London Irish Vs Leicester Tigers - Sunday Afternoon

[FKAS]

Leicester Tigers (v London Irish, away, Sunday 4.15pm)

15 Freddie Steward

14 Kobus van Wyk

13 Jaco Taute

12 Matt Scott

11 Harry Potter

10 Zack Henry

9 Richard Wigglesworth

1 Ryan Bower

2 Tom Youngs (c)

3 Dan Cole

4 Harry Wells

5 Calum Green

6 Hanro Liebenberg

7 Cyle Brink

8 Jasper Wiese

Replacements

16 Charlie Clare

17 Nephi Leatigaga

18 Joe Heyes

19 Tommy Reffell

20 Jordan Taufua

21 Ben White

22 Joaquín Díaz Bonilla

23 Guy Porter

London Irish: 15 Tom Homer, 14 Ben Loader, 13 Curtis Rona, 12 Billy Meakes, 11 Ollie Hassell-Collins, 10 Paddy Jackson, 9 Ben Meehan, 1 Allan Dell, 2 Agustin Creevy, 3 Sekope Kepu, 4 George Nott, 5 Andrei Mahu, 6 Seán O’Brien, 7 Blair Cowan, 8 Matt Rogerson (c)

Replacements: 16 Motu Matu’u, 17 Harry Elrington, 18 Ollie Hoskins, 19 Chunya Munga, 20 Steve Mafi, 21 Nick Phipps, 22 Theo Brophy Clews, 23 Tom Parton

First game at the new Brentford Stadium for LI. There's a lot of speed in that LI team which has tended to test the Tigers defence previously. Tigers have named a pretty massive backrow so will be looking to dominate up front. Kepu Vs journeyman Bower will be a key battle in the scrum where both sides will want dominance. Outside of Steve Mafi the LI bench doesn't look that great whereas Tigers will feel pretty confident with the potential impact available as bodies tire.

[Banquo]

Nick Phipps looks a decent bench option

[fivepointer]

Can Tigers follow up last weeks good win? Irish have enough good individual players to pose a decent challenge.

[Tigersman]

It's a good Irish team
Loader, Rona, Hassell-Collins are a lot faster than any of the backs Gloucester had out and fast backs have been Tigers biggest downfall.
If O'Brien has got his cobwebs out of his system him and Cowan can also cause more problems at the breakdown compared to the Gloucester flanks.

Bookies have them as favourites for a reason.

[Peej]

I see Tigers taking this. I think confidence is back, players are in better form. Irish were pretty terrible against Worcester last time out.

[FKAS]

Scrappy game. Not helped by some awful officiating.

LI put a try over after the first time any team goes through anything like a number of phases. Position on the field came from a shocking decision by the ref mind.

Van Wyk's earlier yellow card an act of absolute stupidity.

[Scrumhead]

Curtis Rona is having a great game.

Is van Wyler injured or was he just yanked for a shocking 35mins (25 if you take away his sin bin)?

[Puja]

We spent 30-odd minutes of that half actively avoiding participating in a rugby match. When we decided to do something other than kicking practice, we looked quite decent.

I don't get the fad for giving the ball away. If you have a defence and a back row as superb as England's are, then it's a viable, if awful, tactic. If you're not dominant in those two areas, then you are removing any chance of scoring points except through the hope of an opposition mistake.

Puja

[FKAS]

The percentage game is ok, I don't mind the principle of don't play in your own half but the don't play in the opposition half does baffle me. We don't have the brutal efficiency to make that level of negativity work.

We've got to take the ref out of the game because he's having a shocker. Running one off runners in contact where LI go straight off their feet then look at the ref doesn't work. They either being told to roll away or given the penalty. We've got to go in twos and threes and just smash them. Start using our size to bully them. Oh and replace Bower with Leatigaga to try and sort the scrum out plus an extra ball carrier won't hurt.

[Puja]

Bonilla's had a good start. Passes to nobody to give away great attacking ball, then chases back to cover the kick through and fumbles forwards to Irish under no pressure at all.

Puja

[Mikey Brown]

Wigglesworth so lazy with the quality of his passing in those few phases.

[FKAS]

Thankfully the other half time sub has worked out better Taufua looking all action.

[Scrumhead]

Taufua has looked good.

Interesting camera shot of Mafi’s single green glove a la Michael Jackson.

[Puja]

Bonilla continuing to impress. Two missed touches from penalties and a scuffed kickoff.

I can't believe we're this far down given the number of penalties we've been given.

