Tigers v SArries

[Scott11]

Match stats,truly pathetic carrying from all 8 forwards!
http://www.espn.co.uk/rugby/playerstats ... gue=267979

[BFG]

The Mauger love in is just so obvious Scott, and the agenda to quickly sack off another coach is just laughable in my opinion!
It is disappointing currently but I think most realistically knew that it would some take time to rebuild Leicester to compete with the very best!
Sarries have to take some credit, they were decent away from home today, still not 100% but decent, and to ignore this is ignorance in my opinion!

[Scott11]

Nonsense again! Wheres the obvious love in,ive only said he would be doing a bettee job than MOC currently and he was treated despicably. Stop making things up,i wanted a world class coach in when we had the chance.

[fentiger]

It is disappointing currently but I think most realistically knew that it would some take time to rebuild Leicester to compete with the very best!
Sarries have to take some credit, they were decent away from home today, still not 100% but decent, and to ignore this is ignorance in my opinion!

Agreed, we still have players returning from injury who will take a few games to settle. On the whole our play is getting better in several areas, of course there is much to work on.
The questions I keep asking are: where is the on field leadership when needed? Are we getting new much needed coaches? I think the last question once answered properly will see us start to get much more from the current crop of players.

[drc_007]

Match stats,truly pathetic carrying from all 8 forwards!
http://www.espn.co.uk/rugby/playerstats ... gue=267979

I do think some of the forwards are not up to the standard required, but until we have a proper forwards coach in place I'm not sure we can judge them. At the moment it is too easy to defend against them and teams can just wait until they make an error or give away a penalty.

[POSTIGER]

Might get shot down for this but I don't think any of our back or second rowers are truly up to the job.

[sam16111986]

Might get shot down for this but I don't think any of our back or second rowers are truly up to the job.

I think it's less the players and more the tactics. Saracens were able to play phase after phase with us unable to get near the ball. We were desperate for an openside option, this fascination with naming the biggest available pack is leaving us unbalanced. What's worse in attack we are playing quite a wide game and forcing our big pack to run their legs off. We need some additional mobility in there to help link the forwards and backs. It's not like we can't afford to drop some weight and bring in an openside.

I'm also non-plussed by Wells omission. Off the bench he was out best lock today. Big hot on Farrell, aggression and actually contested the breakdown. More positive impact than Fitzgerald in the full 80.

[Scott11]

Wells and Evans should be involved whenever possible,two top prospects. The nonsense about Evans being too small is ridiculous,check out his stats! And ask Kvesic or Louw if hes big enough!

[drc_007]

I wonder if the reason for picking a big back-row is that the locks are such poor ball carriers?

[voice of the crumbie]

It is disappointing currently but I think most realistically knew that it would some take time to rebuild Leicester to compete with the very best!
Sarries have to take some credit, they were decent away from home today, still not 100% but decent, and to ignore this is ignorance in my opinion!

Agreed, we still have players returning from injury who will take a few games to settle. On the whole our play is getting better in several areas, of course there is much to work on.
The questions I keep asking are: where is the on field leadership when needed? Are we getting new much needed coaches? I think the last question once answered properly will see us start to get much more from the current crop of players.

Pleased to see these realistic and balanced comments.

We should not forget that Sarries have taken several years to build and fine tune the system they play to which is why it works so efficiently. Tigers are trying to develop a way of playing and are handicapped for several reasons:

Forwards - not having settled partnerships/combinations in the back and second rows. They lack a truly powerful ball carrier who can break the gainline (though Genge does a good job of this when fit) an international calibre lock in the "enforcer" role and are not playing a genuine ball stealer/link man at openside. BOC or Evans can fulfil the openside role and an enforcer type of around 19st would compensate for their lack of weight in the scrum. The line out still needs sorting out though it was marginally better this week and our driving maul which was again better this week but also needs work. One bright spot was the scrummaging performance of our 2 props today - I commend them for the shift they put in. I was concerned about Logo managing a full 80 minutes but he proved me wrong today.

Backs - will take time to gel again while Manu and Toomua are regaining match fitness. On the evidence of our 6 game unbeaten run earlier in the season I believe the backs will click again provided the forwards provide them with some decent ball to work with. IMHO Manu was trying "too hard" today and as a result and due to his lack of sharpness he put down 3 balls today. We have been unfortunate that whilst the two 1st choice centres were out injured the useful Owen has also picked up injuries leaving us to depend on utility backs like Tait and Smith.

[Scott11]

Got it in one drc! In fact,bar Genge,the whole front 5 are pathetic carriers!

[westwinds31]

Wells and Evans should be involved whenever possible,two top prospects. The nonsense about Evans being too small is ridiculous,check out his stats! And ask Kvesic or Louw if hes big enough!

Evans isn’t big enough yet. Kvesic and Louw are 17 stone and 6’3” whereas Will is 6’ and 14 stone.

[jgriffin]

Think Scott11 has been on the funny juice.
My Stains-in-law (Stains ST for over a decade) watched the match having recorded it. His opinion was that although Tigers forwards were somewhat meh, the game was much closer than he was led to imagine, and he believed that there were several crucial calls down to the ref. He did highlight generosity to Stains at the breakdown and Tigers giving Sarries a 17 point lead!!!
PS my opinion of Mauger (and Hansen) is unprintable. Alex King would've done a far better job.

[sam16111986]

Wells and Evans should be involved whenever possible,two top prospects. The nonsense about Evans being too small is ridiculous,check out his stats! And ask Kvesic or Louw if hes big enough!

Evans isn’t big enough yet. Kvesic and Louw are 17 stone and 6’3” whereas Will is 6’ and 14 stone.

We need someone who can link the backs and forwards and turnover the ball at the breakdown. Evans has shown he can do both. He can bulk up and gain experience at the same time and hopefully bring some balance to that backrow.

[ancientmariner]

Actually I thought that the forwards played better than in recent games. The main problem was that we have all-star backs who can neither give nor take a pass. Several passes were sprayed any old where and the number of knock-ons killed us off.