London Irish

[OakhamTiger32]

Leicester Tigers v London Irish (Welford Road, 6pm) – BT Sport Extra 2/App

Referee: Luke Pearce
Assistants: Andrew Jackson, Wayne Falla
TMO: Sean Davey
Citing Commissioner: William James

[Traveller]

I hope we win against Irish, but for me there isn't even a must win game at this stage in the new coaching teams tenure. There isn't any such thing as a 'must win game' for me at this moment. Things were rotten to the core at Tigers, and it is going to take time to turn it around, so that their is a resilience built into the culture of the team that enables them to succeed over time as I am sure they will do.

It is a question of the doing the dull stuff. Most grand buildings are an add-on to all the unsung, unheralded, groundwork of digging, carrying away the rubble, pouring the cement etc. Solid foundations.

I don't remember Saracens being an all singing and dancing attack orientated team at the outset. They kicked, chased, learnt how to tackle as a collective. Learnt how to secure their own line out ball consistently, ditto scrummage; the collective was everything. Ditto Eddie Jones when he was winning a first Grand Slam and a tour 0-3 in Australia. None of it was built on attack in the early stages. Humility and patience.

[Wayne Richardson Fan Club]

Leicester Tigers v London Irish (Welford Road, 6pm) – BT Sport Extra 2/App

Referee: Luke Pearce
Assistants: Andrew Jackson, Wayne Falla
TMO: Sean Davey
Citing Commissioner: William James

No better luck with the ref then...as for the TMO....

[Chobbsy]

Game time,rotation ,experimentation when nothing is at stake may be acceptable . There is however a necessity to learn how to win rather than how to lose with the resources at our disposal.Personally would hope for a stronger side (on paper) and a morale enhancing victory on Wednesday evening.......

...... and I believe that is what we’ll get! I wouldn’t object if one or two younger players are in the squad for Wednesday, George Martin for example, but I’d drop Lavanini who has been a disappointment for me. Henry deserves a place on the bench coming on for Ford for the last 20 and I’d pick Steward at fullback.

The 2 games so far Lavanini hasn't looked like he wants to be here :(

[Chobbsy]

There's no right answers with selection at the moment. I think as a principle you don't want anyone involved in all 4 of this 'block' (Exeter to Glocs); you don't want anyone starting two games in a row or starting one and benching the other, as an injury means that suddenly they're playing 80 minutes; and you probably also want to avoid having a midweek team/binjuice.

With all that in mind--and assuming that an senior players we haven't seen yet won't become available in this block--I think the following team works quite well:

1. Genge
2. Youngs
3. Cole
4. Wells
5. Green
6. Liebenberg
7. Reffell
8. Taufua
9. B Youngs
10. Ford
11. Olowofela
12. Hardwick
13. Scott
14. Williams
15. Taute

16. Vanes
17. Bower
18. Dimen
19. Chessum
20. Coghlan
21. Law
22. Kelly
23. Steward

The issue is the bench is ridiculously young, but I don't see away around that without asking too much of the players from the weekend.

Why do we keep putting Taufua at 8? he is a 6 play him at 6, Liebenberg is an 8 play him at 8

[Chobbsy]

I'm not really into this 'these matches are a pre-season' mode of thinking.

It's 9 rounds of a 22-round Premiership - 40% of the season!

We don't want to waste 40% of the season preparing for the next one. We might be rubbish then, too. It's sufficient time for Borthwick to show how he can turn the team around.

20 points off the Heineken Cup places, a European campaign to try and win and a huge turnaround in the squad, realistically we don't have anything to play for in the league. I definetly think we're on the up but there's no point stressing about where we finish in the table. Personally I'd rather use the games as valuable development opportunities that we can use to push on for the next campaign.

There is still the biggest thing to play for... pride in ones self and the club

[sam16111986]

Game time,rotation ,experimentation when nothing is at stake may be acceptable . There is however a necessity to learn how to win rather than how to lose with the resources at our disposal.Personally would hope for a stronger side (on paper) and a morale enhancing victory on Wednesday evening.......

...... and I believe that is what we’ll get! I wouldn’t object if one or two younger players are in the squad for Wednesday, George Martin for example, but I’d drop Lavanini who has been a disappointment for me. Henry deserves a place on the bench coming on for Ford for the last 20 and I’d pick Steward at fullback.

The 2 games so far Lavanini hasn't looked like he wants to be here :(

He is a new father with all the couple's family in another country. There could be some external issues influencing his performance. Fatigue and/or stress aren't likely to improve his performance. Hopefully he settles back in quickly.

[trendylfj]

Didn't I read somewhere that there was going to be 8 teams from each league in next year's HC? Thought it was in order to reduce the number of matches. If that is true we are not 20 pts from Qualifying

[JP14]

Will be unable to watch due to work, but I think we will get our first win, it probably won't be pretty though.

[westwinds31]

Game time,rotation ,experimentation when nothing is at stake may be acceptable . There is however a necessity to learn how to win rather than how to lose with the resources at our disposal.Personally would hope for a stronger side (on paper) and a morale enhancing victory on Wednesday evening.......

