SAINTS AT HOME 24TH APRIL 2021

[JP14]

Always rated Ribbans, wouldn’t mind seeing him in a Tigers shirt not gonna lie, not sure if he would fit the gameplan mind.

[JP14]

ref didn't even look at the hit on Kelly, TMO told him it was unavoidable and play on, that alone should see the TMO suspended.

It was a shot with the shoulder with force to the head, mitigation down to a yellow and he didn't even get the ref to check it

It was off the ball too, wasn't it?

Late tackle as Kelly offloaded

So surely he should have been penalised for it just being late, not sure it would have mattered in the grand scheme of things. I echo comments officiation was lacking for both sides, as we were also offside a lot as well as Saints and there was sealing off all over the place.

[Tigers86asw]

Second row is now worrying me for next season. We’ve got two great prospects in Martin and Henderson, but will probably be too young to rely on week in week out next season. Chessum I can see being a great premiership standard lock like McNally, but again next season will probably be too soon.

Therefore, will probably be more of the same with Wells, Green and Snyman. Good squad players, but lack some quality when compared to like Ribbans.

Yes it doesn’t inspire confidence at all unless we hit the jackpot with Snyman. Let’s hope we have a lock up our sleeve

I agree that Green does not really offer much. He’s meant to a line out forward but is the not 6’ 5. He is very slow and doesn’t get over the gainline. Wells has issues with discipline. The second row does lack grunt.

[DeadlyDunc]

We missed Reffell as well, tackling machine

Agreed - particularly with Wallace being quiet/poor.

I think Martin might be first choice 2nd row next season - he’ll end up there soon enough anyway

[baz1664]

One thing was clear we missed Moronis game management, he is a real leader and someone who has a real edge. We need to rule a line under this game and move on, we were just poor at the vital times, Glad Nadolo is back, keep him fit next season and he will bag some serious tries.

Ulster will be a serious test, get Reffell and Moroni back in the team, cut out out the errors and we will have a chance.

[OakhamTiger32]

It was off the ball too, wasn't it?

Late tackle as Kelly offloaded

So surely he should have been penalised for it just being late, not sure it would have mattered in the grand scheme of things. I echo comments officiation was lacking for both sides, as we were also offside a lot as well as Saints and there was sealing off all over the place.

The officiating wasn’t great today. Another weak referee lead by the TMO.. almost a carbon copy of the last time Dickson referreed us. But... what’s so frustrating is that we threw that game away. It’s strange as I don’t think we were ever ahead but it just felt like we just gave them that. Yes their defense was outstanding but the interception and the handling errors just made for a game that was just dangling out of our reach. If we were still out there now I doubt we’d have found a winner.

Every time we got into a promising position we either dropped it, went off and got isolated, failed to ship it wide with a huge overlap or tried a speculative offload that wasn’t on.. oh or my favorite.. Heyes just lying on the ball and making no effort to roll away.. and then on the odd occasion when we got into a solid position the officials didn’t help.. I still don’t know how that maul came down legally but never mind. We made too many mistakes and I think we have highlighted we are still somewhat short of being a top 4 side.

Maybe 6-8 in the table is where we deserve to be. That’s an improvement on last season but it just feels a little disappointing nonetheless

[anz3001]

Anecdotally, for the last few seasons it seems we gain some momentum with the internationals away, and expect an extra edge when the internationals come back, but we tend to take a step back.

[sam16111986]

I’m happy to blame the ref. Or lack of it. There has been key moments, including in our last attack, where the wrong decision by the ref stopped what was a most likely a try.

Dismissing a head shot by Saints and obvious red / yellow.

Allowing a one side blinkered TMO to make the calls and effectively reverse his decision.

Allowing Saints to come, not just in the side of the rolling maul, but in one case running around the back and preventing what would have been a try.

Not policing Saints players keeping hold of the ball on the ground.

Completely disregarding the offside.

Selective decision making on the line out. Not all Saints line outs were straight.

