Tigers v Leinster (H) - Champions Cup - Saturday 20th January 2024 - KO: 3-15pm

[DeadlyDunc]

We aren’t a massive way away from being a good team, we were punished for not taking chances but caused them problems and defended well - the last try we were dead on our feet.

We were missing our best SH, best replacement front row, England lock, lions wing and lost our best flanker and 2nd row in the first half.

two of our best players had shockers (Pollard & Montoya) - Pollard is an enigma at the moment, if he does leave at the end of the season people will look at these performances and put forward arguments about being distracted or unfocused.

[Sampy]

Heart and endeavour don't win games (sadly). I assume the lack of any points means we're now out of this competition?

Unless Sale win with a try bonus point and la Rochelle get a losing and try bp were in to the next round. Personally I'd like to happen as we have a much better chance in the Challenge cup which we'd enter of that did happen

[Jimmy Skitz]

Heart and endeavour don't win games (sadly). I assume the lack of any points means we're now out of this competition?

we are if Sale win and La Rochelle get 2 match points

[jgriffin]

Well, we've just lost to the best two European international teams backed by possibly the worst European international referees.

If we had cut out the errors today, we would have been in with a chance. This is what is killing us.

Amen brother. Some on here need to realise that was a WC team bar a few players. When the refs are from their league.....

[drc_007]

Well, we've just lost to the best two European international teams backed by possibly the worst European international referees.

If we had cut out the errors today, we would have been in with a chance. This is what is killing us.

The errors are killing Tigers at present, at this level you just can't hope to compete with the error count Tigers concede match after match.

[DeadlyDunc]

Well, we've just lost to the best two European international teams backed by possibly the worst European international referees.

If we had cut out the errors today, we would have been in with a chance. This is what is killing us.

Amen brother. Some on here need to realise that was a WC team bar a few players. When the refs are from their league.....

Agreed - nor can you miss simple kicks to touch against the best teams like La Rochelle and Leinster nor take advantage of them being down to 14 (or 13 men) and expect to win.

Our attack is limited but you can’t legislate for your world class kicking 10 making elementary mistakes (and generally kicking poorly out of hand) for these key games

[longlivethecrumbie]

I, for one, see McKellar's tenure as a longer term project and winning today was, for me, out of our reach. That said, the first 20 we were the better side and deserved the 10-0 lead.

Our defence was ferocious at times and the physicality, shocker,.was like a Test match. Losing both Chessum and Reffell was a dagger through the heart and losing Reffell over the ball was massive.

We showed a ton of heart and endeavour, our execution under pressure was poor.

All of that said, being in the game for a match point going into the final play was excellent considering the huge gap we had in the quarter last year.

I also didn't think Sir had the best of outings.

[sapajo]

The Ref and both linesman were put of their depth I witnessed so many forward passes and knock ons by Leinster that were completely ignored. Pollard was poor kicking from hand and Whiteley box kicking is a joke as was his de cision to stop a Leinster try by a deliberate knock on effectively handed Leinster the game it was very poor. Don't get me started on ball handling and retention it's appalling and endemic. Apart from that we were top class for the first 20mins

[Greenwhiteandred]

Great first 20 mins - the try came from a good plan identified by the coaches so kudos to them for that. However the failure to consistently resource rucks and allow Leinster to disrupt us and slow the ball down was one of our biggest downfalls. I’d have liked us to fully resource 4 or 5 rucks to make a statement and change things up to disrupt Leinsters plan. Would have been nice if the ref had helped us by consistently penalising the “in at the side” which was the prevalent Leinster technique.
Pollard kicking from hand was pretty poor today which was also a significant issue.
Sir and the TMO were woeful and pretty much cost us at least their first 15 points. Sir also needs to understand that when knees hit dirt tackle is made and you can’t rip - at least 3 occasions he failed to spot this not least the Hanro “knock on” 5 metres out on 20 mins that started the momentum swing in the game.
Stating the bleeding obvious but attack remains a problem - can we get an attack coach please.

[Greenwhiteandred]

Oh yes - and if we are playing one of the best teams in the world and you get penalties in front of the posts - take the 3.

[sapajo]

Oh yes - and if we are playing one of the best teams in the world and you get penalties in front of the posts - take the 3.

[Pellsey]

Heart and endeavour don't win games (sadly). I assume the lack of any points means we're now out of this competition?

You could call this grit and determination, and we used to win a lot of games with these!

[westwinds31]

The lines people …..in blue kit just summed it up.

Call it street wise, call it experience, if you are allowed to get away with stuff, then you carry on doing it. Ben Kay called it. We’ve just played two of the best. Leinster though aren’t as good as in previous years. Their line out wasn’t great or the scrum at times.

[Pellsey]

Oh yes - and if we are playing one of the best teams in the world and you get penalties in front of the posts - take the 3.

We needed 5 points to get the LBP, so I understand the thinking. We were slso pretty close to getting it.

Maybe Pollard was worried about missing it... (tongue in cheek!) He is certainly a far better player than has been evident in the last couple of games. If he does not pick up form soon, I would be tempted to pick Shillcock, if not just for kicking!

[nicmattyg]

Just back from the game.

From 10 nil up, that was disappointing, you could see the Leinster players were a little shell shocked and we allowed them an easy route back into the game.

The turning point felt like just after we scored the try, we got a penalty (in the same area pollard had just slotted the conversion from), and we decided to go for the corner instead of kicking for the 3. Very poor decision.

They turned us over from there and this seemed to give them the boost they needed.

This was basically a test level match against the Ireland team, we need to take all points when they’re on offer and keep applying the score board pressure. That was down to decision making.

We turned down several easily kickable penalties, could’ve easily been 9/12 pts for us and with the last few mins we’re in the game.

Our set piece/driving maul/red zone efficiency is not there atm, so why keep going to the corner?

Add to that the ongoing basic handling errors (which I put down to a confidence issue more than skills) and that’s the game.

We’re just not there this season, so let’s just see how far we can get in all comps but I’m not confident of winning anything.