Montpellier’s Form - Challenge Cup Final chat

[Jimmy Skitz]

Disappointed to lose, I’m at work all night so missed the game live, is the performance worth going out of my way to see?

[teds]

Tough game to watch. Very small margins. We probably weren’t quite good enough.
Referee was consistent and we had 20 minutes vs 14 men. No excuses.
Well done Montpellier.

[Offside]

Worth a look at the replay of the game.
Had a long trip down from the northwest to Twickenham and a bit deflated by the loss. Great that the team is now in a point where we can be disappointed that rather than dread a poor game. Backs attack up to the standard seen against Quins would have won that but out game plan was to wrestle and they had the back attack when we made the mistakes. Their defence was very good but we seemed to test it with very slow ball head on.

The occupancy of the stadium did not allow the crowd to really get going. Half time beer was John Smiths so that did not help the mood. Fingers crossed for holding on to sixth place and regroup for next season

[westwinds31]

Fine margins in these games. Reffell was superb I thought. We spluttered a bit when trying backs moves, but the Montpellier defence was quality at key moments. Like they said in the interviews, second half they just focused on our driving maul and didn’t compete at the lineout and they nullified it. Wiese and Nadolo just couldn’t penetrate, as Lozowski said they double tackled them. No shame losing to a side packed with stars and World Cup winners. All in all gutted to come that close, but better times ahead I think.

[iceman_19]

Like many, I am gutted to lose but not throwing my toys out the pram like in previous years. The game neatly summed up where we are as a team.

Our foundations are all there. Fantastic set piece. Powerful carriers. An exceptional kicking game. And yes, I will take issue with anyone who thought we kicked too much for the most part of the game. We dominated territory and got into positions to execute but did not - firstly due to decision making, then due to execution.

Our gameplan works v 80% of teams. Win territory. Launch mutants off 9 and get a defence marching backwards and sucking in defenders. Simply ship the ball to space when it opens up. The problem comes when a team can deal with the big runners and we can’t get the go forward.

We currently don’t have the structure in place to beat teams if our carriers off 9 are well met. Top attacking teams have layers of runners off different points which makes it far harder to defend and we don’t have that yet. To me it flags the need for an attack coach more than anything.

But, so much to be positive about. We don’t need a trophy for a springboard…although it would have been nice.

[amazing tiger]

I think you’d be mad to think this game had more negatives than positives tbh! Coming into the game we were clear underdogs having looked at the team sheets and especially the bench. The game pretty much showed what type of a team we have been nearly all season and especially in the last few games!

We managed to compete well upfront for most of the game with scrum and line out going well however we still don’t really have a plan when the ball gets to the backs and we have two very similar centres who are very solid but don’t provide much go forward in terms of getting over the gain line. We’ve seen the kicking game being used all season and perhaps in the first half we didn’t get it quite right but in general it was ok!

Upon reflection we have a team who was quite easily the worst team in the prem last year competing and arguably at times looking better than a very strong french side who would have beat us comfortably last year. We did this whilst having 4 20 year olds in the team who will have gained immense experience tonight and also not spending up to the salary and having to still pay off some of last years players! We also have to remember this is borthwicks first full season in charge!

Yes arguably Montpellier were there for the taking but you have to remember there is a reason both us and them are in the challenge cup to begin. This is just the beginning and similar to what Tom youngs said in the build up this doesn’t define what happens in the next couple of years yeah it would have been great to win but as a club we have ambitions not to be in that competition next year and look to improve even more next year. Overall it’s an immense improvement something that was unimaginable this time last year yes we still aren’t amazing we still are limited in attack and don’t have much to offer if teams can match us physically however these problems are rectifiable very easily and we have a team that we can at least be proud of once again who look like they really have bought into what borthwick is trying to do

Sorry for the long post!!!

[chris111]

It’s been a long day, and the M1 closure tested patience towards the end....but it was just wonderful to be watching live again (I’d forgotten that hoarseness in the hours after a Tigers game!)

