Toulon v TIGERS!

[TigerCam]

For me Ayerza was the best player on the Park until he went off - Not for the first time he turned Hayman (a much more vaunted player) inside out

Very fine lines between winning and losing

4 things caused our narrow loss in my view:

The 2 sin binnings - very hard not to automatically stick out a hand - personally I think that this yellow carding for what is after all an attemt to catch the ball is a shade harsh - years ago the deliberate knock on was very rarely given and I do not believe there are any more instances of it.
To lose on average 6 points for trying to get the ball? dubious - it should be for DELIBERATE knock on - and then it is only a penalty - surely a yellow card should be reserved for a genuine scoring opportunity.

the next major cause was the loss of Croft - he was immense before his departure both in the loose and lineout - niether was as good after his replacement.

Finally we lost our scrummage dominance after the Marcos departure - and while that was no where near as long he did impact out our ability to apply pressure in the crucial final stages.

That about sums it up. IMO, the two sin bins let them back it to a game that if avoided would have seen the Tigers at Twickers. There is only so much defending you can do until a penalty is given away - unfortunate but hey ho?

[Jay C]

The 2 sin binnings - should be for DELIBERATE knock on - surely a yellow card should be reserved for a genuine scoring opportunity.

the next major cause was the loss of Croft - he was immense before his departure both in the loose and lineout - niether was as good after his replacement.

Finally we lost our scrummage dominance after the Marcos departure - and while that was no where near as long he did impact out our ability to apply pressure in the crucial final stages.

Agree that Cole was desperately unlucky (& did not really need to stick his hand out anyway), but Toby knew what he was doing (there was something like a 3 man overlap outside him !) and had to go.

Agree that Croft made a massive difference - lets hope he's fit again soon and Mafi is available too.

Agree that Marcos is one of the best around. Mulipola has different strengths though & I don't think we gave him enough ball to run at the oppo once he came on. We will miss Marcos big time in the next 5 games .....

[MrPartridge]

Thought I'd do an 'old-post resurrection' for those contemplating a trip to Toulon in light of the pool draw yesterday!

[Noddy555]

Oh God we've got Toulon & Ulster in our group, which means a long train journey for the away leg, I just hope it's not the week before Christmas
still it could have been worse. The last couple of times I watched Ulster though, I thought their standards had slipped a little. So we either top the group with a superb home performance against the European champions at Welford Road or we settle for 2nd and hope that that's enough to qualify for the quarter finals.

[youngtiger]

We'll just have to take 10 points off Scarlets, well, Clermont made it look reasonably straight forward...