Tigers Vs Edinburgh - Friday 8pm

[FKAS]

STARTING XV
15 Freddie Steward [68]
14 Anthony Watson [12]
13 Guy Porter [56]
12 Jimmy Gopperth [13]
11 Harry Potter [62]
10 Handré Pollard [10]
9 Jack van Poortvliet [61]
1 James Cronin [12]
2 Julián Montoya (c) [39]
3 Dan Cole [305]
4 George Martin [54]
5 Cameron Henderson [32]
6 Hanro Liebenberg [80]
7 Tommy Reffell [95]
8 Olly Cracknell [20]

REPLACEMENTS
16 Charlie Clare [74]
17 Tom West [6]
18 Joe Heyes [119]
19 Eli Snyman [31]
20 Jasper Wiese [56]
21 Sam Wolstenholme *
22 Charlie Atkinson [14]
23 Dan Kelly [51]

* Leicester Tigers debut

Resting a couple of players in Youngs and Brown. Roaring at prop and 8. All makes sense. Really good to see Porter and Kelly back, timely as well.

15. Emiliano Boffelli (28)

14. Darcy Graham (57)
13. Mark Bennett (85)
12. James Lang (36)
11. Duhan van der Merwe (72)

10. Blair Kinghorn (131)
9. Henry Pyrgos (81)

1. Pierre Schoeman (95)
2. Stuart McInally (174)
3. WP Nel (185)
4. Sam Skinner (11)
5. Grant Gilchrist (187) Co-captain
6. Jamie Ritchie (95) Co-captain
7. Hamish Watson (137)
8. Viliame Mata (113)

Replacements

16. Dave Cherry (68)
17. Boan Venter (43)
18. Luan de Bruin (19)
19. Marshall Sykes (39)
20. Luke Crosbie (83)
21. Ben Vellacott (36)
22. Cammy Hutchison (18)
23. Damien Hoyland (104)

Hamish Watson returns to Welford Road, first time since his release from the academy?

[fivepointer]

Thats a strong looking Edinburgh side.
Should be a close fought tussle as Tigers are on a good run. Pleasing to see Kelly back.

[FKAS]

Yeah I know Edinburgh have been in some iffy form recently but they are a damn good side and made Sarries work hard earlier in the competition. This won't be an easy game.

[Oakboy]

Why are there so many empty seats?

[FKAS]

Why are there so many empty seats?

Easter holidays, Friday night and it's on TV.

[FKAS]

I'm surprised the offside penalty wasn't looked at there. Two on two on the outside and the Edinburgh player pinged is miles off and shuts it down. Could have been yellow.

[Oakboy]

JVP is disappointing. He is slow and indecisive. With Pollard at 10 that seems odd.

[FKAS]

He does seem to be struggling in the conditions, doesn't seem to be in the same wavelength as those around him. His kicking has been good but it's weird when Pollard is the more attacking of the two halfbacks.

Error strewn dogfight so far, Weise likely to be on for the second half which should hopefully tip the scales in Tigers favour. I'm unsure how Edinburgh have kept 15 on the field so far.

[Oakboy]

He does seem to be struggling in the conditions, doesn't seem to be in the same wavelength as those around him. His kicking has been good but it's weird when Pollard is the more attacking of the two halfbacks.

Error strewn dogfight so far, Weise likely to be on for the second half which should hopefully tip the scales in Tigers favour. I'm unsure how Edinburgh have kept 15 on the field so far.

Are French refs generally slower to flash yelliw cards?

[FKAS]

He does seem to be struggling in the conditions, doesn't seem to be in the same wavelength as those around him. His kicking has been good but it's weird when Pollard is the more attacking of the two halfbacks.

Error strewn dogfight so far, Weise likely to be on for the second half which should hopefully tip the scales in Tigers favour. I'm unsure how Edinburgh have kept 15 on the field so far.

Are French refs generally slower to flash yelliw cards?

Raynal tends to be quite forgiving as long as you don't annoy him.

[FKAS]

If he's stayed in then what a try that is by Weise.

[TheNomad]

JVP is disappointing. He is slow and indecisive.

That’s how I’d have described his 6Ns

Still has loads of development IMO

Mitchell and (if fit) Quirke are better I reckon

[FKAS]

JVP is disappointing. He is slow and indecisive.

That’s how I’d have described his 6Ns

Still has loads of development IMO

Mitchell and (if fit) Quirke are better I reckon

Mitchell has done alright off the bench. He's a bit to liable for an error and has iffy game management to be a starter.

Be interesting to see how Quirke goes to the summer. On form he's great but his form back from injury hasn't been his best, obviously coming back from injury it isn't likely to be.

JVP probably just need to get some confidence back. He got no protection from the England forwards.

[FKAS]

Great to see Kelly back, there's so much more confidence in our attack when he's at 12.

Weise is just a touch of class.

[Puja]

JVP is disappointing. He is slow and indecisive.

That’s how I’d have described his 6Ns

Still has loads of development IMO

Mitchell and (if fit) Quirke are better I reckon

That's the nub of it. He was picked way too early for England for the Australia series and the fact that he did so well made everyone forget just how new he is to adult rugby. Lots to learn and I'm not too unhappy with his progress so far.

