Tigers v Stade Francais (A) - Champions Cup - Sunday 17th December 2023 - KO:5-30pm

[YoWaGoWan]

Side note: how much better to have Nick Heath commentating, actually telling Barclay to be quiet so we could hear the ref!
So many of the other commentators now seem to have their own agendas, Mullins in particular has, IMO, gone right down hill, regularly making gaffs!

It was always going to be better,there was no Me Me Healey involved

[Rugbygramps]

Side note: how much better to have Nick Heath commentating, actually telling Barclay to be quiet so we could hear the ref!
So many of the other commentators now seem to have their own agendas, Mullins in particular has, IMO, gone right down hill, regularly making gaffs!

It was always going to be better,there was no Me Me Healey involved

Mullins is always better without Kay and Healey as he feels less need to have matey chats

[Ze Stade Fan]

Well, well, well. You may find my taste strange, but I would have preferred a Stade Français’ victory.
Anyway, done and dusted, congrats Tigers, onwards and upwards, top 14 here we come.
Key to the game: Leicester’s well organised rolling mauls, swiftly pivoting to the left, leaving only our scrum-half to defend.
Stade were a wee naïve in the dying moments and Tigers showed pragmatism and gamesmanship. Examples: penalty Stade, one of your fat boys walks ten yards towards our fat boys for a few handbags and the ref lets the clock turn on. Two good minutes earned.
The disallowed try was also an example of good defence.
Well, congrats Tigers, good luck in La Rochelle and don’t forget to have a tray of seafood on the harbour or at Les Vieux Crampons. Pubs : General Humbert or Mac Nulty’s.

[sapajo]

Thought Tom Whiteley had his best game in a Tigers shirt. Skied a couple of box kicks, but other than that he was fantastic. Like a man possessed charging down their kickers!

I disagree he service was laboured and inaccurate, he was charged down, his box kicking was awful and he kicked the ball away in good attacking positions and aimlessly tried to run through the Stade forwards brick wall. Otherwise he was fantastic.

[Pellsey]

Why were Stade given an attacking scrum when they threw a second ball on? If the Ref was trying to be fair giving us the scrum would have been fair

Because they were in possession... in this case, sir was 100% correct.

Who threw it in, however, needs to be looked at!

I've just had another look. It looked like the ball boys were asking for somebody in the croud to give them the ball. The person in the crowd seemed to "overthrow" and the ball ended up on the pitch...

[DeadlyDunc]

Thought Tom Whiteley had his best game in a Tigers shirt. Skied a couple of box kicks, but other than that he was fantastic. Like a man possessed charging down their kickers!

I disagree he service was laboured and inaccurate, he was charged down, his box kicking was awful and he kicked the ball away in good attacking positions and aimlessly tried to run through the Stade forwards brick wall. Otherwise he was fantastic.

For 3rd choice SH he was more than fine - he hit a few poor box kicks but the majority were on the money, he kept the SF defence honest with the odd snipe from the base, some passes were slow but there was also a couple of flat fast passes that got us around the corner.

Defensively he was tidy too.

Not flash, not world class but definitely a decent performance

[TigerFeetSteve]

Well, well, well. You may find my taste strange, but I would have preferred a Stade Français’ victory.
Anyway, done and dusted, congrats Tigers, onwards and upwards, top 14 here we come.
Key to the game: Leicester’s well organised rolling mauls, swiftly pivoting to the left, leaving only our scrum-half to defend.
Stade were a wee naïve in the dying moments and Tigers showed pragmatism and gamesmanship. Examples: penalty Stade, one of your fat boys walks ten yards towards our fat boys for a few handbags and the ref lets the clock turn on. Two good minutes earned.
The disallowed try was also an example of good defence.
Well, congrats Tigers, good luck in La Rochelle and don’t forget to have a tray of seafood on the harbour or at Les Vieux Crampons. Pubs : General Humbert or Mac Nulty’s.

Well played to your boys.

In our maul attack I think Stade only had their forwards practice mauling. When we put both Kelly and Kata in the lineout to maul over Stade were not prepped for 10 player mauls where all of them are drilled and practiced doing it.

[DeadlyDunc]

Whitcombe
Vanes
Heyes
Chessum
Martin
Hanro
Reffell
Ilione
JVP
Atkinson
OHC
Kelly
Porter
Watson
Steward

Not a bad young XV we have building there - obviously you’d pick Montoya, wells, Pollard, Scott/Kata, Wiese (til he goes), big Cam in there too.

