Premiership Round 1 - Worcester vs Tigers

[fortysix]

It was said last year that our'' youngsters '' in the backs just are not Premiership standard, now, or in the future. Championship maybe, if thats where our Board thinks we are heading..
And why on earth buy a No 10 who cant blinking well kick
If it wasnt for Ford G we would have been relegated, and even the much maligned Ford J could actually kick goals
9 points wasted yesterday, its the finer points in life that get you relegated
Ask Newcastle.

[fentiger]

With respect Tigerbeat, Worcester is our bogey side but is a shockingly bad side that thrive on dragging teams to their level and they should be relegated this season.

Until about two seasons ago that was Worcesters main game plan, especially when visiting us, was thinking maybe they had progressed. Now not so sure.

[Scott1]

Yes,let's not dress this up. Wuss will be in the bottom two fighting for their lives , sick of the excuses all the time!

[MikeR]

Bogey side - what a pathetic excuse !

[Leicestertinytiger]

It was said last year that our'' youngsters '' in the backs just are not Premiership standard, now, or in the future. Championship maybe, if thats where our Board thinks we are heading..
And why on earth buy a No 10 who cant blinking well kick
If it wasnt for Ford G we would have been relegated, and even the much maligned Ford J could actually kick goals
9 points wasted yesterday, its the finer points in life that get you relegated
Ask Newcastle.

Agreed with some of the academy players maybe not being good enough. White has and can play much better than yesterday with zip and urgency as he has for England. Same with Hardwick and Olowofela, all three showed in the PRC they have potential. They need to step up a level this season.

Two players I’m not convinced by are Wells and Worth. Wells is an average lock nowadays and really didn’t bring anything off the bench. I know Worth has a good step and pass but positioning and kicking wasn’t great. Maybe he is more suited to centre? Can see these two being phased out with the emergence of Martin and Steward who could be exceptional players.

[CitizenSmiff]

I do feel a bit sorry for the youngsters, our current coaching group don't exactly excel at development. Hard to grown and learn in an environment where nobody is reaching their full potential.

[johnthegriff]

I thought we would win this game, possibly the loss of the experienced Eastmond to illness was significant but Hardwick did not have a bad game, Worcester were definitely more creative with ball in hand but actually we were not far from winning, a little more accuracy with kicks at goal, (although I felt the long shot should have gone to the corner) and If Jordan Olowofela had been able to hang onto an awkward ball he would probably have scored. We are I believe fitter than ever before so we should be playing with more pace in order to tire the opposition. Undoubtedly we will get stronger as our international players return and teams like Worcester will not improve much from where they are now, the test is to remain in the mix until the guys are back from Japan.

[mol2]

We have to be realistic.

Worcester may be poor but expecting to win with 10 players out on World Cup duty, a former international hooker banned and a former international centre injured is going to drastically weaken any side.

It is a concern that we lack capable kickers. It has always bewildered me that so few players seem able kick from the tee. This is a core skill that all backs should practice in the same way the fly half does. Obviously on match day the best kicker does the job but if they all kick there is always someone to take over if the regular kicker is injured or has an off day. You might just then have someone with a huge boot like Elliot Daly who can take a speculative long range punt to dissuade sides from conceding penalties around the half way line.

This does illustrate the weakness of our development coaching.

[johnthegriff]

Hardwick is normally a reliable kicker, I believe Reid is ok but he did have a bad day off the tee against Saints, he was not used as a kicker yesterday. E.W Viljoen surprisingly was given a longish shot, I know nothing about his kicking record but he certainly had the distance. Costello is on the young side for the Premiership but when I have seen him kicking for the Under Eighteens etc he looks a fine prospect.

[POSTIGER]

I went to the game yesterday and we were desperately poor. You can say what you want about injuries but there was little cohesion, no clear game plan and the defence somehow looked worse than it did last season.

Worcester were poor too. This is going to be a long hard season. I don't see a weaker side than ours. Let's hope London Irish are somehow worse.

Don't care if some see this as negativity- we're going down with the current coaching set up. You can say what you want about 'getting behind the boys' but ultimately playing personnel, coaching and tactics are what wins you games and right now you'd have to say we look desperately weak in all of those areas. This wasn't a strong Worcester side, not at all.

[Scott1]

Great post Postiger!

[BFG]

I went to the game yesterday and we were desperately poor. You can say what you want about injuries but there was little cohesion, no clear game plan and the defence somehow looked worse than it did last season.

Worcester were poor too. This is going to be a long hard season. I don't see a weaker side than ours. Let's hope London Irish are somehow worse.

Don't care if some see this as negativity- we're going down with the current coaching set up. You can say what you want about 'getting behind the boys' but ultimately playing personnel, coaching and tactics are what wins you games and right now you'd have to say we look desperately weak in all of those areas. This wasn't a strong Worcester side, not at all.

I didn't see yesterday's game live and so can't argue against.
That White should be made skipper does concern me greatly, something is seen that was not particularly evident to me yesterday, or ever to be honest.
I might've thought that someone like Green was a better choice having been around the block a bit.
However I would reserve full on negativity mode at least until the likes of Genge, Cole, Lavanini, Tuafua, Youngs, Ford, Manu and May are here and settled.

[fentiger]

That White should be made skipper does concern me greatly, something is seen that was not particularly evident to me yesterday, or ever to be honest.
I might've thought that someone like Green was a better choice having been around the block a bit.

I don't want to labour the point, but it was, indeed, Green who became captain after Youngs went off. Clearly heard on stream TMO advising Ref as much!

[jgriffin]

Hardwick is normally a reliable kicker, I believe Reid is ok but he did have a bad day off the tee against Saints, he was not used as a kicker yesterday. E.W Viljoen surprisingly was given a longish shot, I know nothing about his kicking record but he certainly had the distance. Costello is on the young side for the Premiership but when I have seen him kicking for the Under Eighteens etc he looks a fine prospect.

Funny how in the toe-poke days even with the leather ball accuracy and distance were excellent ( and helped by squaring the kicking boot toe a bit). I often think that using part of the instep leads to inconsistency as it is easier to mishit, and the alignment of the whole chain is slightly off the 'all in line' of the toe poke.

[BFG]

That White should be made skipper does concern me greatly, something is seen that was not particularly evident to me yesterday, or ever to be honest.
I might've thought that someone like Green was a better choice having been around the block a bit.

I don't want to labour the point, but it was, indeed, Green who became captain after Youngs went off. Clearly heard on stream TMO advising Ref as much!

Thanks for that, makes sense.