Tigers v Worcester

[Scott11]

Check out the metres (not) made by our pack,shocking!
http://www.espn.co.uk/rugby/playerstats ... gue=267979

[Big Dai]

Without so many first choices, I reeled off ten without trying, and against a team on the up after sorting stains out what did you expect? Really?

I call for calm!

We faltered yesterday. Others will falter as injuries, concussions and the six nations farce forces others into the situation we were in yesterday. Nothing is won at Christmas.

Except a bottle of Remy perhaps? ( Hint to family members.)

Wait until the full team's back. Then have a really good rant when it all goes wrong.

[Tiglon]

It seems that the club have opted for a strong first team at the expense of squad depth, so we're going to get a few disappointing results and performances when we have a lot of asbsentees.

The flipside is that we look like a better team than we did last year when we have our strongest side on the field, so we've got more chance of winning the bigger games later in the season.

[TigerCam]

Without so many first choices, I reeled off ten without trying, and against a team on the up after sorting stains out what did you expect? Really?

I call for calm!

We faltered yesterday. Others will falter as injuries, concussions and the six nations farce forces others into the situation we were in yesterday. Nothing is won at Christmas.

Except a bottle of Remy perhaps? ( Hint to family members.)

Wait until the full team's back. Then have a really good rant when it all goes wrong.

Agreed. It is not the end of the world and the Tigers will win some, lose some but to leak 9 trys in 2 game has to be worrying and, as someone else posted, to get scored on twice with a man advantage is an issue too? Watching Glaws on Friday night their defence/line speed structure was excellent not allowing the Falcons any space or gain-line speed. The Tigers could do with a drop of that regardless of whom in on the pitch.

[Big Dai]

Without so many first choices, I reeled off ten without trying, and against a team on the up after sorting stains out what did you expect? Really?

I call for calm!

We faltered yesterday. Others will falter as injuries, concussions and the six nations farce forces others into the situation we were in yesterday. Nothing is won at Christmas.

Except a bottle of Remy perhaps? ( Hint to family members.)

Wait until the full team's back. Then have a really good rant when it all goes wrong.

Agreed. It is not the end of the world and the Tigers will win some, lose some but to leak 9 trys in 2 game has to be worrying and, as someone else posted, to get scored on twice with a man advantage is an issue too? Watching Glaws on Friday night their defence/line speed structure was excellent not allowing the Falcons any space or gain-line speed. The Tigers could do with a drop of that regardless of whom in on the pitch.

I think that snap or attitude also comes from playing as a settled unit, more or less. We had a fairly settled run and were growing. Then came the Anglo Welsh and the young guns side. Then another which looks like the first team minus international players. Should we have stuck more to the young guns? A big problem now could be the expectation of a miraculous recovery when the boys are back in town? It's gonna take time. The team that does best now will be the team that recovers best....and that could mean the one with the fewest players broken by their country.

[JP14]

It seems that the club have opted for a strong first team at the expense of squad depth, so we're going to get a few disappointing results and performances when we have a lot of asbsentees.

The flipside is that we look like a better team than we did last year when we have our strongest side on the field, so we've got more chance of winning the bigger games later in the season.

Hopefully next year we will see some depth signings, it takes time to gradually build a squad worthy of competing for the Premiership crown.

Let’s hope yesterday was an outlier and a damn good kick up the bum to get the players into the right gear for Wasps

[Leicestertinytiger]

What happened to Mike Williams? A few seasons ago in my opinion he had the potential to be the best blindside in the premiership and had made the EPS. Would have been a cornerstone of the Tigers pack at 6. But this season he has got nowhere near the level we know he can play at. Carried loads against Worcester but seemed to be well overpowered by Worcester’s no.6 who was a unit.

Might explain why Tigers are looking at Mafi to come in with Hamilton being used more at 7.

[Grimlish]

He’s been injured. Only just returned. And you want him at full tilt?

I thought MO’C was pretty clear after the game on RL - players may be fit after an injury but he will only play them when they overtake their replacement or if absolutely necessary. I’d say MW fits into the latter category.

[Stephen18]

What happened to Mike Williams? A few seasons ago in my opinion he had the potential to be the best blindside in the premiership and had made the EPS. Would have been a cornerstone of the Tigers pack at 6. But this season he has got nowhere near the level we know he can play at. Carried loads against Worcester but seemed to be well overpowered by Worcester’s no.6 who was a unit.

