Worcester @ Home - 05th February 2022

[sapajo]

Burns cannot stay on script, to many big players absent. Poor handling, some pathetic attempts at tackling and poor ball retention. Deserved the 5 points but butchered to many opportunities. To beat Saints we will need a massive improvement and the absentees to return.

[longlivethecrumbie]

I do wonder if they were saving Nemzy for the Saints game or targeting that as his comeback game.

MvS - let's hope he is also fit and ready to return. I doubt it, but we can but hope.

As for today - a win is a win. Silly mistakes, poor execution and some good flashes. Five points not to be sniffed at considering the back to back defeats and two years ago we'd have made it harder work than we did, or even lost the game, so some positives to be drawn.

Martin and Porter were the ones worthy of mention. Saumaki finished his try well as well as the one which was chalked off. However, his tackling not so good. Plenty to work on.

[Rugbygramps]

Burns cannot stay on script, to many big players absent. Poor handling, some pathetic attempts at tackling and poor ball retention. Deserved the 5 points but butchered to many opportunities. To beat Saints we will need a massive improvement and the absentees to return.

I wasn’t there so can’t comment on the performance. I am interested to know what people think Saints are going to bring on Friday night, given the number of key players they have absent, the fact that we stuffed them at their place, and their erratic form this season
The type of sides they tend to struggle against are those with a powerful pack, which doesn’t play a loose game allowing them to counter attack.

[longlivethecrumbie]

Burns cannot stay on script, to many big players absent. Poor handling, some pathetic attempts at tackling and poor ball retention. Deserved the 5 points but butchered to many opportunities. To beat Saints we will need a massive improvement and the absentees to return.

I wasn’t there so can’t comment on the performance. I am interested to know what people think Saints are going to bring on Friday night, given the number of key players they have absent, the fact that we stuffed them at their place, and their erratic form this season
The type of sides they tend to struggle against are those with a powerful pack, which doesn’t play a loose game allowing them to counter attack.

I'll be concerned as to what sort of pack we will have out.

Can only hope Wiese was withdrawn as a precaution and not due to concussion.

[Ian Cant]

Was at the end where Weise got injured in the first half: we were surprised he carried on until half time. He took a couple of high tackles: which no one seems to pick up when they are against us, especially when we go onto score.
We will need to play a lot better next week v Saints as they will be even more pumped up after what we did to them at the Franklins.
A good win today against a poor Worcester side.

[OakhamTiger32]

Just watched the game and what a mixed bag that was. Most importantly I guess it's 5 points in the bag; however, we were far from convincing at times and there were some pretty average parts today. No, the result was never in question but it was frustrating to watch at times..

Positives:

- Until he got a bit silly late on I thought Pearce and all of the officials had a very good game. Great to hear him call "no freebies Worcester" after their first yellow and true to his word they got a second shortly after. Not sure our 2 yellows late on were warranted but hey ho.. didn't matter. Would happily have Pearce on the whistle every week.. very good referee.
- Absolutely massive defense. Huge hits and some very impressive defense throughout the game today and we really looked up for it.
- Maul looked very very good.. clearly not as good as Gloucester's if you listen to the BT Sport pundits but it was a real weapon today
- Very good discipline and low penalty count first half
- Burns kicking from the tee in very tough conditions was impressive
- A great finish by Saumaki for the first try
- Great hands by my MOTM Porter to make the second try
- Stand out performances by Porter, Martin, Wells, Montoya, Potter. Liebenberg was very solid and great to see him back and I thought Wiese carried well.
- That break by Wiese in the 25th minute that took 6 players to bring him down!

Negatives:

- Lacked control and the Hegarty/Burns link just doesn't work
- Saw both sides of Saumaki's game today. A fair few missed tackles and flying out of the line a couple of times left gaps
- End of the first half vs 13 players there were gaps appearing all over the place so Hegarty's grubber kick through was a terrible call for me. We have 2 extra players and the clock is in the red. Bad call. Hegarty has a bit of Scott Hamilton about him but I am certainly on the fence at this stage as to whether he's worth hanging on to.
- Leatigaga makes a fantastic break for the disallowed 'harlem globetrotters' try in the 60th minute but is so lazy passing it forward to Reffell when under no pressure whatsoever. Very poor and cost us 7 points.
- Didn't score a single point (apart from the penalty try that was awarded with the second yellow) vs 13 players which given we were playing the bottom side is pretty poor
- Second half we won 14-10. Pretty disappointing given we were at home and usually our fitness pays dividends late on. Apart from a few moments the second half was pretty average really.
- The floated pass by Burns that was intercepted by Hearle for his try was way too obvious! I could have got up off the sofa, driven to MWWR and caught that the time it was in the air! Terrible pass and trying to force something that just wasn't on.
- Restarts are still a mess. Seems like we don't bother practising these as they always seem to cause us trouble

Strange old game. For me Hegarty grubber kicking through when we had 2 extra players and the clock was in the red was 7 points left out there. Burns lofted pass gifted them 7 points and Leatigaga being lazy and passing it forward to Reffell cost us 7 points. Yes we won 36-16 but 50-9 would have been far more impressive had we taken our chances and had we had a little more control that was well within our reach today. Left a lot of points out there and we will have to be better if we are to say top of the table.

