jones
Replacements
16 Tom Lindsay
17 Bob Baker
18 Jeremy Castex
19 Mike Powell
20 Matt Everard
21 Joe Simpson
22 Jack Wallace
23 Chris Mayor

Well Sam, you were right about Outside Half. Great to see allen and Parling back.

Know anything about status of Castro and Ayerza?

Ayerza is still recovering from the wrist injury he picked up against Clermont and I'd imagine they are resting Castro. Cockerill did comment in the media that Castro's injury wasn't anything that would keep him out of action but maybe he feels it's prudent to rest him ahead of the HEC game.

Parling vs Wentzel
Poff vs Salvi
Allen vs Flutey

Some good match ups for tomorrow then.

Athletic looking second row for Tigers, should be interesting- glad to see Parling back for us.

Never heard of Logoviii Mulipola...?

Vedder he is a Samoan international prop, aged 24 was on trial and played a bit with the Tigers A Team. Must have done enough to get a short term contract. He is a big bullocking runner or so I'm told and can play either side of the scrum. Not sure what he'll be like at this level though. If the scrum is under pressure Big Jules will sort it out or Slater can be brought on for added grunt.

He also has a LOT of hair.

Ah cheers for the info Sam, and your input too Tiger! Sounds like a good prospect, and will be good to see how he handles the match if he gets on. Slater's improved a lot, and is finally looking like he can take some of the load off of Deacon when it comes to doing the grunt work.

When the replacements were warming up last week he was a very big boy with a mass of hair. The training "coat" looked way too tight yet was probably a 4XL. I suspect he may be similar to the Johnsons ie huge but technically poor come scrum time.

True LT but the Johnson's never got beasted in training by Richard Cockerill and forced to train against Dan Cole and Castro. He's played with Julian White in the A Team games. That's a whole load of talent and experience for him to learn from. Hopefully his technique will be passable and open to improvement the longer he stays with us.

The Tigers backrow is far stronger, as is the pack as a whole. I fully expect Tigers to rack up the points as this is not a Wasps team of old.

Is Nick Robinson injured or dropped? He's been out of form recently so wouldn;t be surprised if it's the later.

Think he limped off in the last game HKC. Wasps are a real pain to Tigers and tend to turn up when the play us. They won't make this an easy one for us.

If this is on Sky I'll be watching. Pleased to see Anthony Allen back from injury, and if Parling can hit form quickly it'll be good timing for him with Lawes looking doubtful for the start of the 6 Nations. Birkett and Wentzel won't lie down though, good contest between the second rows.

Shame Simpson's form sees him on the bench. He'd have really wanted to start this one against Youngs, to try and get into the England reckoning with Care out.

Salvi and Waldrom were a little off-form today. Croft however was absolutely magnificent.

My ratings having seen it live and then watched the recording.

1.Stanko - off the pace
2.Chuter - early injury
3.Cole - good all round performance and a lot of carries
4.Mafi - not involved enough
5.Parling - potential man of the match, played like a man possessed
6.Croft - did very well indeed and deserved his man of the match
7.Salvi - not his best game but still a thorn in Wasps side
8.Waldrom - not his usual self, looked tired
9.Youngs - couple of errors but the heartbeat of Tigers in attack
10.Twelvetrees - great in so many areas but errors in his game, the rust may well be down to not having played 10 all season
11.Tuilagi - too quiet
12.Allen - Mr Solid is back
13.Smith - much improved after the Sale game, good carries
14.Agulla - good carries
15.Geordan - best game of the season

Bobo is seriousley over-rated by the commentators. Time after time, when he comes on, they will claim he is a great scrummager - but I have not seen that.
Hawkins looked good when he came on for Chuter - but Barnes calling for him to be in the EPS was, well .......Barnes.
Parling was very good. At times, live it was hard to differentiate between him and Croft.
Youngs seemed to be passing too hard and fast - perhaps Twelvetrees was not where he expected him to be?
36 looked good, but here I agree with Barnes - while he has all the individual elements to play 10 he does look more like a 12.

Agree with those points. Youngs and Twelvetrees have had very little time playing together so it wouldn't have been the easiest thing to click, especially as Billy hadn't played 10 all year. Twelvetrees is a 12 who can cover 10 I think that much is a given. How well he covered 10 could mean a future of expected versatility though.

Was great to see Cole getting more involved in the ball carrying work- it's the part of his game missing at the moment, but he's improving. Parling and Croft were exceptional. England are blessed with some great, young backrowers at the moment, surely giving Lancaster a head ache.
36 was impressive, considering he was rusty at 10. He's got such great attributes for a 12 and hope he features in the EPS.

I thought Billy did a bang up job as cover although at times he did look like he was trying to do absolutely everything.....and sometimes all at once.

Anyone have any news on Varndell's injury?

