Tigers Vs Quins - Sat 15.05

[FKAS]

Leicester Tigers (appearances in brackets)
1 Nicky Smith (26)
2 Charlie Clare (126)
3 Joe Heyes (164)
4 Cameron Henderson (66)
5 Ollie Chessum (Captain, 68)
6 Joaquin Moro (3)
7 Emeka Ilione (50)
8 Olly Cracknell (68)
9 Jack van Poortvliet (97)
10 Orlando Bailey (2)
11 Ollie Hassell Collins (50)
12 Joseph Woodward (36)
13 Solomone Kata (45)
14 Adam Radwan (13)
15 Freddie Steward (112)
16 Jamie Blamire (2)
17 Archie van der Flier (5)
18 Will Hurd (52)
19 James Thompson (2)
20 Tommy Reffell (137)
21 Tom Whiteley (43)
22 Billy Searle (2)
23 Will Wand (14)

Big Ches is back!

Quins
TBC

[charlesdeboeuf]

Will be on the terrace for this one. Excited to see how van der Flier gets on in a PREM™ game.

It's a shame that Josh Manz has dropped out, but can't have it all!

[FKAS]

Yeah good to see vdF get a go, unfortunately it probably means Haffar is injured which is a shame.

I'd have quite liked to see Josh Manz get a go at 6 for Tigers so we had dual breakdown threats but still a third lineout option. Keep Moro on the bench with Reffell for impact. Would have probably left us too light at lock though if it's a close game Chessum and Henderson might well play the full 80 as there's a significant drop off from them to Thompson.

[Puja]

We've got special dispensation to bring Chessum back early, on the basis that he was injured for half of last season and only played 16 games. While we definitely need him right now with our injury problems, I hope we do find time to give him a rest later in the season. The fact that he's been so injury-prone is surely a sign that he should maybe have *more* recuperation time, rather than less!

Puja

[FKAS]

Interesting that Tigers took the team sheet down about an hour or so after naming the side. Someone maybe went a bit early with the announcement.

[FKAS]

STARTING XV:
15. Tyrone Green (96)
14. Nick David (75)
13. Oscar Beard (78)
12. Jamie Benson (25)
11. Cassius Cleaves (15)
10. Jarrod Evans (36)
9. Will Porter (45)
1. Fin Baxter (71)
2. Jack Walker (92)
3. Harry Williams (2)
4. Chandler Cunningham-South (32)
5. Kieran Treadwell (8)
6. Jack Kenningham (75)
7. Will Evans (117)
8. Alex Dombrandt (C) (158)

IMPACT PLAYERS:

16. Sam Riley (70)
17. Simon Kerrod (123)
18. Titi Lamositele (21)
19. Jonny Green (12)
20. Zach Carr (10)
21. Max Green (12)
22. Sean Kerr (11)
23. Cameron Anderson (19)

Unavailable for selection: Ethan Clarke, Matt Woollard, Lucas Friday, James Chisholm, Stu Townsend, Stephan Lewies, Ben Waghorn, Will Hobson, Lucas Schmid, Joe Launchbury, Luke Northmore, Bryn Bradley, Cadan Murley, Pedro Delgado, Guido Petti, Rodrigo Isgro, Boris Wenger, Marcus Smith

[Stom]

It's going to be a real struggle this season...that many injuries already and when we lose 95% of the games Jarrod plays, too...

sigh.

[Danno]

Yeah it's a grim start and I don't see it getting any better. I assume Marcus is just on his mandated rest post-lions?

[Scrumhead]

It's going to be a real struggle this season...that many injuries already and when we lose 95% of the games Jarrod plays, too...

sigh.

They’re not all injuries. Marcus, Petti and Isgró are for international duty. Not sure about Wenger? Possibly him too. Marcus should be due back next week.

Apparently Murley’s absence is a precaution which is sensible if he’s a doubt.

