Leicester Tigers 2016/17 Squad/Transfers/Contract thread 3

[sam16111986]

TomWeston
Just watching the tv replay. At the same time Short(??) took the scoring pass on the far side of the field HT was still being held down by Ewers, HT having tackled the round the corner Chief from that off the top line out ball and then been smothered by Ewers

Which is my point.
Who was dominant!

Yeah fancy Thacker not being able to fight off a man mountain after making one tackle to run the width of the pitch to make another. So obvious the seven has to make every single tackle. Tait carries the sole blame for that try.

What it should tell you is that Ewers was instructed or decided from how the game was going that Thacker had to be targeted. Generally you target a player to be held off the ball when they're making positive impacts when they get near it.

[Offside]

I heard recently an interview on the Rugby Dungeon podcast archive, I think it was the one with Jamie Gibson, where tactics for the breakdown were discussed. It was suggested that if a player was interfering at the breakdown and jackling the ball as the second man in the best thing for the opposition side to do was to target them and run at them so they became the first tackler and then hold them in the ruck so they could not get to the next breakdown allowing good fast ball from the next ruck. Some interesting sneeky tactics get dropped into some of the podcast interviews.

[TomWeston]

Yeah fancy Thacker not being able to fight off a man mountain after making one tackle to run the width of the pitch to make another. So obvious the seven has to make every single tackle. Tait carries the sole blame for that try.

Precisely - I used the term 'smothered' because Ewers wasn't just holding HT down, he was still lying on him! It did mean that Ewers wasn't on hand to support the next phase but Short had Matt Tait to help him out that time.

What it should tell you is that Ewers was instructed or decided from how the game was going that Thacker had to be targeted. Generally you target a player to be held off the ball when they're making positive impacts when they get near it.

I think HT probably came out on top in that little duel - he chopped Ewers down several times when Ewers had built up quite a head of steam; no mean feat, Harry showed great technique.

[BFG]

Yeah fancy Thacker not being able to fight off a man mountain after making one tackle to run the width of the pitch to make another. So obvious the seven has to make every single tackle. Tait carries the sole blame for that try.

Precisely - I used the term 'smothered' because Ewers wasn't just holding HT down, he was still lying on him! It did mean that Ewers wasn't on hand to support the next phase but Short had Matt Tait to help him out that time.

What it should tell you is that Ewers was instructed or decided from how the game was going that Thacker had to be targeted. Generally you target a player to be held off the ball when they're making positive impacts when they get near it.

I think HT probably came out on top in that little duel - he chopped Ewers down several times when Ewers had built up quite a head of steam; no mean feat, Harry showed great technique.

All sounds very good but give me a Lewis Moody instead to smash the wind out of Ewers first up any day, stop it at source and don't allow the rest to happen.
That pretty much sums up Leicester's failures against the top teams recently, it's about the gain line and momentum!
On topic I think it likely he'll move on anyway if guaranteed first choice is what he is after as I don't think he'll get that promise here, and rightly so!

[Tiglon]

BFG, what have you got against Thacker? Did he run over your cat or something?

Every player gets held down off the ball on a regular basis, it doesn't mean they're too small. It's become part of the game, that when your team has the ball you take every opportunity to hold down or hold back any opposition player you can, especially around the breakdown as it is almost never punished.

It happens to Vunipola, to Stander, to Itoje, to Retallick - does that mean they are too small to play top level rugby?

Regardless of what Thacker does in that situation, and how powerful or strong he is, 9 times out of 10 Ewers will still at the very least be pulling him back by the shirt.

Quite frankly, your argument is ridiculous, as is your bizarre and continual over the top criticism of Thacker.

[BFG]

BFG, what have you got against Thacker? Did he run over your cat or something?

Every player gets held down off the ball on a regular basis, it doesn't mean they're too small. It's become part of the game, that when your team has the ball you take every opportunity to hold down or hold back any opposition player you can, especially around the breakdown as it is almost never punished.

It happens to Vunipola, to Stander, to Itoje, to Retallick - does that mean they are too small to play top level rugby?

Regardless of what Thacker does in that situation, and how powerful or strong he is, 9 times out of 10 Ewers will still at the very least be pulling him back by the shirt.

Quite frankly, your argument is ridiculous, as is your bizarre and continual over the top criticism of Thacker.

[/quote][/quote]

Folk seem to think I have an issue with players like Thacker, well yes I do actually, they aren't good enough, it's as simple as that and given the manner of defeats we have suffered I don't think it's entirely unreasonable to possess such an opinion.
He's a very good player but one of many very good players, that doesn't necessarily mean he is the right sort of player.

