Tigers v Nottingham (A) - Friendly - Friday 09th February 2024

[TigerFeetSteve]

Glad I didn’t get tickets now as didn’t think it would be an academy side.

It was fairly obvious it was going to be an academy side if i'm honest. The senior boys were having 10 days off, and that was well documented by the club. There's no way senior players are playing after just a day or two coming back. This is the exact sort of game that is perfect for playing our youngsters, especially the very young lads in the Development Squad.

Sorry but how is it perfect to watch a bunch of very young lads (using your words) get utterly smashed lumps out of by a men’s team who have at the very least mostly had several years of senior rugby? Kid yourself that won’t happen if you like but have a look what Nottingham did to the British Army Rugby team a few weeks back.
I shared a lift with some of their players as I was staying at the same hotel and trust me we knocked lumps out of them. Literally. And that was to a bunch of hard, seasoned soldiers so what on earth is going to happen tonight when a bunch of kids who mostly (with a few exceptions I know) haven’t played full team games?!

I’m a Notts fan so I would always have gone anyway. It honestly doesn’t bother me from that perspective. I have already seen several comments on social media from people who are now saying they’re not going to bother going. This is sad, especially as we need all the revenue we can get, but I have no doubt that we wouldn’t have got the ticket sales we had if it had been correctly billed.

Granted, I don’t think anyone expected a full strength side but this should have been billed as Nottingham v Leicester Tigers Academy as that’s exactly what it is.

Tbf given both squads train together on a weekly basis and we've balanced the props out based on injuries etc, I think coaches of both sides knew what to expect going into it. I don't think the starting line up for Tigers is particularly weak, ok the bench is very much scrached together. Nottingham are clear favourites but I think Tigers want to have a look in a pressure situation at these guys.

[GB72]

There are certainly a number of players who have not put on a Tigers shirt since the early rounds of the PRC and I would have expected them to be on the pitch. My concern with that is that they are part of the intended team for the PRC match next week and so we are no sending our strongest squad to Ealing.

My hope for everyone there this evening is at least a few of our bigger names are at the match on PR duty even if they are not on the pitch.

[TigerFeetSteve]

Dont think it was obvious that we were going to field an academy side. I and many others thought that we would field a side similar to what may be selected for the Ealing game where there is silverware at stake. I didn’t expect a full bore side but did expect an half and half side. The squad were back training on Monday so no different to any othe Friday night game apart from they have had 10 days rest.

I may be wrong but thought the full squad only got back Wednesday to training?

Am only going on McKellar saying they were having 10 days off after the Friday night Quins game.

Unless you count the Friday night game then the 10th day off was Monday, I may be wrong as I said but don't think they did training drills Tuesday, they started properly on Wednesday, Tuesday was regathering and fitness etc...

[TigerFeetSteve]

There are certainly a number of players who have not put on a Tigers shirt since the early rounds of the PRC and I would have expected them to be on the pitch. My concern with that is that they are part of the intended team for the PRC match next week and so we are no sending our strongest squad to Ealing.

My hope for everyone there this evening is at least a few of our bigger names are at the match on PR duty even if they are not on the pitch.

If this was the case why would we have split the main squad leave in two? Why not give them 3 weeks off straight have a full mini preseason.

The fact is they came back from leave either 2 or 3 days before this game.

Why aren't we playing players like Hoyt in this one unless we're protecting them for the week after? We can't be not playing him now because we have a game vs Gloucester after we get Cole and Heyes back, surely the reason he's being rested is because we plan on having him in the 23 next week.

[ay2oh]

As someone said earlier the match should have been billed as Nottingham v Tigers Academy.

[Rugbygramps]

For a game in 9 days time we are going to need 3 fit players in each of the specialist positions, front row and scrum half fit and training, so comment re Hoyt is right even if Hurd and Richardson are fit.
Interesting that Vanes is listed to play v Nottingham which may suggest Claire is near to playing, to be one of 3 hookers with Montoya and FTT

[AViewFromLe2]

Glad I didn’t get tickets now as didn’t think it would be an academy side.

It was fairly obvious it was going to be an academy side if i'm honest. The senior boys were having 10 days off, and that was well documented by the club. There's no way senior players are playing after just a day or two coming back. This is the exact sort of game that is perfect for playing our youngsters, especially the very young lads in the Development Squad.

Sorry but how is it perfect to watch a bunch of very young lads (using your words) get utterly smashed lumps out of by a men’s team who have at the very least mostly had several years of senior rugby? Kid yourself that won’t happen if you like but have a look what Nottingham did to the British Army Rugby team a few weeks back.
I shared a lift with some of their players as I was staying at the same hotel and trust me we knocked lumps out of them. Literally. And that was to a bunch of hard, seasoned soldiers so what on earth is going to happen tonight when a bunch of kids who mostly (with a few exceptions I know) haven’t played full team games?!

I’m a Notts fan so I would always have gone anyway. It honestly doesn’t bother me from that perspective. I have already seen several comments on social media from people who are now saying they’re not going to bother going. This is sad, especially as we need all the revenue we can get, but I have no doubt that we wouldn’t have got the ticket sales we had if it had been correctly billed.

Granted, I don’t think anyone expected a full strength side but this should have been billed as Nottingham v Leicester Tigers Academy as that’s exactly what it is.

