Team's up: Tigers v London Irish

[Andy W]

A bit more focus today. A few players, if not the whole team, had a point to prove. Burns had one of his "on days".

I suppose one needs to take account of the opposition (apologies Irish, no offence intended), and despite all the substitution mayhem, and the fact that it didn't matter, Tigers probably want to think about how many tries they shd be shipping at home to such a side. Fortress Welford Road and all that. It made no difference, but the likes of Backy wd be shaking their heads and saying it is the principle, and we don't want to get into the habbits of giving up cheap points. Oh to be a defense coach!

Great to be back on track though, and the returning players seemed to lift things.

[Bristol Tiger]

Next week will be the litmus test if we are back on track or not.

Exeter (H)
Wasps (A)
Saracens (H)
Sale (A)

Is a nasty month of fixtures.

Agreed - although Exeter and Saracens have both been off the boil during the 6N (like us) - and given they are home games for us, hopefully we target and win them. Wasps away - that looks more scary (having just watched them demolish the same Harlequins team we lost to ...)

Going to be a tight finish to this Premiership season. At the moment 4th place would be an achievement!

[RagingBull]

Would go next week against Exeter
1) Ayerza
2) Youngs/Thacker
3) Balmain
4) Barrow
5) Fitzgerald
6) Williams
7) McCaffrey
8) Slater
9) Kitto
10) Burns
11) Thompstone
12) JDV
13) Manu
14) Betham
15) Tait

16) Thacker/Leo
17) Genge/Brugnara
18) Mulipola
19) Kitchener/De Chaves
20) Croft
21) Harrison
22) Bell
23) Veainu/Goneva

Harsh on Croft who played well but I want to see Williams sent to mark Waldrom and handle Ewers.

Harsh on Veainu but feel he needs a rest.

Kitto for me worked well with Burns who had his best game in a Tigers shirt IMO.

[The Boy Dave]

For all you twitter watchers, Tigers played well, I think Irish will go down, tough game for them and they got a bit of a Tigers backlash today but I just can't see them keeping games tight enough to get points.

[TigerCam]

Things are so much better when you have straight runners and can keep hold of the ball.

Next week will be the litmus test if we are back on track or not.

Exeter (H)
Wasps (A)
Saracens (H)
Sale (A)

Is a nasty month of fixtures.

+1 . Tigers can't afford to go to sleep as they did for the 2 of the LI trys. Any of the above will do some serious damage if they do. MInd you, against them being focused should not be a problem. Still nice to see some good combinations working

[tigercaspian]

Very disappointed I couldn't make the game today due to back troubles: missed a try rest obviously.

For next 4 games I am taking the view that we owe Exeter one, we owe Sarries one, we owe Sale one too, and I remember our terrific win at the Ricoh last season so four out of four then!

[G.K]

Only seen the score so obviously good result but any sign of the old Tigers spirit returning?

[jgriffin]

50 odd minutes of focused and incisive rugby. Disallowed try started a lowering of tension, multiple subs on, collapse of defence in the centre-left, Geraghty pulling the LI strings effectively - they scored 17 points and Ed had some words to say to the team - he was not a happy bunny. Think they'll get the last 20 mins thrown at them on Monday.

Kitto played well, Ed was good at 8 and enabled him to control and captain, Fitz did a good job, Thompstone, Tait and Veainu functioned well. Harry was good value and enabled the front-row to go low on the LI front. JDV was class, and showed it in both attack and defence.

I thought Goneva was poor value when he came on and the LI tries all went down the centre-left (their right wing). Goneva did not chase twice when Hearn broke through. Williams was back with some clatter, Manu did some excellent tackles but showed very little else.

Handling for 50 mins was excellent, sublime even. 70 mins of that would do most teams down, but not just 50!

Atmosphere in the ground was horribly flat for 23,000+.

