Ospreys v Leicester

First topic message reminder :

Venue: Liberty Stadium, Swansea
Date: Sunday, 13 January
Kick-off: 15:00 GMT

TEAMS

Ospreys:
15 Richard Fussell
14 Ross Jones
13 Tom Isaacs
12 Andrew Bishop
11 Eli Walker
10 Dan Biggar
9 Kahn Fotuali'i (Capt)
1 Ryan Bevington
2 Richard Hibbard
3 Adam Jones
4 Ian Gough
5 James King
6 Ryan Jones
7 Justin Tipuric
8 Joe Bearman

REPLACEMENTS
16 Scott Baldwin
17 Duncan Jones
18 Campbell Johnstone
19 Lloyd Peers
20 Sam Lewis/Jonathan Thomas
21 Rhys Webb
22 Matthew Morgan
23 Jonathan Spratt

Leicester Tigers:

15 Mathew Tait
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 Steve Mafi
7 Julian Salvi
8 Jordan Crane

Replacements
16 Rob Hawkins
17 Logovi'i Mulipola
18 Martin Castrogiovanni
19 Ed Slater
20 Thomas Waldrom
21 Sam Harrison
22 George Ford
23 Matt Smith

Referee: John Lacey (Ireland)

League as it stands;

1 Leicester 4 3 0 1 95 83 2 14
2 Toulouse 4 3 0 1 92 61 1 13
3 Ospreys 4 2 0 2 91 92 1 9
4 Treviso 4 0 0 4 76 118 1 1

Potentially the game of the weekend. Discuss here any pre match, live match and post match chat. Please don't duplicate any topics already discussed on other threads! You know what I'm talking about.

Teams will be updated when available.

Flood has been in dodgey form ever since his injury. His stuff to do was poor to average. A great line to set up a try and a couple of decent kicks is not enough in the big games. Manu is a player that lives off supply, Flood needs to create the space or get him the ball early and he'll do damage. Hopefully a bit more game time will see Flood start to get back to some form.

Flood is better than Farell - Farrell a very cool young man and a controlling player in the mould of Wilkinson but flood is capable of a lot more

majesticimperialman wrote:

TJ wrote:I thought Manu looked pretty poor. Made little ground and gave up penalties. One nice pass One turnover and 3 pens according to scrum.com

He looked very lethargic to be honest, very heavy footed, maybe he needs a rest.

Flood did not look that much better to be honest, some of his kicks from hand was very poor. I was thinking before this game that the 2 fly halves for the 6ns was Flood and Farrell, but after todays game i am not so sure any more. Any body know how Burns is playing at Gloucester?

Burns is doing fine - kicked 26 points, missing nothing, in the Amlin on Fri night. Credit to Farrell for beating that with his 32 on Saturday!

Missed this game but sounds like Eli Walker had a belter and Tigers grafted well enough to get back into it. Toulouse had Connacht to thank after they nearly blew it at Kingsholm last year, they have also lost to Quins and Edinburgh in the recent past. I expect Tigers to do the business at Welford Rd, for the big showdown .

This thread died, all a little tired now i suppose after the weekends rugby and debate.
Im off to bed now got work in the morning and madjesticimperialman is relying on my taxes for his benefits night night.

Got back from the game, another classic between these two teams. The Ospreys missed the work rate and experience of R Jones the Tigers did not look like scoring in the first half. It looks as if Ryan has a bad thumb injury and had to go to hospital with a dislocation.

The Ospreys did not have the strength in depth compared with the Tigers bench but the Ospreys should have won with all the missed but difficult kicks. The Ospreys should be pleased with the performance with so many injuries. I think both sides kicked the ball too much but both teams were out on their feet at the end.

I think the Wales squad are going to be stretched, I suspect only I Evans may be fit in the second row.

glamorganalun wrote:Got back from the game, another classic between these two teams. The Ospreys missed the work rate and experience of R Jones the Tigers did not look like scoring in the first half. It looks as if Ryan has a bad thumb injury and had to go to hospital with a dislocation.

The Ospreys did not have the strength in depth compared with the Tigers bench but the Ospreys should have won with all the missed but difficult kicks. The Ospreys should be pleased with the performance with so many injuries. I think both sides kicked the ball too much but both teams were out on their feet at the end.

I think the Wales squad are going to be stretched, I suspect only I Evans may be fit in the second row.

If we lose Ryan Jones for the start of the 6Ns too it will just be ridiculous, hopefully the recovery time shouldn't been too long for a thumb injury.

His dislocated thumb bone was sticking out hence the blood.

Just thought I would give my two cents on the game.

Ospreys played magnificently, and a handful of their players showed their class. Tips for me especially, was outstanding. I've said on other thread, but there doesn't seem to be a weakness in any facet of his game. As an Englishman, I'd much rather see Warbs line up at 7 against us than Tips. He's a superb footballer- Martyn Williams MKII, but with more bite.

