Tigers v Glaws

It's crunch time at Welford Rd on Saturday evening - two teams looking not only to cement their top 4 place, but crash the Sarries-Quins top 2 party in the process.

Teams:

Gloucester Rugby:

Martyn Thomas; Charlie Sharples, Mike Tindall, Billy Twelvetrees, Shane Monahan; Freddie Burns, Jimmy Cowan; Nick Wood, Huia Edmonds, Shaun Knight; Will James, Jim Hamilton (capt); Sione Kalamafoni, Akapusi Qera, Ben Morgan

Replacements:

Darren Dawidiuk, Dan Murphy, Dario Chistolini, Tom Savage, Matt Cox, Dan Robson, Tim Molenaar, Drew Locke

Leicester Tigers

15 Geordan Murphy
14 Niall Morris
13 Manusamoa Tuilagi
12 Anthony Allen
11 Adam Thompstone
10 Toby Flood
9 Ben Youngs
1 Marcos Ayerza
2 Tom Youngs
3 Dan Cole
4 Louis Deacon (c)
5 Geoff Parling
6 Brett Deacon
7 Julian Salvi
8 Jordan Crane

Replacements
16 George Chuter
17 Logovi'i Mulipola
18 Martin Castrogiovanni
19 Ed Slater
20 Steve Mafi
21 Sam Harrison
22 George Ford
23 Matt Smith

Strong sides from both, as you'd expect. Not a huge Thomas fan, especially seeing as Rob Cook is in excellent form. He really needs to step up on Saturday, as I feel he may be targeted at the back!

I'd take a 41-41 right now.

This is going to be am immensely tough test for Glaws. The forecast is for torrential rain and we all remember what happened the last time this happened at Welford Road against Glaws!

It would be a huge achievement to get a result there and even a LBP would be a decent return. We're down to the bare bones in some positions, so hopefully this isn't the 3rd year running where we lose a player for the season during the game.

So much for Croft returning for this one. Shame no Tait but I think Tigers have selected the right team for this game. It's a big pack that should do the job at the set piece and carry for Youngs in the loose. Would have liked the pace of either Mafi and Croft to target young Burns and get into his face. Glaws will need Billy and his big boot to have a good game if they want a win at wet weather Welford Rd.

Wind and rain in leicestershire this morning.

It is supposedly going to brighten up later though. Can't imagine it being another re Ord breaking try fest though.
Despite croft tigers are remarkably low on injuries at the moment and that leaves them with an absurdly strong bench...have to be favourites

Croft is supposed to be fit for this one. I assume Mafi's return has put back Croft's comeback by a week. Definitely the weather for a fully fit blindside.

This will be interesting to see Freddie Burns and Toby Flood playijng against each other., And will give a better idea if Burns will keep Flood out of the England 6ns squad.

Freddie edged Toby at the 'Holm but this is Toby's chance to prove his worth on his own ground. Fascinating contest in store.

Update on the Glaws side...Dave Lewis replaces Drew Locke on the bench.

That game was a comedy of errors that either side could have won. Tigers had dominance in most areas of the game but couldn't make much of it and their kicking for points really let them down. Gloucester absolutely gifted Tigers a try and made some headless decisions at times. How Thomas got selected ahead of Cook I have no idea, he was a disaster at a number of key moments, they really need Morgan or May back from injury.

Cook is out through illness and as you say Olly Morgan and May are injured, so Thomas was our only option. That's actually one of his better games for Glaws.

Not sure how we did it but happy enough with the LBP. Amazing that we could've won it at the death.

That would have been a travesty had we snatched the win at the end, but once again Glaws are showing the grit we've not had in years. I didn't see any difference in terms of the set piece dominance today as in last year's game, yet we lost by 30+ points then. But we also caused many of the problems today. We made far, far too many idiotic mistakes and we need to ensure this doesn't happen again.

This game will hold Knight in really good stead as he was schooled today and he'll learn from that. I thought Morgan and 36 were excellent for us. It also bodes well that the best player for Tigers will be in Cherry and White next year...

Ford a very late replacement for Flood who was unwell. Ford gave Burns a lesson in tactical kicking and did ok ball in hand, less said about his kicking at goal the better.

