Tigers vs Arioni

Leicester Tigers v Aironi Rugby (Welford Road, Saturday 3.40pm)
15 Geordan Murphy (c)
14 Horacio Agulla
13 Billy Twelvetrees
12 Anthony Allen
11 Alesana Tuilagi
10 Jeremy Staunton
9 Micky Young
1 Marcos Ayerza
2 George Chuter
3 Martin Castrogiovanni
4 Ed Slater
5 George Skivington
6 Tom Croft
7 Ben Woods
8 Thomas Waldrom

Replacements
16 Jimmy Stevens
17 Boris Stankovich
18 Dan Cole
19 Graham Kitchener
20 Steve Mafi
21 Sam Harrison
22 George Ford
23 Scott Hamilton 

Aironi Rugby
15 Alberto Benettin
14 Giulio Toniolatti
13 Roberto Quartaroli
12 Gabriel Pizarro
11 Giovanbattista Venditti
10 Naas Olivier
9 Tito Tebaldi
1 Alberto De Marchi
2 Roberto Santamaria
3 Fabio Staibano
4 Quintin Geldenhuys
5 Marco Bortolami (c)
6 Mauro Bergamasco
7 Simone Favaro
8 Josh Sole

Replacements
16 Tommaso D'Apice
17 Salvatore Perugini
18 Lorenzo Romano
19 Carlo Del Fava
20 Filippo Ferrarini
21 Giorgio Bronzini
22 Gilberto Pavan
23 Matteo Pratichetti

Looks like Cockerill is fielding his 6N backline so that they can have a chance to gel ahead of the upcoming AP games whilst the 6N boys are away. Academy products Jimmy Stevens (had loan experience with Notts and a former England under 20) and George Ford (IRB Young Player of the Year 2011) should see some action from the bench. No news on injuries forth coming so no idea if the likes of Youngs, Salvi, Hawkins, Parling etc are injured or rested.

Arioni probably favourites for this one based on recent form


I suspect Youngs may have been left out through England demanding hes rested, they wouldnt want any risk of him getting injured with Care banned and Wigglesworth injured.

Isn't 36 part of the England Saxons squad though - he's unlikely to be available during the 6N in that case?

No hes a Saxon, they are only playing on a couple of LV weekends.

The senior EPS guys not in the matchday 22 will be released back to clubs too.

I think Youngs needs the rest. He was torn apart at Ravenhill, and his petulance re-emerged. On current form, Youngs shouldn't be starting the 6N. But with Care out, maybe he's the only choice!

Croft needs to use this as an opportunity to show what he can do.

think Youngs needs the rest. He was torn apart at Ravenhill

He was by far our brightest spark in attack, had the pack given him a decent platform he would have done more, he gave Geordan an easy run in with the only decent ball he got in the Ulster 22. He has played a lot of rugby though so a rest is probably for the best as I can't imagine the England pack will give him much protection either. Young and Harrison need the game time before the LV Cup and AP games to come.

gowales, eveyone knows what Croft can do and his form isn't that bad just a bit patchy (the same can be said for the majority of the Tigers pack). Lancaster will have decided how he intends to play and whether Croft will fit into that or not, one game against Arioni won't change any perceptions.

He got wound up way to easily. He reverted back to that petulance we saw in the 6N last year, and it wasn't great to see at all.

Yeh that pass to Murphy was fantastic, but helped in part by Trimble's defensive error. Still, i'm not taking anything away from it, because rugby is about playing on defensive errors. To me, that was Youngs' best moment, and was early on. Other than that, I was unimpressed and he seemed to just become argumentative and arrogant.

Arrogant? Hmm I think there might be a touch of bias there. He certainly lost his temper but he was certainly not the only Tiger to do that, some of the reffing decisions were really enraging the Tigers players. At least Youngs had the good sense not to get himself sin binned. From that game he was the least of my worries, though, I wish Harry Ellis had not retired as he would have policed the rucks early on rather than asking Poite to do it. Youngs frankly was too nice.

Would love to see an Aironi win. But can't see it happenning.

5-0 to Tigers easily.

formerly known as Sam wrote:Arrogant? Hmm I think there might be a touch of bias there.

Bias?! Sam i'm a Tigers fan! I was just disappointed in his performance as a whole I think, and reckon that if Care weren't out, he'd probably be starting the 6N.

Bias?! Sam i'm a Tigers fan!

Aye but some people just don't like him. Similar with Ashton. I've not thought much of Care in recent weeks, before he seemed to be flying but as soon as his pack has come under pressure he has started becomming less of an influence on the game. Ideally we could do with a third option to boss the pack for the first 50 minutes and then bring on the attacking youngsters but England don't have an experienced and accomplished 9 available to steady the pack. Back to wishing Ellis hadn't had to retire...

Oh I see, sorry misunderstood that. I do really like Youngs, and think he comes across well in interviews (same with Ashton). I'm just worried that sometimes he doesn't quite have the temperament for big games.
Yeh, I agree about Ellis- he would have organised the forwards. Another player whose career was cut short by injury- damn shame.

I think Ellis didn't really direct his forwards he just lead by example. Rather than stand and point he would have pointed then stood on the offending obstruction. He mixed it a little more with the opposition and I think Cockers current mantra of minimise the penalties where possible (no competing in own half etc), try and play nice is just not working especially as no one else is bothering with trying to reduce penatlies. More and more teams are regressing into whatever they can get on the floor they will where as we are trying to be the refs best mate.

Makes life hard for the backs as there is rarely turnover ball to play off and our ball gets slowed down more often as we aren't shifting people.