Tigers v Quins

[Wayne Richardson Fan Club]

Think Bateman would have a crack at FH given the chance.
Worth should be in the 23 next week, he is just a better player.
Will we play the dodgy knee brigade next week on the fake pitch?

[JP14]

We were very unlucky on one lineout drive, the replay revealed that Matthews slapped the ball out of Kitchener’s hand as he was transferring back and I’m sure when Itoje did something like that for England he was deemed to have knocked or something like that. In my opinion there needs to be a change of law where if an opposition player rips the ball in contact and it goes forwards from the attacking player that should be just deemed a turnover rather than a knock-on, if Matthews hadn’t of disrupted I think we could have scored from that position as it looked as though we were making headway.

[Big Dai]

So.......Matt and George? Or Matt or George? That, for me, is an important question.

If you're asking for our first-choice 10 - George. If you're asking optimum 10/12 - George/Matt.

If you're asking for our 10s by ability...

George Ford
Matt Toomua
George Worth
Tom Hardwick
Greg Bateman
Joe Ford

I was thinking more of the one ball player versus two argument. We've been criticised when playing two for shovelling ball on and drawing the defence on to us where one good ten makes a call and attacks are sharper? Plus the midfield is beefier?
Thanks for the Bateman line. Hot tea down the nose as I sniggered at it was not funny. The line I thought was brilliant.

[jgriffin]

We were very unlucky on one lineout drive, the replay revealed that Matthews slapped the ball out of Kitchener’s hand as he was transferring back and I’m sure when Itoje did something like that for England he was deemed to have knocked or something like that. In my opinion there needs to be a change of law where if an opposition player rips the ball in contact and it goes forwards from the attacking player that should be just deemed a turnover rather than a knock-on, if Matthews hadn’t of disrupted I think we could have scored from that position as it looked as though we were making headway.

Yes, saw that at the time but then shut up as nobody else commented. We got pinged when the TJ could see a Quins hand messing with the ball in a ruck, and they scored eventually, as they did after the Holmes/Kitto chase - Kitto pushed the ball forward while on the deck before Holmes ever made contact but the TJ remained silent.

[TomWeston]

Yes, saw that at the time but then shut up as nobody else commented. We got pinged when the TJ could see a Quins hand messing with the ball in a ruck, and they scored eventually, as they did after the Holmes/Kitto chase - Kitto pushed the ball forward while on the deck before Holmes ever made contact but the TJ remained silent.

I believe you are correct on both counts. I only watched on tv but for the Holmes/Kitto incident, I thought I heard some chatter from the TMO which Barnes ignored and thought at the time that it was the complete opposite of the earlier reversal of the knock on which gave Queens a scrum 5 yards out. I’ll watch again and listen more intently.

[Stephen18]

We were very unlucky on one lineout drive, the replay revealed that Matthews slapped the ball out of Kitchener’s hand as he was transferring back and I’m sure when Itoje did something like that for England he was deemed to have knocked or something like that. In my opinion there needs to be a change of law where if an opposition player rips the ball in contact and it goes forwards from the attacking player that should be just deemed a turnover rather than a knock-on, if Matthews hadn’t of disrupted I think we could have scored from that position as it looked as though we were making headway.

Yes, saw that at the time but then shut up as nobody else commented. We got pinged when the TJ could see a Quins hand messing with the ball in a ruck, and they scored eventually, as they did after the Holmes/Kitto chase - Kitto pushed the ball forward while on the deck before Holmes ever made contact but the TJ remained silent.

I think there were an number of infringement at the line out drive certainly on that one as well as hands in chissom also looked to me to swim around the side the ruck changing his bind to get onto the tigers pod, a number of tacklers stand up and coming in at the side to jackle the ball, and id agree when smith was off side that was a certain try although i get there were defenders coming across they were going to stop the players 5 out, but we still won despite our poor handling and defence, but hopefully we can start improving on those as the coach move into their proper jobs, although im starting to become concerned with murphy as skills coach as they seem to have been getting worse the last few seasons.

[wellstiger]

Lets be honest .. handling is and has been poor for 3+ seasons. So Bakewell isn't going to change this mentality is less than a week.
On a positive side Matt Tam deserved Man o The Match as he ran things effectively, very vocal throughout and should be Captain.
A better gel within the forwards. Still needs work.
On a negative OTY looks crackered. Mogolo doesn't offer a go forward and either gives penalties away or drops ball in contact.
Manu - sorry not worth his wage pkt at present- however was signs of recovery towards 58 min mark.
When Bateman looks more like a forward and attacks the gain line more effectively than Manu then questions have to be asked.
Pressure was on both teams- losers out of the running for top 4 possibly top 6. This may have been a factor with both underperforming teams.
Maybe Just maybe - next Sunday should be interesting.Just down to team selection on the back of this result

[chewbacca]

I have never had a desire to see this team or any coach fail but yesterday's performance raised one recurrent question. Do we have a backs coach? So much lateral ball, nobody taking it at pace, passing before committing the defender allowing the defence to drift. I am convinced both on this seasons showings and his previous CV that MOC is not the head coach this club needs.

[DeadlyDunc]

I have never had a desire to see this team or any coach fail but yesterday's performance raised one recurrent question. Do we have a backs coach? So much lateral ball, nobody taking it at pace, passing before committing the defender allowing the defence to drift. I am convinced both on this seasons showings and his previous CV that MOC is not the head coach this club needs.

So how do we explain the amount of tries and TBP we got with MOC as attack coach when he was here last time?

With the game itself I agree with most comments but add that I thought Fitzgerald played well. He’s had his critics but he tackled well (15+ times?) and carried better particularly in the first half and made a few metres.

With Manu, Veainu and to an extent Owen, I think they need game time to get back to their best, not sure all will play against Saracens due to the (misplaced IMO) concerns about the 3G pitch.

Anything down there would be a bonus even in a decent season so I guess the coaches may protect a few for the rest of the season.

[jgriffin]

Those of us around during MOC's previous tenure saw the same problem, lateral, flat and no incision. You have to remember he had oldskool players who would have the cojones to play what was in front of them (e.g. Flood using the short inside ball to a deep runner, as he did for England with Ashton))and alter a playbook move, and some rare talents such as Scottie who in his pomp scored some touchline beauties. We almost never seem to play with runners from deep this season.
It really depends on the players you have - that's where I like To'omua at 10, our match changed as he grew into the game and started to play heads-up.

[BFG]

So.......Matt and George? Or Matt or George? That, for me, is an important question.

Toomua for me!
Ford has massive talent but Toomua is Farrell like in the size of his cajones!
Toomua did grow into it and teased the defensive line like I have not seen this season!
On yesterday's display and given Manu's injury record I think Leicester have made a massive recruitment gaffe, we should be watching Toomua at 10 along with Freddie, with the Ford money spent on two world class centres, or one centre and a forward!

[Rugbyflanker]

Only caught the second half. The same old simple errors creeping in but we were dominant in the last 20 and scrum and lineout were 100%. Have to get 5 points out of Stories and Wuss to stay in the mix

[RagingBull]

Interesting people seem to think Hamilton rejuvenated the team for me Tatafu Polota-Nau had more affect off the bench than him.

[jgriffin]

Interesting people seem to think Hamilton rejuvenated the team for me Tatafu Polota-Nau had more affect off the bench than him.

Hamilton coming on started the rejuvenation, TPN was excellent, the subs were very effective in testing and pulling in their defence, and To'omua decided to miss out the passing bit and use our two very good wingers directly.

[Rugbyflanker]

Come on,we never played scintillating rugby when he was here before. The top scorers were usually P.Tyr,R.Maul and W.Alkin.