[UpTheLowEnd]

50 odd minutes of focused and incisive rugby. Disallowed try started a lowering of tension, multiple subs on, collapse of defence in the centre-left, Geraghty pulling the LI strings effectively - they scored 17 points and Ed had some words to say to the team - he was not a happy bunny. Think they'll get the last 20 mins thrown at them on Monday.

Kitto played well, Ed was good at 8 and enabled him to control and captain, Fitz did a good job, Thompstone, Tait and Veainu functioned well. Harry was good value and enabled the front-row to go low on the LI front. JDV was class, and showed it in both attack and defence.

I thought Goneva was poor value when he came on and the LI tries all went down the centre-left (their right wing). Goneva did not chase twice when Hearn broke through. Williams was back with some clatter, Manu did some excellent tackles but showed very little else.

Handling for 50 mins was excellent, sublime even. 70 mins of that would do most teams down, but not just 50!

Atmosphere in the ground was horribly flat for 23,000+.

Not that you guys need my reaffirmation, but very accurate summary. Harrison look like he'd banished some demons as well.

[G.K]

Thanks for the analysis jg. Hope we can carry that forwards because we sure as hell will need to. Bit concerned though that Tigers are a 50/60 minute team, this has been a common trait recently.

[Roly]

I didn't see the game or watch the 'highlights' so can't comment on individual performances.

On the face of it that was an impressive result.

However, there's always room for improvement. Tigers conceded 3 tries, two of them in the last 15 minutes or so. That simply isn't good enough.

You can argue that Tigers made substitutions, the game was already won.... nonsense.

Look at Wasps this weekend. They put very nearly as many points on Quins but kept the opposition pegged to just 10 points. How? By playing, staying focussed and going hard for 80 minutes.

That's what Tigers should have done. You ship 20 points like that to LI (who certainly can play and defend when they want to) in the last quarter and better teams will take you to the cleaners.

I suspect Exeter will.

[The Boy Dave]

I didn't see the game or watch the 'highlights' so can't comment on individual performances.

On the face of it that was an impressive result.

However, there's always room for improvement. Tigers conceded 3 tries, two of them in the last 15 minutes or so. That simply isn't good enough.

You can argue that Tigers made substitutions, the game was already won.... nonsense.

Look at Wasps this weekend. They put very nearly as many points on Quins but kept the opposition pegged to just 10 points. How? By playing, staying focussed and going hard for 80 minutes.

That's what Tigers should have done. You ship 20 points like that to LI (who certainly can play and defend when they want to) in the last quarter and better teams will take you to the cleaners.

I suspect Exeter will.

Folk by me were realistic about the opposition.
I think Irish haven't picked a single point up away from home all season and it showed.
They must be favourites for the championship and looked like a championship side to be fair, if they retain their players though they will be back up quickly IMO.
Tigers did step off late on IMO and Irish had a bit of ball and could play a bit also which they did.
Talking to others we had some sympathy for Quins who have a shedload of players missing and the majority of opinion was that although obviously playing well the wasps have been one of the main beneficiaries of the six nations period.
Once the six nations is over it'll get very interesting!

[Grumpy of Crumbie]

In addition to the multiple substitutions being a contributing factor to the drop in defensive performance during the last 20, the fact that Manu and JDV were out on their feet didn't help. Not surprising given their lack of game time.

[jgriffin]

In addition to the multiple substitutions being a contributing factor to the drop in defensive performance during the last 20, the fact that Manu and JDV were out on their feet didn't help. Not surprising given their lack of game time.

the positive side to that was they both played throughout with big smiles on their faces, looked like they were pleased to be back.

[salcombe bob]

Well, I thought overall it was an improved performance and Matt Tait was good. I had a birthday pressie of Hospitality in the Honours room.

I had a complimentary bar, 4 course meal, light meal after game, free parking, and an excellent padded seat in the Met-Rx stand, halfway up (Row M), and dead on the halfway line. Fantastic.

Even had my birthday read out at half time.

A great day out.