Harlequins v Leicester

Last season this fixture was quite possibly the match of the season (except for Tom Croft) as Tigers came from behind to storm past Quins and gain revenge for the defeat at WR earlier in the season. Of course Quins were to have the last laugh. Sadly this season the match takes place during the 6Ns so both teams will be weakened. From past experience we can expect Stuart Lancaster to release players who have had limited game time back to their clubs - this should mean that Tigers will have Manu and Waldrom available - but perhaps more importantly Quins will be able to call on Danny Care who should help Nick Evans get out of his mid-season slump. Logo Mulipola took a serious whallop to the testicals at the weekend so Cockers may well decide to select Castro for this fixture. Croft played 75 minutes last week so as part of his re-introduction is due a week off, while Mafi is still struggling with his hamstring.

My expected Tigers line-up:

Ayerza, Hawkins, Castro, Deacon, Kitchener, Waldrom, Salvi, Crane
Harrison, Flood, Thompstone, Allen, Manu, Morris, Tait

Reps: Mulipola, Chuter, Balmain, Slater, Deacon, Young, Ford, Murphy.



oops forgot Flood will probably be made available as well.

I would expect to see this lot from Quins -
Lambert (Marler resting)
Grey
Johnson
Robson
Kohn (hopefully back from Wales)
Wallace
Faasavalou (or Guest)
Easter

Care
Evans
Monye
JTH
Lowe/Hopper
Tom Williams
Chisholm (Brown rested)

Quins need a good performance after recent defeat to Wasps.

I wouldn't be surprised if Croft played seeing as his one on one off hasn't really happened.

Friday 4th Jan - Croft makes first appearance v Worcester.
Sunday 13th/20th - Misses HC matches vs Ospreys and toulouse
Saturday 26th - Starts against Wasps but leaves early with a knock to the back.
Sunday 3rd Feb - Misses game with Scarlets
Saturday 9th - Plays 75 minutes against Oxford.

Cockers has shown with Matt Tait that he will manage players back to fitness and I just feel that with Waldrom available he will rest Croft this week - especially as we will need him against Sarries the following week.

Fair point LT. We probably won't have TTE next week as well. I'd like to see some more Slater though, he was brilliant off the bench for the Saxons against Scotland, on for less than ten mins and he stole a lineout, chased down the opposition 15 and got dragged down by multiple defenders a metre out. Slater/Deacon but I think you're right and he'll go Kitchener.

We certainly need someone to get into Evans face early, if he can be put off his game like last weekend we could grab a handy win.

Can't see this one being as entertaining as last season's uber game. But we'll take any kind of win after last week's shambles. (shambles is probably unfair but the game was there on a plate for us).

I'd hope to see:

Lambert
Gray
Johnson
Robson
Kohn
Big Mo
Wallace
Easter
Care
Evans
Smith/OLH
JTH
Lowe
Stegmann
Chisholm

16,Marfo17,Brooker18,collier19,Mathews20,Guest21,Dickson22,Botica23,Williams

I very much doubt Brown will be made available - even to sit on the bench.

Yea I don't know why I put him in there... I blame very early mornings at work! He hasn't been released by SL anyhows. Tom Williams should be no 23.

Oh and Collier will be on the bench for Synckler as well.

Croft is being rested. Manu/Flood have been released, but theres a strong chance part of the deal in doing that is that they start from the bench since they will be in the England matchday 23 the following weekend.

With Manu having played just 20 minutes since he limped off against Ospreys 5 weeks ago, and Flood about the same since the Toulouse game 4 weeks ago I suspect they will be allowed to start as they need game time.

Whether Cockers obliges is another matter

My Girlfriend brought me tickets to see this, train up from Southampton and making a day of it.

looks like an epic match in the offing, lets hope the weather is good

Should be a good 'Un. Hope we play a solid mix of LEV and HEC players.

I am certainly leaving early for this one! I suspect the atmosphere is going to be electric. If the weather holds it will be perfect conditions for an absolute belter! I suspect you're right CJ, with the depth we have this season we'll put out a very strong team, considering the time of year; expect to see Sinckler subbed i reckon, which will be interesting to see how he can cope with the best being thrown at him.

damage_13 i hope you & your other half have a great day of it, the Stoop is a top place for a game (I'd say the best, but i'm bias!) and when it starts getting noisy you'll know all about it!

Harlequins team to face Leicester Tigers

15. Ross Chisholm
14. Tom Williams
13. Matt Hopper
12. Jordan Turner-Hall
11. Ugo Monye
10. Nick Evans
9. Danny Care

1. Mark Lambert
2. Joe Gray
3. James Johnston
4. Nick Easter (C)
5. George Robson
6. Maurie Fa'asavalu
7. Luke Wallace
8. Tom Guest

16. Rob Buchanan
17. Darryl Marfo
18. Will Collier
19. Charlie Matthews
20. Joe Trayfoot
21. Jordan Burns
22. Ben Botica
23. George Lowe

Main surprise is Easter in the second row. Oh and is Karl Dickson injured?

