I blame Cockerill

[Rayce]

just dismal,woeful,awful,
well done Dan Cole

[TigerCam]

Poor selection.


Poor tactics

Poor performance.

Just about sums it up for the season. Quality players mislead from the start, but what do I know? Just look at the way the Saints have improved over the past two seasons where the Tigers have NOT progressed. Top of the league maybe for now but a side with little direction and certainly no ambition from a management point of view to make it better. Oh, by the way nothing about having so many players away for the Ints.

[Snorbins]

nice to see these posts after the posts saying great !
saints won fair and square and cockers is not to blame for those who cannot hang onto a ball.

[g]

But it is Cockerill who is constantly picking these players who cannot hang onto the ball game after game. And Tuilagi is the biggest culprit of this. But Cockerill constantly picks him.


But players who have flair and can do something different are overlooked. This is the coach who is at fault.

[Snorbins]

who has flair? and please do not say 12T! we are getting to bare bones and to lose today is no big deal. the season is long and number 1 is dependant on the playoffs

[Pete]

Why do you ask who has flair, then ask not to mention those who do?

Vesty has flair and more importantly inspiration and determination. The team almost always plays much better with him there from the beginning. 12T also has flair, though he can make mistakes too. Youngs, Tuquiri also have flair but few if any forwards except maybe Croft.

But more important than flair, they need to be inspired to play as well as they are capable. This is down to coaches and inspirational players (if they are selected). Perhaps if the team selection is not good, the players are already half beaten when away from home as soon as they trot on to the pitch. At least at home the crowd can inspire them.

[Tiger Ghost]

It hurts to lose any game, especially against the Saints but I think we need to look at the bigger picture here. We are still comfortably in the top 4 and the loss of players to the 6N is over. Whether we like it or not, the 22 GP games are about finishing in the top 4. Once we do that the season really starts. I would rather we are playing at our best in April and May and come away with a trophy than top the league and come away with nothing.
When we had the ball in the first quarter we looked dangerous and showed real ambition in awful conditions.

[tigerman]

Let's be honest tigers were awful today, i can say i have not seen a tigers team perform that badly since Newcastle won the league 1997/98 i think. Gutted

[Purebob]

Cockers didn't tell 'em to give stupid penalties away and have teflon hands.

Conditions and a lack of team-training time I reckon killed it for us.

Take it on the chin. Saints won well today.

[Big Dai]

Asolutely gutted after yesterday................

BUT

The feeling I had was one of being "Maxed out" on rugby? Wales v France, Then the two games yesterday FOLLOWED by the Tigers? Come on! Talk about player burn out what about the :censored: fans?

Saints did a number on us yesterday....A side recovering from a thrashing that played very well + the number we had out yesterday + the conditions + the home crowd + an effite little Taff = defeat! Anything else would have been a miracle. Good sides lose games. This was always going to be one of those.

Jeepers! I'm ranting a bit! But even given the equation above SURLEY the fans of Leicester and Northampton deserve to see their BEST sides going toe to toe? Win, lose or draw? What was served up yesterday, for the sake of SKY was not premiership rugby.

[Purebob]

Big Dai

I agree with all that except the " effite" reference that was a bit mean IMO. Ref had a decent game, our forwards didn't.

As Bill says Onwards and Upwards !

[therobertsons]

i was at the game and have just watched it on tv and to be honest the tv made us look better than we were. We were never going to win today after Northampton lost their way last week. Lets just move on to next week and look forward to the visit of the Irish.

If people want to moan about anything it is these stupid kick off times that we have had to endure this season. If they had kicked off at 3p today the supporters of both sides would have seen a far better game.

why should television rule the game its getting closers and closer towards the other game with the round leather thing.

I was also glad to see that other clubs have the same problem of numpties turning up to the big games who have no knowledge of the game or respect for the travelling fans all they want is more beer.

oh well thats my rant over and i feel much better, see you all next week

[Noggs]

It hurts to lose any game, especially against the Saints but I think we need to look at the bigger picture here. We are still comfortably in the top 4 and the loss of players to the 6N is over. Whether we like it or not, the 22 GP games are about finishing in the top 4. Once we do that the season really starts. I would rather we are playing at our best in April and May and come away with a trophy than top the league and come away with nothing.
When we had the ball in the first quarter we looked dangerous and showed real ambition in awful conditions.

Have to agree with this. On the day in poor conditions we did not perform but doom and gloom it is not. Cockers will not get it right every time but since he took the reins we've not done too bad. OK, we're out of the cup competitions early and for debatable reasons but we're still in the mix to win the GP for a second season on the trot which, if achieved, will be something special and done by few clubs in the history of the competition. Please put the knives away for now

[Simmo]

It's time the sport proved it has made the transition from amateur to professional and didn't played league and cup games when the Internationals are on. Dare I say it......it wouldn't happen in wendyball!!
The only good news appears to be that in this years 6N the Internationals are taking a weekend off when we are at home....so at least we get to see some of the players we've paid our hard earned cash to see.

[fleabane]

I agree with nztiger, but also think we observed another occasion on which we got it all wrong. The conditions should have suited our "Plan A" game, which we didn't execute, and when that happened, we didn't do anything to successfully mend or change it.

Players and coaches bear responsibility for this one.

I hope we hear and read no more of the "we're reigning champions and top of the premiership" complacency after this sorry performance. The same goes for the "36, Vesty, a.n. other will save us" brigade. That sort of simplistic approach smacks of quick fix, not a real attempt to address the issues.

It ain't good enough for top 4, and may not be for an HC place:-(