London Irish (A) Sat 9th Oct

[OakhamTiger32]

Montoya AND Van Staden on the bench!!!!

Saw that.. as expected really for starting XV and what a bench!

[OakhamTiger32]

TIGERS STARTING XV
15 Freddie Steward [38]
14 Harry Potter [18]
13 Matt Scott [27]
12 Juan Pablo Socino [1]
11 Nemani Nadolo [18]
10 George Ford [108]
9 Ben Youngs [267]
1 Ellis Genge (c) [92]
2 Nic Dolly [5]
3 Dan Cole [267]
4 Harry Wells [127]
5 Calum Green [63]
6 George Martin [20]
7 Tommy Reffell [50]
8 Hanro Liebenberg (vc) [39]

REPLACEMENTS
16 Julián Montoya [6] *
17 Nephi Leatigaga [44]
18 Joe Heyes [73]
19 Eli Snyman [2]
20 Marco van Staden **
21 Richard Wigglesworth [15] *
22 Freddie Burns [78]
23 Guy Porter [20]

[MCC1964]

No JvP

[OakhamTiger32]

London Irish: Team news

15 Tom Parton, 14 Ben Loader, 13 Curtis Rona, 12 Terrence Hepetema, 11 Ollie Hassell-Collins, 10 Paddy Jackson, 9 Nick Phipps, 1 Will Goodrick-Clarke, 2 Agustin Creevy, 3 Marcel van der Merwe, 4 Steve Mafi, 5 Adam Coleman, 6 Matt Rogerson (c), 7 Ben Donnell, 8 Albert Tuisue.

Replacements: 16 Matt Cornish, 17 Allan Dell, 18 Ollie Hoskins, 19 Rob Simmons, 20 George Nott, 21 Sean O’Brien, 22 Hugh O’Sullivan, 23 Benhard van Rensburg

[OakhamTiger32]

No JvP

Bit of a surprise and a shame but I'm sure SB has a good reason

[Noggs]

No problems with the selection.

JVP may have taken a knock or perhaps being rested before the autumn internationals

[OakhamTiger32]

Impact bench:

Julián Montoya, Nephi Leatigaga, Joe Heyes, Eli Snyman, Marco van Staden

[kpj tiger]

No JvP

If its not injury or rest I would guess its because LI score a lot of 2nd half points and we may want Wigglesworth to close the game out

[OakhamTiger32]

No JvP

If its not injury or rest I would guess its because LI score a lot of 2nd half points and we may want Wigglesworth to close the game out

I would imagine this is the likely reason.. makes sense

[Leicestertinytiger]

That LI pack will be no pushover. Agree with Borthwick’s selection, we need to put our strongest team on the field to get some away wins under our belt.

Can’t wait to see Socino and Nadolo as the big carriers in the backline to see ball in hand. Should give us some much needed physicality and direction.

Imagine Montoya on the bench was more out of necessity than anything else. We have a massive bench which should be crucial in the last quarter.

[CrumbieGrumbler]

JVP's absence may be down to the fact Wigglesworth is going to be needed a lot during the Autumn Internationals, so handy to get a bit of game time before then

[Noggs]

Hope van Staden gets a run out. He promises a lot

[TigerCam]

No JvP

If its not injury or rest I would guess its because LI score a lot of 2nd half points and we may want Wigglesworth to close the game out

I would imagine this is the likely reason.. makes sense

He did seems to get an insignificant knock in the second half but seemed to run it off, maybe it is a bit more and needs a rest?

[markharbtiger]

Little bit surprised that we've got certain TRC players in action so soon. I had assumed they'd have been given a break. Maybe Jasper is having a break?
It's been a long season for some of the Boks already.
But aside from that, it looks a STRONG side...

[OakhamTiger32]

2 very strong starting XVs but I think we have the stronger bench. This will be a tough match there's no doubt about it. Irish yet to record a win but have scored the most tries in the premiership so far this season and H2H stats have them ahead for:

Tries - Irish 12 Tigers 10
Metres gained - Irish 1821 Tigers 1309
Carries - Irish 325 Tigers 232
Passes Made - Irish 386 Tigers 278
Tackles Missed - Irish 35 Tigers 43
Penalties Conceded Irish 35 Tigers 45

In fact.. the only few stats we are ahead on (apart from the most important one of being top of the table of course - the only one that matters!) are:

Tackles Made, Total Points For and Against.

Our defence has been much tighter with only 57 points conceded in 3 matches compared to their total of 90 points. And we have scored 80 compared to their 76 so ahead on that fron too.

This will be an arm wrestle for sure. 2 very strong packs and 2 exciting backs divisions.

Interesting to see that Irish are yet to score a penalty this season. 3 matches played and the kick to the corner tactic seems to be very much their preferred option so our discipline has to be much better to avoid giving them attacking platforms deep in our 22.

All of that said... Irish are on a terrible run of form with L9 and D1 in their last 10 matches in all competitions so it's obviously not quite clicking for them. Compare that to our last 10 matches (W7 L3) excluding pre-season.

Won't be an easy game and I fear if the box kicking is too long and as loose as it was last week vs Sarries then their back 3 will punish us. Keep it tight with good discipline and the win is very much there for the taking. Should be a fantastic match.