In a game of fine margins that’s at least 2 obvious tries worth = win

Do you want me to go on

Livid

ref didn't even look at the hit on Kelly, TMO told him it was unavoidable and play on, that alone should see the TMO suspended.

It was a shot with the shoulder with force to the head, mitigation down to a yellow and he didn't even get the ref to check it

It was off the ball too, wasn't it?

Kelly offloaded and fell into Ludlam. Ludlam didn't use much force and was as low as reasonably can be expected. If that was a Tigers player and he'd seen red because of it we'd all be livid. Personally I thought it was a degree of common sense being used. Ludlam could have done no more to try and make a legal tackle.

Similarly I feared from the way Dickson talked about the Scott tackle we were about to see a red card but he brought that down to a yellow with no actual mitigation or reasoning mentioned. Again a bit of common sense as it wasn't dangerous even if there was some force involved in the tackle.

My only gripes were that Dickson let Saints get away with murder when defending the rolling maul, however, he always let's the defending team get away with murder in that department so we must have known that was coming. The other was how Saints players were so slow to roll away spoiling our ball and allowing them to compete but at the same time our support of the ball carrier, particularly in the 22, was poor so we created our own problems a bit there.

We've got to tighten up in attack. The rolling maul cannot be the main weapon in the armoury.

[sapajo]

Ludlam was direct contact to the head end of.
No mitigation its an offence regardless of intent. We lose a player via a failed HIA as a result with no consequence and not even a penalty. How many high tackles are given for less???

[sapajo]

As Austin Healey says attack is not difficult and does not need to come last. We cannot win games just by the pack as evidenced against Saints. There attack rang rings around our completely predictable and toothless attack.

[sapajo]

Scott seems to have a problem with dropping the ball when running with it. In general we seem to gave an issue holding onto the ball in contact and in open play. Basics and ongoing attrocious I'll discipline are letting us down and ultimately have cost us the last 2 games.

[LE18]

Ref didn’t cost us that match, nor did the TMO

So playing with 14 men did not cost us? Both attrocious decisions.

The officials make mistakes. We got away with a few things and had a few calls go our way too. Was Wells a yellow? Not for me but like Wiese last week.. why bother doing that? Our discipline cost us the win today more than poor officiating. Just imho of course

Sorry but I disagree, Wells was lucky to only get away with Yellow, he was so late going for the charge down, his right hand might have been for the ball but his left hand was against the leg and could easily have been called dangerous play, both hands should be going for the ball not taking the man out.

[OakhamTiger32]

So playing with 14 men did not cost us? Both attrocious decisions.

The officials make mistakes. We got away with a few things and had a few calls go our way too. Was Wells a yellow? Not for me but like Wiese last week.. why bother doing that? Our discipline cost us the win today more than poor officiating. Just imho of course

Sorry but I disagree, Wells was lucky to only get away with Yellow, he was so late going for the charge down, his right hand might have been for the ball but his left hand was against the leg and could easily have been called dangerous play, both hands should be going for the ball not taking the man out.

And then there are plenty who say it’s just a penalty. Different opinions but ultimately only one counts.. and that’s the TMO if you’ve got Dickson on the whistle

[BFG]

I thought it was a good game to watch and that Leicester might grab the win near the end but just too many errors today.
Credit where it's due though Saints were decent and after a lot of disruption losing the likes of Painter and Harrison before kick off and the injury to Mitchell when he was playing really well.
Paul Hill put in a proper shift for them, that was a performance worthy of an England selection in my opinion.

[OakhamTiger32]

I thought it was a good game to watch and that Leicester might grab the win near the end but just too many errors today.
Credit where it's due though Saints were decent and after a lot of disruption losing the likes of Painter and Harrison before kick off and the injury to Mitchell when he was playing really well.
Paul Hill put in a proper shift for them, that was a performance worthy of an England selection in my opinion.

I thought we’d sneak the win late on too. Was thinking it’s like the reverse of the Bath game.. as it was it was just as disappointing