Because this is why Leicester are so successful at bringing young lads through and why our academy is seen as one of the best for developing players at first team level - they test them from an early stage to get them up to speed. And if lads can't get up to speed they don't make it.

Playing a team who are bigger and tougher is the perfect way to fast-track those development boys into shape - Leicester have to work fast as they don't have loads of time. Anyway, this is a meaningless friendly as there is nothing on the line. This game shows the coaches which players have the capacity to make it, both mentally and physically.

[AViewFromLe2]

For a game in 9 days time we are going to need 3 fit players in each of the specialist positions, front row and scrum half fit and training, so comment re Hoyt is right even if Hurd and Richardson are fit.
Interesting that Vanes is listed to play v Nottingham which may suggest Claire is near to playing, to be one of 3 hookers with Montoya and FTT

We also get Heyes back as it is an England fallow week.

For me, the Ealing team would be: Whitcombe, Vanes, Richardson, Wells, Lewis Chessum, Rogerson, Illione, Cracknell, Edwards, Wilkinson, Simmons, Woodward, Porter, Bassett, Gourlay.

Bench of FTT, Van der Flier, Heyes, Carter, Josh Manz, Whitely, Shillcock, Cokanasiga

We may also get asked to play JVP if he is fit and England need him to get some minutes.

[tigerburnie]

Most of the Tigers academy players are playing men's rugby in the National leagues, some seem to be BUCs players who maybe are less used to playing against older players. The pace of Championship rugby is a step up, and playing against full time professional players is also a step up, but Nottingham also have non Championship regular players in their squad. You are doing a disservice to the quality of our academy players.

[Rugbygramps]

For a game in 9 days time we are going to need 3 fit players in each of the specialist positions, front row and scrum half fit and training, so comment re Hoyt is right even if Hurd and Richardson are fit.
Interesting that Vanes is listed to play v Nottingham which may suggest Claire is near to playing, to be one of 3 hookers with Montoya and FTT

We also get Heyes back as it is an England fallow week.

For me, the Ealing team would be: Whitcombe, Vanes, Richardson, Wells, Lewis Chessum, Rogerson, Illione, Cracknell, Edwards, Wilkinson, Simmons, Woodward, Porter, Bassett, Gourlay.

Bench of FTT, Van der Flier, Heyes, Carter, Josh Manz, Whitely, Shillcock, Cokanasiga

We may also get asked to play JVP if he is fit and England need him to get some minutes.

I think we will go stronger than that but we’ll see. Good point re JVP could the same be said of Watson, I don’t know his fitness status.

[GB72]

From a neutral point of view, as I am not going to the match, I can understand the disappointment of buying tickets for a match that is billed as the Tigers but is entirely the Tigers academy. No disservice to anyone, I am sure it will still be a good night, but if I had bought tickets on that basis, I would expect to have a few more names that I knew on the team sheet.

[TigerFeetSteve]

For a game in 9 days time we are going to need 3 fit players in each of the specialist positions, front row and scrum half fit and training, so comment re Hoyt is right even if Hurd and Richardson are fit.
Interesting that Vanes is listed to play v Nottingham which may suggest Claire is near to playing, to be one of 3 hookers with Montoya and FTT

I think Vanes playing both suggests that Clare is nearing playing, but also with the fact that Vanes had recently recovered from an injury himself that he may have not had the 10 day holiday and instead been increasing his match fitness with the Academy.

Also by the fact that Hurd was dropped entirely from the Scotland squad I think it's safe to say he's not fit.

The fact is that Crane (who outside of Richardson and Hoyt) is probably our third choice TH isn't playing in this game and instead we have a loanee playing almost confirms that (or says that Crane too is injured)

[TheChild]

Most of the Tigers academy players are playing men's rugby in the National leagues, some seem to be BUCs players who maybe are less used to playing against older players. The pace of Championship rugby is a step up, and playing against full time professional players is also a step up, but Nottingham also have non Championship regular players in their squad. You are doing a disservice to the quality of our academy players.

I can count on the fingers of one hand how many non regular players are playing for us tonight. And to be honest that’s more down to the amount of injuries we have than anything else. For instance- both our first and second choice fly halves are injured. As I pointed out to you previously, we lost 4 first choice players to injury, some serious, last week alone. We also have one of our locks on international duty with Germany.
There are 5 players in the squad who have not played regularly for us this season and in fact one of them is returning from long term injury so technically that’s 4. That’s 22 who are either regular first teamers (of which I can say with some certainty that all bar one of the starters, who is on loan, are, along with 4 of the replacements) Your constant argument that Nottingham are fielding a much changed team from last week and we’re also not fielding our regulars is quite simply untrue.

[Rugbygramps]

Can it be put down to both clubs looking for different things from this fixture ?

[Tigris]

I did wonder whether there might have been a smattering of senior players in there, but I'm looking forward to watching the development team and seeing quite a few players that I haven't seen "live" before.
Used to thoroughly enjoy the old A League games and this is a similar rare-ish opportunity for the group to play as a Tigers team as opposed to being mainly scattered around on loan, so I'm all for it.
Would expect it to be a real physical test for us, but there are a chunk of players in there for whom this shouldn't be unchartered territory.
The ticket price is perhaps a bit high given its a dev side, but to honest, given the recent issues with flooding at Nottingham I'm happy to pay.
The weather does look bl~~dy awful though...