Tigers v Wasps

[g]

Maybe to many overseas players being employed who don't have the Tigers ethos and are only at the club for the pay check. Maybe it's time to give Harry Thacker and Will Evans a chance again as they will play their hearts out for the shirt. Something I feel the more experienced players are failing to do. To me it seems that there are to many players that are undroppable because of reputation. Now's the time to start playing those guys who will give blood for their mates not those that are here just for the wedge of cash.

[RagingBull]

Falcons team for me
1) Genge
2) Youngs
3) Cole
4) Barrow
5) Kitchener
6) Williams
7) O'Connor
8) McCaffrey
9) Youngs
10) Burns
11) Betham/JPP
12) Smith
13) Manu/Betham (Depending on manu's actual fitness)
14) Thompstone
15) JPP/Tait

16) Thacker/McGuigan
17) Ayerza
18) Balmain/Logo
19) Fitzgerald
20) Hamilton/Evans (Would be tempted to go with Evans to attack the breakdown
21) Harrison
22) Williams
23) Worth

Might include Barrow if fit, seems to be prepared to do grunt work.

hence why i have him starting

Side note do we need to look to bring in another Forwards coach aswell? I mean Blaze isn't exactly experienced is he really.

[strawclearer]

If we assume Cockers sees the light and 'rests' Matt Tait, where's our 15?

Veainu?
JPP?
Thompstone?

or...Owen Williams? (..who I thought should have replaced Tait at half-time today.)

(I deliberately didn't suggest Thacker or Harrison. This is no time for levity!)

[RagingBull]

If we assume Cockers sees the light and 'rests' Matt Tait, where's our 15?

Veainu?
JPP?
Thompstone?

or...Owen Williams?

JPP I guess played a couple of games for the boks there a while back.

Veainu is out for a bit i think.

[g]

That's a really good idea. Can we please swap our coaches for Saracens coaches please. They teach the players how to defend and so they are very scrooge like when giving points away to the opposition.

[Andy W]

It wasn't totally obvious what was behind the ineffective kicking plan, in the first half. Certainly no effort was made during the first 40 to evolve the approach or at least to adapt to the fact that it was proving impotent as a strategy.

Still, Tigers weren't looking after the ball very well, and were maybe too ambitious, and in the wrong parts of the pitch (again), so...perhaps the majority kicking game wasn't the worst approach, it just didn't seem to lead to any "red zone" pressure.

[TigerCam]

Wasps. were better,. they won we lost??

[baz1664]

No game plan, errors galore gifting tries, no team spirit or leadership, worrying times for tigers, Tait awful, Slater looks lost, no line speed, plod plod and knock on, As someone said earlier JPP was the only positive, gave it all and always wants to be in the game, think we were saying this last season, no change!!!!

[sapajo]

After that dross I am struggling to see just how much we have improved and evolved under Mauger and his second mandated lieutenant namely our skills and defence coach Scott Hansen. Today was like deja vu as I feel like somehow we have seen this all before and have in fact gone backwards. To many handling mistakes, mindless decision making and tackling is now optional. Very displeased that after having had a season to bed in the so called new systems we are still whistling in the wind. Rant over!

[tigercaspian]

Wasps won because (a) they were much more aggressive at the breakdown (b) generally more committed and (c) made less mistakes than us.
But, actually they weren't much good either, also coughed up ball and kicked aimlessly. Neither Gopperth or Burns should be starting if their kicking percentages are going to be at today's level.
I thought it was a poor game between two poor sides with the apparent usual help from Mr Garner. Agree with the poster who said we can't blame Sir for everything, but his prevarication over Betham's deliberate knock-on via his nail polish saw me leave the game early for the first time as a season ticket holder.
I shall watch the recording for breakfast tomorrow and see what other gems I can find apart from Burns' kick and catch which did lead to a try, and JPP's excellent all round contribution. He gives the lie to the comment that our overseas players are not pulling their weight.

[jgriffin]

Let's get the reffing out of the way. GG and the TJs were poor in certain areas, especially persistent offside and diving into breakdowns by Wasps - often 2/3 players off their feet (they 'wanted it more than us' and were allowed to do so mostly illegally, but in a way that is now routinely ignored). Otherwise nothing out of the AP ordinary (e.g. no idea at scrumtime), and certainly not a grim reffing performance from GG.

Tigers first half were poor, Wasps not much better. JPP was a gem, Burns OK, breakdown work was potentially good but nullified by said diving.

Ball retention - abysmal.

Second half, nothing better for 10-15 mins and then Wasps got very ragged as our backrow seemed to be winning the contact battle, regardless of Wasps subs. With 7.30 mins to go we were 5 points down and looking at a 10m attacking lineout.

From that point it became one long embarrassing collective brainfart. Wasps were not that good TBH, it's just we were awful.

My conclusion goes with Raging Bull and others, we are 3-4 players short of a coherent side. We are playing very flat and reckless at times, like the worst of MOC era, as well as not focusing on the area either side of the breakdown and building phases.

Finally - why do we give ball away so often instead of retainng it and building. IMO Tait is becoming very one-dimensional, as are our backs in general apart from JPP and Burns (for better or worse today).

[Spicer]

Is the rating thing up yet?

[jgriffin]

Is the rating thing up yet?

I think he need to load small enough numbers.

[Alatoruk]

... but his prevarication over Betham's deliberate knock-on via his nail polish ...
gems ... Burns' kick and catch which did lead to a try, and JPP's excellent all round contribution. He gives the lie to the comment that our overseas players are not pulling their weight.

+1

on the good news side a lot of teams have also won one + lost one in first 2 weekends. yes we strive to be better than 'a lot of teams' but last weeks 5 points will put us in the top half of them.

[Old Hob]

I'll just mention Genge as the archetype of players out there today. Came on, was aggressive, did some good things then commits a stupid, unnecessary, blatant foul under Sir's nose and guarantees that we don't even get the losing bonus point. All his good work undone because he is unable to think clearly under pressure (Thank you Sir Clive). Of course the happy brigade will argue that this was a tactical retreat to lull the rest of the Premiership into writing us off and so they won't be expecting it when we go into a telephone box and put our Superman suits on.