Moody and Croft

[amor99]

Can I be the first to thank Moody and Croft for such a brilliant game of undermining the [world class]Ospreys backrow on Sunday. They have been given plaudits on lots of the other boards thought I'd post it here too.Loved Twelvetrees and the other players thrown in at the deep end, and Newby's contribution brilliant.

[mightymouse]

You can and you have -- well said - I have to agree with every word!

[kingol22]

They are both awsome and if stay fit will hopefully become 2 of the 3 first choice back row players for england. But who should play 8 my vote is for crane all tigers back row

[Welford Tigress]

Well done to Tom and Lewis plus congratulations to Lewis on his 50th Heineken game.

[sam16111986]

Tigers pack on Sunday:

Ayerza, Chuter, White
L Deacon, Kay
Croft, Moody
Crane

England pack?

Sheridan, Chuter, White
L Deacon, Kay
Croft, Moody
Crane

We know it works...

[mol2]

I'm not sure Crane is on England form looking at his performances this season.
Seemed half asleep on Sunday - ambling about with no apparent urgency (unlike his back row colleagues) & when he got the ball he went straight for contact with no apparent thought for avoiding or breaking the tackle. Very few examples of offloading in the tackle although the latter does require someone on his shoulder to offload to but you almost get the feeling that he knows that's not going to happen.

[micahroni]

i thought moody was excellent on sunday but croft...i dont know. maybe i was expecting too much of him that day

[JWL]

I thought Moody had a great second half and Croft was good in patches but Crane is just too one dimensional. He does not seem to have the impact of say a Xavier Rush or a Parisse. Add one of those two to a backrow of Croft and Moody and we would have the best back row in Europe.

[westwinds31]

Moody has been outstanding this season, but Croft and Crane worry me. I've been very vocal about Crane in the past but his game doesn't seem to be progressing - one thing you can say about him is that he does make the hard yards - he made a couple of mistakes on Sunday though. I am still to work out whether Croft is the new Richard Hill (unseen work blah blah blah) or whether he just goes for (seemingly) long periods without touching the ball. Is he being used correctly ? .....with his pace we should be trying to get him in situations where he can take people on with his speed.

That aside, our back row is pretty decent and rarely gets outplayed. The combination of Newby/Woods/Crane worked well last season, perhaps Newby will oust Allen and Mauger at 12 ?!

[Smurphswillgetya]

I thought that Moody, Hamilton, and Newby all stepped up to the mark to guide and lead the young lads through the match. I thought Louis Deacon needed the help of Moody after the Ospreys scored their tries and Lewis seemed to take over the team talk under the posts. Well done lads

[wolves tigger]

Hamilton had a sound game good hands and safe under the high kicks what a good signing last year , can use him as F/B or either wing , Jordan seems to have lost that form he had at cardiff blues ,i know we all have ups and downs but as you said when he got the ball straight into the contact and got pushed back this is not the J/C we saw last season hope the england squad leave him alone as this is when people left out of that situation seem to step up to the plate .
I think jc will do us proud in time to come .
Lewis was back to old self "Crazy Horse "
welcome back long may he graze on the welford turf........

[Kinoulton]

The only people who have been able to use their pace this season (a bit like last season), are Murphy, Murphy & Hamilton by running the ball from very deep positions.

To set Croft away on his bike, Tigers have got to somehow present him with a clean ball near the gain line and he's got to pick a line that will allow him to open his legs and show his class, as David Colemanballs would say.

But I can't see it happening yet. We're a very tough side, but not yet a particularly creative one.

[drc_007]

Whilst much has been made of the Ospreys front-row failings, the reality is the ref did not allow that to be much of an advantage to Tigers. If you watch the match in detail it was the turnovers that killed the Ospreys in the second half and most of the credit for that goes to Croft and Moody. Both made a huge number of tackles and leapt to their feet to compete for the ball. In contrast the Ospreys back-row was rather ponderous.
Crane was a little disappointing, I'm not sure he is fully fit.

[Minus]

Have to agree. Croft was all over them at the breakdown. Forced plenty of turnovers.
It's great to see him doing the real, tough backrow work. When he does get free in the open field, well, that's just a brilliant, exciting bonus. Thought he was great against the Ospreys.

[G.K]

Moody was outstanding as he has been the last few weeks.

Croft held up well against difficult opposition but he does miss some crucial tackles at times.

Crane is a bit of a worry, becoming too heads down and predictable and somewhat lacking in pace for saying he still quite young.

Still wasn't the main problem last Sunday, that was AR at the scrum!

All just IMO of course.