In short.. Take the 5 pointer, nice to see Hanro back, Wiese is back to his carrying best, Martin and Wells were everywhere and tackled their socks off, Porter and Potter are such valuable players and really stood out in that backline today, Burns/Hegarty doesn't work, Pearce is right up there with Barnes for me, good to have a sensible TMO (Ridley), lack of control and poor decision making meant we never really pushed on but the result was never in doubt. Hope Wiese isn't injured after he went off on 41 minutes. Didn't see anything but seemed a strange time to hook him given the impact he was having. If he's injured I'd imagine we would go 6. Martin 7. Reffell, 8. Liebenberg vs Saints

[TigerFeetSteve]

https://www.premiershiprugby.com/prtv/

For those who couldn't watch live the full match is now here

[LE18]

Burns cannot stay on script, to many big players absent. Poor handling, some pathetic attempts at tackling and poor ball retention. Deserved the 5 points but butchered to many opportunities. To beat Saints we will need a massive improvement and the absentees to return.

I wasn’t there so can’t comment on the performance. I am interested to know what people think Saints are going to bring on Friday night, given the number of key players they have absent, the fact that we stuffed them at their place, and their erratic form this season
The type of sides they tend to struggle against are those with a powerful pack, which doesn’t play a loose game allowing them to counter attack.

Tigers are a shadow of the side we played away at Saints, we were poor today, had so much of the ball but retention let us down, when Worcs got ball, especially when down to 13 men, we couldn't get it back off them. I thought it was a dull game, we won easily but didn't have the control. I will never be a fan of Burns no matter how hard I try, how he got fans player votes I just don't know. Well done for the win.

[Tigerbeat]

Wiese did not look good going back to the dugouts....appeared to have a stiff neck

[fentiger]

Wiese did not look good going back to the dugouts....appeared to have a stiff neck

Medics were treating him for neck problem late in first half, surprised he stayed on then.

[LE18]

Wiese did not look good going back to the dugouts....appeared to have a stiff neck

Actually he didn't come out after half time, Reffell had replaced him, and as a poster said earlier he has been reading the forum with his carrying and passing today.

[Rugbygramps]

Burns cannot stay on script, to many big players absent. Poor handling, some pathetic attempts at tackling and poor ball retention. Deserved the 5 points but butchered to many opportunities. To beat Saints we will need a massive improvement and the absentees to return.

I wasn’t there so can’t comment on the performance. I am interested to know what people think Saints are going to bring on Friday night, given the number of key players they have absent, the fact that we stuffed them at their place, and their erratic form this season
The type of sides they tend to struggle against are those with a powerful pack, which doesn’t play a loose game allowing them to counter attack.

Tigers are a shadow of the side we played away at Saints, we were poor today, had so much of the ball but retention let us down, when Worcs got ball, especially when down to 13 men, we couldn't get it back off them. I thought it was a dull game, we won easily but didn't have the control. I will never be a fan of Burns no matter how hard I try, how he got fans player votes I just don't know. Well done for the win.

I get that we weren’t very good and got 5 points despite that. Still doesn’t answer my question as to what other posters feel Saints will bring to the party that other posters are worried about, given their missing players and week off etc.
If as those that attended have said the Burns Hegarty combo isn’t working then for me, move Hegarty to 10 and if fit either play Murimurivalu at 15 or Potter. From what I remember seeing Hegarty play super rugby he did play a more structured game

[Rugbygramps]

Wiese did not look good going back to the dugouts....appeared to have a stiff neck

Actually he didn't come out after half time, Reffell had replaced him, and as a poster said earlier he has been reading the forum with his carrying and passing today.

Good to hear he is adding that to his game. If Wiese isn’t fit then Liebenberg to 8 Reffell and Martin on the flanks won’t let anyone down

[Tigerbeat]

Wiese did not look good going back to the dugouts....appeared to have a stiff neck

Actually he didn't come out after half time, Reffell had replaced him, and as a poster said earlier he has been reading the forum with his carrying and passing today.

He did come out after half time and was in the dugout not looking very comfortable.

[LE18]

Wiese did not look good going back to the dugouts....appeared to have a stiff neck

Actually he didn't come out after half time, Reffell had replaced him, and as a poster said earlier he has been reading the forum with his carrying and passing today.

He did come out after half time and was in the dugout not looking very comfortable.

Sorry if I misled you, I meant coming out to play, he was replaced before the 2nd half kick off, I didn't mean where he sat.