Tigers v Wuss

As ever, another BP point win desperately required at WR.

Leicester Tigers (v Worcester Warriors, Welford Road, Friday 7.45pm)
15 Geordan Murphy (c)
14 Scott Hamilton
13 Manu Tuilagi
12 Anthony Allen
11 Alesana Tuilagi
10 Toby Flood
9 James Grindal
1 Marcos Ayerza
2 George Chuter
3 Martin Castrogiovanni
4 Ed Slater
5 Graham Kitchener
6 Tom Croft
7 Craig Newby
8 Thomas Waldrom

Replacements
16 Tom Youngs
17 Logovi'I Mulipola
18 Dan Cole
19 Steve Mafi
20 Julian Salvi
21 Sam Harrison
22 Matt Smith
23 George Ford

Worcester Warriors
15 Chris Pennell
14 Marcel Garvey
13 Alex Grove
12 Dale Rasmussen
11 Miles Benjamin
10 Andy Goode
9 Shaun Perry (c)
1 Matt Mullan
2 Aleki Lutui
3 Tevita Taumoepeau
4 James Percival
5 Chris Jones
6 Sam Betty
7 Matt Kvesic
8 Blair Cowan

Replacements
16 Ed Shervington
17 Ceri Jones
18 Bruce Douglas
19 Craig Gillies
20 Kai Horstmann
21 Jonny Arr
22 Danny Gray
23 Ravai Fatiaki

Pretty strong Leicester side. Can't see past them winning well at home

Current score 0-3 Goode

Tigers turn down a guaranteed penalty. And give away one of their own.

Later Goode gets YC after good Waldrom break.

Tigers looking overconfident.

After scrum dominance, Hamilton scores out wide. 5-3 after Flood misses badly.

More overconfidence by Tigers causes yet another Tigers' butchering of a try.

Tigers now going for a PT I eckon.

Comes to nothing but Chuter scores out wide. Flood just fluffs it. 10-3.
30 mins.

Tigers scrum totally dominant and now eginning to take a serious advantage.

Goode should get 2nd yellow.

Red.

Game over.

Another one to interest the citing panel. 3-4 weeks I'd say. Maybe more.

Croft another try. Again out wide. Flood gets one, 17-3

Good return for Goode.

HT. 17-3.

Tigers actually playing very poorly in the circumstances. Territorial and possession stats and every other must be well in favour of the home side.

Just too much of a walkover that they are making a pigs ear out of a silk purse.

ESPN: Ben Kay and Austin Healey staying admirably neutral.

But there's only one conclusion to this game.

But by how many?

Should be by about 50 at least.

As long as they get the bonus point it doesn't matter massively (although points difference may come into home semis).

Leicester knocking on a lot and not doing a lot for their three tries so far.

There's the bp try

dot dot dot

Visitors

Score now 31 6 after 58 mins.

FT 41-13

Very poor overall for Tigers.

It was an error strewn performance by tigers but there were some positives. Kitchener had an absolute stormer and combined well with Slater. Tom Youngs came off the bench and looked excellent. The young half backs played with a maturity beyond their years and we comfortably got the 5 points with both set pieces working well.

Just got to hope Alesana doesn't get a ban.

I'm not sure that Alesana's slap warrants a citing Sam.

Otherwise that might have been his last Tigers game.

First time I've had a chance to see Tom Youngs (bens brother) he definitely looks one to watch for the future.

Good turn of pace for his try.

MY worry with Tom Youngs is that his build won't be able to handle the extra weight it's carrying. He seems to have put it on very quickly. Will he end up with a lot of injuries later in his career?

HammerofThunor wrote:MY worry with Tom Youngs is that his build won't be able to handle the extra weight it's carrying. He seems to have put it on very quickly. Will he end up with a lot of injuries later in his career?

True - it takes a lot of imagination to see him playing as a centre - his previous position.

Richard Cockerill:

"It was disjointed and hard to play against a side that did not come to play.

"We were inaccurate for large parts of the game which was frustrating but job done. It's five points.

"We don't want to use up our best performances in games like these, we want to save them for the big ones."

This sums up in a nutshell why Leicester are unpopular

If you're going to quote someone, at least put in a reference if not a link

bobo wrote:Richard Cockerill:

"It was disjointed and hard to play against a side that did not come to play.

"We were inaccurate for large parts of the game which was frustrating but job done. It's five points.

"We don't want to use up our best performances in games like these, we want to save them for the big ones."

This sums up in a nutshell why Leicester are unpopular

Sounds like what he said on ESPN last night.