Personally I was quite encouraged by the Bath game. We were well in the game until the massive disparity between their bench and ours decided the game.

I’d give us a decent chance today vs. Tigers and if Marcus and Murley are back, I’d like us to have a good crack at Saracens,

[Oakboy]

Surprised to see empty seats at one end.

OHC did well to take that ball from Chessum for the try - not exactly a sympathetic pass.

[FKAS]

Talk about a game of two halves. Wind played a huge factor.

Young Archie van der Flier was fantastic off the bench. Turned the scrum battle and offered a front row forward able to pop some passes instead of just rumbling into contact. Big first Prem outing for him.

Tigers backline looks decent this season but their forwards are a bit more hit and miss. Much better physically this week, though not perfect, but in attack there's got to be some variation. Geez were they stodgy. Did improve in the second half when Ilione moved to 8, Moro started carrying in the wider channels though.

Quins played it clever, took their chances when points were on offer. Never really threatened the Tigers line that much. Always looked more dangerous on the break than in phase play. Given the number of backs to come back for them that's probably not a surprise.

Oakboy, Welford Road doesn't always sell out. Games Vs Bath and Saints yeah it'll be packed otherwise it's normally over 20k but you can still get tickets (normally the cheapest and most expensive seats leftover).

[Puja]

Tigers backline looks decent this season but their forwards are a bit more hit and miss. Much better physically this week, though not perfect, but in attack there's got to be some variation. Geez were they stodgy. Did improve in the second half when Ilione moved to 8, Moro started carrying in the wider channels though.

Our clearout work and ball presentation was shocking (albeit not helped by the ref allowing Quins to cheat like utter bastards and slow down every bit of ball) - lost count of the number of times that we lost momentum because JvP had to dig the ball out of a mess. Moro improved dramatically in the last quarter of the game, but by gods, did he owe us that improvement considering the tyre fire that his first 50-odd minutes were.

Puja

[Danno]

Bit of an odd watch, that. You'd expect (and I expected) a Tigers side to absolutely dominate in those conditions, yet we kept then scoreless. But whatever was said at half time clearly worked.

[Puja]

Bit of an odd watch, that. You'd expect (and I expected) a Tigers side to absolutely dominate in those conditions, yet we kept then scoreless. But whatever was said at half time clearly worked.

In fairness, I believe that we were also a large part of keeping ourselves scoreless in the first half. We did excellently in defending your line from our attacks.

Puja

[Epaminondas Pules]

Bit of an odd watch, that. You'd expect (and I expected) a Tigers side to absolutely dominate in those conditions, yet we kept then scoreless. But whatever was said at half time clearly worked.

In fairness, I believe that we were also a large part of keeping ourselves scoreless in the first half. We did excellently in defending your line from our attacks.

Puja

The attack, if you can all it that, was mind blowingly bad. Made all the more frustrating as our first go ball in hand Woody took a lovely outside arc and it looked like we had some attacking intent. From there it went to rat shit! Looks like Hewat has never coached attack to me!

[FKAS]

Bit of an odd watch, that. You'd expect (and I expected) a Tigers side to absolutely dominate in those conditions, yet we kept then scoreless. But whatever was said at half time clearly worked.

In fairness, I believe that we were also a large part of keeping ourselves scoreless in the first half. We did excellently in defending your line from our attacks.

Puja

The attack, if you can all it that, was mind blowingly bad. Made all the more frustrating as our first go ball in hand Woody took a lovely outside arc and it looked like we had some attacking intent. From there it went to rat shit! Looks like Hewat has never coached attack to me!

It looked good when we gave the backs some space in the first half, some lovely Woodward long passes as well as the nice outside break. The forwards attack was fucking dire. Once Quins bottled us up there we went nowhere. Backs faltered without any momentum to work with. Hewat and Parling really need to get a grip of this forward pack because they've managed about 35 mins of decent rugby across 160 mins so far this season.

