Team v Exeter

[cpwhelan]

What game is Manu playing - body language and performance suggest he's lost interest

[Darc Tiger]

Double post cpwhelan?

Very valuable 4 points. Exeter looked really handy. We ground it out in typical fashion. Burns' kicking from hand, and us picking apart their lineout was key.

Tackling not good enough, but we scrambled well, and defended our line better in the 2nd half. Maul defence much improved too.

Plenty of work to do, but a fine result.

Edit: Well done Riccardo Brugnara on his premiership debut. Helped win a scrum penalty!

[DickyP]

As tight as I expected. Thought the real difference between the teams, which the commentators barely mentioned, was that we won more than a third of their line-out ball - Kitchener the prime poacher.

[jgriffin]

Manu was like that in the Edinburgh game, just going through the motions. I think he needs a challenge to get him going, sometimes very good players go a bit stale for a few games. I also think Burns alters the equation for the backs, whereas with Williams everyone is now settled - it's a bit like Ashton being very good with Flood or Hodgson, but not so with Fazlet. These things take time.

[Darc Tiger]

We just need to get him on the end of a few good passes! He made some good carries, but not nearly enough for a man of his threat level. Need to tell Freddie to get him in the game.

[TigerLad]

I thought Burns was excellent today. Controlled the game well and his kicking from hand was superb. YBY looks like he's really natured and had a nice game. Kitch and Parling were good in the second row but other than that I don't think we looked that great. Very nice to see Brugnara making his debut as well. He's still young but he looks big enough for this level already and in his first scrummage he won us a penalty. Interesting to see how he develops over the next few years.

[drc_007]

A good game to win, Exeter are a real handful at home.

I thought Burns played well but coaches will be frustrated with some of the soft penalties.

[TomWeston]

And don't forget that Fraser Balmain put in a 70+ minute slot, and played well. Not bad for a 22 year old!

[RWA]

Take a bow Jordan Crane...massive turnover when a try looked imminent and good control at the base. And he made yardage. Burns excellent again.

[Downsouth]

I would take 4 points at sandy park everytime. After watching the allblacks vs sa this morning, some greater threat in attack would have been good , I wonder if a few players such as manu are over concentrating on impressing the defense coach. That said, the team conceding least points wins. I am impressed by Burns so far, allen also looked good, on another day goneva could have scored a couple

[GS]

In the first half the main difference was the try the scored while Govena was off. The defence wasn't great but Exeter didn't exploit our weaknesses. I thought the kicking was a problem too as we didn't chase enough and gave them time to run back at us or take quick throw ins. In the second half Parling seemed to have figured out their calls and Kitch was the man to take advantage, a serious dent to Exeter's defence and Burns' kicking took advantage - at last.

As I thought there were some nice moments and touches but not a great full team effort yet. I think the last plays of the game said a lot about our game. All we had to do was keep the ball for 90 seconds and the game was won but managed to kick it away with seconds left. A good job the ref blew for time when Manu deliberately knocked on and got a yellow for his trouble.

Any win at Exeter is a good win and I'll take the 4 points any day.

[sapajo]

I wonder if a few players such as manu are over concentrating on impressing the defense coach.

May I suggest that he amongst others failed to do so

[amazing tiger]

good away win tulagi just had one bad game in defence wouldnt read too much in to it. unlees it becomes regular kitch gad a goos game and defence was okay. exeter looked very good though.

[vin rouge]

Tigers missed more than a quarter of their tackles today

https://twitter.com/bencoles_/status/510865432773804032

Can't afford to do that against the big boys...

[sapajo]

Tigers missed more than a quarter of their tackles today

https://twitter.com/bencoles_/status/510865432773804032

Can't afford to do that against the big boys...

Surprised its only 25% but your right our new defence coach needs to teach how to tackle correctly below the waist such a basic skill. No good having any defensive system if you cannot tackle.