Tigers vs Brive

[wormus]

Thought Nadolo was largely a spectator

Agreed, however Tiger's shop have arranged a new range of gloves for all Tigers wingers, but not like the famous orange Ben Kay variety.

[drc_007]

Bayonne are having a modest season and have one of the worst defences in the Top14 leaking over 30 points per game. This is a game Tigers could win. I'd start with the team that finished against Brive.

[TA30]

Was like watching a Saracens defensive training session. We always looked in control without getting out of 2nd gear. It was great with no Comms as you could hear the excitement the team had in defence. some of the hits were great - Joe heyes put some big shots in.

Steward is 100% the future, he is not yet the finished article.

Wish we would stop taking 3points, would much rather we always go to the corner - it's what Exeter do for the reason that the more you do it the better you get. So much more to come from our backline and frustrating we only looked to go wide in last 20.

3 points every single time for me. If you can take 5 (for example) free shots at the posts, that gives you 15 points. You’ve got to get 2 tries and conversions to get that score from those 5 chances. The chances of that are slim.

3 points at every opportunity for me is what I’d always expect from my team if I were the coach.

Fair enough, it has been the mantra of many a successful team and the one Tigers are following - get over 2 scores ahead and then go for tries.

For Tigers though I do think it has become part of the problem, we build scores by 3, then make an error in defence or give away a pen and the other side build there score by 5or 7. We often finish games on 15-20 points with the winner at 30+.

I do think we are improving and giving away less of those coach killer penalities. We'll almost certainly see a 12-15 style scrap against Newcastle in a few weeks. Just felt last night was a chance to practice our attacking lineout, build pressure on the other side and maybe increase the teams rate of improvement. Not complaining though, we got the TBP and were strong in defence.

[Systonite]

Pleased with that. Far from perfect of course and needed the class from the bench to get things moving, but got there in the end.
The scrums in the second half were superb. Tight, low and technically strong. Gave us a platform and sapped their confidence.
Agree with previous posters that we need to get our weapons in the backs firing earlier in matches.

[parvacat]

The whole evening was surreal - watching the live stream and listening to RL with a 30 second delay! By the end of the game I was so spaced out I had to check the content of the wine my wife was giving me...especially when we stopped kicking and actually ran with the ball. Was it all a dream?

[BFG]

I thought that it was a struggle until the replacements came on.
The props and half backs made a big difference.
De Bruin looks like a proper tight head.

[Tigerbeat]

You can only play whats put in front of you. The backline have never played together in a competitive game and will only get better as they get more game time together.
Forwards looked good and defence was solid.
Still work to do but greatly improved from 12 months ago!

[OakhamTiger32]

In the context of where we are as a club I think this was a big plus. The way the Challenge Cup is set up this season that 5-0 could be crucial. Had we settled for a 4-1 win then the table could end up looking very different. Bayonne are very beatable and we have every chance of topping this group if we go to France with a strong team.

It was really great to see how much this win meant to the lads and I think we should approach next week in a similar manner. We could be going to Newcastle off the back of 2 big wins (with them potentially heading into the game having lost their last 2) and that confidence boost could be a huge step in the right direction.. look at Wasps last season!

[JP14]

I thought defence was really good bar a couple of errors.

I think we need to calm down about the scrum, if we start doing that against Newcastle I might be excited but a fresh Genge and de Bruin with Lavanini shoving you means it’s not surprising that we turned the screw but it was awesome to see them Brive being pushed over.

[sam16111986]

I thought defence was really good bar a couple of errors.

I think we need to calm down about the scrum, if we start doing that against Newcastle I might be excited but a fresh Genge and de Bruin with Lavanini shoving you means it’s not surprising that we turned the screw but it was awesome to see them Brive being pushed over.

Falcons scrum is ok but it's not dominating teams. If we can get our set piece firing it's an area we could potentially turn the screw. The Flacons defence looks good so if we can use the scrum to give us territory or points that would be a big advantage.

Bayonne are having a modest season and have one of the worst defences in the Top14 leaking over 30 points per game. This is a game Tigers could win. I'd start with the team that finished against Brive.

