Tigers vs Gloucester (H) - Premiership - Friday 22nd March 2024 - KO:19.45

[mightymouse]

I agree with Scuttles point the ball on the floor and the energy and commitment from Glaws versus Tigers players tonight. That was exactly what I saw all game ... every single 50/50 ball was won ball by the Cherry and Whites tonight .. I said it at half time and again at full time ... and when you see a team never getting the 50/50 balls it tells you everything you need to know about that energy, commitment attitude and probably the team morale and spirit. They can talk all the fancy words they they want about club first and passion and drive but you see it on the field in those 50/50s whether the Team is up for the fight on not and today I saw sadly little evidence of it. It was lacking on the terrace too .., it honestly looked liked nobody in the ground believed we could win. Actually losing isn’t the most painful thing... looking like they weren’t interested in trying to win is what hurts much more.

[Tigers86asw]

Just got home after a five hour round trip to watch the tigers lose in the last minute. Group of us went and we paid £50 a head to watch was a pretty poor performance.

Some thoughts…

Our first half performance was woeful. Particularly because our kicking was so poor and our defence porous. The lack of tactical initiative was abysmal. All their points came from our errors with either poor kicks, a poor kick chase or both. I could not believe how bad we were. We were lethargic and seemed to lack any belief. It was woeful.

The lucky charge down that sparked our revival seemed to change our attitude. With a lot to make up for we played a bit more rugby and much more intensity. The set piece and maul was good but we had no dominance in the scrum which was concerning.

We don’t look fit enough. The last five minutes there was only one team going to win the game and it was not us.

Did we want it enough? No.

Is OHC considering replacing himself with a drone just to run back and forth under a ball aimlessly punted in the air like an idle firework? Sorry but he really must wonder what on earth we are doing.

The changes they have to make;

JVP changed the speed that we played the game. Youngs is too slow and his kicking was poor.

We have to show more tactical acumen. It is not only the kicking, it is decision of when to do so. We have one break in the first half by Bassett down the left and we decide to kick the ball away. Absolute nonsense decision.

Get an attack coach who knows what they are doing- ours is out of his depth!

Kelly looks a shadow of his former self. He is not a 13, he’s too slow and he is falling off tackles.

Cokanasiga was like a breath of fresh air to me. He attacked the line with pace and footwork- alleluia!

Tommy looks shattered. Heyes added impetus and carried well.

Ilione has to be in the squad to add speed to our backrow. We look pedestrian in this regard.

I have major doubts about McKellar but we cannot keep changing coaches every year. I am prepared to give him time so I can make a proper judgement but make no bodes about it- tonight was woeful.

[westwinds31]

I thought Bassett was one of our bright points. His step on Evans was sublime and the Glaws winger did a decent defensive job to stifle that one. Like I said last night, why did we buy OHC and Bassett ? They’ve probably got neck problems watching the ball flying back and forth. Falling off tackles is one thing, but the effort to get off the floor and back into position wasn’t there. That’s what they say isn’t it in defeat - “you can’t fault the effort” ? We can’t even say that I don’t think. That’s the biggest worry. The experience on that field and we couldn’t hold on at the end. We made Mercer look world class, dropping off him every time. By the way, Reffell looks tired at minute 1 so I’m not convinced he was shattered.

Whatever is wrong it needs fixing and quick. Attack coach, fitness, attitude…..I’m not at Oval park but something needs to change.

[CrumblingTerrace]

Death by pragmatism. DMK has to have more than this up his sleeve, because the rest of the league already figured us out when Borthwick was still here.

We're always told that this approach is driven by what the data says. Well... Tigers analysis team, please can you add a note to last night's data that says, 'We kicked this ball back to the league's 2nd worst team all night and conspired to lose'?

[sam16111986]

Death by pragmatism. DMK has to have more than this up his sleeve, because the rest of the league already figured us out when Borthwick was still here.

We're always told that this approach is driven by what the data says. Well... Tigers analysis team, please can you add a note to last night's data that says, 'We kicked this ball back to the league's 2nd worst team all night and conspired to lose'?

I haven't seen the stats but I suspect we kicked less than they did.

What concerned me was how poor some of the kicks were, particularly from Shillcock. He didn't have his kicking boots on. Losing Pollard to illness on the day was a real blow.

It wasn't the kicking game that let us down. Poor one on one missed tackles killed us.

[OakhamTiger32]

For as long as I can remember the Glos at MWWR fixture was a nailed on 4 if not 5 points. The last 2 weeks is a real wake up call. That being said I am pretty sure a big chunk of the squad is perhaps a little under the weather with illness as I’ve never seen fatigue like that.. can’t simply be post 6N tiredness.. I mean look at Varney in the last minute!

Maybe this is the kick up the backside we need to get things moving ahead of next season

[sapajo]

For as long as I can remember the Glos at MWWR fixture was a nailed on 4 if not 5 points. The last 2 weeks is a real wake up call. That being said I am pretty sure a big chunk of the squad is perhaps a little under the weather with illness as I’ve never seen fatigue like that.. can’t simply be post 6N tiredness.. I mean look at Varney in the last minute!

Maybe this is the kick up the backside we need to get things moving ahead of next season

I do not buy this illness excuse we need to face up to reality

[Scott1]

Can’t we just forfeit the Ireland game?!