[FKAS]

Tigers backline looks decent this season but their forwards are a bit more hit and miss. Much better physically this week, though not perfect, but in attack there's got to be some variation. Geez were they stodgy. Did improve in the second half when Ilione moved to 8, Moro started carrying in the wider channels though.

Our clearout work and ball presentation was shocking (albeit not helped by the ref allowing Quins to cheat like utter bastards and slow down every bit of ball) - lost count of the number of times that we lost momentum because JvP had to dig the ball out of a mess. Moro improved dramatically in the last quarter of the game, but by gods, did he owe us that improvement considering the tyre fire that his first 50-odd minutes were.

Puja

Yeah Moro was woeful at times. Fell off tackles, dropped the ball and dropped the lineout onto Ilione's head. Bit of a learning curve for him.

I think we'd have got a lot more out of Smales at the breakdown if JvP hadn't been waving his arms and complaining from minute one. It was like Smales didn't want to reward JvP's whining. Which is fair enough. Chessum needs to change his tone as well, he came across to aggressive and not to be out done Dombrandt made sure he got told off for whinging as well. Wasn't a great look from three England internationals.

Good call on the ball presentation. We certainly aren't making our own lives easy.

[Captainhaircut]

There was a point in the second half when I think it was 10 penalties in a row for Leicester. Chessum was definitely testy with the ref but there’s an argument to say it worked as the game went on. I think Kay made the point that you need to tailor how you communicate depending on the ref and whether you are at home.

I don’t think it was particularly planned from Chessum though so he’ll need to really refine that as most refs would have went much harder on him.

[FKAS]

There was a point in the second half when I think it was 10 penalties in a row for Leicester. Chessum was definitely testy with the ref but there’s an argument to say it worked as the game went on. I think Kay made the point that you need to tailor how you communicate depending on the ref and whether you are at home.

I don’t think it was particularly planned from Chessum though so he’ll need to really refine that as most refs would have went much harder on him.

Yeah with the crowd increasingly on the refs back the feisty increase of pressure from Chessum didn't hurt like it did in the first half. The physical momentum of game had fully swung by that point though. Quins were on the back foot and with Dombrandt's own complaining, amongst others getting on Smale's nerves as well they weren't getting the benefit of the doubt they were getting in the first half.

Change at prop was huge as that gave Tigers scrum pens and turned the screw.

No issue with the captain applying a bit of pressure to the ref, barking things at him is not the delivery. Especially at home when the WR crowd is about as vocally one eyed as you'll find anywhere. Let them boo and bark, you just keep applying pressure in a measured and calm fashion. Hard for the ref to tell you to go away if everything you say is said calmly. At one point Smales had to tell the water carrier to shut up whilst Searle was lining up a conversion, that's too much.

Tigers need to get on the refs side a bit quicker. They got nothing last weekend away at Bristol either, Woodthorpe hasn't exactly enjoyed a good start to the season though.

[fivepointer]

Dealing with refs is quite a skill. Not always easy to remain calm and diplomatic in the heat of battle.

Thought Chessum's play was first rate and a major reason for Tigers pulling it back.

[charlesdeboeuf]

Really impressed with AvdF's performance off the bench. Was quite surprised he was brought on so early but proved it was the right idea.

Slightly concerened that, with Smith being first choice, one of Haffar or AvdF will miss out each week - with both at 23 they really need to be playing as regularly as possible.

[FKAS]

Really impressed with AvdF's performance off the bench. Was quite surprised he was brought on so early but proved it was the right idea.

Slightly concerened that, with Smith being first choice, one of Haffar or AvdF will miss out each week - with both at 23 they really need to be playing as regularly as possible.

Yeah it was quite a statement performance, I think they'll be plenty of opportunity for both to get minutes this season. Cronin and Whitcombe got 16 and 17 appearances last season with Smith a mainstay over the course of the season.

Be interesting to see if young Archie can back that performance up again next week.