Hougaard in SA

[HairyPencil]

I read that Derick was playing in a Namibian XV last Friday against the "bok" 15 as a warm-up game for the tests.

Yes, ok the SA XV finally demolished them , but a quote paraphrased on several websites was "The World Cup winners made several handling errors and found themselves easily restricted by the tactical kicking of Leicester Tigers fly-half Derick Hougaard in a poor first half" and having spoken to a SA colleague today who watched the match, he played a very good game.

We need a new fly-half why??

Hope we get to keep him. The Saracens rumours abound again.......

[Darc Tiger]

Agreed. At least give him a shot. He would have been an awful waste of money otherwise. Could yet prove how good a player he is. Fronted up well and stuck to his game plan amongst a fairly poor team against quality opposition.

[bro78]

What was he doing last weekend?

[quincy]

Houggard was signed by Meyer as a kicking flyhalf to suit Meyers game plan and was pretty good in what he did. However we now have a new game plan where (hopefully) more running and passing is required.
I think that Houggard can play that sort of game and looks as though he can run and pass just as well. His place kicking is certainly as good as Floods and better than Vesty and Dupuy.
Personally I think that he should be retained and not just put aside as we did to Humphries who was probably the best attacking flyhalf we have had since VanDerVesthaven!!
Yes I realise some will say Humphries couldnt tackle but then again most flyhalves cant tackle (including the wonderful Stuart Barnes). We are lucky that Sam Vesty is one of our best tacklers anyway.
I dont think Les Cusworth ever made a tackle in his brilliant career.

[GT1]

Can somebody explain why he is playing in SA. We got him when injured after a long season then got him fit now instead of having a rest & recuperation he is playing in SA again. Is he on standby for the boks? Or in the shop window?

[SkippyTiger]

Prob a mixture of the above, if we're keeping him then game time after injury can't be a bad thing and the Saffers are struggling at FH with injuries I think so they might have asked him to be on standby and match fit.

[G.K]

So if he is fully fit and is a good kicker then why the heck was he not on the bench for the HC final??

[MurphysLaw]

[quote="barson"]So if he is fully fit and is a good kicker then why the heck was he not on the bench for the HC final??[/quote]

If he was fit at that time, that is a very good question.

[SkippyTiger]

There is a bit of a difference between being 'fit' and 'match fit'. Having your comeback game in a friendly invitiation match is a bit different to a HC final

[sam16111986]

I think that Hougaard may warrant another look under the new system he didn't have much of a chance last year and we aren't exactly flushed with kicking options. Interestingly during his last season at the Bulls he covered scrum half while Du Preez was unavailable and Morne Steyn was dominant at fly half, in the game I saw him play scrum half he got man of the match. So if Dupuy leaves he could be rather useful next season as dual half back cover.

[TigerCam]

As I put on another thread:
http://www.leicestertigers.com/forum/vi ... a&start=15

Why did he not play after he came on as a sub in the Sarries game at WR?

[vinniechan]

It'd be such a shame (and a waste of time and effort) to let him go this way.
I think it's fair to say, the advantage of having him and Tobby is that we'll always have a plan B, something that IMO made us look a completely different side with last year.