He spent a good 10 minutes right in front of the Mrs and me with his hands down his shorts and seemed to call everyone from the medical team to - and I swear I saw this - a couple of the girls from the Tigers shop to come and have a butchers at his meat and two veg!

Seemed to be the highlight of the game for some of the female Tigers fans round us....plenty of heckling....can't think why

Looked like a pulled groin muscle to me Lemony. We were around that area of the ground as well and Varndell looked in a deal of discomfort. He got up to try and carry on but lasted only a few seconds.

Can't fault him for trying to carry on, not sure if standing there repetitively shouting "F******CK!" just before he hobbled off was necessary though.

Seemed to be a lot of "that area" stuff going on.

Cole wasn't happy either when they were getting ready for a line out, seemed like he was accusing Ben Broster (I think) of stamping on his Mr Wibbly and the Brothers Plum in a previous ruck too.....enough to bring tears to your eyes that is!!

There was certainly quite a lot of niggle at the breakdown and I think that once again Tigers were a little naive in that area. Certainly no one gave Poff's hands the good rucking the deserved for constantly being on the ball in the ruck. If the ref won't police the breakdown then the forwards need too.

formerly known as Sam wrote:My ratings having seen it live and then watched the recording.

1.Stanko - off the pace
2.Chuter - early injury
3.Cole - good all round performance and a lot of carries
4.Mafi - not involved enough
5.Parling - potential man of the match, played like a man possessed
6.Croft - did very well indeed and deserved his man of the match
7.Salvi - not his best game but still a thorn in Wasps side
8.Waldrom - not his usual self, looked tired
9.Youngs - couple of errors but the heartbeat of Tigers in attack
10.Twelvetrees - great in so many areas but errors in his game, the rust may well be down to not having played 10 all season
11.Tuilagi - too quiet
12.Allen - Mr Solid is back
13.Smith - much improved after the Sale game, good carries
14.Agulla - good carries
15.Geordan - best game of the season

Waldrom carried magnificently and picked some great lines, in my opinion, he didn't look any more or less fatiged than any other player after the final whistle.

Parling and Croft both have to start against Scotland.

Parling reminds me of a lot of Kiwi locks with his all rounds ability and body shape.

Croft just looked a level above nearly every other backrow player this weekend. I think it's telling that in what could be one of the most important games of the season for a lot of players England asperations, Croft was one of the few to step up a gear and shine.

Agulla, Smith and Murphy all looked like they were trying hard but none of them had much of an impact all that often and was Tuilagi even on the pitch?

I wouldn't be surprised to see Twelvetrees in the EPS either, he'd cover centres and fly half well and tbh looks as good as any of the other young candidates for those positions.

yappysnap wrote:

Agulla, Smith and Murphy all looked like they were trying hard but none of them had much of an impact all that often and was Tuilagi even on the pitch?

I disagree, Murphy was imperious and had his best game for Tigers for ages. He ran great lines, was secure under the high ball, was solid in defence and his incisive running allowed 36 to score one of his tries.

Smith made several incisive runs and created the space for 36's second try.

Tuilagi had two or three breaks down the wing that caused havoc, yardage is largely irrelevant, he always draws in defences.

Agulla was solid if unspectacular, wingers are never going to be centre stage in a Tigers side playing a wasps side under the cosh up front.

Waldrom carried magnificently and picked some great lines, in my opinion, he didn't look any more or less fatiged than any other player after the final whistle..

He made some nice carries and by no means played badly but neither did he shine like in previous weeks. He was much quieter in defence and made himself less available to Twelvetrees where as recently he's carried every other phase off the shoulder of either Flood or Youngs. He's played a lot of rugby and looked tired more than injured when replaced by Ed Slater who looked hungry for action when he came on (he must start ahead of Mafi against Ulster).

Tuilagi had two or three breaks down the wing that caused havoc, yardage is largely irrelevant, he always draws in defences.

He did okay when he got the ball but he didn't go looking for it. Would have liked to see him pick some lines off of Billy's shoulders. When a fly half likes to play that flat a big fast runner arriving late on the shoulder will cause a lot of damage, Alesana mainly stayed on his wing though.

It is to be expected that the tigers midfield may have lacked a bit of spark - after all not once has last season's 10/12 axis played together. Instead we have seen:

Ford/Allen
Staunton/Allen
Staunton/Twelvetrees
Flood/Smith
Flood/Manu
Flood/Forsyth
Flood/Twelvetrees
Twelvetrees/Allen

Throw in to the mix 4 different SHs used and that is a lot of different combos.

Tigers are still the leading try scores in the AP this season - and have shown some scintillating running, just usually from turnovers and broken play.

Twelvetrees seemed to gel more with Youngs as the game wore on and another week of practice with the same backline and maybe they'll seem more cohesive. It's a good point LT, how is the backline supposed to perform when it is changed in structure every couple of weeks.