Might explain why Tigers are looking at Mafi to come in with Hamilton being used more at 7.

I think that’s an extremely harsh comment he was one of our main ball carriers, along with mapalangi who also didn’t make much yardage, and much like kalamafoni early in the season when your the main ball carrier you get hit by 2-3 men every time, what needs to happen is more players need to put there hand up in the absence of kalamafoni, Hamilton, barrow and youngs.

[voice of the crumbie]

Yes, we were awful yesterday for all the reasons outlined above.

However to put things in perspective Saracens the team many use as a benchmark lost both their premiership games during this international period so maybe their squad depth isn't as good as some believe it to be or maybe they, as we did yesterday, had "a bad day at the office". Also Wasps only managed to beat Irish by 4 points.

Next week will be different entirely. With our internationals back we should be a very different team. In recent seasons when we have not been playing that well we have seemed to "get up" for the Wasps game at the Ricoh and have run them close and even beaten them. With the improvements we have made this season and with Wasps no longer having the likes of Beale and Hughes out through injury I believe we have more than a decent chance. I only hope Jonny May will be available. Anyone know the extent of his injury yesterday. I believe it was concussion so no doubt he will have to go through the necessary protocols to determine whether he can play or not.

[Roly]

Well,

I said it could be the banana skin and I was right.

Tigers were shambolic, personified by being comprehensively out played by 14 men at one time. It is difficult to defend a performance like that.

This was not the performance of a team who can aspire to be lifting the (any) trophy at the end of the year.

[MikeR]

I thought Mike Williams was the only effective ball carrier we had - Mapalangi was getting anywhere and the off loads weren't working . After Williams problems with his broken arm I reckon he is more than doing his bit .

[Roly]

Discipline good for Tigers, only conceded 2 or 3 penalties in the whole game, no penalties conceded in the second half, 9 awarded to Tigers in the second half!

Yeah, although I think you'll find that conceding 5 tries really doesn't help does it....

[BFG]

Discipline good for Tigers, only conceded 2 or 3 penalties in the whole game, no penalties conceded in the second half, 9 awarded to Tigers in the second half!

Yeah, although I think you'll find that conceding 5 tries really doesn't help does it....

Perhaps Barrow may have helped then Roly!

Your previous post is an overreaction, yes it was a poor performance from some and very poor from others who clearly need to move on after a couple of years of being tactically inept as a result of their physical limitations have brought this side down defensively, but there is a lot of quality to come in to add to some good stuff!
Genge, Polota-Nau and Cole added to the likes of Tom Yongs, Bateman, Cilliers and hopefully Mulipola.
Barrow added to the second row.
Hamilton and Kalamafoni.
Ben Youngs and George Ford.
Toomua to return, and the one I know you'll enjoy replying to, Manu!
Not forgetting May!

[Roly]

Discipline good for Tigers, only conceded 2 or 3 penalties in the whole game, no penalties conceded in the second half, 9 awarded to Tigers in the second half!

Yeah, although I think you'll find that conceding 5 tries really doesn't help does it....

Perhaps Barrow may have helped then Roly!

Your previous post is an overreaction, yes it was a poor performance from some and very poor from others who clearly need to move on after a couple of years of being tactically inept as a result of their physical limitations have brought this side down defensively

I don't doubt your optimism might pay off, but you can hardly call my post an over reaction and then go on to say:

"it was a poor performance from some and very poor from others who clearly need to move on after a couple of years of being tactically inept as a result of their physical limitations have brought this side down defensively"

I stand by my post - that was not a performance from a team who aspire to lift a trophy this year. Tigers completely underestimated Warriors - I said it in previous posts, Worcester have been playing some nice rugby and so it was therefore a mystery to me that they hadn't been winning more games (despite adversity). The warning signs were there when Warriors beat Saints last week, but it seems nobody at Tigers seems to have taken any notice. The tactics and execution were awful, simply awful - and when I saw what MoC had said after the match, I thought he'd been watching a different game.

Yes, there are positives, many first choice players to return, but the ground is already lost and its clear that our perception of what the strength in depth at the team is really like might have been optimistic.

There are now several very difficult matches between now and 2018 and it isn't inconceivable that the top four could be difficult to achieve beyond that point.