Montpellier’s Form - Challenge Cup Final chat

[MCC1964]

Agh, I suppose I’m disappointed, but not disheartened. I’m not one of those people who likes to finger wag and single out individuals. At the end of the day in a very tight final a piece of class (their second) was the difference between the teams and fair enough.

But those of you who were there, take a bow. Great noise and great passion and it warmed the cockles.

Unfortunately the home game comes a bit too soon for me but I look forward to hearing you all again.

[TigerCam]

1pt down, 10mins to go, plenty of possession and decent territory... what was the plan to win the game?

Kick. Kick. Kick.

If we're to challenge for and win trophies again we have to be more proactive. Not wait for a mistake. Now the foundations are there, that's the next challenge for Borthwick. An attack coach would help.

I believe SB has already said that his Tigers 'growth plan' is to get the team attitude, set piece and defence to a standard where they can compete for the 80 mins. On last night's game - job in progress - looking good - attack plan now needed to generate points off a good foundation. I cannot be disappointed in where the Tigers are given the time I have spent with my head in my hands over the past 5-6 years. Gutted yes, not to win. IMO 1 point or 30 points does not matter, the records will shows a loss. Despite the words from Tom, and I do agree with him, on the progress made, the Twickers locker room must have been a pretty glum place.

Once Montpellier sussed out a defence of the driving maul and the Tigers could not get any traction by taking the ball off the top, the Tigers struggled to make the yards on the gainline. Scott may have made a difference, who knows. If Montpellier had been correctly penalised for handling in the ruck when Callum Green got pinged instead, then maybe just maybe, it would have turned the game the Tigers way. Having said that I thought the ref had a really good game again. It was allowed to flow, I lost count of how many times players were looking for late tackle penalties, rejected as 'committed'. Yes I am gutted at the loss. I am looking forward to the game against the Bears just to see the how the Tigers respond against a really good 'in-form' side. I am sure they will take their frustrations out on the Wuss next weekend.

[RagingBull]

I also feel we miss Leatigaga a bit, I thought he looked really good after preseason Aled had clearly got him looking good.
Not just his carrying but in the breakdown he was strong over the ball.

I feel the du Plessis's bench did win them the game.
As said Bismark was a one man defensive machine. He does the type of stuff that we obviously hope Montoya will do and at 37 he an good example why with the way conditioning has developed teams shouldn't be so quick to discard older players in those type of positions.

I also thought Jacque was a beast in defence when he came on, personally I'm hoping he's a type of lock/backower combination we are looking for.

[sam16111986]

I also thought Jacques was a beast in defence when he came on, personally I'm hoping he's a type of lock/backower combination we are looking for.

He was a monster for them. The injury actually helped them a little because his early introduction added more beef to their lineout defence whereas their flanker was struggling in that department before then. I would love a JDP style signing for us. A real monster sized lock/6.

[Scott1]

Didn’t like his crying to the ref though at one breakdown/ruck. Sure he was begging to the ref something along the lines of “he hit me in the face”.

[Ian Cant]

We had a few important players missing and apparently Nadalo was only just fit enough to play having passed a fitness test late on.
Scott is a very good attacking player but I think SteveBorthwick was worried about his defence.
Like others, though I was proud of the great effort but we couldn’t finish Bath, Saints and Montpellier off. Last night kicking the ball away instead of trying to get inside their half to at least get a penalty was strange. We also must use Steward for some long range penalties.
Let’s hope we can beat an attack minded Worcester then give Bristol a real game.

[WhitecapTiger]

Didn’t like his crying to the ref though at one breakdown/ruck. Sure he was begging to the ref something along the lines of “he hit me in the face”.

Heard that too and was similarly unimpressed, though I thought/hoped I'd surely misheard it. Clearly not.