Decent win in terrible conditions. Took a while to adapt to the pressure that Edinburgh put on them (both legal and extralegal - superbly annoyingly niggly bastards!), but a young team (plus their granddad Jimmy) dug out a result. I think we'll get solidly murdered in the next round, but there's a good team developing here and I'm looking forward to what a proper coaching team under McKellar can do with them next year.

Puja

[Puja]

Also, a special note of "thanks" to Raynal, who got really het up with a different lineout law at each lineout and then never enforced it again. Really helped the viewing experience.

Puja

[FKAS]

JVP is disappointing. He is slow and indecisive.

That’s how I’d have described his 6Ns

Still has loads of development IMO

Mitchell and (if fit) Quirke are better I reckon

That's the nub of it. He was picked way too early for England for the Australia series and the fact that he did so well made everyone forget just how new he is to adult rugby. Lots to learn and I'm not too unhappy with his progress so far.

Decent win in terrible conditions. Took a while to adapt to the pressure that Edinburgh put on them (both legal and extralegal - superbly annoyingly niggly bastards!), but a young team (plus their granddad Jimmy) dug out a result. I think we'll get solidly murdered in the next round, but there's a good team developing here and I'm looking forward to what a proper coaching team under McKellar can do with them next year.

Puja

He struggled to get it going on attack but his tactical game was superb. Pyrgos was made to look like the rookie of the two and Hess 33 with nearly 30 Scotland caps.

I think a lot of it is confidence with him, he's been thrown in the deep end early and he's under a lot of pressure. Hopefully the experience he's getting will make him a better player, he's been steadily improving since he came into the side.

[stepsider]

Raynal is real Russian roulette, you never know what he's going to produce next.

[Spiffy]

Great to see Kelly back, there's so much more confidence in our attack when he's at 12.

Weise is just a touch of class.

Wiese is not the biggest of blokes, and he looks beefy rather than athletic, but he's probably the best ball carrier in the league, and never seems to have a poor game.

[Danno]

Only Raynal could award this

[FKAS]

Great to see Kelly back, there's so much more confidence in our attack when he's at 12.

Weise is just a touch of class.

Wiese is not the biggest of blokes, and he looks beefy rather than athletic, but he's probably the best ball carrier in the league, and never seems to have a poor game.

He isn't the biggest bloke but the explosive way he carries and the fact he's so relentless makes him so valuable. Bit of a blunt instrument, no offloading game etc.

There was a stat I saw the other day that showed he was the top carrier in the Prem for the last 5 rounds. Got to love that workrate.

Couple of turnovers as well last night.

[FKAS]

Only Raynal could award this

It was checked from all angles at the time but was clearly all good.

[Oakboy]

That’s how I’d have described his 6Ns

Still has loads of development IMO

Mitchell and (if fit) Quirke are better I reckon

That's the nub of it. He was picked way too early for England for the Australia series and the fact that he did so well made everyone forget just how new he is to adult rugby. Lots to learn and I'm not too unhappy with his progress so far.

Decent win in terrible conditions. Took a while to adapt to the pressure that Edinburgh put on them (both legal and extralegal - superbly annoyingly niggly bastards!), but a young team (plus their granddad Jimmy) dug out a result. I think we'll get solidly murdered in the next round, but there's a good team developing here and I'm looking forward to what a proper coaching team under McKellar can do with them next year.

Puja

He struggled to get it going on attack but his tactical game was superb. Pyrgos was made to look like the rookie of the two and Hess 33 with nearly 30 Scotland caps.

I think a lot of it is confidence with him, he's been thrown in the deep end early and he's under a lot of pressure. Hopefully the experience he's getting will make him a better player, he's been steadily improving since he came into the side.

I really hope JVP finds his feet again. He has all the physical attributes and basic skill levels to be an outstanding intenational SH. I don't care if he makes the odd mistake, gets carried away occasionally or picks the wrong option now and again. All that is reasonable within his experience stage.

What I am concerned about is his dithering. That comes out in instances of not making quick decisions and then not taking quick action. Why? It's easy to blame the forwards but IF they are not deliveting perfect ball a SH surely needs to speed up his thinking and his delivery, not slow it down. We cannot know what his coaches for club and country are telling him but I suggest there could be something awry in his mental approach if the same criticism applies to his game in both spheres.

Yes, it might be a confidence factor but that adds its own worries. SHs need to be feisty, brash and mouthy. They need to love the challenge at the brink. The joy of daring the opposition to 'wonder what I am going to do next' has to be integral. I don't know anything about JVP in terms of personality/character. Hopefully, he has got what it takes in brain and heart and it is a temporary blip.

[FKAS]

Whilst generally speaking I would like to see him get back to playing at a higher tempo I would say that last night I wasn't particularly bothered about it. The conditions were rubbish and when Edinburgh went quick the knocked it on. There were plenty of handling errors in the wet weather without JVP forcing it. His tactical game was a large part in Tigers winning.

With the weather improving though I'd hope we'd get back to the sniping and cheeky offloads that he brought when he came through. Last night playing to the conditions was fine but we'll need more tempo will be required.