The East Midlands Derby (Sat 30/3/13)

A tale of thee cities - Leicester and Northampton vie over another one.

My beloved East Midlands adversaries contest a game I hate to love because I nearly love the opposition.

But this is serious:
1 Saracens 18 14 1 3 418 267 5 63
2 Leicester 18 12 1 5 409 274 8 58
3 Harlequins 18 12 0 6 458 382 7 55
4 Northampton 18 12 0 6 396 354 6 54

5 Gloucester 18 10 1 7 422 371 8 50
6 London Wasps 18 9 0 9 438 413 11 47

This is a biggie not only for that few of us who believe that the regular league is important and worthy of official recognition, but also to the majority who inhabit the real world of professional corporate compliance.

Leicester Tigers (v Northampton Saints, Franklin's Gardens, Saturday 3pm)
15 Mathew Tait
14 Niall Morris
13 Manusamoa Tuilagi
12 Anthony Allen
11 Adam Thompstone
10 Toby Flood (c)
9 Ben Youngs
1 Marcos Ayerza
2 Tom Youngs
3 Dan Cole
4 Ed Slater
5 Geoff Parling
6 Tom Croft
7 Julian Salvi
8 Jordan Crane

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

Northampton Saints
15 Ben Foden
14 James Wilson
13 George Pisi
12 Tom May
11 Jamie Elliott
10 Stephen Myler
9 Lee Dickson
1 Soane Tonga'uiha
2 Dylan Hartley (c)
3 Tom Mercey
4 Courtney Lawes
5 Christian Day
6 Samu Manoa
7 Phil Dowson
8 Tom Wood

Replacements
16 Ross McMillan
17 Alex Waller
18 Brian Mujati
19 GJ Van Velze
20 Ben Nutley
21 Martin Roberts
22 Ryan Lamb
23 Luther Burrell

Mate,
As a Saints supporter, this is absolutely a biggie. Would be a biggie if played at midnight on South Georgia Island. A rivalry older than the league. In some ways better than the league. But league standings just adds to the spice.

Green, gold, and black uber alles.........

doctor_grey wrote:Green, gold, and black uber alles.........

Cobblers!

When was the first Tigger/Sinner match?

They have often been spicy encounters but the controversies and incidents in recent years have taken it to new heights.

Manu's Right Hook
24th May 2011 - A stunning tactical display from Toby Flood, perhaps the best tactical kicking I have seen from an England 10 since Rob Andrew was in his pomp, was overshadowed by the flurry of punches thrown by Manu tuilagi at Chris Ashton. Wayne Barnes and his assistant decided to sin-bin both players.
Mallinder incensed.

Hair Pulling and Lazarus Murphy
3rd Dec 2011 - Wayne Barnes again had the whistle in the next meeting. Tensions were already high when Ashton dragged Alessana Tuilagi into touch by his dreadlocks. Melee ensued and tuilagi and tom Wood received their marching orders. Neither player was banned, but Ashton received a few weeks off following his citing.
Lazarus Murphy rose from the dead to obstruct Ben Foden during the move that led to Agulla scoring the winning try.
Mallinder incensed.


Squeal Like a Pig
18 March 2012 - Callum Clark meets Rob Hawkins.
Cockers incensed.


Then things calmed down.


sleepy Saints
14th April 2012 - After a lot of talk about red cards we had the shock of an almost supine Saints team. It was only when they were 32-9 down with 50 minutes on the clock that they started to play.


Return of the villain
3rd November 2012 - A strangely muted affair as two teams missing their England players slogged it out. Notable for being Clark's first game after his long suspension.

So will it be massively boring? Or a proper old school grudge match (fingers crossed for the second).

Is it on ESPN or Sky?

Sky.

greytiger wrote:When was the first Tigger/Sinner match?

Don't eactly know, but I bet HM Queen Victoria was on the throne.

Therefore, I would hazard a guess this is where her famous expression came from:
"Leicester Tigers? Oh, please. We are not amused."

A final batch of returned tickets for Saturday's Aviva Premiership trip to Northampton Saints has sold out at the Tigers ticket office.

http://www.leicestertigers.com/news/16120.php#.UVP2QVf0dhc

Eyes down for a full house ladies and gentlemen.

Wood playing at 8 is interesting, is this something that would have occured anyway or has his success there for England pushed them to make the decision, or perhaps has Lancaster/Rowntree had a work in the Saints coaches ear?

Other interesting choice is Burrel on the bench, i'd have started him myself as he looks the future for Saints 12 position, May only has a little while left to go at this level and to be honest is very experienced and hard working but limited.

WOW!!!!!!!!

Saints took a real mauling. They just seemed to lack attacking options. Tigers were playing Barbarian's style stuff at times.

Fricking hell, well done Tigers!
Probably the best send off you could achieve before Toulon.

We will need to improve about as much as we did from last week to this - but hey, at least it feels as if we have a chance.

Oh and Wood looked good at 8 did he pull out before the match?

Saints did lack ball carrying power up front. Tigers were happy to carry from 1 to 8, Saints had Tonga'huia, Hartley and ... erm well no one else really stepped forward in that regard.

Massive games from T Youngs (hope it's just a knock), Slater and Croft. Power, mobilty and big work rates. Saints had power and then not much of the other two. Balance needs to be added in the summer if they want to start generating plans b and c.

Hope the Tigers players who had knocks can shake them off ahead of next weekend.

Just read the score, wasn't expecting to read that score line!

well done tigers, hope they can keep improving into the next game.

Croft was everything we were hoping for against Wales and more.

Saints seem to look to rough up the opposition with big hits, if that doesn't work then they're doomed.

Still can not see the logic of Wood at 8.

Oh and on a down side I thought Ben Youngs had a pretty average game for a 9 with such an arm chair ride. He kicks well but too often and his passing and running are still sub par.

Yapp

Yapp

Yapp

Yapp

give a dog a bone

yappysnap wrote:Oh and on a down side I thought Ben Youngs had a pretty average game for a 9 with such an arm chair ride. He kicks well but too often and his passing and running are still sub par.

The issue Youngs had today was that he didn't have enough guards or support. Not really an armchair today until 60 minutes. Too often not enough Tigers at the breakdown (particularly first half), leading to him getting scragged, but I thought he handled it reasonably well. Seems to be more focused on the basics recently. Fewer breaks, but as an all round package is better.

His passing was also pretty good. Barnes allowed Saints to play the scrum.half at ruck after ruck which made life difficult for him. The late swinging arm tackle from Dickson on Benny behind the try line after the clearing kick was typical of the shots he was taking.

Not a great game but he put his team in the right areas, moved his forwards well on attack and gave the backs good ball. In short he gave Dickson a lesson in game management. Would have been nice to see him darting around and doing the spectacular but that wasn't on with Saints tight guard ruck defence.

yappysnap wrote:Croft was everything we were hoping for against Wales and more.

Saints seem to look to rough up the opposition with big hits, if that doesn't work then they're doomed.

Still can not see the logic of Wood at 8.

Oh and on a down side I thought Ben Youngs had a pretty average game for a 9 with such an arm chair ride. He kicks well but too often and his passing and running are still sub par.

as already mentioned, the forwards wasn't giving him any protection at the rucks, he hardly got an armchair ride.

also what did people think of dicksons game? was it me or did he spend more time moaning to the ref than actually playing? there were a couple of moments he seemed to just lose it.

Yea Dickson like the rest of the Saints team seemed to have one goal to rough up Tiger's, when that didn't happen they were lost.