Tigers v Glasgow

[Big Dai]

I regret to say I've not cheered up any since last night and am now undergoing ritual humiliation in the "One Eyed Turk". Hard to bear as Albert the Osprey appears to have developed an accent closer to Rab C Nesbitt than Max Boyce.

So what of it? As a side we are unbalanced. Two world class props I feel are on the decline and the replacements not up to scratch, The stand in hooker chosen last night is not as big as his heart, which counts for a lot, but not in European Rugby. Second row is where we have riches, a shame that some of the best have to double up as 6s because of Injury. We have a two good 7s,one who has to play at 8 because we got rid of our natural ball carriers who should play there.

Scrum half? Ok going forwards, Fly half? OK. Centres are wings, full backs and fly halves playing out of position and we have riches in the back three. Manu, I fear will never be back to what he was.

Worst of all there is no leadership on the pitch. Brains could not have been more fried last night than if they were locally sourced Mars bars.

Coaching, the DOR is a damn fine forwards coach and the coach seems to want to play pass the hand bag.

We need:-

A DOR in the Woodward mould. Calm, do the right thing under pressure philosophy and less of the headless chuck.......in both senses of the word.

An Anthony Allan figure in midfield, an organiser and a general.

A balanced back row. Something along the lines of Back, Wells, Richards. Complimentary skills and guile.

Apart from that everything's fine then.

PS: Serves you right for living in Wales.

Yep..............Dwayne Dibley is alive and well.

P.S. There is nothing worse than suffering the mick being taken out of you by a Welshman with a "Mock Jock" accent.............aye.

[SIBARITE]

The coaching team choose who get contracts.

It's not just the coaching team that deal with contracts. Simon Cohen has a large part to play and values the financial side over what is good for the playing side and frankly it stinks. I know for a fact that Laurence Pearce was told by the club that a contract wasn't available and when he signed for Sale, Tigers came back and said 'why have you done that, because we were going to renew your contract'. Basically they were going to string him along to the last minute and then hope to get him at a bargain price.

SC's arrogance has spread to the rest of the coaching side and so if there is to be a change in coaching, he has to go too.

+1

[Hot_Charlie]

You've summed up my feelings to a tee, apart from LH. Other than Thompstone I thought Genge came out of the game with credit. The only time our scrum went south was when Logo came on, which was a suicidal sub at a 5m scrum when we'd had parity to that point.

Thompstone, Genge and McCaffrey again came out with credit. Same names keep appearing.

Glasgow seem to have developed this weird concept that the aim of the scrum is to get the ball to the back and then out, not go searching for penalties. This needs to be nipped in the bud by the authorities, obviously!

The Mulipola substitution can only be described as a calamity. Toomua a week or two too early.

[chewbacca]

We need coaching on how to win the breakdown. Specialist coaching for that arena. If we keep giving up the ball at the breakdown (turnovers, penalties etc) then we will be lucky to finish mid table in the prem and 4th in the euro.

[Bristol Tiger]

Worst of all there is no leadership on the pitch. Brains could not have been more fried last night than if they were locally sourced Mars bars.

Agreed and this is where some of our senior players need to take a long look at themselves. Perhaps telling that we seem to have a new captain every season, and then rotate for games. I expect more leadership from Tom and Ben Youngs, Kitchener, Tait, to name a few. These are all long-time Tigers players, pros, and should be leading the team. I see very little on pitch communication. We do miss a Martin Johnson figure, or even a Martin Corry!

We need:-

A DOR in the Woodward mould. Calm, do the right thing under pressure philosophy and less of the headless chuck.......in both senses of the word.

An Anthony Allan figure in midfield, an organiser and a general.

A balanced back row. Something along the lines of Back, Wells, Richards. Complimentary skills and guile.

Isn't Woodward on our board? Could he stand in for the rest of the season???

Was hoping Matt Toomua would be that calming, defence organiser. Still hoping!

Others have said this already, we don't have a big ball carrying number 8, otherwise we have lots of variety for 6 and 7. Having said that, if we play the way we appear to want to play, I don't think the lack of a ball carrying 8 is an issue. However, our "all team" action game is non-existent so having a few big ball carriers to run straight and hard would certainly help now.

[biffer]

It could be worse. Worcester just lost in Russia.

[Maidman]

It could be worse. Worcester just lost in Russia.

Sadly, that is one of the few rugby events so far this weekend to make me smile!

[joeybside]

The coaching team choose who get contracts.

It's not just the coaching team that deal with contracts. Simon Cohen has a large part to play and values the financial side over what is good for the playing side and frankly it stinks. I know for a fact that Laurence Pearce was told by the club that a contract wasn't available and when he signed for Sale, Tigers came back and said 'why have you done that, because we were going to renew your contract'. Basically they were going to string him along to the last minute and then hope to get him at a bargain price.

SC's arrogance has spread to the rest of the coaching side and so if there is to be a change in coaching, he has to go too.

And the key extra to this, Mauger had him in his plans for this season and wasn't told about his departure until it happened

[wormus]

Thompstone, Genge and McCaffrey again came out with credit. Same names keep appearing.
The Mulipola substitution can only be described as a calamity. Toomua a week or two too early.

