Team for London Irish

[jgriffin]

Like to have seen Evans on the bench, assume Thacker will have to jackal if BOC goes off. Seeing Bateman back reminds me how good he is, I had a sigh of relief!

[strawclearer]

Great to see Bateman back; slightly disappointed not to see Harry Wells given a start; really hoping O'Connor shows his worth; pity the other O'Connor hasn't picked Worth; not sure I see the point of benching Joe Ford as 4th choice 10.

Nevertheless - looking forward to shivering in the Crumbie on Saturday for 5 points, followed by watching the returning Brad Barritt, Maro Itoje and Billy V against Pests on Sunday!

[Spicer]

The side we expected. Despite our recent terrible record we should beat LI. We may not be good but we're better than them.
I didn't expect him to change anything as we are out of Europe so it makes more sense to rotate in those game.

[TigerCam]

London Irish are unchanged for tomorrow’s Aviva Premiership trip to Leicester Tigers.

New signings Arno Botha and Piet van Zyl, who both jetted into London yesterday, have not been named in the squad but will be watching their new teammates from the stand.

London Irish: 15 Greig Tonks, 14 Joe Cokanasiga, 13 Tom Fowlie, 12 Johnny Williams, 11 Alex Lewington, 10 James Marshall, 9 Scott Steele, 1 Gordon Reid, 2 Saia Fainga’a, 3 Petrus du Plessis, 4 Franco van der Merwe, 5 Teofilo Paulo, 6 Mike Coman (c), 7 Max Northcote-Green, 8 Ofisa Treviranus

Replacements: 16 Tom Woolstencroft, 17 Ben Franks, 18 Ollie Hoskins, 19 Sebastian De Chaves, 20 Blair Cowan, 21 Brendan McKibbin, 22 Theo Brophy Clews, 23 Aseli Tikoirotuma

L.Irish will be up for this and looking for their first 5 pointer no doubt?

[Stephen18]

[quote=Tigerbeat post_id=681640 time=1515153713 user_id=6138

Leicester Tigers (v London Irish, Welford Road, Saturday 3.00pm)

15 Jonny May

14 Nick Malouf

13 Manu Tuilagi

12 Matt Toomua

11 Adam Thompstone

10 George Ford (c)

9 Ben Youngs

1 Logovi’i Mulipola

2 Tatafu Polota-Nau

3 Dan Cole

4 Mike Fitzgerald

5 Graham Kitchener

6 Mike Williams

7 Brendon O’Connor

8 Sione Kalamafoni

Replacements

16 Harry Thacker

17 Kyle Traynor

18 Greg Bateman

19 Harry Wells

20 Valentino Mapapalangi

21 Sam Harrison

22 Joe Ford

23 Mathew Tait



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[/quote]

Very disappointing selection again for me other than Bateman and O’Connors return. everyone can now see the changes that need to be made and they’re just refusing to make them, Fitzgerald isn’t playing well hasn’t been for a month yet wells still doesn’t start, same with mike Williams who I think always makes a better impact off the bench rather than starting but yet he’s dropped Hamilton completely, still refusing to give any young players a shot, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see Evans and worrh both look else where like Thacker to get game time, I also assume that both Brady and homles will be released in the summer as there doesn’t seem any interest in playing a head of malouf who is still learning the 15 aside game. And as mentioned earlier what is the point of having j ford wasting s spot on the bench when toomua cover 10 and probably to a higher stander having done it in super rugby. I still think/hope we will win I just think it could have been s much more positive side that could have got the bonus point win rather than just keep sticking with the same team week in week out that isn’t performing.

[NONAME]

The team is as expected considering the current number of players unavailable through injury. Its a bit of a no win situation for Tigers if they were to lose then no doubt some fans would consider it the end of the world and if they win then the same fans would probably be saying that against this opposition it should be an easy win. There is no such thing as an easy win, most teams can beat another team on the day look what Worcester did. We have a lot of tired bodies and tired bodies result in tired minds and that leads to errors, so don't be surprised if its a hard fought battle.

Personally, I think it will be a good win for Tigers but they MUST secure a winning bonus point. I just hope that the offside is policed properly. Ford has been closed down along the rest of the backs by defences taking advantage of the failure to police that law. Without doubt if you give our backs some space they'll run rings around any defence in the league. (Quick ball Ben please!)

Good luck to the guys.

[BFG]

Forget the nonsense about they can't win either way for this game!
Leicester should expect to win this game and well against the bottom placed club at Welford Road, and anything less is not a level of expectation that anyone should really be lowering to in my opinion!
I think Leicester will win and well!
Looking at the 23 I can't see many bench players getting on unless it goes very well or badly, perhaps there is a story to be told in that!

[Rugbyflanker]

Yes BFG,getting excuses in already? Anything less than 5 points is not good enough,no excuses!

[strawclearer]

Be nice if Warriors could do us a favour this evening. Set things up nicely for tomorrow!

[ghdav27]

Am I the only one who doesn’t rate Malouf at all? Obviously a good finisher but his positioning is awful and is terrible under the high ball. Might make it at 13 but not as a winger. Don’t understand why we signed him when we have 4 other wingers, let him play in the A League to learn the 15 man game.

Whenever I’ve seen Holmes play he has been great, good support lines and reading of the play. Why doesn’t he get in the team I don’t know, has shown much more potential.

No I'd second all of that!

[Jimmy Skitz]

Am I the only one who doesn’t rate Malouf at all? Obviously a good finisher but his positioning is awful and is terrible under the high ball. Might make it at 13 but not as a winger. Don’t understand why we signed him when we have 4 other wingers, let him play in the A League to learn the 15 man game.

Whenever I’ve seen Holmes play he has been great, good support lines and reading of the play. Why doesn’t he get in the team I don’t know, has shown much more potential.

No I'd second all of that!

Malouf has certainly been a sight more productive than Thompstone since his return this season

[chewbacca]

Did MOC sign Holmes? Are we seeing selection of players signed by MOC ahead of those already here. If so it is not that surprising. As long as players are selected on merit then all is good. If its for other reasons then bad.

[G.K]

Why is May at Full Back? Taking our top try scorer and playing him out of position, well that's just stupid for me when we have options.

Would like to see Wells starting, should be given a chance to prove he's good enough for the top table, the two incumbents haven't impressed

Think Tigers will have enough fire power to win this and with the dead rubbers over the next two weeks it buys MoC some time, not sure that's a good thing.

[JP14]

Why is May at Full Back? Taking our top try scorer and playing him out of position, well that's just stupid for me when we have options.

Would like to see Wells starting, should be given a chance to prove he's good enough for the top table, the two incumbents haven't impressed

Think Tigers will have enough fire power to win this and with the dead rubbers over the next two weeks it buys MoC some time, not sure that's a good thing.

When Worth has played Champions Cup rugby at fullback I don’t know why he isn’t starting and May goes to left wing with Thommo on the bench or something

[Leicestertinytiger]

What are Tigers doing? Are we really this bad?