ancientmariner wrote:[
Still the table is close and there is all to play for so lets stay calm and accept that while we are still a good side we are just not in 2nd let alone first gear yet.
We are not a good side; we are poor to middling. January is somewhat late in the day to move out of 3rd gear.[/quote]
Just watched the highlights, Tiger revert back to seasons type - soft trys given away yet again. As I said on another post keep Care quiet and maybe the `tigers will pinch it. As it was,Care was allowed to roam, Easter was according the the ST, huge even at 36. Yarde being allowed to run through was a joke. As Cockers has said the Tigers are a soft touch! The saving grace is that teams above didn't do too well either.
Whoever said "one person cannot change the world' never ate undercooked bat
was very dissapointed by leicesters performance. are tackles were very sloppy only salvi tackled properly. consistency seems to be a big issue at the minute one week we are on fire the next we look like kids. i dont want to sound negative but it is the truth. looks like no top 4 for us now.
I am not blaming Luke Pearce for our loss but if you are going to say someone's legal, as he did on at least two occasions for us, then you need to make plain when that ends. If a player is told he is legal in a certain position he is going to keep on going. BY as captain should have spoke to him.
As I say he was not responsible for our loss but he is clearly being fast tracked to international level so he needs to sort this out.
I think one of main problems is we do not have fit and available 13. Gonerva is not really a 13 and it stifles all his creativity, it also affects the way AA plays and so on....People will say what about Smith but he cannot really cut it anymore at this level unfortunately.
amazing tiger wrote:looks like no top 4 for us now.
If we are not very much in the mix at the end of March I will be forced to agree with you but the next five AP games are an opportunity to make the season start to look vaguely respectable by top team standards. At the moment, as previously stated, if the bookies take the same view as yourself and somebody explains to me how to do it I might be tempted to a small wager and I am really not a gambling person.
Apologies if any offence is caused.
I am neither clever enough to understand nor stupid enough to play this game
when there is 5 points separating 3rd from 8th none of those teams are certain to be outside the top 4.
After the 6n period we should know.
The plus side to all this is I could see only.
Parling, YBY, Leo, Barbieri missing.
And maybe Croft, OTY, Rizzo
Manu and Cole will prob be with us the whole period unless England go tits up.
We could have a 6N's team of against Glous:
1) Ayerza, 2) OTY, 3) Mulipola
4) Thorn, 5) Kitchener
6) Gibson/Croft, 7)Salvi, 8) Crane
9) Harrison, 10) Williams
12) Allen, 13) Manu
11) Scully, 14) Goneva, 15) Tait
Massive setback, after the first 20 minutes Tigers were outplayed in just about every area bar the set piece. There have just been too many poor performances this season for my liking.
The most disappointing aspects were the lack of game management when things started to go against us and leaking 4 tries even with AA on the pitch when many were saying we had sorted this out with the new defence coach.
Credit to Quins though - they were clearly the better team on the day.
Nowadays referees decide matches, players by how much.
RagingBull wrote:when there is 5 points separating 3rd from 8th none of those teams are certain to be outside the top 4.
After the 6n period we should know.
The plus side to all this is I could see only.
Parling, YBY, Leo, Barbieri missing.
And maybe Croft, OTY, Rizzo
Manu and Cole will prob be with us the whole period unless England go tits up.
We could have a 6N's team of against Glous:
1) Ayerza, 2) OTY, 3) Mulipola
4) Thorn, 5) Kitchener
6) Gibson/Croft, 7)Salvi, 8) Crane
9) Harrison, 10) Williams
12) Allen, 13) Manu
11) Scully, 14) Goneva, 15) Tait
The simple fact is that Tigers were poor and this just wasn't good enough. After the first 15 minutes, Tigers supporters had good reason to be optimistic for the win - Quins were under the cosh and Tigers were creating chances. But it rapidly turned into the story of the season. Poor handling, lack of cohesion, lack of incisiveness. Quins were there for the taking, but Tigers gifted them posession and their confidence grew throughout the game. Tigers will struggle to reach the top four this year, particularly as the top two are out of reach (the way Tigers are playing).
The whole lot of them, from Cockerill down, need a massive kick up the rear. A 20 point loss to a struggling Quins should have the alarm bells ringing non-stop. Despite the injuries, Tigers have a team that should be capable of beating anyone (Toulon?) but they just are not the sum of their parts.
Very disappointing.
“It is no use saying, ‘We are doing our best.’ You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.” Sir Winston Churchill.
Bath was the worst performance in the history of the club. This was not that bad. We were still in it for large chunks of the game before making some stupid decisions.
Just to give a bit of perspective, the Quins fellow I chatted to after the game said it was the best they have played all season (I think you can get a sense of that from the 'lap of honour' the players did at the end). Quins have been struggling for form this season, but if you think Quins are a poor side you are mad. They play a high risk game, but when it goes right they are very difficult to play against.
It was an odd match - Tigers were in control for the first quarter and Quins were going nowhere. One moment of fantastic play from Easter turns the game on its head. I thought Tigers played too much rugby in the wrong places - they had a decent amount of possession in the 2nd half. You want to be defending against Quins in that sort of form as far out as possible. Avoiding kicking to Brown and Yarde I guess.
The match stats make interesting reading - Allen made 13 tackles with none missed. Goneva made 2 and missed 3. IMHO the issue, in both attack and defence, remains at 13.
Clearly wasn't the best and we didn't take our chances, but the game also reflected the fact that we were playing 6 days after a massive game against Bath whereas Quins were backing up a non event victory over London Welsh where they rested half the team and the half that were playing barely had to exert themselves (physically or mentally). Is a tough and competitive league and these things make a difference. Failure to take early chances was key in terms of momentum and Quins were simply fresher and stronger in the second half. Reminiscent of playing a Rabo team in the Heineken when they'd rested the bulk of the squad whilst we'd been in tough game after tough game.
I must get a different version of the game in Scotland, I saw some really good effort from Tigers in defence and attack. I also saw a front row not exerting any real pressure, I saw lineout throws not going right and I saw the ball not being hooked in the scrum. We chose for the first half of the game, not to put numbers into the rucks and mauls and concentrate on defence and take our opportunities when they came. Quinns however were able to take advantage of our lack of dominance in the set piece and use their key players(who played well)to great effect. Once we were playing catchup we changed to another plan and competed for the ball in the lose in numbers, not looking after the ball then exposed us to counter attacks. Individual skills like the break from Care are very difficult to plan for, we got beaten away by the better side on the day, something I am sure we will be working on in time for Friday. We had a couple of players who looked out on their feet in the second half, the one thing I would change going forward is to react to that earlier by using the bench when needed. There were at least two players who needed a break before the 60 minute timeline and that did cost us points.
"If you want entertainment, go to the theatre," says Edinburgh head coach Richard Cockerill. "Rugby players play the game to win.15/1/21.
