Leicester v Ulster

[tigermad]

Leicester take on Ulster this weekend and it promises to be a cracking encounter as both teams secured wins in Round 1.

[Cliffeclimber]

I've been out of the country for two days and the message board seems to have gone back in time - or have I gone forward?

[Longshanks]

Tigers must win these home games and cannot afford to go off the boil as they did in Italy for the best part of an hour.

[WiggoTiger]

We need to turn possession into points, if we do not do that on Saturday we will struggle.

[tigerburnie]

We do need to improve week on week to stand a chance of silverware this year,hopefull that we will continue to improve and gell as a team.Hopefully we get more players available to ease the selection problems in the backs,we need players in their correct position at this level.I agree with some on here that when wingers play in the centre,they sometimes miss the outside pass,I guess it's not a natural part of their game(though it should be).

[falkie002]

15.Murphy
14.Morris
13.Smith
12.Forsyth
11.Alex T
10.Flood
9.Harrison
1.Marcos
2.T.Youngs
3.Castro
4.Parling
5.Deacon
6.Croft
7.Salvi
8.Waldroom

16.Cuter
17.Boris
18.Cole
19.Skivington
20.Mafi
21.M.Young
22.Ford
23.Twelvetrees he said after irsh i will be back for this game
Hopefully B. Youngs be back for Saints which will be good
Newby hopping to be back for sale

[PM76]

15.Murphy
14.Morris
13.Smith
12.Forsyth
11.Alex T
10.Flood
9.Harrison
1.Marcos
2.T.Youngs
3.Castro
4.Parling
5.Deacon
6.Croft
7.Salvi
8.Waldroom

16.Cuter
17.Boris
18.Cole
19.Skivington
20.Mafi
21.M.Young
22.Ford
23.Twelvetrees he said after irsh i will be back for this game
Hopefully B. Youngs be back for Saints which will be good
Newby hopping to be back for sale

Ben Youngs is also fit according to Cockers. I would expect to see him on the bench as Harrison has been doing well.

[Will S]

If both Ben Youngs and Billy are fit then they should both start IMO. We have seriously lacked a recognised 12 for the past few matches and Ben is too high quality to leave on the bench. Besides, we could do with them both having some game time under the belts before the Saints game.

[iceman_19]

I know Ben Youngs has received a little bit of stick in some quarters for not being in his best form, but I think the last few weeks have shown what an absoluteley integral part he is of the team. Tigers produced a highlights reel before the final last year, showing a selection of our tries and what stood out for me was how Youngs played a key part in most of them (making the half/full break to put others into space). I agree Harrison has played well enough, and his service is OK, but he doesn't do enough to keep players at the fringes interested, which puts more pressure on the outside backs.

I think we'll see a lot more precision with our attacks once Ben is back.

If he's 100% fit, he needs game time and to be starting as soon as he's got his match fitness back.

[tigerben]

If fit both Youngs and 12trees should start, if only to avoid a wasted substitution if they 'break down' again during the match. I see little point in bringing someone on from the bench when they've come back from injury, only to get injured again and cause us issues with players playing out of position (e.g. if youngs got injured comign on from the bench who would play scrum half).

This did happen to parling last season. came back from injury, brought on from the bench, only to suffer a knee injury within 30secs

[EustaceHPlimsoll]

I know Ben Youngs has received a little bit of stick in some quarters for not being in his best form, but I think the last few weeks have shown what an absoluteley integral part he is of the team. Tigers produced a highlights reel before the final last year, showing a selection of our tries and what stood out for me was how Youngs played a key part in most of them (making the half/full break to put others into space). I agree Harrison has played well enough, and his service is OK, but he doesn't do enough to keep players at the fringes interested, which puts more pressure on the outside backs.

I agree it will be a massive plus to have Youngs back – when we have a makeshift midfield it's even more useful to have a running threat round the fringes or it can all become a little easy for the defence to predict.

But I think Harrison's service has been more than ok – I think his passing accuracy and speed is excellent. You can see he tries to make little breaks now and then – if he can just add a little to his game in that department he'll be an excellent player. I really like the idea of having him and Youngs as our SHs – whichever came of the bench would offer a real change in style. I hope he stays and fights for his place ahead of Young in the pecking order (I'm hoping he's ahead of Grindal now and won't be relegated to fourth choice the moment he makes a mistake).

