Northampton v Leicester

[Phil B]

All the right points being made by others. A Curate's Egg of a season, and as we all seem to be pointing out, plenty of hope for the future. Proud to be a Tigers fan, as ever. Thanks for a great game, and hard luck boys, so close....But we did show we weren't quite at the races, as we have all season.

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What a game.

Well done Tigers, so close but this season has been too hard.

Well done Northampton. Can't give any more praise, well done is hard enough, but you deserve a well done!

Next season is gonna be great.

Come on Tigers!!

[Guinness&Nuts]

All credit to Saints. I think they deserved the win based on their second half performance. I'm disappointed with Tigers continued focus on playing up the jumper rugby when they have their noses in front. This approach cost us tonight.
You have to take a look at the coach and his game plan. I can understand taking Tait off to accomodate the loss of a forward to a yellow card, but what I cannot understand is the introduction of Thomstone when Youngs comes back on. Why not put Tait back on? For me Tait was one of Leicesters best players and certainly the most potent back tonight!

The loss of the likes of Parling, Cole, Allen and Croft told tonight when Leicester had their backs against the wall.

[Bristol Tiger]

Gutted, exhausted - and that from watching on TV!!! Can't imagine how the players feel but there will be enough in the squad to carry that forward into next season.

As most have said, well played Tigers, gave it their all. Well played JP - kept a firecracker of a game under control. And finally, well done Saints - they played with real attacking verve - something we just couldn't match.

Already seen some of use headlines with Saints winning with a man down. May need to point out that they lost a man for 25 minutes; our three yellows counted for 30 minutes. You just can't afford to do that as it knackers the team (evident in the final 10 minutes despite an extra man).

Next season - when does it start???

[GS]

The lads done gud - for the first half and then...................... Stains didn't win it - we lost it. And that's what hurts.

Ah well, have a good holiday everyone and see you again next season

[kpj tiger]

Mallinder made a good point after the game, Saints looked a fair bit fitter than us, especially in their front row, but even players like Goneva who had a 10 min rest looked empty at 70 mins

[tigercaspian]

Yes, huge disappointment, particularly after being so ahead at half time but.....game of two halves. I was there last time we lost too sadly when we never recovered from their first 20 minute blitz.
Baz1664, you're wrong......Doyle was tremendous, poss best I have seen from a ref all season.
Having had 18 (??) players either on int'l duty or crocked for most of the autumn, very proud of the team to get this far. Nothing left in the changing room by us (or them in fairness). Anyone who wants to whinge on about 'we haven't put it together all season', well, go down the pub and whinge about it rather than on here please.

[mol2]

Looked good in the first half, weathered the storm only to lose composure in the second half.
The second half should have been a time for cool heads and instead we were too rushed - perhaps seeing the finishing line after the red card. Credit has to go Saints, however we failed to take advantage of being a man up when the chance arose. The lack of bench options at prop meant that Mulipola and Ayerza became less effective in the loose as the game went on.

Whilst Tait had a mixed game with the boot, taking him off disrupted our defence.
Mafi should have replaced Crane who'd worked himself into the ground - why you bring on your bench back row for your 6 when your 8 is on the deck having taken a heft blow to the head struck me as working to a plan rather than adjusting to the needs of the game?

Summed up our season - glimpses of magic but leaky in defence too often.
They all busted a gut but injuries and a few key squad gaps meant that we played the big games with 16 or 17 players against 23. We need to make sure that we have a bench front row we can use.

[WiggoTiger]

Can someone explain the collapsing of a rolling maul, Saints too often collapsed the maul and got the scrum. We did it once and pinged.....no consistency in my eyes. !st half their scrum half denies a possible scoring opportunity by holding the tackled player ...no yellow?? Clarke the intent...no yellow?? Jp Doyle too often wanted the TMO, see it give it or carry on!!
Disrupted 2nd half too much and flow went. 12 mins took 22 mins with all stoppages!! Tait replacement a puzzle......mistaken number put up I feel.

Hope Saffas win no9w as been best side all season.

Media seem to hate us......................

[kpj tiger]

Something me and the people I watched the game with picked up on tonight (and previous games) is that Tait is so much more effective with ball in hand than kicking (which seems to fail 50% of the time), Unless he is under immense pressure he should back his feet and speed rather than kicking and hoping for the best

[Bill W (2)]

We shou;d not have lost! We had the and let them escape!

[jgriffin]

Gutted. Sorry, We bottled. It was ours to have. No excuses, not good enough. Story of the season, too many injuries and key players making rubbish decisions. Bad loser - yes when we could've won and IMO should've won.
Glad its over and I hope Quins beat Sarries and then stuff Stains out of sight. I cannot bring myself to support a team with Clark in it and never will.

Apart from the last sentence, BTW, none of the above is actually the case. I posted it to get a reaction.
I was slightly disappointed , but called it one score one way or the other earlier today so not surprised. As Mrs G said earlier in the week 'we haven't been good enough all season, simply almost good enough'. [She's been unable to be disappointed since Julian retired, and she firmly believes that with a team of Julians Stains could play us till the world ended and never win ]

[baz1664]

Yes, huge disappointment, particularly after being so ahead at half time but.....game of two halves. I was there last time we lost too sadly when we never recovered from their first 20 minute blitz.
Baz1664, you're wrong......Doyle was tremendous, poss best I have seen from a ref all season.
Having had 18 (??) players either on int'l duty or crocked for most of the autumn, very proud of the team to get this far. Nothing left in the changing room by us (or them in fairness). Anyone who wants to whinge on about 'we haven't put it together all season', well, go down the pub and whinge about it rather than on here please.

I'll stick with my so so on Doyle, he wasn't brilliant or bad for either team, give him a pat on the back for sticking up to the TMO, honestly think the TMO could ruin the game, rfu need to redevelop it in the off season for the good of the game.

Think tigers will come back bigger and stronger next season, keep the injuries down and we will be up there on all fronts!! In Cockers we trust

[rocktop51]

Out of the jaws of victory ..........

So disappointed in the final result - our boys did OK but we should have won with a man advantage. It galls me to think that Stains or Saffas or Quins will be champions. Am I one eyed ? Not normally but in this case am prepared to make an exception

[WiggoTiger]

In Leicester we trust..........but not the RFU, Prem Rugby or the Refs.

Bias towards teams in Europe.........never known this in all Tigers time fighting on all fronts!! I feel there always seems to be a negative bias against our club in the media, by the RFU and the refs.
They didn't want to see us compete in a 10th consecutive final......the decisions tonight at certain times of the match proved costly for us. A collpased maul by Saints in front of posts and 3 points to Tigers but JP missed it!!