Puja

[FKAS]

LI were very lucky not to have a yellow card at the point they were conceding a penalty every other minute.

Bonilla has been dreadful. I don't understand why Steward isn't kicking too touch. I think every kick from his 22 has found touch in the LI half of the pitch. The kid has got an absolute cannon of a boot.

[FKAS]

LI told twice in the same half, next man goes. Ref was shocking. The only thing worse has been the Tigers attack.

Can't believe they are giving that piece of crap Jackson the MOTM either. Blair Cowan was easily LI's best player and MOTM for me.

Borthwick needs to get a grip on the Tigers lineout as that just wasn't good enough and if Clare is going to play that many minutes he needs to be nailing that as the basics are what he brings.

[fivepointer]

Just when you thought Newcastle-Sale on Friday night plumbed the depths along jogs this monstrosity.

That was utterly wretched from both sides, who both seemed to be playing in a strange kind of slow motion, not helped by innumerable stoppages and scrum engagements conducted at a snails pace.

Irish deserved the win by dint of being a little less useless than Tigers and being able to put a couple of passes together to score a try.

Come on Pro rugby. We've got to be better than this.

[Oakboy]

Just when you thought Newcastle-Sale on Friday night plumbed the depths along jogs this monstrosity.

That was utterly wretched from both sides, who both seemed to be playing in a strange kind of slow motion, not helped by innumerable stoppages and scrum engagements conducted at a snails pace.

Irish deserved the win by dint of being a little less useless than Tigers and being able to put a couple of passes together to score a try.

Come on Pro rugby. We've got to be better than this.

Agreed. Leicester being relegation fodder is horrendous for English rugby - proper club, proper owned stadium etc. I want Borthwick to succeed for the club's sake but I don't think he will.

[FKAS]

I actually think the recruitment and Borthwick are both moving us in the right direction. Unfortunately year of neglect is going to take some time to overcome. Borthwick is already looking older than when he took the job on.

We are missing Genge, Mamukashvilli, Youngs, Ford, Nadolo and Murimurivalu at present. That's quite a lot of attacking intent. Hopefully we can get them back in and firing soon. The Fijian lads should be desperate to play. In the mean time we've got a thrashing at the hands of Exeter to look forward to.

[Epaminondas Pules]

Well that was.....erm....ace. Steward was excellent. I’ll stick to the positives so that’s it.

[Epaminondas Pules]

Just when you thought Newcastle-Sale on Friday night plumbed the depths along jogs this monstrosity.

That was utterly wretched from both sides, who both seemed to be playing in a strange kind of slow motion, not helped by innumerable stoppages and scrum engagements conducted at a snails pace.

Irish deserved the win by dint of being a little less useless than Tigers and being able to put a couple of passes together to score a try.

Come on Pro rugby. We've got to be better than this.

Agreed. Leicester being relegation fodder is horrendous for English rugby - proper club, proper owned stadium etc. I want Borthwick to succeed for the club's sake but I don't think he will.

Why is it? We are shite, we’ve declined quite obviously into shite over a number of years, its had zero impact on the overall game.

[FKAS]

Well that was.....erm....ace. Steward was excellent. I’ll stick to the positives so that’s it.

Steward looks like a future international. His positioning, work under the high ball, kicking from hand and defence were top. Want to see a bit more in attack from him instead of just glimpses. Certainly impressed by his ability to take a mark and then kick to touch inside the LI half from every marked kick in the game. That's the kind of solid basics you want and I'm sure Eddie will be watching and smiling. I just wish we'd let him take the penalty kicks to touch, he's got an absolute cannon of a boot.

Liebenburg played pretty well also. Very busy in attack and defence. Just erred with a couple of penalties. Taufua look excellent. Hopefully see a proper openside at 7 next week and then Brink as bench impact at 6 or 8. Was a selection error not to start Reffell could have used his breakdown skills in the first half.

[Mikey Brown]

Is Wallace still there?

[FKAS]

Is Wallace still there?

Yes but unsure if he's available or not. Borthwick has taken the stance that journalists get ask all they like but he won't discuss fitness or availability of players. Wallace played really well after joining in post lockdown. We just have good depth at backrow at the minute and our young talented openside Reffell started last week and I don't think got off the bench this week (if he did it was only for a short time). If Wallace is fit he might get a go in the European away games.

[Mellsblue]

if Clare is going to play that many minutes he needs to be nailing that as the basics are what he brings.

Having watched him numerous times for Bedford, that’s never going to happen.