[TTRITH]

Billy and Ben should go straight into the side. I also hope Agullas avaliable after a hand injury. I think Harrison won't be used, A high quality set of scrum halves, Youngs/Young/Harrison is amazing but Youngs and Young are the better of the two, although I could understand Harrison being on the bench as Youngs and Young are coming back from injury, and a match fit scrum half is better than one that isn't, but I would go with Youngs and Young. Centres, I hope Forsyth gets another chance, outside Billy, with Agulla (or Smith if he isn't fit) and Alex on the wings with Morris at Full-Back. Castro needs to start as well. I would also pick Hawkins and Youngs as my hookers. Hawkins has never let us down, whilst Youngs throwing in is in the same league as Chuters... I.E not reliable.

15. Niall Morris
14. Horacio Agulla
13. Andy Forsyth
12. Billy Twelvetrees
11. Alex Tuilagi
10. Toby Flood
9. Ben Youngs
1. Marcos Ayerza
2. Rob Hawkins
3. Martin Castrogiovanni
4. Louis Deacon
5. Geoff Parling (c)
6. Tom Croft
7. Julian Salvi
8. Thomas Waldrom

16. Tom Youngs
17. Boris Stankovich
18. Dan Cole
19. George Skivington
20. Ed Slater
21. Mickey Young
22. Jeremy Staunton
23. Geordan Murphy

[Chobbsy]

[quote="Will S"]If both Ben Youngs and Billy are fit then they should both start IMO. We have seriously lacked a recognised 12 for the past few matches and Ben is too high quality to leave on the bench. Besides, we could do with them both having some game time under the belts before the Saints game.[/quote]

Cockers says "He hopes" to have them available
http://www1.skysports.com/rugby-union/n ... -after-win

[GS]

Billy and Ben should go straight into the side. I also hope Agullas avaliable after a hand injury. I think Harrison won't be used, A high quality set of scrum halves, Youngs/Young/Harrison is amazing but Youngs and Young are the better of the two, although I could understand Harrison being on the bench as Youngs and Young are coming back from injury, and a match fit scrum half is better than one that isn't, but I would go with Youngs and Young. Centres, I hope Forsyth gets another chance, outside Billy, with Agulla (or Smith if he isn't fit) and Alex on the wings with Morris at Full-Back. Castro needs to start as well. I would also pick Hawkins and Youngs as my hookers. Hawkins has never let us down, whilst Youngs throwing in is in the same league as Chuters... I.E not reliable.

15. Niall Morris
14. Horacio Agulla
13. Andy Forsyth
12. Billy Twelvetrees
11. Alex Tuilagi
10. Toby Flood
9. Ben Youngs
1. Marcos Ayerza
2. Rob Hawkins
3. Martin Castrogiovanni
4. Louis Deacon
5. Geoff Parling (c)
6. Tom Croft
7. Julian Salvi
8. Thomas Waldrom

16. Tom Youngs
17. Boris Stankovich
18. Dan Cole
19. George Skivington
20. Ed Slater
21. Mickey Young
22. Jeremy Staunton
23. Geordan Murphy

Not sure about dropping Geordan for Morris at FB, I would prefer the devil we know for this game (so to speak). Youngs and 12T should start as long as they are fully fit, we don't want another Tait where he was played with a known groin problem and now he's out for ages. 12T and Forsyth should bring an unknown quality to the feast. Without this all Ulster have to do this week is watch a video of Saturday to see all we've got attack wise and how to stop us. I suspect their attack won't be all of a quiver over our defence.

However such speculative team selection doesn't take into account the fact that Chuter and Smith will start. In the same way that day follows night and Castro will be subbed after 51.2456 minutes.

We have the team to win, do we have the plan? If so job done.

[Tiglon]

We definitely have the players to win - I would say only 4 of theirs would make it into our first XI (and at least one of those is only due to injuries we have).

But, they are a settled team, whereas ours changes every week because of the injuries. On current form it should be a very close game, possibly even with Ulster as favourites. Tigers will need to raise their game from previous weeks to get the win.

That said, we should be able to dominate in the scrum. If we can put pressure on Humphreys by putting his pack on the back foot, he is prone to making mistakes.

Tigers to win, by a few points.