Teams up v Gloucester

[JackFlashJonny]

My thoughts from watching this game twice are as follows:

Genge- So happy we have him he is a powerhouse
The bench- Our strength and class here was so evident and is great to see
Harrison- Was a very good performance
Matt Smith- The defence once Manu went off in the centres was a different beast and Smith's counter rucking was top notch..Still don't like our options at 12 bar Toomua we are very short there..
Hamilton- expected more from him worried we have found Crane mark 2 but I will give him time- for me Williams is our frontline 6 anyway
Slater- looked rusty early doors and gave away penalties but he will get better
Manu- Not a 12 and never will be get him back smashing things at 13
Tait- Will never be the player I once adored but still a much better player than this..15 is one of the best attacking positions for me so to have someone that rarely breaks the line is a disappointment
The back row balance wasn't great and we missed a ball carrying threat (this may be the theme this year in my opinion) however O'Connor is a great player as Evans will be and McCafferey was valiant and made some very good breaks.

The way we came back was excellent and I had a nice little in play bet once we went down as I know our club is made of excellent metal (combined with Glos being..well..Glos)

Will be very interesting to see how we get on against Wasps

[Roly]

Some excellent analysis here: http://www.rugbyworld.com/countries/eng ... back-69141

Never seen this before - you are absolutely correct - it is a brilliant analysis of the play and what the players did and their reasons for doing it.

Just had some fun by reading the shedweb for the first time this year - they are not happy but have worked out some good reasons why they lost - no goal kick 8 mins from the end and a bench which is not good enough. There cannot be a club anywhere in the world who has a better front row and replacement front row than the one we have - doesn't make a team but goes a long way towards it.

It is a good analysis but makes you wonder why they couldn't play like that for the 1st 50 minutes.

[Doghashadhisday]

Ayerza is past it in terms of his peak, time for Genge to start and for Ayerza to give 20 mins off bench.

Your unfounded bias is showing through again. Ayerza played really well and ran himself into the ground. Interestingly he made the Aviva Premiership team of the week not Genge.

[mol2]

It may be that they are going to rotate the starting props with Ayerza starting when Cole is on the bench and vice versa so that they have one experienced international with a youngster on the other side rather than the two big boys starting and the inexperienced ones coming off the bench together?

[Doghashadhisday]

It may be that they are going to rotate the starting props with Ayerza starting when Cole is on the bench and vice versa so that they have one experienced international with a youngster on the other side rather than the two big boys starting and the inexperienced ones coming off the bench together?

Now that makes sense.

[SIBARITE]

It may be that they are going to rotate the starting props with Ayerza starting when Cole is on the bench and vice versa so that they have one experienced international with a youngster on the other side rather than the two big boys starting and the inexperienced ones coming off the bench together?

Now that makes sense.

Bateman is 27 so hardly a youngster.

[Soggypitch]

It may be that they are going to rotate the starting props with Ayerza starting when Cole is on the bench and vice versa so that they have one experienced international with a youngster on the other side rather than the two big boys starting and the inexperienced ones coming off the bench together?

Now that makes sense.

Bateman is 27 so hardly a youngster.

We will also have Logo and Cilliers in the mix shortly. Not for a long time have we had such strength in depth in the front row. No more experiences like last year at Allianz Park for us!!

[darganj]

Ayerza is past it in terms of his peak, time for Genge to start and for Ayerza to give 20 mins off bench.

Your unfounded bias is showing through again. Ayerza played really well and ran himself into the ground. Interestingly he made the Aviva Premiership team of the week not Genge.

So so wrong. Genge made the Times team of the week and not Ayerza...... Both are completely irrelevant.

Even if our team had a balanced 4-8 with two decent ball carriers, I would still prefer Genge. Ayerza is technically great, he doesn't cost us many scrum penalties but he doesn't win us many either these days versus 3-4 years ago. Genge is just as effective in the scrum, rarely costs us a penalty and wins the odd one or 2 like Ayerza.

Round the park, they are different animals. Ayerza is a decent dog of a prop and gets through his graft. Genge on the other hand dominates and people are scared of him. I think he is the best carrier in our pack, excellent tackler and seriously good mauler.

We are plenty of dogs in our pack to do donkey work, we need a big hitting ball carrier to get our attack moving

Combined with our lack of ball carriers from 4-8, Barrow is the only decent one, Genge's selection is absolutely essential.

We need more go forward. Then we can bring JPP and Betham etc into the game.

[SIBARITE]

"People are scared of him" What planet are you on? Its the Premiership. Are you setting him up to be a target?

[darganj]

"People are scared of him" What planet are you on? Its the Premiership. Are you setting him up to be a target?

It doesn't matter if its the Premiership or not.

Just as Saints backs used to dread having Bruce Reihana in contact training (ref Ashton's book and many forum posts), Moody dreaded having Henry Tuilagi (ref his autobiography) running at him in contact or many many others. People are still human.

Genge is a fear factor, he's an exceptionally hard bloke who enjoys hurting people on the pitch and running over them. Exactly what our pack needs.

[SIBARITE]

"People are scared of him" What planet are you on? Its the Premiership. Are you setting him up to be a target?

It doesn't matter if its the Premiership or not.

Just as Saints backs used to dread having Bruce Reihana in contact training (ref Ashton's book and many forum posts), Moody dreaded having Henry Tuilagi (ref his autobiography) running at him in contact or many many others. People are still human.

Genge is a fear factor, he's an exceptionally hard bloke who enjoys hurting people on the pitch and running over them. Exactly what our pack needs.

So at 21 its not man but superman! Hyperbole at its worst. Give the lad a chance.

[G.K]

Only been able to see the highlights (what's happened with Premiershiprugby.tv this season? ) so it's difficult to make much of a comment other than that Tigers appear to be the Jekyll and Hyde of Rugby these days.

Definately played one of the get out of gaol cards already (how many do we get?) and I doubt other teams will be so generous in future games.

[maroontrunks]

I only managed to watch the whole game yesterday (saw the last 15 minutes or so in the pub after choir practice) and initially I was wondering why everyone was saying how woeful we were in the first half. The defence looked pretty solid and the moves slick. Then oh dear it all seemed to fall apart, maybe for about 5-10 minutes. I don't think the 'flawed defensive system' comments are accurate, as surely the defensive system has nothing to do with Tait's errors (I think they were just errors, not part of any strategy) or Manu rushing out of the line (I think he's just struggling positionally at 12 and clearly out of practice) I think Manu will be a superb player again for us when he finds a run of fitness (hopefully!) as there were certainly flashes of it last season. Against Wasps everything just needs to be tight, drawing on the positives of the Gloucester match, I thought Burns and Harrison managed the game very effectively, and there was some real grunt work going on in the carries from Genge, Bateman and especially McCaffrey, who seemed to be everywhere. I thought O'Connor and Pietersen seemed to have some sort of telepathy going on, some great link play between them and they seemed to have equivalent roles in the pack and the backs of tidying up and making intelligent decisions about positioning. I think Pietersen will be a real stalwart, he is pure class. I really don't think it will take an awful lot of effort just to cut out the silly errors and I believe we will compete hard with Wasps.