Not sure of the form of quoting yourself, but I happened upon an old post of mine from 2009.
T1GJR wrote:A third of the way through the game, my five year old climbs up his step ladder, holding his "TRY" card.
He asks me in a loud voice, "When are we going to score a try?"
I reply, "In five minutes, Son."
"Thanks, Dad.", he says and climbs back down the steps to a few quiet chortles from the terrace.
15 minutes later (he can't tell the time yet), he climbs back up the step ladder with his card and another for his older brother, "Quick Ben," he shouts, "take the card the Tigers are going to score a Try soon!"
Sadly, he, and the rest of the ground, were disappointed on that front.
The result of that match? Tigers 15–6 Newcastle.
The end of the Season? Tigers Champions!
2009/2010 was quite a dull year in the league. No team in the league managed to hit 50. Which is pretty rare.
Leicesters try scoring record since that season until this one (4 seasons) and prior to that was very good.
In 2012/13 Saracens finished top of the league but only managed 41 tries (Tigers 56, Saints 55) and were 7th best in that department. They did lose in the play off semi finals though.
Quins in their Champions year did not have a particular high total.
My conclusions:
Try scoring is not the be all and end all.
Tigers have until this season been consistently one of the highest.
Our total this year is going to be extremely low by our standards, even if we put 10 on Welsh.
fleabane wrote:Try scoring becomes an issue when all those around and above you are scoring tries, and getting tbps.
Err, no it doesn't. As illustrated by Sarries in 2012/13 and to some extent by ourselves this year. Both occasions when teams with far less tries than many others finished higher in the table.
In addition number of wins is first decider when equal on points. And a win gets 4 points which means if another team loses a match they have to win 4 others with a TBP to make up the loss. Wasps have 8 TBPs to our 3 but are still behind us in the table because they lost two more matches than we have.
By and large winning and not losing matches is still key. Very occasionally an exceptional TBP record will gain you a place. And ironically in the last decade that as usually been us.
Not scoring tries is a problem when as a season ticket holder you have to sit through mind numbing displays week in week out having paid to at least be moderately entertained.
Not scoring tries is a problem when most weeks you don't even look like coming close to doing so.
Not scoring tries is a problem when you come up against a team that does and you are always needing to score 2-3 penalties per score to keep up....
Last edited by doublecarpet on Thu Apr 23, 2015 3:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
doublecarpet wrote:Not scoring tries is a problem when as a season ticket holder you have to sit through mind numbing displays week in week out having been paid to at least be moderately entertained.
Not scoring tries is a problem when most weeks you don't even look like coming close to doing so.
Not scoring tries is a problem when you come up against a team that does and you are always needing to score 2-3 penalties per score to keep up....
It is not the lack of try scoring in itself that is the main issue. A good number of tries in previous seasons have been from 5m scrums or lineouts.
However a very inept attacking game plan that is getting worse (over 2-3 years or so) and shown no sign of improvement is a concern and people need to be held accountable.
doublecarpet wrote:Not scoring tries is a problem when as a season ticket holder you have to sit through mind numbing displays week in week out having paid to at least be moderately entertained.
Not scoring tries is a problem when most weeks you don't even look like coming close to doing so.
Not scoring tries is a problem when you come up against a team that does and you are always needing to score 2-3 penalties per score to keep up....
Well, I'll give you the first of those in terms of the majority of our home Premiership games this season. Although I would point out that the 6 ERC and LV games have not lacked for entertainment or tries.
In regard of whether we need to score tries. I've explained quite clearly earlier in the thread why it isn't a necessity both in terms of individual matches and in terms of the whole season. And I have given examples. If you choose to ignore that then it is fine. The proof of the pudding is in the current league table where we sit 5th in the table with the second worst try scoring record in the league.
Tiger23 wrote:However a very inept attacking game plan that is getting worse (over 2-3 years or so) and shown no sign of improvement is a concern and people need to be held accountable.
Tiger23 wrote:It is not the lack of try scoring in itself that is the main issue. A good number of tries in previous seasons have been from 5m scrums or lineouts.
Stats please? Is there any concrete evidence we have a much higher percentage than other clubs. If the backs get the ball 80m up field and then the forwards score a pushover try, do we ignore the backs play and put it down a superior pack? Is scoring from a line out or scrum not unworthy? Should you get less points for it. And so on. It's really a dead end argument IMO.
Tiger23 wrote:However a very inept attacking game plan that is getting worse (over 2-3 years or so)
We were 3rd leading try scorers last season. And top the previous two years. This year is massively exceptional. If we have the same next year I will be right behind you.
Tiger23 wrote:and shown no sign of improvement is a concern and people need to be held accountable.
Did you miss we sacked Burke and recruited Mauger?
Ourla - you do not need stats to express an opinion. I think it is fair to say that most who watch rugby would agree that we score more 5m scrum/lineout tries than most.
My point is that our inept attacking game plan over the last few years has been somewhat hidden in the try scoring stats because we have scored many tries from 5m scrums and lineouts.
Although it is good to do well in those area it does not excuse a very poor attacking plan after the 2nd/3rd phase. This makes the team poor to watch and significantly hampers success in the biggest games.
Being a Tigers fan and reading this site I obviously had no idea that Mauger was on his way! - in fact I wrote in favour of this last week. However, unfortunately, I don't think that one change will be enough on its own and feel it is time for RC to go as well allowing a fresh start for AM.
Tiger23 wrote:However a very inept attacking game plan that is getting worse (over 2-3 years or so) and shown no sign of improvement is a concern and people need to be held accountable.
This is code for "Cockers must go"
Correct.
Even though Mauger will have full responsibility for the attack (Cockerill has said as much in interviews), it won't be enough to change the attacking plan
I think there's gonna be some fairly significant bedding-in next season, what with all the backroom, coaching & player personnel changes, which we really don't need to add to just at the moment. Despite this, I think it's fair to say we should expect a different and, eventually, a much more successful attacking plan than anything we have had of late.
If that doesn't come to pass, and things don't start to improve, then moving towards Tiger23's point of view may be reasonable, but for now, I don't think it is.
