Tiger vs L.Irish post match.

Darc Tiger · Post by **Darc Tiger** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 4:44 pm

No complaints about any of our guys. You cant argue with 5 points.

Rabeni seems back on form.
Humphs was good despite the wind.
Laussucq was lively so new halfback partnership methinks.
Mauger is getting better with each game and had a solid match, aiding with good kicks.

Your thoughts

TTRITH · Post by **TTRITH** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 4:50 pm

same as you rele.

We need to sort out conceding penalties though.

methinks the side showed we can do w/o Corry today, as i feel he would have gone for goal for some of the times we went to the corner, scrum etc. Louis deacon sounds like a v good skipper as long as he stays in form, i dont see why he cant be the replacement skipper.

Darc Tiger · Post by **Darc Tiger** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 4:53 pm

Well coz of the wind. All kicking was mad very difficult, even if delon armitage didnt seem much effected, so desicions to not kick for posts are understandable.

Ze Stade Fan · Post by **Ze Stade Fan** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 4:54 pm

Pub full of Wasps, couldn't see the game... BTW, Wasps (whom are said to be despicable, dismal failures, sub-human etc...) diplayed great quality during two-thirds of the show. Impressive, truly.

TTRITH · Post by **TTRITH** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 4:54 pm

i'm praising the choice lol!

I prefer going for corner, espec when we need the bonus point. Cozza doesnt seem to do that.

Darc Tiger · Post by **Darc Tiger** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 4:56 pm

Garrgh!!! You had to ruin the thread by talkin about "how good ruddy wasps were" didnt u stade fan!!

I'll overlook it this time only!

Timnh · Post by **Timnh** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 5:04 pm

I still think that the kicking was appauling, There was still 3 out of 4 conversions missed, and you can not still say that Goode does not deserve to be playing. As to say the wind played a factor is the exact same excuse that could have been said on sunday.

If Sale and Leicster had scored all thier kicks then we would still have lost by 2 points.

G.K · Post by **G.K** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 5:06 pm

Only heard the match which always makes it hard to judge and 5 points is always a good result but..

Seem to be still giving away too many silly penalties.

Don't seem to have much of a game plan if our forwards can't bully their way through.

The CL sounded like he did a decent job, can't understand why he didn't start before now and IH seems to have done enough to at least get Goody on the practice range.

Thoughts from those that saw it??

Moose · Post by **Moose** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 5:19 pm

Not convinced that Rabeni's back to his best....still a bit one dimensional, tho he took his try well, and generally made sure he had support when going into contact.

Lassuq and Humphreys played pretty well i felt. Forwards in general went well (was going to name names, but realised i'd be naming pretty much the whole pack), albeit with a few stupid penalties - that said i didn't think Spreaders had a great day a t the office, not so much in terms of duff calls (tho there were a couple) but rather in terms of incosistency, notably in terms of offside and amount of advantage played. I'm gutted for TV who would have scored, had Spreadbury not blown up to give us a penalty...the mind boggles!

brooksey101 · Post by **brooksey101** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 5:41 pm

From what i heard it seemed a good team performance without the normal 1st team starters.
Good to see the strength in depth that we have in the squad.
Glad we got the 5 points!

sammy · Post by **sammy** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 5:56 pm

Five points is five points, but boy did we make it hard.

As ever we gave away too many silly penalties, that's something that needs to be sorted. Irish are an average side yet we almost gave them the game on a plate.

Laussucq was ok, not the sharpest but solid enough. Not as good as Frank, but what do I know, I only played nine for ten years. Humph looked pretty sharp, his kicking was occasionally superb, sometimes dire, but he has great hands and he is very quick. Probably deserving of another chance.

Up front Davies looked very average, Kayser made a real difference when he came on. Crofty looked great as ever, as did Jordan Crane, Brett Deacon was a bit anonymous, but I guess someone's got to do the donkey work.

Mauger is improving, he showed flashes of brilliance today, I feel there's plenty to come.

Stu_F · Post by **Stu_F** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 6:28 pm

Moose wrote:Not convinced that Rabeni's back to his best....still a bit one dimensional, tho he took his try well, and generally made sure he had support when going into contact.

Lassuq and Humphreys played pretty well i felt. Forwards in general went well (was going to name names, but realised i'd be naming pretty much the whole pack), albeit with a few stupid penalties - that said i didn't think Spreaders had a great day a t the office, not so much in terms of duff calls (tho there were a couple) but rather in terms of incosistency, notably in terms of offside and amount of advantage played. I'm gutted for TV who would have scored, had Spreadbury not blown up to give us a penalty...the mind boggles!

Firstly Mr Spreadbury blew for a penalty when TV had a free run to the line because we'd knocked on in midfield before Tom got the ball, aggravating but exactly the right decision!

Secondly, I've noticed this recently, why do we give the ball to Rabeni as a first receiver when he's stationary? give him the ball when he's already got momentum up and he can be deadly (as Fiji showed in the World Cup), give him the ball when he's standing still and, yes he'll hold it up so we can recycle it, but it doesn't seem the best use of his abilities.

I thought we were very ordinary today and were pretty fortunate that the Irish lineout didn't function well since they've historically been best in the League regularly getting 100% of their own ball and if they'd done that we'd really have been under pressure!

Moose · Post by **Moose** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 6:48 pm

Fair enough on the knock on/penalty call.

As for Rabeni, yep, probably doesn't help that he's taking it stationary, a result i suppose of us playing so flat on the gainline. However, i remember that his step used to be a lot better than it was, as he now seems to look for contact a lot more, which may be a result of weakened knees and him not wanting to chance damaging them again.

Stu_F · Post by **Stu_F** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 7:00 pm

Actually I should have added that, having seen his somewhat erratic performances for the Development XV recently I worried about Humphreys, but I thought he had a very sound game (though his one on one tackling wasn't really tested!).

Stuart A · Post by **Stuart A** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 7:56 pm

I think most of the previous comments are about right.

Positives were very much the fact that we could make so many changes and still come up with 5 points.

I though IH had a good game on the whole and I think it's a bit harsh to criticise his place kicking as most of the kicks were from near the touchline. His running was good and he got stuck intp a number of rucks when the need arose.

CL looked sharp at scrum half and would appear to be closer to FM than I previously thought. We still miss HE badly though. I fear we may not see him again before 2008/09.

AM had his best game for us so far and there was a great run in the first half, though as one of the previous posts put it, still much more to come I think. For those with longer memories, I recall that it took Pat Howard a long time (at least 6 months) before we started to see the best of him, and I think similar could be said for Daryl Gibson.

The pack were pretty good as well (MC particularly) when it mattered though MD's lineout throwing was quite poor and things clearly improved when BK came on.

All in all glad to get this one under our belts with apparently no additional injuries and of course, 5 points! Onwards and upwards!!