Exeter Chiefs 21st December

[Crofty]

Excellent all round display from Murphy today, half time talk wiped out an 8 point lead, substitutions came on so late all they could do is watch the clock tick down to the inevitable defeat (without a bonus point, to a heavily weakened Exeter team) and then got into a kerfuffle with fans in the terrace. He's out of his depth and the longer this goes on the more I fear he's making the position such that we won't be able to attract a coach who can dig us out of this mess, but let's be clear, responsibility for this belongs to the Board of Directors who put him there!

I'm sorry but you can't place that soley on Murphy.
The players need to shoulder some blame as well.

They came down the tunnel having survived what looked like they were going to be two scoring moves from Exeter, surely their tails must have been up, 10 minutes later they come out of the tunnel and almost immediately start to capitulate, I grant you professional sportsmen should be able to maintain motivation themselves but this is not the first time a good first half performance has been completely negated be a scoreless second that looked poor from 40:01...

[Crofty]

Dear Santa, please help our Tigers

I've more belief in him to turn our season round than Murphy...

[teds]

Such a shame really, Taufua, Lavanini and Tuilagi were class, top shift from Cole too it just fell away from us and then we overplayed.

As for Pearce, I have no words... he fell for Chiefs cheating as easy as Romeo fell for Juliet.

Glad to see Cole get a mention. Still looks like England’s best tight head to me.

To be fair to Pearce, it seemed the TMO who was most keen on a Exeter victory.

[RagingBull]

Showed the difference between a Head coach with 16 years experience and one with 5 years today.

I don't really agree that Murphy lacks the talent or intelligence to be a head coach, he certainly lacks the experience.

Brilliant player but I've seen nothing to suggest he will translate in to a good coach. I've seen it before where a fantastic instinctive player is unable to transfer those skills to a team he is coaching and can't understand why.

I mean he did well when he was in charge of that 1 AWC run.
He just hasn't been given a chance to "grow" naturally. He was given a mess and was expected to learn on the job with little help in terms of coaching experience.
and I think that tends to be the case for most fantastic instinctive players, the clubs tend to be too quick to give them the top job.
A case of being given a high end Rally car with a big powerful engine but shocking wheels and suspension as a Car to learn to drive in.
As opposed maybe having him as a co-navigator to a much more experienced driver.

[RagingBull]

Excellent all round display from Murphy today, half time talk wiped out an 8 point lead, substitutions came on so late all they could do is watch the clock tick down to the inevitable defeat (without a bonus point, to a heavily weakened Exeter team) and then got into a kerfuffle with fans in the terrace. He's out of his depth and the longer this goes on the more I fear he's making the position such that we won't be able to attract a coach who can dig us out of this mess, but let's be clear, responsibility for this belongs to the Board of Directors who put him there!

I'm sorry but you can't place that soley on Murphy.
The players need to shoulder some blame as well.

They came down the tunnel having survived what looked like they were going to be two scoring moves from Exeter, surely their tails must have been up, 10 minutes later they come out of the tunnel and almost immediately start to capitulate, I grant you professional sportsmen should be able to maintain motivation themselves but this is not the first time a good first half performance has been completely negated be a scoreless second that looked poor from 40:01...

But then again Murphy must have surely said something to them before the game that got it right.
Personally I thought we had our tails till 50 minutes.

I wonder if Ford had taken the points instead of the kick too touch if things might have been different.
Exeter score their try we would still be in the lead and instead of chasing still have some control. As soon as we had too chase in this weather it was game over.

[Qbec]

Some of the poison which appears on here has no place on Tigers supporters forum. if you don't like the team or the staff as much as some seem to show why don't you just go somewhere else.
I have watched the comments on for far too long & it just stinks the way some of you write about players, coaches, staff & board members.
It beggars belief why you even bother, unless the whole purpose of you comments is to be distructive.
That is why so many people who used to post on here left because the poisonous views of the few.
I will say again Well done Tigers it was a great improvement keep it up & the wins will come
And to reflect a great Tigers supporter in that of Bill "Keep the Faith"

[Crofty]

But then again Murphy must have surely said something to them before the game that got it right.
Personally I thought we had our tails till 50 minutes.

I wonder if Ford had taken the points instead of the kick too touch if things might have been different.
Exeter score their try we would still be in the lead and instead of chasing still have some control. As soon as we had too chase in this weather it was game over.

Maybe he can't do the team talk thing under pressure, pregame he has all morning to get them on message, in the half time break he has less than 10 minutes. I do think Murphy might do well at DoR with a decent head coach under him, so long as he and said coach can get a common plan together, this is based mostly on players coming in over the summer saying that it was Murphy selling them a vision that got them to sign on...

[Tiglon]

The only purpose in assigning blame is to find a solution.

The Board of Directors have no direct influence on performances they only appoint the people who do, therefore replacing them won't in itself change what happens on the pitch. If the BoD are all replaced but coaches and players stay the same, results will not improve.

The players are the ones that ultimately go onto the pitch and it's what they do that creates the result. Can we replace all the players? Not realistically, and anyway, most would agree that the current squad is more talented than we have had for some years. Half a dozen World Cup finalists plus Veainu, Lavanini, Taufua etc should be a half decent recipe, certainly with a salary cap to think of. So if we can't replace them with better players, we need to help them play better.