Cockers views on the ref mirror mine. The Youngs yellow was very harsh, how can you roll away when the entire Gloucester pack is off their feet (again) and lying all over you. Three consecutive penalties at the scrum in the Glaws 22 and nothing given. Small kept Glaws in the game.

Having said that the error count from Tigers was far to high, they've got to tighten up their loose play. They bought in to too much of the Gloucester gamesmanship and those slips in concentration effected too much of the play. Tigers won't win the AP title like that.

I have to disagree with you Sam. bar a few very good positional kicks from penalties I thought Ford was poor and had he been playing for Glaws today I feel we would have comfortably lost. This doesn't make him a bad player, far from it, but he had a poor day today and certainly Burns was the far better player.

I thought the Youngs yellow was as clear as the James one. You'd been issued a team warning and having watched it again, Youngs made no attempt to move and he had to go.

I've got a lot of time for Cockers as he doesn't suffer fools gladly and is always very honest, but I feel he has overstepped the mark today with his post match comments, which are more akin to wendyball. His statement that "Sides do it all the time, they come here and cheat and push the boundaries but the referees don't deal with it and it made it close" is firstly completely one-eyed, but also extremely unprofessional. Leicester have built a game plan on cheating - that is not a negative statement, as they know better than any side how to play the ref and bend the rules and is an incredible skill to have, so to use that as an excuse is laughable. More to the point, to openly criticise a ref like that is just not on, especially after a win. Again, I should really state I've got a lot of time for the guy, but I think he needs to spend some time on the sidelines following this outburst.

Ford was poor, his kicking from hand was good but his goal kicking and his general game management were substandard. Youngs was good in parts but he still all too often has rush of blood and makes a mistake. I think our main problem is a lack of accuracy and nous, we have the tools to play far better than we are doing but just not using them.

We should start Robson over Cowan next game, as we start to play with much more urgency and fluidity when he comes on. Maybe that's just because it was the last 5.

but he had a poor day today and certainly Burns was the far better player.

For 73 minutes all Burns did was kick long and straight to Murphy. Only in the final minutes when Flaws were desperate for a try did he look to play. I want Burns in the 6N squad but in wet conditions he needs to add considerably more variation to his kicking game. It got to the point where he was being mocked from the stand "kick it Burns" every time he got the ball. Ford at least put Tigers into the right areas of the pitch. Ford didn't play particularly well but remember he only found out on the day of the game he was starting.

I thought the Youngs yellow was as clear as the James one. You'd been issued a team warning and having watched it again, Youngs made no attempt to move and he had to go.

I'll have a squint at he recording, live it looked harsh. I also want to see a replay on the Morris incident because that looked a certain yellow for the Glass player at full speed.

Interestingly James's yellow card came in a nearly identical situation to the penalty try Tigers conceded against Treviso. Typically there was no chance of that decision ever being given again. Sorry different rant.

Re. Cockerills comments I agreed about the poor officiating which caused nothing short of anger in the stands. Particularly after he changed his mind on that penalty decision mid way through the second half. Cockers may end up in trouble for his rant as he does over step the mark, though the quote you used is out of context there, the rest of the interview puts considerably more flesh onto his argument than that snippet shows.

Couple of points and with the benefit of watching it on tv. Small didn't change his mind, he just stuck the wrong hand up. The charge was at best a penalty and I thought was rather harsh. He was already in the air attempting to charge the kick, so clearly couldn't stop. The TMO called it clumsy, but he recognised he was trying a charge down.

The charge down was a penalty, nothing more. The Youngs yellow was harsh especially considering the team warning was about ten minutes before and Small gave another one to Glaws at the scrum but didnt act upon it. Also Glaws were only past the ten metre compared to the James one where we were in the 22 and it was far more cynical.

The charge was at best a penalty and I thought was rather harsh.

I will reserve judgement on it until I've seen the replay. Looked like he was leading with his knee live but that was at full speed and it's never easy to tell with stuff like that. 10 scrum penalties conceded by Glaws according to BBC radio Leicester.

MBC, it makes no difference when or where Youngs offence was. If you've been given a warning the next time it happens there is a yellow. Fortunately for Glaws Small completely ignored that in the scrum and seemed to wipe the slate clean in the 2nd half!

Quite, the whole warning thing is a bit random.
Anyway it changes little. We know youngsters has a habit, like care , of ill judgement at times.
We know tigers are one of 3 clubs competing for a home semi.
We know glaws are one of 3 or 4 competing for the other playoff spot.
We know that free scoring rugby and great handling can wait till after the 6 nations.

