Tigers v Quins

[TigerAlex]

Aaand the doom and gloom is back. I think some perspective is needed here. In my opinion, the scoreline flattered Quins a bit. They played well, their defence was good and they did everything well. However, for all the pace and supposed brilliance of their backline, aside from the one try they scored, they didn't look like scoring any tries.

Also, don't forget, Tigers had their chances. Sam Harrison's break: ruined by a poor follow up- Cole in at the side. Not something you can really blame on the coaches as I really doubt they tell the players to do that. Salvi's break: same problem. Quins gave away two penalties consecutively for collapsing the driving maul from two Tigers lineouts on the Quins 5m line. A third maul would either have resulted in a score or a yellow card for Quins. What happened? Tom Youngs fluffed the throw and the timing was wrong on the jump. Do you really think the coaches aren't putting loads of work into Tom Youngs' throwing? And those of you who would say Chuter should have been brought on, remember when you were calling for him to be dropped? And remember how most of you advocate giving the Tigers academy lads chances? Then how about the last play of the first half? If Mafi hadn't overrun the ball by a fraction, that would surely have been a try and the scores may have been tied at half time.

But wait, what about the training ground moves? Nothing seemed to be happening with them. Except for the Flood pass to Goneva which was called forward by a fraction. A couple of centimetres back and Goneva would have been through.

Other positives: ball retention was by and large good. Tigers are top of the stats for turnovers won and the scrum was looking good. There were also far fewer incidences of the ball being lost in the contact than in previous weeks.

So you see, Tigers had and made plenty of chances to score and, but for a few mistakes, which in my opinion are directly attributable to the players and not the coaches, Tigers could have won comfortably. Sure, any loss is disappointing, but I just don't think it's Doomsday yet.

[Iain]

If you have seen positives and cannot understand why people are disappointed with that display then you are deluded.

[TigerAlex]

If you have seen positives and cannot understand why people are disappointed with that display then you are deluded.

I never said I couldn't understand why people are disappointed. I just said I didn't think it was as disastrous as people seem to think.

But thank you for your well reasoned response nevertheless.

[Big Dai]

No dilusion.....we just got stuffed by a better side who executed better tactics....well actually they had some tactics.

Ball retention....yes fine......but let's make some progress with it. If someone breaks get someone on his shoulder. That's why the breaks failed. Zero support!

Otherwise stick it up your ruddy jumper and thump into the wall.......we didn't even chip and chase to try and turn them!

[TigerScot]

all good stuff but if we want to win a trophy, this performance was not good enough. Line out was poor, they were stronger in the scrums in the first half and we had no threat in the backs without the strength of Manu.

[TigerAlex]

No dilusion.....we just got stuffed by a better side who executed better tactics....well actually they had some tactics.

Ball retention....yes fine......but let's make some progress with it. If someone breaks get someone on his shoulder. That's why the breaks failed. Zero support!

Otherwise stick it up your ruddy jumper and thump into the wall.......we didn't even chip and chase to try and turn them!

As I said, I understand why people are disappointed. I am also disappointed and I agree with your points in your above post. However, I suspect the coaches are saying the same sort of things as you, especially about the support play. My point is that I think it is primarily a player problem and not a coaching one at the moment. If nothing changes and/or improves in a month or two's time, then I think questions can start to be asked about the coaching.

[DaveRave]

But by and large these things haven't changed in about 3 years.

[Iain]

If you have seen positives and cannot understand why people are disappointed with that display then you are deluded.

I never said I couldn't understand why people are disappointed. I just said I didn't think it was as disastrous as people seem to think.

But thank you for your well reasoned response nevertheless.

Okay, well your main argument seems to be that it wasn't that bad as we had chances to score. You are missing precisely what the problem was. we had a fair deal of attacking ball I grant you, but never seemed to have a clue as to how we were going to break the gain line. Yes, a nice break from Harrison that was always going to get caught with absolutely nobody with him supporting. And we get turned over.

I'm sure a lot of work is going into Tom Youngs' set play too. But he isn't good enough to be starting as hooker at the top level. I'm sure he might be one day. But he isn't now.

Most of your points do nothing but to highlight how badly we played. That really is a problem!

[physiodan]

No excuses. Not good enough. No reason why we should have been so bad.

We are missing Ayerza and all his workload

[Iain]

And why has my disappointment in Castro retweeting his restaurant night so soon after getting changed been deleted?

I don't doubt Castro's commitment to the club, but that is pretty poor form. And since the bulk of his punters on Monday will be Tigers fans I think he is very naive publicising this to his fans so soon after a poor defeat. If I was in his position with a Twitter account I would be apologising to the fans for the sorry team performance before I was self-publicising.

[Iain]

No excuses. Not good enough. No reason why we should have been so bad.

We are missing Ayerza and all his workload

And that would have changed the game!?

[Tigerbeat]

All is not lost. There is still a long way to go this season. Quins are a good side and very strong in defence.
Thought that Sam Harrison had a decent game and made a nice break in the second half.

Pearson was not at his best and cannot understand why he did not go upstairs when Salvi claimed to have scored.

Tigers could have got something out of the game but fair play to Quins, they deserved the win.

Two Quins players taken off with injuries, shoulder damage and suspected broken leg. Interesting to see how this affects the Quins squad. Wishing them a full recovery - both needed gas to relieve the pain.

[PM76]

You clearly haven't seen Toulouse this season. They look rubbish.

No I haven't seen Toulouse this year but substitute their name with any other of the top 8 European clubs and Tigers have struggled for the past 3 seasons to win big games against them. Today was just another example of this and we lost trying to play the same way as we did Vs. Leinster and Perpignan 2 years ago, Ulster/ Clermont last year etc. You can add the premiership finals to that list too.

All is not lost, but the signs are ominous that season will be similar to the last 2.

[mol2]

Thought Crane had a good game though. Nice to see him getting back to it.

What game were you watching?
He plodded around like prop. Got skinned like one too!

Was it a Led Zep track
"And the song remains the same" Somes up the game plan.

[wardy]

And only one mention of the ref so far?

Pearson was hopeless and his assistants no better. Quins were so far off-side at times they might as well have been playing at the Walkers. If Pearson is training the Celtic referees next season they can only get worse after tonights show.

We just weren't good enough and Quins were good value for their win, but at times we were playing 16.