Gloucester vs Tigers

[Leicestertinytiger]

Again you have to question why Tigers let Balmain go, bar the first penalty against him, he had Bateman in the scrum for the rest of the game. Definitely a premiership class tighthead and looked better than the likes of Cortes.

Also you have to question the team selection in the pack. Obviously the front row picked itself with current injuries. Yet we know Williams is better in the second row with Spencer, yet our best lock partnership wasn’t picked.

Also we know that Gloucester have a mobile pack, so why didn’t we pick Thompson and Evans as flankers with Reffell on the bench. Is it any surprise we got ran around with such a slow pack?

Also I feel that so far I’ve seen nothing in White to suggest he will be a good scrum half. His kicking was awful and he lacks any zip around the rucks. I know injured but for me Simmons is the much better player.

I think Worth will come good but probably at centre, not fullback but would be interesting to known where he feels his best position is.

Think Eastmond and Owen did okay considering the players around them. They are quality backup centres. Both our wingers were poor but I guess we are missing our entire first choice back three.

[Big Dai]

We were missing our first choice back division! Harrumph!

[RagingBull]

I suspect Owen isn’t quick enough for a prem 13

That backline in general was very slow especially in defence, Owen, Thompstone and Worth all got out paced regularly.

Balmain was lucky with the touch judge I thought, the pens stopped coming in the second half with the other TJ.

[HantsTiger]

Let's be honest, we were woeful from 1 - 23.
Beaten by a team who had structure and players committed to the cause.

I thought Spencer could held his head high from that squad.

Amen to that, if only we'd also had Denton available. Let's face it, it shows the problems when our biggest impact is from players signed from Warriors.

For the next game I'd start Kerr at hooker too, looks fearless and is busy around the park. He can't do any worse than OTY. Not sure who I'd make Captain, Wells maybe? That would mean Wells and Spencer in the row.

[Fishtie]

Being a Tigers fan in exile in Gloucester and season ticket holder, the Gloucester side is on the up, with a pack that is competitive and back line that under the guidance of Cipriani, really can fire. How many would pick Heinz, Twelevetrees, Atkinson and Bannahan over what we have? It show how key he is and over the last three weeks they have looked fairly ineffective without him.

Unfortunately while the Tigers pack is competitive, lineout is a lottery and with Joe Ford at fly half, a backline that is ineffective and looked lacking in pace. Going forward we need to fix our lineout and have a general at flyhalf, not sure either Ford is the answer, it is a shame Touma is off, as I did like him at flyhalf. Anyhow rant over, I look forward to us getting back to where we belong

[mol2]

Bateman is a hooker.
Why on earth we saw fit to turn him into a prop I don't know.
There again at that time two of our hookers were part of the Tigers family so he would have to have been elsewhere to get a game!

[AngusMcCoatup]

Tonight's performance was an utter disaster but let's all bear in mind how good our squad could be if they ever got a chance to play together. Genge, Spencer, Denton, Thompson (poor guy), Manu, Youngs, Ford, May, Toomua, Polota-Nau, Veainu, Holmes, O'Connor, that's a massive quantity of talent sadly unavailable at the moment. We'll be OK, this ship will right itself, and with Newcastle struggling so badly in the league at least we won't go down!

Well done CitizenSmiff but in reality I think there are more than your 13 absentees.
Also away on Internationals Ma'afu & Mapapalangi and I believe the following are also injured - McMillan, Stevens, Tait, Simmons and Evans being eased back. So that is about 20 unavailable.
I just hope those on the pitch last night learned something positive.

[shedhead1]

Shedhead 1 here.

Had both my Tigger friends come down for the match and the thing that struck us all in the Shed about Leicester was the following:

No leadership
The whole team looked physically unfit especially pass the 60 min mark
Heads went down very quickly ( its not over til its over)
Too much complaining to the ref at breakdowns and scrums - play the game
Your concentration threshold needs direction throughout the 15 (especially at lineouts)
Tom Youngs liability and needs to up his game

I am sure you will beat us on the return leg
Thanks
Bob

[DeadlyDunc]

Didn’t Balmain leave because Cockers didn’t really pick him or seemingly trust him in the bigger games? Not sure you could blame Balmain for leaving at the time but I always thought he deputised for Cole well enough.