...... and I believe that is what we’ll get! I wouldn’t object if one or two younger players are in the squad for Wednesday, George Martin for example, but I’d drop Lavanini who has been a disappointment for me. Henry deserves a place on the bench coming on for Ford for the last 20 and I’d pick Steward at fullback.

The 2 games so far Lavanini hasn't looked like he wants to be here :(

I really don’t know what to make of this comment. What were you expecting from him ? From what I’ve seen, he’s made his tackles, taken restarts, carried hard and he’s been part of an improved lineout. The one thing you could say is he bought a massive dummy off Matevesi, but you’d expect there to be cover and when you’ve got a back picking off a front five forward you’d expect them to beat him. The scrum has also been ok and Lavanini is a key part of that.

[Chobbsy]

...... and I believe that is what we’ll get! I wouldn’t object if one or two younger players are in the squad for Wednesday, George Martin for example, but I’d drop Lavanini who has been a disappointment for me. Henry deserves a place on the bench coming on for Ford for the last 20 and I’d pick Steward at fullback.

The 2 games so far Lavanini hasn't looked like he wants to be here :(

I really don’t know what to make of this comment. What were you expecting from him ? From what I’ve seen, he’s made his tackles, taken restarts, carried hard and he’s been part of an improved lineout. The one thing you could say is he bought a massive dummy off Matevesi, but you’d expect there to be cover and when you’ve got a back picking off a front five forward you’d expect them to beat him. The scrum has also been ok and Lavanini is a key part of that.

Make of it what you want, it's my opinion

[Hot_Charlie]

I really don’t know what to make of this comment. What were you expecting from him ? From what I’ve seen, he’s made his tackles, taken restarts, carried hard and he’s been part of an improved lineout. The one thing you could say is he bought a massive dummy off Matevesi, but you’d expect there to be cover and when you’ve got a back picking off a front five forward you’d expect them to beat him. The scrum has also been ok and Lavanini is a key part of that.

+1.

Matevesi may have loved his dummy, but it was a back selling it to a lump of a lock forward and a tight head prop.

[BG01]

There's no right answers with selection at the moment. I think as a principle you don't want anyone involved in all 4 of this 'block' (Exeter to Glocs); you don't want anyone starting two games in a row or starting one and benching the other, as an injury means that suddenly they're playing 80 minutes; and you probably also want to avoid having a midweek team/binjuice.

With all that in mind--and assuming that an senior players we haven't seen yet won't become available in this block--I think the following team works quite well:

1. Genge
2. Youngs
3. Cole
4. Wells
5. Green
6. Liebenberg
7. Reffell
8. Taufua
9. B Youngs
10. Ford
11. Olowofela
12. Hardwick
13. Scott
14. Williams
15. Taute

16. Vanes
17. Bower
18. Dimen
19. Chessum
20. Coghlan
21. Law
22. Kelly
23. Steward

The issue is the bench is ridiculously young, but I don't see away around that without asking too much of the players from the weekend.

Why do we keep putting Taufua at 8? he is a 6 play him at 6, Liebenberg is an 8 play him at 8

I actually sort of agree. I think they can both play 6 it 8, and I think Liebenberg is a bit more suited to 8 and Taufua a bit more suited to 6. Having said that, before they joined us Taufua was playing a lot at 8 and Liebenberg a lot at 6.

I mostly put them in that position because (a) it doesn't really matter and (b) for consistency with our 'big man at 6' approach

[HarryTigerFan]

Would love to see George Martin get another run out against Irish, maybe even at lock this time. Have just seen that he made the most tackles in the Premiership this weekend (23) and won the most lineouts (11). Pretty impressive for a 19 year old on his prem debut

[DeadlyDunc]

There's no right answers with selection at the moment. I think as a principle you don't want anyone involved in all 4 of this 'block' (Exeter to Glocs); you don't want anyone starting two games in a row or starting one and benching the other, as an injury means that suddenly they're playing 80 minutes; and you probably also want to avoid having a midweek team/binjuice.

With all that in mind--and assuming that an senior players we haven't seen yet won't become available in this block--I think the following team works quite well:

1. Genge
2. Youngs
3. Cole
4. Wells
5. Green
6. Liebenberg
7. Reffell
8. Taufua
9. B Youngs
10. Ford
11. Olowofela
12. Hardwick
13. Scott
14. Williams
15. Taute

16. Vanes
17. Bower
18. Dimen
19. Chessum
20. Coghlan
21. Law
22. Kelly
23. Steward

The issue is the bench is ridiculously young, but I don't see away around that without asking too much of the players from the weekend.

Why do we keep putting Taufua at 8? he is a 6 play him at 6, Liebenberg is an 8 play him at 8

I actually sort of agree. I think they can both play 6 it 8, and I think Liebenberg is a bit more suited to 8 and Taufua a bit more suited to 6. Having said that, before they joined us Taufua was playing a lot at 8 and Liebenberg a lot at 6.

I mostly put them in that position because (a) it doesn't really matter and (b) for consistency with our 'big man at 6' approach

It sure about Taute at 15 - has he played there recently?