Northampton vs Leicester - Sat 3.05pm

[FKAS]

Bench impact was key, Tigers bench offered next to nowt

You're right there - Saints could bring on some extra energy and quality in all 8 bench slots, whereas our changes all lowered our quality (with the exception of the props and possibly Cracknell). The beggar's muddle that occurred from bringing Bailey and O'Connor on, with neither of them looking sure who was supposed to be 10, was not a good decision.

I have to say that I haven't been impressed with what I've seen from Moro so far. At best, he seems exceedingly average and I'm not sure what his USP is meant to be yet.

Puja

Cracknell made a couple of bulldozing carries but when Saints started attacking at pace then he's lost because he didn't have the pace to keep up. It's the problem with the bench we selected Cracknell and Clare are great in a physical set piece game but we couldn't force Saints into that. Mainly because our line speed is pedestrian so it's easy to get momentum and to get the ball wide.

I was pretty disappointed with Haffar. He didn't really bring the mobile physicality we know he can nor did he make any inroads at scrum time. I've been more impressed with vdF this season off the bench. Haffar should be feeling the pressure. At least Hurd did well having to start at short notice.

Yeah agreed on Moro. He's not really shone more than a couple of flashes. He looks quick, strong with good footwork but he shows it so sporadically. Think he's a diamond that needs some polishing up. If Carnduff were fit I'd be hoping we'd go with him on the bench instead. At least Ilione looked good at 8, gives us some options.

The backline muddle didn't help. I think JOC was coming on for Searle when Kata had to come off so Bailey ended up going on. Instead of Wand shuffling into 12 it really would have been better to drop one of the flyhalfs to 15 and move Steward into 12. Would have given the backline a bit more balance. We did miss Woodward badly in the midfield mind, Searle is a neat 10 who kicks and orchestrates well but his running and passing game is limited, his lack of crossfield kicks still irritates me as his kick pass worked rather nicely. Last weekend Woodward's passing was used to find the width this weekend.

If Kata, Perese and Woodward are out next weekend I would move Steward to 12.

9. JvP, 10. Searle, 11. OHC, 12. Steward, 13. Wand, 14. Radwan, 15. JOC

Have JOC coming up and offering that second playmaker to get the ball wider. In defence we tend to drop the 10 back with the fullback but could easily just drop Steward back instead and keep Searle in the line. Given how meh the kicking from JOC and Bailey was out of hand we probably need to keep Searle in there.

[FKAS]

Did not watch this game. What's the position with Freeman? On another thread, somebody said he was injured.

Yeah he didnt look comfortable just before half time, got off down the tunnel quickly presumably to get some treatment then played about 3 mins of the second half before going off. Wasn't immediately obvious what the actual issue was, but hopefully not serious. With Hendy also going off in the first half and Furbank, Sleights and Ramm also out, our back 3 are getting pretty heavily depleted.

Yeah not sure what happened with Freeman in the first half but he seemed to be trying to play on when he really needed to come off. One of the first plays of the second half was him taking a high ball and then OHC as soon as he landed which I think only made things worse.

Hendy having done his best to simulate an injury for a fictional neck roll from the Tigers try, which the TMO checked in the background and promptly dismissed (hopefully we don't see this repeated), landed badly from another aerial contest a couple of mins later. That did look pretty nasty, it's always the innocuous ones that end up the worst. I do hope it's not as bad as it looked, Hendy has had no luck at all with injuries. He'd be knocking on the England door if he could stay fit for an extended period, though his work under the high ball does need work.