[Tiglon]

Death by pragmatism. DMK has to have more than this up his sleeve, because the rest of the league already figured us out when Borthwick was still here.

We're always told that this approach is driven by what the data says. Well... Tigers analysis team, please can you add a note to last night's data that says, 'We kicked this ball back to the league's 2nd worst team all night and conspired to lose'?

I haven't seen the stats but I suspect we kicked less than they did.

What concerned me was how poor some of the kicks were, particularly from Shillcock. He didn't have his kicking boots on. Losing Pollard to illness on the day was a real blow.

It wasn't the kicking game that let us down. Poor one on one missed tackles killed us.

Glouc did kick twice more than we did, but 46 to 48 isn't a great look for either side.

[Leicestertinytiger]

There’s no problem with kicking if A) the kicks are contestable and B) there’s a good chase. The wingers did okay chasing but there was no defensive line. Shilcock kicked it once second half down the middle and there weren’t any chasers because everyone looked knackered.

Given how bad Gloucester were with our maul why didn’t we use that more to get penalties middle of the pitch and build pressure.

[OakhamTiger32]

For as long as I can remember the Glos at MWWR fixture was a nailed on 4 if not 5 points. The last 2 weeks is a real wake up call. That being said I am pretty sure a big chunk of the squad is perhaps a little under the weather with illness as I’ve never seen fatigue like that.. can’t simply be post 6N tiredness.. I mean look at Varney in the last minute!

Maybe this is the kick up the backside we need to get things moving ahead of next season

I do not buy this illness excuse we need to face up to reality

Perhaps.. I certainly dont know but it’s something I’ve not seen before so just a thought.. Heyes throwing up pitchside last week, Pollard I’ll this week.. who knows. But yes, we certainly need to face up to reality as yesterday wasn’t good enough in most departments

[DeadlyDunc]

I agree with Scuttles point the ball on the floor and the energy and commitment from Glaws versus Tigers players tonight. That was exactly what I saw all game ... every single 50/50 ball was won ball by the Cherry and Whites tonight .. I said it at half time and again at full time ... and when you see a team never getting the 50/50 balls it tells you everything you need to know about that energy, commitment attitude and probably the team morale and spirit. They can talk all the fancy words they they want about club first and passion and drive but you see it on the field in those 50/50s whether the Team is up for the fight on not and today I saw sadly little evidence of it. It was lacking on the terrace too .., it honestly looked liked nobody in the ground believed we could win. Actually losing isn’t the most painful thing... looking like they weren’t interested in trying to win is what hurts much more.

I said the same thing - even when we had the ball 1st half just carries into contact were half baked IMO.

Basically everything was being done to a plan but at three quarter pace.

Second half was better but then I lost it when we had pressure on the Glocs line and Cracknell (supposedly a fresh, strong ball carrier) had a brain dead moment and went for the line on his own from 5m and just carried/fell/flopped at the feet of a Glocs forward who didn’t even have to tackle him and he won the pen. I have no idea what he was doing - it would have been comical if I wasn’t a tigers fan.

Yes we then got the 4th try but the above was a moment endemic of the game - stupidity mixed with a lack of intensity, mixed with poor decision making, mixed with average/poor skill and technique.

Which isn’t a great combo if I’m honest.

[sam16111986]

For as long as I can remember the Glos at MWWR fixture was a nailed on 4 if not 5 points. The last 2 weeks is a real wake up call. That being said I am pretty sure a big chunk of the squad is perhaps a little under the weather with illness as I’ve never seen fatigue like that.. can’t simply be post 6N tiredness.. I mean look at Varney in the last minute!

Maybe this is the kick up the backside we need to get things moving ahead of next season

I do not buy this illness excuse we need to face up to reality

Perhaps.. I certainly dont know but it’s something I’ve not seen before so just a thought.. Heyes throwing up pitchside last week, Pollard I’ll this week.. who knows. But yes, we certainly need to face up to reality as yesterday wasn’t good enough in most departments

I did wonder if a sickness bug and been through the camp. Would explain why a lot of the players looked cream crackered.

[TigerFeetSteve]

I do not buy this illness excuse we need to face up to reality

Perhaps.. I certainly dont know but it’s something I’ve not seen before so just a thought.. Heyes throwing up pitchside last week, Pollard I’ll this week.. who knows. But yes, we certainly need to face up to reality as yesterday wasn’t good enough in most departments

I did wonder if a sickness bug and been through the camp. Would explain why a lot of the players looked cream crackered.

To me it's the only thing that makes sense...

[mol2]

I hope there was a bug to explain it as the level of fitness as poor. Cronin looked liked he’d spent the break in a pie shop. However most of the players seemed lethargic. Too much time off and not enough conditioning in that time.

Why was Reffell playing? 7 in a side as under the cosh as Wales were is exhausting and ultimately we were contesting nothing on the ground. As for contesting in the air- impossible to contest the kicks unless they are accurate in terms of direction and distance. No thought apparently as to where their deep defenders were.

As for the attack. I know we have issues with an attack coach being absent but it is increasingly apparent as the season progresses the other coaches covering this role, simply lack the skill set to do so at premiership level.