Leicester v Australia

[tigerben]

a fair (and upon research just) point mightymouse, although a Tuesday match (dirt-trackers vs coastal XV) did have Nigel Owens as ref!

Looking at the 2009 Lions Tour
Royal XV: Marius Jonker (South Africa)
Golden Lions: Craig Joubert (South Africa)
Free State Cheetahs: Wayne Barnes (England)
Sharks: Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa)
Western Province: Mark Lawrence (South Africa)
Coastal XV: Nigel Owens (Wales)
South Africa (First Test): Bryce Lawrence (New Zealand)
Emerging Springboks: Alain Rolland (Ireland)
South Africa (Second Test): Christophe Berdos (France)
South Africa: Stuart Dickinson (Australia)

10 games: 6 Southern Hemisphere Refs vs 4 Northern.
Excluding Tests: 7 Games: 4 southern vs 3 northern.

[Tigerbob]

I thought Cockers managed very well in biting his lip in the after-match interview ..... Quote "Mr Kaplan gave some interesting decisions"

I loved Austin's comments on Kaplan ... "at least he was consistent, consistently c**p!"

[Jay C]

Agree Tigerbob - I was cheering the Tigers decisions and booing the Oz ones, without really being sure of why the ref had blown up ?!!
The rest of the time I was screaming at him for some Oz infringements.... ...seems we did not 'adjust' to the ref as well as they did (although the aussie bloke next to me could not explain what was happening with the ref either !!)

On the game - the late try flattered them, but Barnes tried to keep us in it with his wayward kicking !

Overall I thought we played well, but didn't stretch them enough with ball in hand (and we missed our first choice SH/FH combo almost as much as we missed our 1st/2nd/3rd/4th choice props !!)

Lets try again with the AB's next year !!

[Tigerbob]

On the game - the late try flattered them...

Overall I thought we played well, but didn't stretch them enough with ball in hand (and we missed our first choice SH/FH combo almost as much as we missed our 1st/2nd/3rd/4th choice props !!)

Lets try again with the AB's next year !!

Austin and the rest of the ESPN commentators were slating Kaplan for their late try, saying the ball was definiely NOT out of the ruck!

It certainly would have been interesting to play them with a full strength team.

I think Ben Youngs would have carved them up in the second half, and I'm sure Toby Flood would have found touch with the penalty in the dying minutes for us to engineer a potentially match winning drop goal.

The scrum was sadly missing the grunt of Castro and Ayerza, and found themselves going backwards on occasions (very un-Tigers like!).

[mightymouse]

even without Marcos and castro we really misssed Stanko

Buckley just was not up to it I'm afraid - I would like to have seen the new Agentinian for 20mins

[tb1]

We were outclassed in the tight five, looking at the teamsheets it is not a surprise.

On the plus side that will have been a great learning experience for Slater inparticular and his development moves on apace.

[Darc Tiger]

I travelled up for this one, and it was an enjoyable match, but the end score flattered them. Real shame about that last minute try. 15-19 was probably a fairer refection, but we really could have/should have won that game.

Pros:
Lots of Tigers spirit and heart.
The lads seemed really up for it. The defence was intense! Keep that up!
Great experience for the likes of Slater, Billy and Manu.
Second row did pretty well. And the lineout was good barring a couple of dodgey throws. (Newby did particularly well)
Waldrom and Crane looked good in tandem. A worse defence would have cracked under their barrages. Crane I thought was particularly good all game.
Twelvetrees attacked and defended well. Place kicking good.
Manu gave everything, and was always a thorn in their side. Him chasing high balls has the opposition bricking it!

Cons:
The ref... Blimey...
Couldnt keep hold of the ball well enough.
Billys kicking out of hand was pretty poor. Needs work.
Lineout was still shaky at times. Seems it is more the Hookers fault.
Not clinical or dangerous enough playing wide. The weather may have effected that, but most of our successful attacks went through the middle.

Overall a good performance against a quality side. Very competitive once we settled. We certainly rattled the Aussies and put them in a real dogfight. Shame the late try took the scoreline too far away from us. We need to take that level of intensity back into competitive matches.

[SaltyJackTar]

Good comments Darc Tiger

[bluntiger]

Good comments Darc Tiger

I agree too, spot on assessment. But in many ways the overr-riding comment that leaves the worst taste is:

'The ref... Blimey...'

[Hull Fan]

I really think Grindall is struggling at 9. His decision making is slow, his pass is slow and he seems late to some of the breakdowns (this may be due to some illegal play from the opposition).
I understand that we hoped last season that Harry would be avaliable but he is really being exposed at present.
Experience counts for a lot but lets get a better service to the backs. I've not seen Spice play yet, did he get a run against quins? i don't know, but he must be worth giving a run as Grindall is struggling.

[Purebob]

Hull fan
Spice was like a slower Grindal against Quins. IMO.

[tonbridgetiger]

Disappointing result, but after the first twenty mins, a good performance overall and if we carry on, we have optimism of gettging back on track. The scoreline flattered Aus and the ref was more then :censored:. Nicely, said, Oz btw!!

was great getting a few autographs after game, including Robbie Deans, and the aussie players were a credit to their team with the fans and left a great impression to me.

[Hull Fan]

Hull fan
Spice was like a slower Grindal against Quins. IMO.

Fantastic news Purebob.
Lets stick with experience then, hurry back Ben

[Purebob]

Hull fan, at times the crowd was so quiet I could hear a sucking sound. I thought it was pumps for the rain water , but I realized it was Spices performance sucking.