Yes the introduction of Mulipola at that critical time and his subsequent carding were a mauger error.
To me it looked like the two MT's Mat Tait & Matt Toomua only introduced themselves on the Charter flight up to Glasgow as they were totally lost on the field.
Hurry up BGO1 I cannot wait to post the "Ratings for the Glasgow game"

[kend]

The coaching team choose who get contracts.

It's not just the coaching team that deal with contracts. Simon Cohen has a large part to play and values the financial side over what is good for the playing side and frankly it stinks. I know for a fact that Laurence Pearce was told by the club that a contract wasn't available and when he signed for Sale, Tigers came back and said 'why have you done that, because we were going to renew your contract'. Basically they were going to string him along to the last minute and then hope to get him at a bargain price.

SC's arrogance has spread to the rest of the coaching side and so if there is to be a change in coaching, he has to go too.

And the key extra to this, Mauger had him in his plans for this season and wasn't told about his departure until it happened

That's easy to say. Cohen has to manage the finances both within the cap and within what the club can sustain. Paying every player what their agent demands just isn't possible. Sometimes the judgement calls you make in negotiation will go awry.

[Hot_Charlie]

Thompstone, Genge and McCaffrey again came out with credit. Same names keep appearing.
The Mulipola substitution can only be described as a calamity. Toomua a week or two too early.

Yes the introduction of Mulipola at that critical time and his subsequent carding were a mauger error.

I see what you did there!

[TigerCam]

We need coaching on how to win the breakdown. Specialist coaching for that arena. If we keep giving up the ball at the breakdown (turnovers, penalties etc) then we will be lucky to finish mid table in the prem and 4th in the euro.

The Tigers need coaching - period!!

[Tigerbeat]

A post taken from Facebook....some may have seen it....

"I am fed up with all the comments I am reading as it seems so many people expected Glasgow to be the whipping boys in our group. On top of this a number of players and their families are on these groups and we need to get behind them and back them or we could be in a bigger mess. Unfortunately the players did not have the solutions to be able to cope with Glasgow who I thought played some great rugby and took us on from the start. It's clear to see we are work in progress and something is not working right but these thing don't gel and resolve over night.

I am shocked that people wrote Glasgow off before we played them with their recent pedigree.
Never underestimate anyone especially when they have had great form at home.

Two seasons ago they won the Pro 12 in 2014/15 then last season 2015/16 lost in the play offs away at Connacht after a poor start to the season with missing 21 players due to World Cup duty but finally finishing in third on 72 points below Connaught and Leinster both on 73 so just missed out on a home tie which would have been a big help to them after what I saw last night they have agreed following. To make things harder for them their ground was flooded and a lot of home fixtures were played elsewhere including giving up home advantage in the game against Edinburgh.

In Europe last year 15/16 they beat finalists Racing 92 at home and were leading away against Northampton Saints until a last minute Try from Harry Mallinder.

The year before 14/15 they beat Bath 37-10 at home with 5 tries (the same year bath reached the Prem Final and tore tigers apart). As well as beating Montpellier Home and Away. In that season Bath won their group and Glasgow got a loosing bonus point off them away as well.

In 2013/14 they beat Exeter home and away against Toulon got a losing Bonus point at home and even more remarkable got a four try bonus point at the Stade Mayol finished 3rd in pro 12 and lost in the Final against Leinster at the RDS.

What I am trying to say is we were beaten by a team that has bean consistent for 3 seasons and at their home where their great support is behind them to lift and drive them closer to victory.

The final result does not quite represent the closeness of the game, when Tigers were behind in the last quarter and chasing to get something from the trip. This caused us to take risks that led to Glasgow having an additional couple of tries. I thought the penalties in the first half cost us dearly when silly errors meant we were suddenly 30-40 meters back up the pitch.
On top of that poor decision making for example we had a passage of play if at least 10 phases where we then kicked the ball aimlessly away.

If you had asked me before the game I thought we would have been lucky to come away with a bonus point. Unfortunately we came away with nothing.

Positives from the night include Genge carrying well and great support play, Slater made a impact from the bench and so did Harrison and Thompston.
Where do we go from here cut the stupid penalties, don't let opposition get in our heads and dominate us as this led to us being outplayed, better defence around the fringes, control the game and to be more clinical with our decision making.

Tigers will regroup and come back stronger which we hope to see on Sunday. As they say beware of a wounded Tiger."

[MrPartridge]

OK so I don't disagree with everything in that Facebook post. Glasgow are a force at home.

But my overriding comment to the poster is, make a sentence out of these words:

Cracks, your, over, papering, the

[G.K]

Tigers a work in progress? I've been hearing this excuse for several seasons now. The article is just a collection of excuses and attempts to paper over some serious deficiencies in Tiger's recruitment and playing style.

Getting beaten by a better team on the day can happen. Playing shoolboy like rugby and throwing in the towel though is not acceptable and is what has been happening all too often over recent seasons.

All just my opinion of course.