Leicester Tigers (v Harlequins, away, Saturday 5.15pm)
15 Mathew Tait
14 Scott Hamilton
13 Manusamoa Tuilagi
12 Anthony Allen
11 Adam Thompstone
10 Toby Flood
9 Sam Harrison
1 Marcos Ayerza
2 Rob Hawkins
3 Logovi'i Mulipola
4 Louis Deacon (c)
5 Graham Kitchener
6 Brett Deacon
7 Julian Salvi
8 Thomas Waldrom

Replacements
16 George Chuter
17 Boris Stankovich
18 Fraser Balmain
19 Ed Slater
20 Jordan Crane
21 Micky Young
22 George Ford
23 Matt Smith

Niall Morris and Castro injured. As expected Mafi not fit yet and Croft rested. More surprisingly we see Jordan Crane rested (to bench) as well.

Yes, Easter in 2nd row! Has Kohn come back from Wales injured?
Hopefully Lambert can deal with Maunipola

I think we are giving Burns game time

Match has sold out

Nick Easter in the second row, can anyone remember how he played there last time?

LT not a big surprise Crane is on the bench with Sarries next week when we will be without Waldrom. Seems a bit of wise squad rotation. Gutted Castro isn't fit.

Should be a good game this. The backrows will decide it though as the team with the most quick ball will take it.

Not the strongest front 5 for Quins in terms of power at the scrum and in the tight exchanges with Easter and Robson packing in the seconds, think Tigers will target that. On the flip side it does make the Quins pack pretty mobile so having a hard time predicting a winner. Will go with Quins as the home side but pure guess work there on my part.

It's a huge shame for me that this game has fallen inside the 6Ns.

Trust me... I will be delighted to take the 5 points

But both sides are missing so many players that it wont really be a true reflection of the teams. When you have a top two game like this you want the spectical of the big day, 1st choice XVs, full on.

Or is that just me?

Think Quins are looking to play as fast and loose as possible without Marler and Kohn in the side.

If we can just nail our precision and stop dropping the ball we might manage this, I'm optimistic but it all comes down to handling in the backs and which Nev turns up.

Interestingly I reckon Tigers have more first choice players in tomorrow's line-up than they had at the start of the season when only the 4Ns created injury absences:

http://www.leicestertigers.com/rugby/14973.php

(My full strength tigers team is : Tait, Morris, Manu, Allen, Thompstone, Flood, Youngs, crane, Salvi, Croft, Parling, Deacon, Cole, Youngs, Ayerza)

Yeah we really suffered in the second row at the start of the season and with Ayerza away for the first couple of months that was a loss.

Pretty good team we've got out but pur pack isn't the quickest.

Fast pack but suspect in the set piece v slow pack but solid in the set piece. Should be interesting.

yappysnap wrote:Think Quins are looking to play as fast and loose as possible without Marler and Kohn in the side.

If we can just nail our precision and stop dropping the ball we might manage this, I'm optimistic but it all comes down to handling in the backs and which Nev turns up.

nev isn't playing.

Will be interesting to see how this game plays out. Our area of weakness is tighthead and scrum half.

did danny care just blow a kiss to wayne barnes? hehe

hopper in the wars at the moment. gone down again.

i have a feeling this will be a good game.

Ayzer sold a Care dummy there.

Care has started like lightning!

Get in there Flood!!! intercept try!

7-0 to the tigers

Not the best of starts for us...

how is it very clever, they just lost the ball??

Barnes does make me laugh.

come on Tina Turner!

Toulouse, in the snow......

Yep. I think Quins fancy Tigers at scrumtime!

out of interest, what nationality is botica?

nathan wrote:out of interest, what nationality is botica?

Well he can't be from New Zealand

Botica has both British and kiwi Nationality but is only eligible to play for New Zealand as it stands.

HammerofThunor wrote:

nathan wrote:out of interest, what nationality is botica?

Well he can't be from New Zealand

eh?

nathan wrote:

HammerofThunor wrote:

nathan wrote:out of interest, what nationality is botica?

Well he can't be from New Zealand

eh?

Robson used "new zealander" to differentiate Evans from Botica. Botica was born in New Zealand. Robson kind of hesitated when he said it so I think he realised.

Good game this, better than the 'super' rugby rubbish I got up for this morning.

HammerofThunor wrote:

nathan wrote:

HammerofThunor wrote:

nathan wrote:out of interest, what nationality is botica?

Well he can't be from New Zealand

eh?

Robson used "new zealander" to differentiate Evans from Botica. Botica was born in New Zealand. Robson kind of hesitated when he said it so I think he realised.

i didn't hear any of that, it was just a question not related to what Robson said.

6-10 to tigers.

nathan wrote:

HammerofThunor wrote:

nathan wrote:

HammerofThunor wrote:

nathan wrote:out of interest, what nationality is botica?

Well he can't be from New Zealand

eh?

Robson used "new zealander" to differentiate Evans from Botica. Botica was born in New Zealand. Robson kind of hesitated when he said it so I think he realised.

i didn't hear any of that, it was just a question not related to what Robson said.

Oh.

As far as I'm aware he was born in New Zealand. Spent around 6 years in England when he was very young which is why he has a UK passport. But as already said he's not qualified for us at all. Not capped if it comes to that