Tigers v Sale Sharks

[MikeR]

One Sale player who I was impressed with again was Strauss at 8 - magnificent , gained ground from every scrum .

[JP14]

One Sale player who I was impressed with again was Strauss at 8 - magnificent , gained ground from every scrum .

I agree, I'm surprised he's not in the Scotland squad.

[LE18]

Strauss had a very strong game but I'm not sure he was always legal, looked thuggish to me. Regarding our kicking the ball away, Ford seemed to always pick out Yarde in acres of space, why did he continually kick to Yardes wing?
I think we were also very fortunate that James O'Connor went off early, his first delayed offload pass was superb, put them in the clear and if Vieanu had not deliberately knocked on they would certainly have scored, Why was that not a penalty try to Sale?
Like I said earlier JOC was a favourite of mine, a rebel but a great player earlier in his career, he made another couple of delayed offloads, looked very good, except for his silly hair colour!
Genge was targeted throughout, Sale really tried to get him carded, its a good job some of our other players calmed him down as many Sale players could have been on the receiving end if Genge had retaliated.
We really battled to get that result, it looked for a long time as if Sales extra strength would pay off, but in the end, ref picked up their errors and justly penalised them. Well done Tigers, not quite up to our best standards but with so many missing, great effort!

[Tigerbeat]

Why was that not a penalty try to Sale?

Tigers were very fortunate and I would have no complaints if it had been given. The ref felt there was some doubt as to whether the try would have been scored with Thompstone heading to make the tackle.

[L Smith]

Spot on long live the crumbie!

Interestingly since Sarries started being more expansive in running more ball this season they don't look quite as dominant.

That is an interesting observation, and not one I'd thought about until you wrote it.

There may be something in this but they’ve been more expansive for 3-4 years now.
You could also say they appear less dominant since Big Billy V has been injured. If you were, heaven forbid, a Saints fan, you could also say that they still seem pretty dominant in the two games where they have met

[BFG]

Interestingly since Sarries started being more expansive in running more ball this season they don't look quite as dominant.

That is an interesting observation, and not one I'd thought about until you wrote it.

There may be something in this but they’ve been more expansive for 3-4 years now.
You could also say they appear less dominant since Big Billy V has been injured. If you were, heaven forbid, a Saints fan, you could also say that they still seem pretty dominant in the two games where they have met

I think Sarries have always been capable of playing running rugby in particular when they have a physical edge on opponents and the space to take advantage, but what's interesting is where they once kept it tight until the score and game allowed them to cut loose they now seem to try and play more expansive when the score is still tight.
Maybe Saints approach suited them and maybe in there somewhere is a way to beat Sarries!
To keep it on topic I thought Sale came to play on Sunday but were undone in the end as they tired and started making more errors in play and penalties, kind of reminds me of Leicester being undone similarly over the past couple of years.

[Grimlish]

And full marks to Ellis for keeping a lid on it - was clearly being targeted for the wind up.