Teams up v Saints

[RWA]

How Jammy are the Tigers!! And same old Leicester, always cheating!!

Deliberately tripped Courtney Lawes up as he went through the ruck to kick the ball out, and Barnes a Tigers fan typically missed it, incompetent as usual!!

Also Tiggers should play tag Rugby, high tackle what a laugh, even Healey / Kay said it was soft!! Paul Hill scored a perfectly good try!!

We'll see you at a packed Gardens, where hopefully you won't have 16 men with Wayne Barnes!!

Come on you Saints!!!!!

As previously mentioned, Saints created zip in open play and only scored a couple of tries due to Tigers errors. If you want someone to blame, blame your own side for not coming out of the changing rooms for 20 minutes.

[ourla]

We should have closed that first half out - two cheap pens - chance well taken by Saints. The interception is one of those things. Thought we'd weathered the storm when we went 10 points up. In the end you've just got to be delighted with the win. I think both teams picked up injuries. At least we have Treviso next week.

[Darc Tiger]

Nearly threw it away, but they kept on fighting to the end in the rain. Perhaps we got a few lucky calls, but two of Saints' tries were absolute gifts and they didn't look like scoring outside of that. Draw probably would have been fair, but delighted with the win.

I think Seb reminded us of why we thought so much of him last year. I'd have him ahead of Barrow.

[jgriffin]

Compare and contrast - you can get the measure of the DORs by their comments:
Leicester Tigers director of rugby Richard Cockerill:

"Credit to them for getting back into it, but credit to our players for the first 30 minutes and then for digging themselves out of a hole they probably shouldn't have got themselves into.

"Good sides win when they do some average things, and we did some average things today but we found a way to win, however fortuitous that may or may not have been."

Northampton Saints director of rugby Jim Mallinder:

"My reaction is clearly one of disappointment. I spoke to Courtney Lawes afterwards, and he said he tripped (in the incident that led to the last-minute penalty being awarded).

"In the first half, we had a terrible 20 minutes - they were good, but we were terrible for 20 minutes - and you should not go 21-0 down at Welford Road."

Cockers always gives credit to the other side, Jim always does dour.

[RWA]

Saints fans note…Lawes said he tripped…rather than ..he was tripped.

The old cliche of scoring too early…it was almost a dream being 21-0 ahead after no time at all. I do worry about our front row. Yes, we're competitive but we aren't dominating sides like we used to..maybe it will come but it seems the other sides have improved and we have stayed the same. Some great back play in the opening exchanges, but I think we got carried away and went wide too early midway through the first half, which allowed Saints to press defensively. Fair play to Harrison in their back row, what a player he looks. A soft intercept try and switching off at the line out can be rectified.

[Hot_Charlie]

Saints fans note…Lawes said he tripped…rather than ..he was tripped.

The old cliche of scoring too early…it was almost a dream being 21-0 ahead after no time at all. I do worry about our front row. Yes, we're competitive but we aren't dominating sides like we used to..maybe it will come but it seems the other sides have improved and we have stayed the same. Some great back play in the opening exchanges, but I think we got carried away and went wide too early midway through the first half, which allowed Saints to press defensively. Fair play to Harrison in their back row, what a player he looks. A soft intercept try and switching off at the line out can be rectified.

Teimana Harrison has been excellent for them this season - a quality signing similar in some ways to our BOC.

I've always been nervous whenever we score tries early - back when I first started watching Leicester I almost preferred the other team to score first!

[tigercaspian]

Agree with DT's comment about de Chaves, a brilliant game.
Had to laugh when Steve Johnson on Radio Leicester in the post match comments called him de Chablis!!

[ellis9]

I couldn't make today's game and have just finished watching it. My summary:

Opening 20 minutes- brilliant, perfect start

20-30 minutes- started to lose control and got a bit sloppy

40-80 minutes- frustrating, sloppy and too much rugby played at the wrong times.

