RugbyRebels

Leicester Tigers (v Bayonne, away, Saturday 9.00pm local/8.00pm UK time)

15 Kini Murimurivalu

14 Guy Porter

13 Jaco Taute (c)

12 Dan Kelly

11 Harry Simmons

10 Zack Henry

9 Ben White

1 Nephi Leatigaga

2 Charlie Clare

3 Joe Heyes

4 Cameron Henderson

5 Tomás Lavanini

6 Ollie Chessum

7 Tommy Reffell

8 Jordan Taufua

Replacements

16 James Whitcombe

17 Jake Kerr

18 Dan Cole

19 Harry Wells

20 Cyle Brink

21 Luke Wallace

22 Jack Van Poortvliet

23 Joaquín Díaz Bonilla

Bayonne: 15 Aymeric Luc, 14 Remy Baget, 13 Peyo Muscarditz (c), 12 Malietoa Hingano, 11 Arthur Duhau, 10 Maxime Lafage, 9 Hugo Zabalza; 1 Swan Cormenier, 2 Maxime Delonca, 3 Luc Mousset, 4 Hugh Pyle, 5 Guillaume Ducat, 6 Mariano Galarza, 7 Baptiste Heguy, 8 Filimo Taofifenua
Replacements: 16 John Ulugia, 17 Mathis Perchaud, 18 Sam Nixon, 19 Andrei Gorin, 20 Arnaud Duputs, 21 Michael Ruru, 22 Yan Lestrade, 23 Gaetan Germain

Great to see Whitcombe on the bench.

Yeah, Borthwick was effusive (for Borthwick) in his praise of Whitcombe after the game against Saracens. Jake Kerr is in the XXIII for the first time under Borthwick as well.

I think this is a sensible selection. Rest the England and our core players, give a bit more experience to the fringe players, get everyone ready for the important Newcastle game.

Puja

I'm pleased with the squad rotation. Really didn't want to see us throw out the first team for another intense game with three big Prem games, all of which are winnable in the next three weeks.

Whitcombe has clearly impressed Borthwick which is exciting as he's a young lad that seems to have a big future. JVP seems to be another who Borthwick rates so good to see him get more game time.

Side has a good mix of youth and experience. Hopefully they can pull a result out the bag. Any points to try and get us into the next round will be good.

Leicester win 20-28. The kids are all right, it seems. That's going to be a big boost to morale going back into Prem action.

Puja

Iffy ref, three yellow cards yet we outscore them 3 tries to 2 and leave them with no LBP away in France. Great result. Must have been half a dozen turnovers on our own line, fantastic defence. Old school Tigers spirit. Some young lads putting in a good showing and nice to see the very young Whitcombe get his first game, he's a unit and looks to have a big future ahead of him.

I think we had National League 2 North and South's young players of the year for last season on the pitch at the final whistle. Who says the lower leagues don't help players develop.

How's Henderson getting on? Definitely getting more game time than I expected.

Cameo wrote:How's Henderson getting on? Definitely getting more game time than I expected.

He's developing nicely. Very much think we've got the makings of a long term high quality lock pairing in Martin and Henderson. Martin is unfortunately injured after giving one of the best debuts I've seen from an academy player in a weakened team.

Henderson carries well and seems decent at the set piece. Needs to be a bit more horrible and dominant in defence but those things will come as he develops physically and gains experience. He's signed a three year deal with the development team for the first two years and then the third year with the first team so I'd expect to see the club keep advancing him. Similar with Dan Kelly the young centre who's being drip fed into the team at only 19.

Quite solid highlights here:


Looks like we profited quite a bit from Bayonne being rubbish (those "tackles" on Henry for the first try ), although one cannot sniff at any victory in France, especially with a weakened and inexperienced team. The main benefit of that win is going to be confidence for the squad as a whole, I think.

Puja

Did Bayonne merge with Biarritz or something stone stage?

Mr Mwenda wrote:Did Bayonne merge with Biarritz or something stone stage?

No, although it would've made a load of sense, but there's too much pride in each club and too many old farts who can't see further than the end of their noses.