This is, as I understand it, where the coaches come in. Their job is to get the best out of players and make them translate talent into good results. Are we getting the best out of our players and are they playing to their full potential? If not, then we need to change something with the coaching.

Either this is the best our players can do or this is the best that our coaches can do. Most of our players have been successful wearing other jerseys so we can be confident that they can do better, but what have most of our coaches ever achieved with other clubs to prove their capability? To be more specific, what has Geordan Murphy done since retiring as a player to indicate that he is a good coach? That he is the right coach? What gives us confidence that he can turn it around? That he can get more out of these players?

Maybe Borthwick is coming, maybe it'll be as Head Coach and Murphy and the BoD will step back and let him get on with it even when "senior players" complain about his methods, decisions or expectations. Maybe that's the master plan and we should just be patient and wait for its inevitable success. Maybe today was a big step in the right direction and results will come, but to me with the stakes so high it seems very risky to cling onto nothing but blind faith.

[DeadlyDunc]

Much improved and for 50mins were well in it but Chiefs did what they’ve done for years and to far better teams than we currently are and not many can do much about it.

Some of the comments on here would make you think we were playing some tin pot side that lose most weeks or that have a tendency to lose close games.

Unfortunately that is us at the moment but to push a quality Chiefs side (it was still a more than decent XV they put out) is a signifivant step in the right direction.

There is no shame in losing to Exeter or Sarries for any Premiership team these days as long as the performance is there or thereabouts which for the most part it was.

If we maintain that intensity and performance level we’d beat most teams outside the two named already.

Lots to work on too but lots of positives.

[WhitecapTiger]

Such a shame after that first half. With the exception of some great defense at the end of the first half it all seemed to unravel when Ellis opted to take the quick tap penalty rather than have Ford kick to the corner. Kick to the corner, back the lineout which was working well at that stage and bag the BP before HT, not to mention a healthy lead. Small margins but no room for error against the top sides

I understand why Ellis took that quickly, Exeter were all over the place and I think it was simply an opportunity to turn the screw - we didn't capitalise, so chance begging and engage 20/20 hindsight.

For me, it unravelled with Polota Nau launching his first lineout throw into orbit - and we never recovered from that, went into full on headless chicken mode at times after that.

[Crofty]

Some of the comments on here would make you think we were playing some tin pot side that lose most weeks or that have a tendency to lose close games.

Unfortunately that is us at the moment but to push a quality Chiefs side (it was still a more than decent XV they put out) is a signifivant step in the right direction.

There is no shame in losing to Exeter or Sarries for any Premiership team these days as long as the performance is there or thereabouts which for the most part it was.

Does it not frustrate you that a Leicester Tigers side that closely resembles our best 15 is seen as such a none threat that teams can rest some of their key players and still expect to take it on and worse than that not get that slight rammed back down their throats by one of our best performances in a couple of years? That's why there is anger here, we are now not seen as any sort of threat to the top teams despite having a line up with a goodly seam of internationals in it.

Leicester Tigers on the pitch are currently significantly less than the sum of their parts, week in week out.

[OakhamTiger32]

I don’t think people being disgruntled or complaining about the standard of coaching or players is poisonous (given we’ve lost 5/6 and have failed to pick up a LBP every time). As many regularly point out, this is a forum and everyone has their own opinion and is entitled to voice it. The well poisoners are out there but few and far between imho.

I’d be disappointed as a life long Leicester Tigers fan if I was reading nothing but praise on here given our current predicament. We played to a standard in the first 50 minutes that has not been shown by Tigers in the GP for some time so yes there is lots to be positive about but how easily it all unraveled in the second half is what concerns me. Play like we did in the first half and we come away from Twickers with the points

[Yorkietiger]

Murphy having a barney with the crowd on the terrace
[/quote

If he is getting heckled by the crowd it is nothing more than he deserves. If he had an ounce of honour he would have stood down long ago. :censored: clueless again, 40 minutes of decent rugby, then back to the usual dross. Missed line outs, no penetration, aimless kicking the ball away, and so it goes on.

Unless this numpty is booted out we are toast.

[Tiglon]

On the topic of forum poison...

When we were finishing 4th/5th and people banged on as if it was a catastrophe I thought the level of negativity was unwarranted and over the top (some will say that was the start of the decline, but let's not get into that again!), but when we are 1 out of 6 and all but bottom of the table would you not expect disappointment and criticism? Yes, today was better in many respects, but "better" isn't a very high standard right now.

When O'Connor lead us to 5th place most were calling him incompetent and calling for his sacking. Now, with a stronger squad we are performing much worse and we should be content?

[BFG]

I thought that Leicester were excellent at times.
It blew up when Exeter went ahead and Leicester seemed to lose the plot.
The half backs and Ford in particular were so much better at playing territory and then it all just stopped and they started playing junior rugby.
Leicester were not as calm being behind as Exeter were.
Reffell (and Wells earlier) apart I was disappointed with the subs, once again some continue to offer absolutely nothing other than seeing the clock out.
Unless injured I would not have taken Tuafua off.