Leicester Tigers v London Welsh

In amongst the hubris of the 6Ns, the Aviva Premiership returns this weekend after a month off. London Welsh will be keen to gather as many points as possible during the international window - perhaps starting at Welford road on Saturday?

Despite the usual international window absentee list (Youngs T, Cole, Parling, Waldrom, Youngs B, Flood, Manu & Castro) Tigers do not have too many injury concerns. Steve Mafi's hamstring will probably still rule him out, but Tom Croft's rehab should continue again this week having recovered from the knock to the back.

Biggest decisions that Cockerill will have to make will be who starts in the 9, 10 & 15 spots. Mickey Young has been unlucky with injuries and is probably on his way out of the club. Harrison is likely to be favoured. Ford v Bowden at 10 is an interesting call. Ford's form has been poor - but Cockers has perservered - until now. With the young m,an leaving the club he may decide that Bowden offers the safer option. Then we have Tait v Murphy at FB. Also we may, just may see Niki Goneva playing in his international position of OC rather than the ever reliable Matt Smith.

I expect tigers team to look something like:

Ayerza, Hawkins, Mulipola, Deacon, Kitchener, Croft, Salvi, Crane
Harrison, Ford, Thompstone, Allen, Goneva, Morris, Tait

Reps: Stankovich, Chuter, Balmain, Slater, Deacon, Young, Bowden, Murphy

Ideally Ford wouldnt be in the 23 as far as Im concerned, the Saxons game did nothing to convince hes in a proper mental state.

I can see him being left out, though perhaps not out of the entire squad. The thing in his favour is the lack of an alternative goal kicker - though with his form off the tee.......

Did cornwell do enough to merit a game off the bench?

Of course Ford wont be left out though. More a case of wishing we had a plan B

Ford was very poor on Friday night..he just didnt seem like the player everyone has been raving about. Particularly noticeable was his poor decision making.

Anyway...he's young so lets not throw him on the fire too quickly as we often do. Maybe the lad is just seriously low on confidence and needs some gametime.

Aside from that the pack still looks strong...i think Welsh will struggle to get points from this one.

GeordieFalcon wrote:. Maybe the lad is just seriously low on confidence and needs some gametime.

Can we loan him to Bath?

Dont you want him to go to a decent side?

Slater over Kitch. Ed is in the better form at the minute and is well rested.

I'd like to see Croft start and would prefer Smith to Goneva.

Leicester Tigers (v London Welsh, Welford Road, Saturday 3pm)
15 Mathew Tait
14 Niall Morris
13 Matt Smith
12 Anthony Allen
11 Adam Thompstone
10 George Ford
9 Sam Harrison
1 Marcos Ayerza
2 Rob Hawkins
3 Logovi'i Mulipola
4 Louis Deacon (c)
5 Graham Kitchener
6 Tom Croft
7 Julian Salvi
8 Jordan Crane

Replacements
16 George Chuter
17 Boris Stankovich
18 Fraser Balmain
19 Ed Slater
20 Brett Deacon
21 Micky Young
22 Dan Bowden
23 Geordan Murphy

London Welsh: 15 Tom Arscott, 14 Phil MacKenzie, 13 Gonzalo Tiesi, 12 Sonny Parker, 11. Nick Scott, 10 Gordon Ross, 9 Tyson Keats; 1 Franck Montanella, 2 Neil Briggs, 3 Greg Bateman, 4 Jonathan Mills (c), 5 Matt Corker, 6 Adam Balding, 7 Michael Hills, 8 Ed Jackson.
Replacements: 16 Dan George, 17 Tom Bristow, 18 James Tideswell, 19 Martin Purdy, 20 Ed Williamson, 21 Seb Jewell, 22 Gavin Henson, 23 Rob Lewis

Well what to say?

The weather was wet and cold.
The pitch was heavy and cut up.
The ref was pedantic and whistle happy most of the time - yet allowed sides to lie all over the ball.
The home team blustered and flustered but could be guaranteed to mess up whenever they entered the opposition 22 and had a scrum half incapable of hitting a barn door with his pass
The away team had an aggressive defence and a good kick chase but no attacking ideas what so ever.

Needless to say it was far from a classic.

Until the second try when some great hands and running lines from tigers as they moved the ball from left to right, the best skill and biggest cheer came when an LW man lying on the ground managed to kick the ball into ref Tim Wigglesworth's face.

The strangest moment came when, following an excellent break from Allen that was brought to a halt just short of the line, Tigers recycled the ball with a huge overlap and Gavin Henson jogging backwards took the pass in the Leicester centres. So far offside I have yet to see, yet ref waved play on.

Tigers had most of the play, Tait looked good running the ball and made a couple of good tackles but kicked aimlessly. George Ford had his best game this season - not hard perhaps - but the service to him from Harrison was dire. Croft lasted 75 minutes and made a nuisance of himself. Crane looked more dynamic than he has all season.

The effort from LW cannot be faulted, but they were not good. With LI and Sale winning they may start to be feeling a touch nervous.

Overall a rather dire match.

I think Crane is starting to show some form. Good news going into the business end of the season as he is a machine.

formerly known as Sam wrote:I think Crane is starting to show some form. Good news going into the business end of the season as he is a machine.

I thought he carried well today, tackled like a demon and did his usual stuff in the tight.

He's never been the x factor style of player but his work rate is immense and frees up time for Salvi and Croft to go and do their thing. That year out has effected him but if we can get him back firing and keep him and Waldrom fit it will help our ability to fight on two fronts. We need to be a bit clever and keep rotating but we're in a good position.

With quins losing we're sitting at the top of the table


.....I think

Yup - on points diff.

Two huge games to come - Quins away then Sarries

LondonTiger wrote:Well what to say?

The weather was wet and cold.
The pitch was heavy and cut up.
The ref was pedantic and whistle happy most of the time - yet allowed sides to lie all over the ball.
The home team blustered and flustered but could be guaranteed to mess up whenever they entered the opposition 22 and had a scrum half incapable of hitting a barn door with his pass
The away team had an aggressive defence and a good kick chase but no attacking ideas what so ever.

Needless to say it was far from a classic.

Until the second try when some great hands and running lines from tigers as they moved the ball from left to right, the best skill and biggest cheer came when an LW man lying on the ground managed to kick the ball into ref Tim Wigglesworth's face.

The strangest moment came when, following an excellent break from Allen that was brought to a halt just short of the line, Tigers recycled the ball with a huge overlap and Gavin Henson jogging backwards took the pass in the Leicester centres. So far offside I have yet to see, yet ref waved play on.

Tigers had most of the play, Tait looked good running the ball and made a couple of good tackles but kicked aimlessly. George Ford had his best game this season - not hard perhaps - but the service to him from Harrison was dire. Croft lasted 75 minutes and made a nuisance of himself. Crane looked more dynamic than he has all season.

The effort from LW cannot be faulted, but they were not good. With LI and Sale winning they may start to be feeling a touch nervous.

Overall a rather dire match.

just watched the game and can't agree with your assessment about Harrison. Yeah sure it wasn't his best game, but he was a million miles away from being dire.

From end on it just seemed that Harrison either passed the ball above ford's head or at his ankles

LondonTiger wrote:Yup - on points diff.

Two huge games to come - Quins away then Sarries

What a great idea to put those games on during the 6 nations
To be fair its not like anyone couldve predicted those sides would be at the top of the table *cough*