One of the things that Cockerill does best is not mincing his words.
And is Bobo green with envy?

MY worry with Tom Youngs is that his build won't be able to handle the extra weight it's carrying. He seems to have put it on very quickly. Will he end up with a lot of injuries later in his career?

He was always a stocky crash inside centre. The stone and a half he's put on has been over two years on loan at nottingham. His back op is a concern especially with him missing so much of this season with it but he looks simply brilliant now he's back to fitness. At 16 stone he's not the biggest hooker but he hits low and hard with good pace so as long as his back is fixed he'll do very well I think.

bobo wrote:Richard Cockerill:

"It was disjointed and hard to play against a side that did not come to play.

"We were inaccurate for large parts of the game which was frustrating but job done. It's five points.

"We don't want to use up our best performances in games like these, we want to save them for the big ones."

This sums up in a nutshell why Leicester are unpopular

didn't realise they were so unpopular...

Worcester Warriors head coach Richard Hill:

"I don't think many people would have had us down to win at Welford Road. We just wanted to give a good account of ourselves.

"Although we are not mathematically secure yet but we have got two home games and we are unbeaten at Sixways.

"We will regroup and make sure we are at full throttle against Exeter."

I could have sworn we got a TBP down there. My memory must be playing tricks with me.

I'm guessing he's talking about this year (as in 2012 not the season) s they've lost to Quins and I think Wasps at home this season.

Portnoy wrote:FT 41-13

Very poor overall for Tigers.

Yeah, they must have been shoite to be giving out a thumping like that...

Some people are never happy.

Equo Troiano wrote:

Portnoy wrote:FT 41-13

Very poor overall for Tigers.

Yeah, they must have been shoite to be giving out a thumping like that...

Some people are never happy.

Did you see the game Echo? Worcester were poor at best. What I'm saying is that the Tigers still underperformed. And Cockerill agrees with me it would seem.

Bobo dont worry Cockerill said something similar against London Irish.

If Leicester were playing well they would have put 100+ points past Worcester, only 70 points past London Irish. Don't you know that?

Portnoy Cockerill might be speaking plainly and genuinely believe it but pretty disrespectful to Worcester in my opinion.

beshocked wrote:Bobo dont worry Cockerill said something similar against London Irish.

If Leicester were playing well they would have put 100+ points past Worcester, only 70 points past London Irish. Don't you know that?

Portnoy Cockerill might be speaking plainly and genuinely believe it but pretty disrespectful to Worcester in my opinion.

Stop talking garbage. There, there, you'll get over the weekend. Eventually.

Equo Troiano you can be humorous sometimes. You don't see it do you?

I never thought I'd see a comment so ironic. Congratualtions. You're a winner. Unlike Saracens were.

Beshocked,

Tigers were not at all good - they dominated possession and created very little butchering much of whatthey did create with bad passes. All the early tries came from massive Worcester mistakes - turning over ball, silly slap downs at defensive lineouts etc.

Off turnover we were good (so long as there was no more than one or two passes) but off our own possession we were poor. The performance by Worcester was the worst by an away side at WR this season.

The fact we scored 7 tries, while displaying a complete inability to pass the ball with the precision I would expect from an U15 side (ie we were as bad at it as Sarries were v Quins) is what has left me so depressed about the quality of the AP.

Wait aren't Saracens the English champions? Anyway I don't went to carry on this childish bickering which you relish.

Please say something relevant to rugby. If you think I am speaking garbage about Cockerill disrespecting opposition please say why.

Maybe Cockerill is right that Leicester can play better than they did vs London Irish and Worcester but why speak so plain to the media?

Do you think the attitude - "we were rubbish but still hammered you" is a nice one?

LondonTiger if that's how you feel fine but doesn't sound very respectful to Worcester.

I thought Saracens created opportunities but due to Quin's good defence and not being clinical they were poor in attack. With a very unfamiliar centre partnership it's hardly that surprising.

Sounds like glass half empty. Maybe it's the high expectations that you have.

There's a little pessimism here - perhaps justifyably so.

Look, Tigers are THE form team in the AP right now. They may have been sloppy on Friday but we know for a fact that when Tigers turn it on, they are irresistable. Okay so quins have a points cushion, but i'm willing to bet they've got one eye over their shoulder. I think the trip to The Stoop will be a close game that tigers will edge. The trip to Franklins Gardens worries me less actually. Saints have key players missing or banned, whilst Tigers are returning/have returned to full strength and are rolling on.

