London Irish (A) Sat 9th Oct

[aslongaswebeatsaints]

Delighted with the result. Winning Ugly is like a return to the halcyon days and an important skill in itself. I know it’s easy to criticise mistakes but we are increasingly able to rely on fitness ( thanks Aled) , a never-say-die-attitude, squad rotation, a gnarly pack and a dogged effective defence (thanks Kevin). Haven’t seen that for a very long time. And Steve Borthwick has shown he’s not one dimensional - we’ve employed 4 different tactical lay downs for 4 different games!

Particularly delighted in that we did not have the rub of the green yesterday against a very good London Irish team. So we made the ref a none factor.

In SB we trust

[RagingBull]

4 very different wins
v Exeter dominated them
v Gloucester never lost the lead but did let them back in when we should have finished them
v Saracens was never in it but managed to come back
v Irish lost the middle 3rd but did well to finish the game really never went out of 3rd gear

[OakhamTiger32]

4 very different wins
v Exeter dominated them
v Gloucester never lost the lead but did let them back in when we should have finished them
v Saracens was never in it but managed to come back
v Irish lost the middle 3rd but did well to finish the game really never went out of 3rd gear

Spot on.. let’s hope we are back to ‘dominated them’ for the tricky away match against Worcester

[sam16111986]

Wins away from home don't tend to be pretty. To keep a normally free scoring LI team to so little points is a testament to how far the defence and ethos has developed.

Four wins from four and I don't think we've really hot our stride yet. Blimey things have changed under Borthwick.

Hopefully some rotation next week to give less minutes to the guys who've played a lot of rugby so far. Dolly and Cole would be high on that list but a weekend off for Youngs and Ford switching with Burns would make sense. Keeping the squad as fresh as possible combined with Aled's fitness regime will bring us dividends. That and we have the squad to rotate now.

[OakhamTiger32]

Wins away from home don't tend to be pretty. To keep a normally free scoring LI team to so little points is a testament to how far the defence and ethos has developed.

Agreed. Irish have averaged 25 points per game over their last 9 premiership outings so to limit them to 16 at home is no mean feat. Plus they won this fixture 22-9 last year and the starting XV we selected that day consisted of Cole, Youngs, Wells, Green, Liebenberg, Wiese, Wigglesworth, Scott, Potter, Steward to name but a few and we had Clare, Heyes, Leatigaga, Reffell, Taufua, Porter on the bench so we were pretty strong on paper that day but came up well short. Definitely seeing signs of great progress under SB and his team

[johnthegriff]

A much earlier post by OakhamTiger32 giving a comparison of London Irish and Tiger stats reveals two things, first it shows that yesterday was a very good win for us although it was not a particularly good game, secondly it shows just how unimportant all these stats are with only the scoreboard having significance.
I say it was not a good game but then I think what is better a game like yesterday that has you interested and on the edge of your seat with the result in doubt until the final whistle or one like Quins v Bristol where the result was decided by 60 minutes and the last quarter was just to establish the margin of victory admittedly in an entertaining manner.

[Offside]

I recall seeing Freddie Burns have an excellent game at Sixways in his previous stint with Tigers. Selecting him at 10 could be a good option.

[markharbtiger]

I know it's only 4 games in but there seems to be increased resilience and fight in our performances this year especially the last two games. Grinding out wins ('winning ugly') was at one time part of Tigers DNA.
Whether this is due to increased player confidence, greater team depth or what I don't know. But long may it continue!

[OakhamTiger32]

A much earlier post by OakhamTiger32 giving a comparison of London Irish and Tiger stats reveals two things, first it shows that yesterday was a very good win for us although it was not a particularly good game, secondly it shows just how unimportant all these stats are with only the scoreboard having significance.
I say it was not a good game but then I think what is better a game like yesterday that has you interested and on the edge of your seat with the result in doubt until the final whistle or one like Quins v Bristol where the result was decided by 60 minutes and the last quarter was just to establish the margin of victory admittedly in an entertaining manner.

You are completely right JtG about the only stat that matters.. I think what the stats did show perfectly, as you rightly say is that Irish are no pushover and actually our win yesterday was very impressive

[Scott1]

Great win! Great start!

[Noggs]

Great win! Great start!

Pleased they've put a smile on your face

[ourla]

A bit of luck and a bit of grit and a bit of super play have all got us to 4 and 0.

Momentum and confidence is everything in sport - ask Quins and Emma Radacanu! So here's hoping we keep it rolling.

[johnthegriff]

Oh, Ourla I do wish you hadn't mentioned Emma Radacanu after she just lost to lower rated opposition, I was optimistically looking forward to my visit to Six Ways now there is an element of trepidation, there are no easy games this season and possibly we should be more concerned about the ones we should win than the ones we only hope to win.
However you are right momentum is important, winning like losing can be come a habit, played four won four, only eighteen to go.

[ourla]

Oh, Ourla I do wish you hadn't mentioned Emma Radacanu after she just lost to lower rated opposition

I was aware but thought it kind of accentuated the point. And of course the other thing that great teams have is the ability to bounce back from a set back.

I was optimistically looking forward to my visit to Six Ways now there is an element of trepidation, there are no easy games this season and possibly we should be more concerned about the ones we should win than the ones we only hope to win.

I don't think we need to worry as I don't think this group of coaches/players have that mindset, which is the first time for a long while I think I could say that. Irish were 0 and 3, on a long losing streak but like others near the bottom they have lost some tight ones and have a good enough squad to pull of minor shocks and win games. It didn't look like 11th against 1st last Saturday and I expect it won't look like 10th against 1st this Saturday.