Disappointed but not downhearted - the result could have gone either way, and I don’t think many of us, if asked last September, would have bet on us getting this close. The fundamentals for a future trophy-winning team are in place - if we can just add some guile and pace out wide and convert a higher % of chances created we’ll be there.

Scott1, that’s your cue to step in and call me a naive happy clapper 🥱

[Ian Cant]

Very proud of the team. Scott1 must start looking at other teams’ recent form.
Montpellier had, in the last two months become one of, if not the form team in the Top 14. Add into that their star studded bench against ours that didn’t have( apart from Ben Youngs) as much experience and this was always going to be a more difficult game than in the Premiership.
Secondly I thought the officials were very good and what an improvement in our discipline. Their first try was one where, on another day the ball goes out but their player did superbly well to football style keep it in.
I was proud of the whole team and the only two things I’d like to see now is JVP has to be in the squad for his try scoring, passing and kicking game and to leave the front row on longer: Cole, Genge, Young’s have all had plenty of rest this season
so leave them on to help establish bigger leads and because of their experience.
Well done Montpellier: hope to see you in the Champions Cup next season.

[wellstiger]

Great performance from Tigers. How many times ,this season, have we been just on the wrong side of the scoreboard.
This season we are the nearly men. I'll take that over " we are only saved by the antics of Sarries"
We came second to a team of World Cup winners who were fighting hard for every scrap of turf.
We should use this as a spring board for the remaining games of the prem season. Because WE ARE GOOD ENOUGH.
Well done to all the squad - onwards and upwards. I'm proud of what you have achieved thus far. Were on the right path.

A world class attack coach please. Now that would be the cherry.

[drc_007]

Tigers should learn a lot from this experience. For many of the players this will have been their first major winner takes all experience.

I suspect all the teams that have dominated Europe over the last few decades have tasted bitter defeat before they went on to win major trophies and that includes Tigers of old.

[Wayne Richardson Fan Club]

Another example of our (present hopefully) lack of variation in attack, hampering our ability to win tight games.

We obviously need an attack coach & the game for me showed SB got some of the contentious selections wrong.

We need some pace in the back 3, (that extra half yard of pace might just be what prevents Steward having an International career).

Despite being a little worried about the officials, they had a good game, very little TMO interference....food for thought for the officials in our league.

What's important now is to finish the final 3 league games on a high.

[RichieB]

Disappointed to lose, I’m at work all night so missed the game live, is the performance worth going out of my way to see?

Worth watching first half forward performance which was outstanding. Other than that, given the outcome, I found it frustrating.

[Postiger2]

That was one of those annoying occasions whereby I think we win that game 9 times out of 10. George Ford had a good game but he missed a penalty he'd usually kick and I was shocked he missed that drop goal attempt.

This is almost definitely borne out of bitterness but I really think Montpellier got away with one yesterday. They did counter-attack well and I think their superstar players pulled out some match-winning moments but I really felt we were the better side. Just a shame it was knock on city from us whenever things were looking good.

One slight grumble, and this is very much with the benefit of hindsight, is that we lost momentum when Cole and Youngs were subbed. That was only 5 minutes after out try and we were in the ascendancy at that point. We lost a bit of momentum with Clare and Heyes.

[Offside]

Interesting point regarding the Youngs substitution. I thought it did reduce the momentum but my son predicted it saying Youngs was starting to get involved off the ball a bit and would be giving away a penalty or getting a card soon. It is down to his passion but I do not think we would have been able to survive a card without they scoring a try. The front row subs did not quite have the impact they have been having at Prem level. That is to be expected.

[DeadlyDunc]

I thought the turning point was Bismarck Du Plessis coming on.

He almost singlehandedly stopped our rolling maul and added another level to their physicality, winning collisions and turnovers and generally settling them down.

Unfortunately it nullified our main attacking threat and in open play we just didn’t have enough creativity or pace to trouble them.

Saying that, Ford’s drop goal might have been enough to see us over the line and he nails that 9 times out of 10.

One for the learning curve and in 12 months I’d hazard a guess we’ll be in a stronger position and better for it.

Still would have liked the win mind!