Leicester Tigers vs Northampton Saints, 16th May

First topic message reminder :

 

Saturday 16th May
KO: 15:30
TV: BT sports 1


Officials:
Referee: Matthew Carley (31st Premiership game).
Assistant Referees: Tim Wigglesworth and Peter Huckle.
TMO: Rowan Kitt.



Teams:

Leicester: TBC



Northampton: TBC



Recent History

31/1/15 Leicester 17 – Northampton 8  LV
In front of a capacity crowd a variety of second, third and even 4th choice players showed their senior counterparts how to behave. Straightforward win for Tigers.

20/12/14 Northampton 21 – Leicester 19  AP
Late Jamie Elliot try gives 14 man Saints a deserved win. Thre tries apiece Saints had to play for 3/4s game one man down after red card for skipper Hartley. Tom Croft received Yellow at the end of the first half.

16/5/14 Northampton 21 – Leicester 20 AP Semi
Tom Wood’s try with one minute to go gave Saints the lead for the first time in the game. An enthralling game that saw Ma’afu for Saints seeing red, and Tom Youngs yellow, following a clash. YCs also issued to Bowden and Goneva.

29/3/14 Northampton 16 – Leicester 22 AP
Ben Youngs and Niki Goneva both saw yellow as Tigers hung on grimly to take their unbeaten run to 10 against their neighbours. Huge controversy at the end of the game. Had Manu thrown the ball away? Was time up? Had a Leicester physio deliberately prevented a quick throw? Needless to say Mallinder was not happy.

5/10/13 Leicester 19 – Northampton 19 AP
Dylan Hartley made his first appearance for Saints following suspension. Burrell was sinbinned for a high, no-arms tackle on Allen, but for 70 minutes Saints were the better team. Trailing by 10 points with 10 minutes to go, tigers burst into life and were camped on the Saints line. Deacon and Lawes carded following a confrontation just before Ed Slater crashed over with 4 minutes to go. Saints just held one, repelling a series of 5m scrums.

25/5/13 Leicester 37 – Northampton 17 AP Final
Well this game had drama. Tigers scoring a try inside a couple of minutes. Flood removed with concussion following two challenges from Lawes that pushed the boundaries of legality to the limits. Cockers losing his rag. Hartley repeatedly warned by ref for how he was talking to him  It was all bubbling up until right at the end of the first half. Myler did not know the laws and was unable to understand Barnes accent. Hartley called someone a “f***ing cheat” and was issued red. Game over, Lions chance gone.

30/3/13 Northampton 8 – Leicester 36 AP
Little real dram in this game. A quiet first half was followed by a demolition as tigers ran in four second half tries.

3/11/12 Leicester 16 – Northampton 12 AP
With both sides missing plenty of players on England duty we had a quiet game.

14/4/12 Northampton 21 – Leicester 35 AP
25 points from Toby Flood helped Leicester, who earlier in the season had occupied bottom spot in the table, secure their 5th TBP win in a row and move to second in the table.

16/3/12 Leicester 26 – Northampton 14 LV final
The day Rob Hawkins elbow met Calum Clark.

3/12/11 Leicester 30 – Northampton 25 AP
The day Ashton dragged Alessana Tuilagi from the pitch by his hair and sparked a mass brawl. Tuilagi and Wood given red, Ashton later cited and banned for 6 weeks.

14/5/11 Leicester 11 – Northampton 3 AP Semi
The day Ashton survived a barrage of punches from Manu. (ps all started by a rabbit punch from Ashton)

yappysnap wrote:I can see Tigers beating Bath, Bath have the players but not the team or mentality to win play offs if the going gets tough.

Tigers will want to drag them into a wrestling match and then should win it.

I struggle to see us winning, mainly because thoughts are still raw as to our last visit down there.

What you describe in last bit, is of course what happened at WR. For some reason Bath acted all macho and tried to win an arm wrestle.

And back to yesterdays game.

Not seen TV footage yet so only have the view from the stand to rely on.

As was to be expected the Saints second string were very fired up and keen to make a point. This was especially obvious at the breakdown where they got quick ball by effectively clearing away our jackals with alacrity, while doing well to slow down our ball. I felt that the refs inconsistent approach to the break down and what was and wasn't holing on/rolling away/not supporting body weight helped Saints (though yes I am not impartial).

The decision to disallow the try at the end of first half for Burns in at the side was a touch perplexing. Pretty sure the vast majority of refs would have allowed that.

Thought we looked good in attack when our runners took the ball at pace, so infuriating when so often we took it standing still then tried to truck the ball on.

And finally the fornicating abomination that is uncontested scrums. I will ignore the Saints coaches conveniently forgetting that Alex Corbisiero has played a fair amount at TH and was emminently qualified to fulfill the roll. I feel Carley was wrong to sinbin Ma'afu straight after Denman. On that last scrum they were bacpeddling and a Penalty Try would have been a fair call until the saints prop folded in.

Once we have uncontested scrums, the team at fault shoul dhave to pack down with a full 8, otherwise much of the advantage they have ceded by losing two props is negated.

I only saw the second half after I came home from playing and having had a few soda pops.  So I didn't watch so closely and I forgot to record it, which is my usual when Saints are televised.

I didn't see the Burns play, so can't comment.  I do agree the breakdown was more inconsistent than normal, and I do think Saints got away with a couple.  From what I saw you appeared the better team, but sometimes I thought Tigers were playing in slow motion.  I thought you guys were playing not to lose, instead of going out to blow Saints off the park.  Probably the right strategy since there are no bonus points given for style!

I also agree about the uncontested scrums.  Never liked it, though I understand the purpose is to protect against injury.  Not sure what happened and why at this moment in time (to give my club a break for now), but it raises questions.  Saints were never a club which went the fake injury route.   Some years ago it appeared a staple weapon at the old London-Wycombe Wasps.

Wasps also liked to replace their props with non forward row players after their "injury" so avoided scrums and had extra bodies around the field. I agree fully that should uncontested scrums arrive that eight men should always be involved. Maybe that should be a general law, there will always be eight men in the scrum. Makes going down to 14 an issue when defending scrums.

Forgot to mention, blooming Freddie Burns bloomin went and broke my bloomin glasses

LondonTiger wrote:Forgot to mention, blooming Freddie Burns bloomin went and broke my bloomin glasses

Catching the ball with your face?

lostinwales wrote:

LondonTiger wrote:Forgot to mention, blooming Freddie Burns bloomin went and broke my bloomin glasses

Catching the ball with your face?

During kicking practice. Went over my head comfortably but smashed into something with enough force to bounce back and smash my glasses off. Was too busy making sure Tommy Bell's practice did not hit me.