After that we’ve also go Young Chessum, Woodward, Carnduff and some of the others too (FTT l, Myall etc)

The future should be very bright IMO

[No6_Flanker]

Anyone else think that Brown’s yellow card was a ridiculous call? There was no line break on, as it was around the fringes of the ruck, so should only have been a penalty. Not to mention that he is actually trying to play the ball in the SH’s hands before the pass is made.

[Soggypitch]

Whitcombe
Vanes
Heyes
Chessum
Martin
Hanro
Reffell
Ilione
JVP
Atkinson
OHC
Kelly
Porter
Watson
Steward

Not a bad young XV we have building there - obviously you’d pick Montoya, wells, Pollard, Scott/Kata, Wiese (til he goes), big Cam in there too.

After that we’ve also go Young Chessum, Woodward, Carnduff and some of the others too (FTT l, Myall etc)

The future should be very bright IMO

You forgot Shillcock - definitely ahead of Atkinson on current form.

[Soggypitch]

Anyone else think that Brown’s yellow card was a ridiculous call? There was no line break on, as it was around the fringes of the ruck, so should only have been a penalty. Not to mention that he is actually trying to play the ball in the SH’s hands before the pass is made.

Agreed definite penalty but a harsh yellow.

[sam16111986]

Also want to shout out to Shillcock, nailed EVERY kick, including touchline conversions etc... ok there was one missed kick out of hand. If any of those misses SF kick the 3 and win that game rather than go for a try

Shilcock is very much a premiership standard player, and will go down as one of those really canny signings.
The one kick he did miss for touch I’m led to believe are very difficult you almost need to kick the ball back a little.
Surprised they didn’t go for the posts or tap the ball from where it was

Completely agree! Shillcock is a really special player. Under the posts is a prime attacking position or a certain 3 points. A maul could have easily been set up with a tap and go, similar to how a line out could have set one up, but in a better position, and without the risk of losing the line out or missing the kick.

Kicking to touch from there accurately is not as easy as it seems - it is a good 25 metres away or so, and you always have the "draw" to be as close to the line as possible! As you said, it is probably better to kick it backwards! I certainly missed some easy kicks in my time! Although you would expect a premiership level 10 to easily manage that.

I don't think Shillcock wanted to kick for the corner. Liebenburg seemed to be insisting. Given Cronin was struggling at scrum time that option was out the window. Perhaps we should follow Ulster's example and the bring back the tapped rolling maul.

[Rugbygramps]

Why were Stade given an attacking scrum when they threw a second ball on? If the Ref was trying to be fair giving us the scrum would have been fair

Because they were in possession... in this case, sir was 100% correct.

Who threw it in, however, needs to be looked at!

I've just had another look. It looked like the ball boys were asking for somebody in the croud to give them the ball. The person in the crowd seemed to "overthrow" and the ball ended up on the pitch...

That’s what it looked like on the telly. As the ref said it was a unique situation and had anything amounted from it, it would have been really unfortunate as we were on the verge of turning the ball over

[RunTigerRun]

Thought Tom Whiteley had his best game in a Tigers shirt. Skied a couple of box kicks, but other than that he was fantastic. Like a man possessed charging down their kickers!

I disagree he service was laboured and inaccurate, he was charged down, his box kicking was awful and he kicked the ball away in good attacking positions and aimlessly tried to run through the Stade forwards brick wall. Otherwise he was fantastic.

We All have different opinions and I respect that. Prompts healthy debate which is good! I’ll admit when he first played vs Saints (?) last year, I was sceptical. His service and box kicking was not good then and I wondered why we signed him.

However, over the start of the season he has been better than Powell, and must be better than Edwards (currently, Edwards’ ceiling is higher imo hence the loan to Cambridge for game time) to be playing. He’s earned the chance for me and I thought Whiteley had a good game yesterday. Yes he’s not as accurate as Lenny or JVP in his box kicks; however he generally got good distance on them and we were able to keep the territory game moving. He tries to attack the fringes and his service to first receiver is usually good, fairly prompt and sets up the next move well. He made some very important tackles (actually think he might be our best defensive 9… maybe JVP close there).

He may not be an out and out 1st choice, but as a 3rd choice 9 (effectively he is behind Youngs and JVP) I think he is very good. Gives Edwards a good target to aim past and keeps the squad competition high for places.

[No6_Flanker]

Agree with that pecking order: JVP, Youngs, Whiteley, Edwards is pretty decent. Not sure we would need Powell next season (if he isn’t already contracted)?