Walker's run to set up the second try was sublime, and Fussel was audacious in atttack- his side steps of Mafi and (?) were brilliant, but I understand there are question marks over his whole game.

Ryan Jones and hibbard were impressive before they went off- hopefully nothing too serious.

Tigers....well, we just didn't have enough bite or desire. The backs were uninspired, and Manu rarely touched the ball. He's our most potent weapon and with speedsters like Morris, Tait, and Ben Youngs playing, he should be providing a platform over the gainline for them to work off.

Salvi I thought was very good, although probably lost the 7 battle with Tips.

Parling does what he does- graft, and tackle. THe lineout was alright bar a few errors.

Tom youngs was good. Noticeably, the barnstorming run up the middle, and his hit and drive on James King I think it was...?

Flood did good things and bad things. He ran a beautiful line in the run up to Ben Youngs' try, but some of the rest of his decision-making left a lot to be desired.

Overall, a good result for Tigers considering I think Ospreys definitely deserved to win it. Tigers have got a lot of work to do before Toulouse this weekend, i'm just glad it's at home. If Murphy's available, I think he needs to be at FB, but I'd consider moving Tait to the wing to accomodate his speed, possibly at the expense of Thompstone, because I thought Morris played well.

Manu rarely touched the ball. He's our most potent weapon and with speedsters like Morris, Tait, and Ben Youngs playing, he should be providing a platform over the gainline for them to work off.

7 carries for 34 m one turnover and 3 penalties. One good pass

I am afraid I have never rated him and this is why - he simply runs into his opponent and tries to steamroller him - against decent tacklers and a fast back row he does nothing.

TJ wrote:

Manu rarely touched the ball. He's our most potent weapon and with speedsters like Morris, Tait, and Ben Youngs playing, he should be providing a platform over the gainline for them to work off.

7 carries for 34 m one turnover and 3 penalties. One good pass

I am afraid I have never rated him and this is why - he simply runs into his opponent and tries to steamroller him - against decent tacklers and a fast back row he does nothing.

I wouldn't say that he just tries to steam roller his opposition TJ. Certainly he used to, but he's shown recently he is adding the sublties to his game. Against NZ, who are both decent tacklers and have a fast backrow, he showed his worth, both in breaking the gainline and setting up other players.

I think his poor performance this game is a testament to the Ospreys defence. It was excellent. I didn't hear Bishop's name all game, but he certainly kept Tuilagi subdued, and tackled him by the ankles all day.

I enjoyed this match, it was most definately one of 'two halfs'.

Ospreys played magnificently in the first half (and for periods of the second half too). Tigers had little in reply for that first 40 minutes. Tigers showed real dog to get back in there and I was proud of their resolve. Certain Welsh supporters here can whinge and moan all they like, I thought the referee was fair. Ospreys didn't win for the reasons i've written in my last paragraph.

It just serves to remind us all that Tigers, even when not playing well, seem able to grind out the results (although a win would have been better than a draw). Given the dominance of Ospreys, a draw was a reasonable result.

The other thing is that the Ospreys' performance typifies Welsh rugby as a whole. Some brilliant individual players, but lack of strength in depth (primarily) means they find it hard to close out games, even games they've dominated.

TJ wrote:

Manu rarely touched the ball. He's our most potent weapon and with speedsters like Morris, Tait, and Ben Youngs playing, he should be providing a platform over the gainline for them to work off.

7 carries for 34 m one turnover and 3 penalties. One good pass

I am afraid I have never rated him and this is why - he simply runs into his opponent and tries to steamroller him - against decent tacklers and a fast back row he does nothing.

You may not rate him, but have you ever thought that the reason he may appear to run into tackles is that the opposition are so terrified of his ability to break tackles that they often have to commit at least two players to stopping him. Gaps can and do then appear else where, Tigers (and England) have exploited this on several occasions to gain scores.

viewtothegym wrote:This thread died, all a little tired now i suppose after the weekends rugby and debate.
Im off to bed now got work in the morning and madjesticimperialman is relying on my taxes for his benefits night night.

Why am i relying on you taxes to pay my wagers?

I do not claim benefits just to let you know.

Salvi I thought was very good, although probably lost the 7 battle with Tips.

He actually missed a fair number of tackles and wasn't noticeably successful atthe breakdown. His worst game of the season, looked a bit tired which is a concern.

7 carries for 34 m one turnover and 3 penalties. One good pass

One of those penalties was the joke penalty given after the big hit on Habberfield by Thompstone. An awful decision. He provided two passes for big outside breaks, one of those passes was sublime. Made ground in contact off of back foot ball. Also if you notice the Flood break you'll see the Ospreys defence flowing to the right as they are concentrating on Manu's run as opposed to what Flood is doing. Not a vintage display but no other centres would cop flak for that performance like Manu is.