Not a lot that waunt predictable from this game

What did Ford do to get yellowed?

PSW, let's see where we all are come May! Still have Quins and Sarries to beat at Kingsholm.

What did Ford do to get yellowed?

Try saving tackle then deemed he didn't roll away about 10m out. Once the penalty was given it had to be a yellow given the nature of the break. Not sure Glaws were going to score, once the tackle was mafe the support wasn't there to recycle and score but even so the red zone is the red zone. I can't say whether the call was correct or not as I was too far away.

Heard that Parling got MOM, I'm a big fan of Geoff but Geordie was a class apart and played 9,10,15 over the course of the game. He was rock solid in tough conditions and showed the deft touch of a truely brilliant player. It's just a shame that the long term knee issue means he isn't as quick as he used to be and his kicks are about 10m shorter than in his prime. Then again most backs would love to be that good now let alone at 35.

yappysnap wrote:What did Ford do to get yellowed?

What Sam said, or in the words of Cockerill, he cheated

HongKongCherry wrote:

yappysnap wrote:What did Ford do to get yellowed?

What Sam said, or in the words of Cockerill, he cheated

http://www.espnscrum.com/premiership-2012-13/rugby/story/175092.html

Oh those lovely charming words! Straight out the Alex Fegrieson school

If you think Cockers is harsh you should yave listened to bbc radio leicester's Steve Johnson who was scathing of Small. Made Cockers view seem neutral.

To be fair that interview is Cockers complaining that the ref didn't reward their scrum dominance. Cockers opposite number even agrees Gloucester were dominated at the set piece. Tigers didn't concede ten penalties in the loose but suffered two YCs. You can understand Cockers annoyance when Glaws are conceding penalty after penalty at the scrum with no censure.

I can fully understand his annoyance and I'd be pretty peeved if it had happened to Glaws, but his manner is not becoming to the sport. When Nigel Davies was asked about Cockers disagreeing with the ref's decisions he said he disagreed with some too, but that it the nature of the game and you just get on with it. It's not often I get on my high horse about such things, but I feel it is vital we don't allow such behaviour to creep into the sport as it would be much the poorer if we had wendyball style rants every week.

Tigers really missed Flood, I thought Ford was really poor throughout. Tigers actually played better with him off the pitch.

Sgt_Pooly wrote:Tigers really missed Flood, I thought Ford was really poor throughout. Tigers actually played better with him off the pitch.

As Sam said, it showed the quality of Murphy as I agree they seemed to be better with him at 10 when Ford was off!

Burns although patchy had a good game in the conditions, still unsure on his decision making though. Complete level up on Ford who's been a little disappointing all season.

If Burns had played like he did in the final 7 mins then he would have been MOM, unfortunately for the rest of the game his kicking was reminiscent of the pointless kick tennis stuff that was popular five years ago. He gifted the ball to Tigers best player and allowed Murphy to control the game with Ford from deep. Glaws needed territory not to give the ball away for no gain.

Tigers needed Flood's nous, Ford's inexperience was noticeable and other than his tactical kicking (including two nice kicks off his left foot) it was a game he'll want to forget. Worth mentioning his missed kicks were into a strong wind, ditto Burns. Flood's late withdrawl was illness so he should be ok for the Wuss game though they may wrap him in cotton wool for the HEC.

I think Burns got better service in the last 7. Amazing when you compare the experience of Robson and Cowan.

Glaws gambled and emptied their bench. A lot of fresh legs late on. Nearly worked for them.

HongKongCherry wrote:

Sgt_Pooly wrote:Tigers really missed Flood, I thought Ford was really poor throughout. Tigers actually played better with him off the pitch.

As Sam said, it showed the quality of Murphy as I agree they seemed to be better with him at 10 when Ford was off!

They did certainly better than the 10 minutes before. I would argue though that the key difference was the return of Youngs. Murphy really struggled when filling in at 9, kind of bouncing the ball into the scrums (and probably putting it in straight!!) while often forgetting to get to the breakdown to clear the ball. the enforced rest for Youngs allowed him to see the pattern of the game and he was really sharp on his return.

Ford was poor though - though conditions were dire. Burns was only a smidge better.