Bizarreley, i think the banana skin could be Bath at home.

Don't know why, just have a feeling.

We were not at our best against LI. They, imo, played better.

We were in many parts of the game poor against Worcester, but they were awful.

We have been saved by our pack, who have been immense in tight and loose. This is enought to be right in the mix in the AP - but as was shown in the HC was nowwhere near enough to be competetive.

I remember thr furore in 2010 when after squeeking past Italy in Rome, Borthwick and johnson talked about how well england played - to reasonable indignation from fans. If the only comments we are to get in the immediate post match interview (which is what these comments were) are bland inanities or delusional nonsense - we should stop having them.

beshocked wrote:

Do you think the attitude - "we were rubbish but still hammered you" is a nice one?

Hammering people while playing badly is a situation most if not all teams would take if they were honest. And I don't know what you're complaining about, Saracens have been playing sterile and oft unspectacular rugby all season so far, but they've got the results. ugly or otherwise. Its got nothing to do with being 'nice'.

The form team are coming, playing badly or well, whether they care to admit it or not, the 2 teams above/level on points will be wary and rightly so.

Equo Troiano wrote:

beshocked wrote:

Do you think the attitude - "we were rubbish but still hammered you" is a nice one?

Hammering people while playing badly is a situation most if not all teams would take if they were honest. And I don't know what you're complaining about, Saracens have been playing sterile and oft unspectacular rugby all season so far, but they've got the results. ugly or otherwise. Its got nothing to do with being 'nice'.

The form team are coming, playing badly or well, whether they care to admit it or not, the 2 teams above/level on points will be wary and rightly so.

If that's the case then why are most Tigers fan sulky? As I said you are at two extreme ends of the spectrum. You who are overly optimistic and most of the other Tigers fans who are too pessimistic. Best to be in the middle.

Yes being of wary of Tigers is fine but we are not in awe.

I did not suggest anyone should be in awe, that's something you've fabricated - perhaps you are? See my last post on the Sarries v Quins thread which explains reasons for optimism, its hardly overly optimistic, or delusional as you saw fit to accuse.

Most Tigers Fans sulky?

Hardly, there might be 2 or 3 on 606v2 or some amongst the many thousands of fans that feel Tigers are underachieving.

But most fans sulky?

Thats a generalisation and a half.

Do you think the attitude - "we were rubbish but still hammered you" is a nice one?

To be fair we were helped massively by Worcester changing their game plan and trying to throw the ball around. An open game suited us fine and we punished them, Goodey getting a soft YC and then a stupid RC meant we had more numbers for practically the entire game. Even then the defence was sloppy in places, we conceded to sloppy YCs (both were a tad harsh in my opinion) and in attack we didn't look after the ball. That level of play won't win us the big games (we found this out in the HEC) and that's why the Tigers fans are wanting to see improvement. We were awful in the AP Final last year and we want to show up better in the play offs this year.

beshocked wrote:Wait aren't Saracens the English champions? Anyway I don't went to carry on this childish bickering which you relish.

Please say something relevant to rugby. If you think I am speaking garbage about Cockerill disrespecting opposition please say why.

Maybe Cockerill is right that Leicester can play better than they did vs London Irish and Worcester but why speak so plain to the media?

Do you think the attitude - "we were rubbish but still hammered you" is a nice one?

No, beshocked. Absolutely not.

And were the quote marks making a direct reference to an earlier post or a voice inside your own head?

Will Goode receive a short rest for his daftness? 2-3 weeks?

It was a straight red. Probably a result of clumsiness and over excitement rather than malicious. However I suspect he will get the lowest Entry Level ban and the full 50% reduction.

Probs only a week or two for Goodey, was good to see him shaking Croft's hand and them having a joke at the final whistle. Red mist moment, I think Goode had just psyched himself up too much for the game, he wanted the win badly and it showed.

formerly known as Sam wrote:Probs only a week or two for Goodey, was good to see him shaking Croft's hand and them having a joke at the final whistle. Red mist moment, I think Goode had just psyched himself up too much for the game, he wanted the win badly and it showed.

I read that as he wanted the bun badly

I read that as he wanted the pie badly

Fixed it for you.

The Kay comment about Dorian West made me laugh in the build up to the Saints game. Tiny said he couldn't get away from Westy and Kay's response was all you need to do is walk quickly.

There was a few fat jokes aimed at Goode from the commentary panel as well though they also complained Goode was aiming balls at them in the warm up so perhaps Austin had wound him up before hand.