[Hinckley Bob]

Folk seem to think I have an issue with players like Thacker, well yes I do actually, they aren't good enough, it's as simple as that and given the manner of defeats we have suffered I don't think it's entirely unreasonable to possess such an opinion.
He's a very good player but one of many very good players, that doesn't necessarily mean he is the right sort of player.

If we are looking for fall guys for the worst defeats of the season, Harry can be excluded as he did not start in any of them and appeared as a replacement in only 3 of the 8.

[BFG]

Folk seem to think I have an issue with players like Thacker, well yes I do actually, they aren't good enough, it's as simple as that and given the manner of defeats we have suffered I don't think it's entirely unreasonable to possess such an opinion.
He's a very good player but one of many very good players, that doesn't necessarily mean he is the right sort of player.

If we are looking for fall guys for the worst defeats of the season, Harry can be excluded as he did not start in any of them and appeared as a replacement in only 3 of the 8.

Make no mistake he is not alone in my opinion of players not good enough, I agree the pack has been shown to be powder puff even in Thacker's absence as well as in his presence.

[Hinckley Bob]

Folk seem to think I have an issue with players like Thacker, well yes I do actually, they aren't good enough, it's as simple as that and given the manner of defeats we have suffered I don't think it's entirely unreasonable to possess such an opinion.
He's a very good player but one of many very good players, that doesn't necessarily mean he is the right sort of player.

If we are looking for fall guys for the worst defeats of the season, Harry can be excluded as he did not start in any of them and appeared as a replacement in only 3 of the 8.

Make no mistake he is not alone in my opinion of players not good enough, I agree the pack has been shown to be powder puff even in Thacker's absence as well as in his presence.

I am in agreement that we have been underpowered this year but Thackers efforts on Sunday cannot be underestimated. Heavyweight forwards might stop players in their tracks more effectively but they would not be back on their feet to fill gaps when the tackled player had offloaded, the way that Harry was. The game is getting faster and players like Harry are valuable.

[Loob19]

Guess we must be expecting a rash of signing news now that we know who the coach is?

[BFG]

Hinckley Bob
I am in agreement that we have been underpowered this year but Thackers efforts on Sunday cannot be underestimated. Heavyweight forwards might stop players in their tracks more effectively but they would not be back on their feet to fill gaps when the tackled player had offloaded, the way that Harry was. The game is getting faster and players like Harry are valuable.

I've got nothing against the more mobile forward player in fact one of my current favourites is Michael Hooper who is not exactly a man mountain but he is very aggressive on the gain line and physically he wants to dominate in the tackle and has the ability to do so.
Leicester this past couple of years just concede too much on the gain line and against the best teams filled with top players it's just wave after wave of pressure.
IMO the HT project has been a disaster for the clubs continued development with a loss in attitude that has filtered through into the rest of the pack to the point Leicester have lost their way recently, but there are also positives IMO as RC made a few very shrewd young signings before he was sacked to begin to rebuild upon.
We have young Genge, McGuigan, Barrow, Evans and Hamilton and also Wells has shown some promise as a potential lock or 6 if he can keep improving and I thought young Maskymiw also looked to have some potential, it's not all bad, but IMO moving forward Leicester need to be adding to that bunch and not reducing it's physical capability!

[TTRITH]

In an ill-advised attempt to bring this thread roundly back on topic...

Has there been any mention of who the forwards coach will be in the new regime. I was told at the Stoop that Boris is aiming to return to Coventry for the new season, so I'm assuming an ex front row forward will come in, with the potential of Geoff P (according to accounts) coaching the line-out alongside playing and Brett to continue with the defense?

[jgriffin]

In an ill-advised attempt to bring this thread roundly back on topic...

Has there been any mention of who the forwards coach will be in the new regime. I was told at the Stoop that Boris is aiming to return to Coventry for the new season, so I'm assuming an ex front row forward will come in, with the potential of Geoff P (according to accounts) coaching the line-out alongside playing and Brett to continue with the defense?

It will be interesting to see who of the ex-players remain or sign up....I didn't expect Boris to stop. It is possible that one or two faces won't fit.

[Rykard]

I was always under the impression that he was the bad cop to cockers' good cop. That is not what rugby tonight suggested, they suggested he may be too nice.. it will be very interesting to see how this goes...

[jgriffin]

I was always under the impression that he was the bad cop to cockers' good cop. That is not what rugby tonight suggested, they suggested he may be too nice.. it will be very interesting to see how this goes...

Yep, that's what I was told too. My informants, now 4 years ago, said he was blunt and combative.