We need to learn when to play with the ball in hand and running it. You cannot play attacking, ball in hand rugby for 80 minutes, especially against good sides. Had we kept control and kept the ball tight in the forwards and slowed it down at times, we would have won that more comfortably. We've gone from one extreme to the other, we need to balance it out over 80 minutes

Happy with the win. Happy with the clinical finishing in the opening 20 minutes but we shouldn't have let Saints back in that game and they should have left with 0 points and we should have 5. Had it not been for the marginal high tackle decision in our favour, we may very well have lost that.

[mol2]

The reality is that there was only really one team in it and the scoreline flattered Saints. Fair play they got gifted their tries but offered nothing in the match. Tigers need to curb their reckless streak as they discovered last week points are hard to score against good sides.

Cole gets a yellow for what? Still debating it on the radio and the TV replay doesn't show any clear penalty.
As someone has already pointed out a number of penalties were conceded by Saints line out in the red zone but no card. What's the difference between a line out offence and an off side?

Several high tackles by Saints went unpunished - so why whine when the TMO calls them for one? They wouldn't have won the ball from Veanu if he hadn't been tacked high so a try wouldn't have been scored only to be ruled out. Tackle according to the laws and you won't be punished by the same laws.

Saints continue to have a discipline problem and that starts with the coaching staff.

[WhitecapTiger]

The reality is that there was only really one team in it and the scoreline flattered Saints. Fair play they got gifted their tries but offered nothing in the match. Tigers need to curb their reckless streak as they discovered last week points are hard to score against good sides.

Cole gets a yellow for what? Still debating it on the radio and the TV replay doesn't show any clear penalty.
As someone has already pointed out a number of penalties were conceded by Saints line out in the red zone but no card. What's the difference between a line out offence and an off side?

Several high tackles by Saints went unpunished - so why whine when the TMO calls them for one? They wouldn't have won the ball from Veanu if he hadn't been tacked high so a try wouldn't have been scored only to be ruled out. Tackle according to the laws and you won't be punished by the same laws.

Saints continue to have a discipline problem and that starts with the coaching staff.

+1

Saints tackle according to the Lawes....in general

[amazing tiger]

i think Barnes missed a few things from both teams today. Cole had a decent game but still isnt the player he once was. i remember when ben youngs came back from the 2011 world cup and then got injured he to lost his form. this could be the case for cole. sometimes i need to remind myself we are still a team in transistion and that we will make mistakes. overall we made some sloppy errors but i dont think losing oconnor and williams helped us however a win is a win but we sure did make hard work of it.

[G.K]

Well I'm pleased we eventually won but after a very good first 30 minutes the same lack of leadership and ideas and defensive lapses cost us.

Think we were lucky to win that game TBH as the disallowed try for the supposed high tackle was a bit ridiculous, as was awarding the penalty at the end for Lawes tripping over.

What concerns me is that I think we must have used up all of our 'get out of Gaol cards' by now and it could well cost us come the big matches to come.

[ellis9]

Agree that the high tackle call was dubious but the last penalty was 100% correct. Whether accidentally or not, Lawes "played the scrum half" so a penalty was correctly awarded. By trying to compete legally for the ball at the ruck, there's a chance you could get tripped or knocked over and fall in to the scrum half. You take that risk as Lawes did and it went against him.

[parkerd68]

Was anybody else witness to the delightful football style singing of some saints 'fans' in the plantagenet after the game?

I'd like to think I'm pretty tolerant of people but one person in particular seemed like he'd stumbled on the wrong sport.

[Ian Cant]

Great game in awful conditions. No moaning from me. Tigers showed, without several key players then after Williams, O'Connor got injured, that given time, a bit better luck with injuries and patience we are getting back to being a very good team.
Saints would always come back into the game as psychologically they have manage to turn things round against us in the last few games( I do not count last home game last year as they were resting players). We won today because at the end we had learnt the lessons from earlier on in the game. Barnes, who I really rate as a ref, had an off day today and there were lots of things not given for both sides eg: we took the ball back into the 22 in the first few minutes and cleared to touch- not picked up- in the second half Cole deliberately help back causing huge gap for Saints, Saints player, possibly Lawes, cleverly pushes McCaffery into Thomo when there wasn't much defence for the kick through etc.
Just a good old fashioned derby, fans great, players great, officials not quite at the races! And what a grin from Manu-who probably won us the game with his defensive effort.