Of the team I’d comment -

Bateman - little positive impact and was worked over at scrum time
Youngs - tackled well but lineout still a mess (not sure it’s his fault all the time though)
Cole - did his job at the set piece and usual rumble here and there for little yardage - tackled well
Wells - started well and then drifted out the game a bit
Kitchener - just doesn’t do enough in attack, defence and set piece for me. Too nice?
Williams - didn’t affect the game enough in any positive sense
Thompson - one block on a Cipriani kick early but couldn’t slow the breakdown enough to affect Glos when he was on the field
Kalamafoni - not enough menace ball in hand
White - did ok but kicking too long at times (lack of options didn’t help him) and didn’t find touch when we needed it on occasion
Ford - hard to be too critical because he just isn’t good enough off the tee, kicking in open play, in defence or with ball in hand
Olowofela - seems to lack conviction when he has ball in hand and possibly low on confidence?
Eastmond - tried hard in trying circumstances, looked bright enough
Owen - looks laid back when he plays which doesn’t help him when it doesn’t work out but he was so easily beaten in defence it was horrible
Thompstone - just isn’t dynamic enough and ( to me) doesn’t look like he believes in what we are asking him to do
Worth - thought he did ok to be honest, took the highball well enough for the most part and ran some decent lines ball in hand

Subs
Kerr, Spencer, Hardwick all made something of an impact but possibly due to Glos taking their foot off the pedal after they got the bonus point.

[sam16111986]

Bateman is a hooker.
Why on earth we saw fit to turn him into a prop I don't know.
There again at that time two of our hookers were part of the Tigers family so he would have to have been elsewhere to get a game!

Because he wasn't a good hooker? His lineout work was worse than Tom's and he signed having previous experience at tighthead. He made the choice to change position with Stanko and quite frankly relaunched his career on the back of it.

[G.K]

Shedhead 1 here.

Had both my Tigger friends come down for the match and the thing that struck us all in the Shed about Leicester was the following:

No leadership
The whole team looked physically unfit especially pass the 60 min mark
Heads went down very quickly ( its not over til its over)
Too much complaining to the ref at breakdowns and scrums - play the game
Your concentration threshold needs direction throughout the 15 (especially at lineouts)
Tom Youngs liability and needs to up his game

I am sure you will beat us on the return leg
Thanks
Bob

Agree with all of this except the last bit about the return leg, not confident in that.

[Ian Cant]

Now we should all take a look at the away sides’ results this weekend: in terms of injuries ourselves and Sarries are the only sides with almost a better team injured than playing yet apart from Sale no away side has come close to winning. Geordan knows the problems we have and we need to give him time.
The youngsters will get better for playing v Gloucester as long as their heads don’t go down. Oh, maybe we should sign some of the Japan team!
Be loud be proud v Sarries.

[MikeR]

I think the only injured 1st choice non starters in the pack were Genge and O'Connor , and if fit Genge would have been with England . We chose not to start Spencer - goodness knows why , as he and Wells have been our best 2nd rowers this Season .
Shedweb is right - big problem with leadership . If Guy Thompson wasn't injured I make him Captain and start Kerr at Hooker .

[TTRITH]

In fairness, my first choice 23 would be:

15. Jonah Holmes
14. Telusa Veaniu
13. Manu Tuilagi
12. Kyle Eastmond/Matt Toomua
11. Jonny May
10. George Ford
9. Ben Youngs
1. Ellis Genge
2. Tom Youngs
3. Dan Cole
4. Harry Wells
5. Will Spencer
6. Dave Denton
7. Brendan O'Connor
8. Sione Kalamafoni

16. Tatafu Polota-Nau
17. Greg Bateman
18. Joe Heyes
19. Mike Williams
20. Guy Thompson
21. Ben White
22. Matt Toomua/Kyle Eastmond
23. Jordan Olowofela

Thats only 10 of that 23 that played Gloucester yesterday.

[DevonTiger]

Bateman is a hooker.
Why on earth we saw fit to turn him into a prop I don't know.
There again at that time two of our hookers were part of the Tigers family so he would have to have been elsewhere to get a game!

As it stands we have no one capable of fulfilling that position. Our first choice LH is coming back from injury. For some unknown reason only be known to the purse string we have allowed a more than capable back up to leave for a team in the NE.
We are all aware there is more going on behind the scenes. In what other profession/company would see fit to promote individuals to a position above their station. I maybe wrong in stating this but is AA our attack coach and LD our defence coach? AA was our best defensive organiser in recent times so why is he being mismployed?
I totally appreciate that tigers have always had the DNA running through the team from top to bottom which I believe is totally correct but When does someone see fit to employ an individual in a position way above their station? Will the club employ OTY or Matt Smith as they are club stalwarts?