Bath vs Tigers

[TigerCam]

Didn't get to see the game but to come away with 2 points is more than I thought the Tigers would get. Giving the youngsters a go at the 'sharp end' is what it is all about giving the coaches a chance to see them play under pressure. All this comparison stuff is insignificant, it is how the Tigers fronted up as a team and from what I read they did well for themselves given the stats. A 4-17 penalty count and only 1/3 possession it should have been a drubbing?

[jgriffin]

I didn't expect them to come close and was very pleasantly surprised. From the second scrum, Auterac immediately dropped his head under Baumann and bored in. While that would only have happened once against Cole, every scrum from that point followed the same pattern. At one point, before the ball had gone in, Auterac's backside was at 60 degrees and the 6 likewise. Betts got the same treatment. For me, that was the first point the game turned on and why Bath kept the same front row, the ref stopped looking, frankly. The second point was being able to bring Mercer and Stooke on.
Tigers looked very dangerous on the break and while you can coach better defence, you can only encourage that level of expression and interplay. Very promising, indeed.

[Scott11]

Baths second and thirds? Really?! In some positions yes but a few first choice XV as well as 23 too! Completely right to get excited,that was 5/6 choice in some positions,great learning curve against a team with vast AP experience as well as European and International caps. Typical downlaying by some,I give up!

[Mark62]

Baths second and thirds? Really?! In some positions yes but a few first choice XV as well as 23 too! Completely right to get excited,that was 5/6 choice in some positions,great learning curve against a team with vast AP experience as well as European and International caps. Typical downlaying by some,I give up!

Completely agree Scott and the 2 points keep us well in the hunt for semi final qualification.

[JP14]

Yes Traynor, Tuohy and Baumann are experienced internationals but have had little game time at Leicester and the likes of Thompstone are just returning from injury. Really nice to see that the club is giving these chances to our development/academy players and want to prove that we can produce quality graduates again like when we had the likes of Croft, the Youngs brothers, Cole and Tuilagi come through our ranks.

I was impressed with Reffell and I hope we can keep him from being tempted to the Welsh regions.

[TheRock]

Baths second and thirds? Really?! In some positions yes but a few first choice XV as well as 23 too! Completely right to get excited,that was 5/6 choice in some positions,great learning curve against a team with vast AP experience as well as European and International caps. Typical downlaying by some,I give up!

Completely agree with this, it's a shame some people don't enjoy a good performance from a lot of young academy players.

[Scott11]

Two people agreeing with me? Time for a lie down lol! Simmons looks the business too,is he a SH who can play FB or vice versa? Nice to have 4 genuine scoring wingers too! I'd like to see Malouf at 13 for the next two games though,I'd hate to see Holmes dropped because I think he would be the casualty sadly, Thompstone is a very good player in all areas.

[Mark62]

Yes Traynor, Tuohy and Baumann are experienced internationals but have had little game time at Leicester and the likes of Thompstone are just returning from injury. Really nice to see that the club is giving these chances to our development/academy players and want to prove that we can produce quality graduates again like when we had the likes of Croft, the Youngs brothers, Cole and Tuilagi come through our ranks.

I was impressed with Reffell and I hope we can keep him from being tempted to the Welsh regions.

I was impressed with Reffell too very much in the Sam Underhill mood.
And Ben White has to be George Fords brother from another mother

[JP14]

Two people agreeing with me? Time for a lie down lol! Simmons looks the business too,is he a SH who can play FB or vice versa? Nice to have 4 genuine scoring wingers too! I'd like to see Malouf at 13 for the next two games though,I'd hate to see Holmes dropped because I think he would be the casualty sadly, Thompstone is a very good player in all areas.

I agree with you to Scott however I’m not convinced Malouf is a 13 but Thompstone can play there

[BFG]

I was disappointed with Leicester apart from the outside backs who I thought kept Leicester in the game.
I didn't think the gulf so great beforehand!
Bath had plenty of younger blokes about, Stooke is 24 and Wells is old enough, Mercer 20 and Fred is surely 20, their other flanker didn't look very old, scrum half didn't look very old, Max Clark is only just turned 22, they probably had a slight edge in years as Leicester seemed to have a few more around 18/19, but I thought some of those like Simmons shone brightest anyway so that was positive!
Burns is now the AWC top points scorer, probably a good reason why that is the case and he was not MOM In my opinion.
Downplaying it? Yes I think so!
Excited? No not really other than the outside backs!
Regarding the forwards? Concerned and rightly so on that performance, the scrum struggled all evening, I wouldn't necessarily blame the young blokes in the front row who finished the game, something looked badly missing in that area at the end, not much weight behind them with Masymiw off and Lewis in there who did very little again IMO!
There are many improvements that need making, Fred T struggled under pressure and I thought the scrum half went missing as the pressure increased, they could learn that with experience or not but that's the kind of pressure they'll face regularly in the Premiership IMO, time will tell!
Very sorry if that upsets a few but that's how I saw it and on reflection I don't think it so far fetched to be fair!

[Scott11]

Using ages puts a huge hole in your analysis straight away, experience is a far,far better reference to work from.

[Scott11]

Comparing Mercer and Freddy T because they are both 20 when one is a multiple time U20 England captain with plenty of AP experience and has played in both CC and RCC while one has played about 5 AWC from memory,I'm not gonna bother replying anymore,good day!

[BFG]

I take it as a positive that I don't quite see things the same as yourself, and often even more so that we are further apart!
I'm reminded of the occasion that you called Fred T garbage Scott, he struggled last night IMO but then an 8 can struggle when his pack is struggling, still the test is how you get out of it and they will either learn or they won't!
Age is just a number, as Mercer showed and equally as Simmons showed, scrum half last week and full back last night, absolutely outstanding!
But I really do appreciate you not replying, I really do, so thanks for that!

[TomWeston]

...From the second scrum, Auterac immediately dropped his head under Baumann and bored in. While that would only have happened once against Cole, every scrum from that point followed the same pattern. At one point, before the ball had gone in, Auterac's backside was at 60 degrees and the 6 likewise. Betts got the same treatment. For me, that was the first point the game turned on and why Bath kept the same front row, the ref stopped looking, frankly...

There writes a man who understands the front row! (Which is much more than could be said of last night’s ‘Sir’!!)

Auterac did the same thing at WR a couple of years back and got penalised to the point of substitution iirc, justifiably.

[RagingBull]

My 2 cents
Big pluses
Reffell - Made the most tackles in the game only just turned 18 but IMO his frame suits the new rules really well.
Simmons - Showed his solid game last week at 9, showed yesterday his flair that he can do and does do in the A league games and Academy.
Olowofela - Needs to grow into his frame more but looked very accused of himself against two strong running centres in banners and Clark, that clearance kick the icing on the cake.
Hardwick - Not a flair 10 like Ford but IMO seems to be more of a general style Faz 10, looked very composed for a 18 year old.
Thompstone and Holmes - Thompstone led from the foot and put in some huge hits and holmes did his best impression of May an showed why he is such a prolific try scorer in the champ
Wells - was a work horse and IMO should be in our 23.

Other pluses
I thought Fred T had a better game yesterday he was putting his weight in more, still looks of pace a bit but i think he looked better.
Ben White was solid behind a struggling scrum put in some lovely kicks to keep bath down.

Some not so pluses
BFG comments about Thackers passing are correct watching this game he is very committed but his passes where not hitting the players outside him.
Our props ...... Betts did alright IMO when he came on but welsh international Andrews had a field day with our TH's.