LV cup v London Irish

[Brianf]

Purdy was replaced in the matchday 23 with Catchpole. The Academy player, Andrew Symons, looked impressive when he came on for Matt Smith. Made some hard yards and looked strong.

Special mention though to Fraser Balmain. He was impressive against the Maoris and looked even better yesterday. Not intimidated at all by coming up against Corbisiero...infact, he outplayed him.

[Southernsoftie]

Symons is a senior squad player, an inside centre behind AA and Dan Bowden in the pecking order. I think that is the 5th game he has played in the LV Cup but is still waiting for his AP debut. He looked good when I saw him against Saracens two weeks ago, albeit in a losing effort.

Good to hear the lesser known squad players are stepping up when called upon.

[hww27]

Skiv was reasonably quiet. May have managed to spot a couple of lineout calls. went off in the second half with what looked like a chest injury.

Think it was his ribs. I was stood in the very corner of the Crumbie by the away dugout and he had an ice pack bandaged to his ribs by the LI physio.

[Kettleboy]

Was very impressed with Tait, not many come back from major injury and still have the change of pace required at top level, but I think he may still have? drifted in and out a bit, but flashes of potential.

[beech]

Two excellent victories in 6 days with a team, for the most part, of young and inexperienced players and others returning from injury. At last we can start looking on the bright side.

[Jose]

The whole game was excellent and the perfect antidote to the dismal RFU provided 'experience' of the previous day.

Slater and Balmain particularly excellent in the pack, Noone and Thorpe made some big hits, and whole pack played well. Ford recovered very well from a shaky start and his ability to repeatedly side-step and make onrushing defenders look stupid is something to behold. Tait, Lewington, Forsyth, Smith, Bowden, Symons all hard working, pacy and willing. Young appropriately snappy and annoying.

L Irish made to look very poor, espeially given the names (and reputations) on their teamsheet. I think they expected it to be easy and their comfortable start relaxed them further. Consequently they were outplayed and outfought from 15 mins in through to Stanko getting sent off on 65 mins. And even versus 14 they still provided far less challenge than they should have done. Certainly nothing on show to suggest that either Corbisiero or Joseph deserving of an England call, the only player I can rememebr causing us any real problems was Tagicakibau.

A good day for Tigers and evidence of the talent in the squad.

[tigerburnie]

The whole game was excellent and the perfect antidote to the dismal RFU provided 'experience' of the previous day.

Slater and Balmain particularly excellent in the pack, Noone and Thorpe made some big hits, and whole pack played well. Ford recovered very well from a shaky start and his ability to repeatedly side-step and make onrushing defenders look stupid is something to behold. Tait, Lewington, Forsyth, Smith, Bowden, Symons all hard working, pacy and willing. Young appropriately snappy and annoying.

L Irish made to look very poor, espeially given the names (and reputations) on their teamsheet. I think they expected it to be easy and their comfortable start relaxed them further. Consequently they were outplayed and outfought from 15 mins in through to Stanko getting sent off on 65 mins. And even versus 14 they still provided far less challenge than they should have done. Certainly nothing on show to suggest that either Corbisiero or Joseph deserving of an England call, the only player I can rememebr causing us any real problems was Tagicakibau.

A good day for Tigers and evidence of the talent in the squad.

Thanks for that report, for those of us who haven't seen anything of the game due to a lack of highlights,that is very informative.

[rocktop51]

If young Balmain had Corbeseiro ( probably not spelt correctly before anyone points it out !) on toast on Sunday I and now concerned that he will probably replace the injured Marler for the SA game. If a 20 year old can better him then god knows what a seasoned Springbok will do !

[sapajo]

If young Balmain had Corbeseiro ( probably not spelt correctly before anyone points it out !) on toast on Sunday I and now concerned that he will probably replace the injured Marler for the SA game. If a 20 year old can better him then god knows what a seasoned Springbok will do !

My thoughts exactly

[fleabane]

Kieran Brookes impressed with his cameo towards the end - demolished his oppo in the scrum

Tait great - poetry in motion!

[DickyP]

If young Balmain had Corbeseiro ( probably not spelt correctly before anyone points it out !) on toast on Sunday I and now concerned that he will probably replace the injured Marler for the SA game. If a 20 year old can better him then god knows what a seasoned Springbok will do !

Let's face it - Corbisiero (who did OK against SA in the summer) can't do any worse than Marler did against Australia. Lancaster's biggest mistake on Saturday was to wait far too long to get Vunipola onto the field. Personally I'd give Vunipola a run as he has the right level of aggression to face the Springboks.