No. Don't risk first team players in a trip to France. We need a result against Falcons far more than we do in the lesser European competition. Why risk injuries? We can leave the first team at home training and building relationships on the field. They can be fresh and we'll prepped for the important game.

Falcons are resting their first team players.

[Tiglon]

Last season we put 40 past a Pau team of similar ability, so in terms of scoreline I don't see any reason to claim progress has been made today.

However, lots of faces new to each other and lots of positive individual performances. Hopefully we can see more of a team performance next week (although I wouldn't be surprised to see the seconds sent out).

That’s a tad disingenuous. We scored 37 points and had all tries been converted that would have been 43 points.

Yes, so about the same points. Therefore, based on score alone, no progress.

[Grimlish]

Sam16111996 wrote:

No. Don't risk first team players in a trip to France. We need a result against Falcons far more than we do in the lesser European competition. Why risk injuries? We can leave the first team at home training and building relationships on the field. They can be fresh and we'll prepped for the important game.

Right now when half the squad barely know each other’s name they surely need time together on the pitch, and if that’s against slightly weaker opposition than Falcons then all to the good. Take it as a warm up & be prepared to rotate players in key positions.

[TigerFeetSteve]

Last season we put 40 past a Pau team of similar ability, so in terms of scoreline I don't see any reason to claim progress has been made today.

However, lots of faces new to each other and lots of positive individual performances. Hopefully we can see more of a team performance next week (although I wouldn't be surprised to see the seconds sent out).

That’s a tad disingenuous. We scored 37 points and had all tries been converted that would have been 43 points.

Yes, so about the same points. Therefore, based on score alone, no progress.

Yes but last year we had a consistent squad, by virtue of the fact this was Moroni's first game since March 7th

Bonilla's first start since March 7th

Lavannini & Taufua first starts since injuries

De Bruin's debut.

This team has further scope to develop and progress than last year's team.

The way I look at it we've brought a new team together and since the start of summer and have already reached the levels of last season. While still having more to show.

For me that is good progress forward

[Tiglon]

That’s a tad disingenuous. We scored 37 points and had all tries been converted that would have been 43 points.

Yes, so about the same points. Therefore, based on score alone, no progress.

Yes but last year we had a consistent squad, by virtue of the fact this was Moroni's first game since March 7th

Bonilla's first start since March 7th

Lavannini & Taufua first starts since injuries

De Bruin's debut.

This team has further scope to develop and progress than last year's team.

The way I look at it we've brought a new team together and since the start of summer and have already reached the levels of last season. While still having more to show.

For me that is good progress forward

Hence the other part of my post about "lots of faces new to each other" in mitigation. I'm very confused that people seem to think they're disagreeing with me but saying pretty much exactly the same as me.

Me: Similar score to similar game last year.
MCC1964: No, we scored a similar amount of points in that similar game last year.
Me: However lots of our players were new to each other.
Tigerfeetsteve: Hold on a minute, don't forget that lots of our players were new to each other.

[TigerFeetSteve]

Yes, so about the same points. Therefore, based on score alone, no progress.

Yes but last year we had a consistent squad, by virtue of the fact this was Moroni's first game since March 7th

Bonilla's first start since March 7th

Lavannini & Taufua first starts since injuries

De Bruin's debut.

This team has further scope to develop and progress than last year's team.

The way I look at it we've brought a new team together and since the start of summer and have already reached the levels of last season. While still having more to show.

For me that is good progress forward

Hence the other part of my post about "lots of faces new to each other" in mitigation. I'm very confused that people seem to think they're disagreeing with me but saying pretty much exactly the same as me.

Me: Similar score to similar game last year.
MCC1964: No, we scored a similar amount of points in that similar game last year.
Me: However lots of our players were new to each other.
Tigerfeetsteve: Hold on a minute, don't forget that lots of our players were new to each other.

I wasn't trying to disagree with you per-say more empasising the fact that on the pitch we may be at the same level but where we are as a club is a significantly better place