[TigerFeetSteve]

We had a few important players missing and apparently Nadalo was only just fit enough to play having passed a fitness test late on.
Scott is a very good attacking player but I think SteveBorthwick was worried about his defence.
Like others, though I was proud of the great effort but we couldn’t finish Bath, Saints and Montpellier off. Last night kicking the ball away instead of trying to get inside their half to at least get a penalty was strange. We also must use Steward for some long range penalties.
Let’s hope we can beat an attack minded Worcester then give Bristol a real game.

Nadolo not being 100% meant that Porter going off cost us doubly

[RagingBull]

Crazy to think that last season 7 of the 10 backs used wasn’t even at the club.

(And 1 of those 3 backs that was here was only 18 years old)

[LE18]

1pt down, 10mins to go, plenty of possession and decent territory... what was the plan to win the game?

Kick. Kick. Kick.

If we're to challenge for and win trophies again we have to be more proactive. Not wait for a mistake. Now the foundations are there, that's the next challenge for Borthwick. An attack coach would help.

Yes I agree, was most peeved with the way we continued to kick it away and you will never get a better drop goal chance than that almost right in front of posts. Very disappointed with the result.

[BFG]

1pt down, 10mins to go, plenty of possession and decent territory... what was the plan to win the game?

Kick. Kick. Kick.

If we're to challenge for and win trophies again we have to be more proactive. Not wait for a mistake. Now the foundations are there, that's the next challenge for Borthwick. An attack coach would help.

Yes I agree, was most peeved with the way we continued to kick it away and you will never get a better drop goal chance than that almost right in front of posts. Very disappointed with the result.

You're both brave posting that and risking being labelled prophets of doom, but I do tend to agree.
Montpellier handled things quite well.
Leicester's kicking was plentiful and mixed, some was good and some was not so good.

[Smudge]

We did very well considering it wasn't a level playing field (financially). I t was to our great credit that we lost to such an expensively assembled team. My wife says they bought it. Not totally true but their bench was about as powerful as you could buy, yet there was still only one point in it. Surely it's time the Frogs were compelled to comply with the same salary cap as us if they want to continue in the European competitions, likewise the Irish Provinces. If the imbalance continues we will more likely than not repeat the final we have just lost.
On this theme, I wish someone would point out to Sara Elgin , who when talking to Alex Lozovski kept referring to his "success" with Sarries that those wins count for nothing in England and if it was possible to declare them null and void, they would have been..

[Big Dai]

We did very well considering it wasn't a level playing field (financially). I t was to our great credit that we lost to such an expensively assembled team. My wife says they bought it. Not totally true but their bench was about as powerful as you could buy, yet there was still only one point in it. Surely it's time the Frogs were compelled to comply with the same salary cap as us if they want to continue in the European competitions, likewise the Irish Provinces. If the imbalance continues we will more likely than not repeat the final we have just lost.
On this theme, I wish someone would point out to Sara Elgin , who when talking to Alex Lozovski kept referring to his "success" with Sarries that those wins count for nothing in England and if it was possible to declare them null and void, they would have been..

Ohhhbh that accent grates. It's a voice that sounds like coke being crushed under a coal house door.

Loved her interview with Jack Nowell. The look on his face was a cross between "What the heck are you on about" and "Do you fancy a drink later."

[DingDong]

...the little Welsh bird

Assuming you're referring to the daughter of former Wales and Lions player Elgan Rees, and also the wife of Ireland and Lions player Simon Easterby, then she certainly has more rugby knowledge than most on this forum so i'd suggest you be less patronising.

[Traveller]

...the little Welsh bird

Assuming you're referring to the daughter of former Wales and Lions player Elgan Rees, and also the wife of Ireland and Lions player Simon Easterby, then she certainly has more rugby knowledge than most on this forum so i'd suggest you be less patronising.

And along the same lines
'Surely it's time the Frogs were compelled to comply with the same salary cap as us if they want to continue in the European competitions,'

Or presumably we could up our salary cap to be in line with the 'frogs', although presumably we don't want to do that because our clubs would go bust.