Tigers v Gloucester - Premiership Cup Final - Friday 15th March 2024 - KO:7-45pm

[sapajo]

Are there any comments from DM after last night? Be interested to know how he viewed the performance

Leicester Tigers head coach, Dan McKellar has reacted to Tigers 23-13 defeat to Gloucester in the Premiership Cup final.

Tigers led 6-3 at halftime but a barrage of penalties and two yellow cards changed the momentum of the contest, and the Cherries were well deserved winners on the night.

"Dan McKellar said: “We’re frustrated. There was a fifteen-minute period in the second half where we just lost all momentum, and they capitalised off the back of it. Way too many turnovers and penalties against us and they took advantage of it.”

“We rallied there late but when you’re down to 13 men, away from home, with a crowd of 15000 people and momentum is against you, it’s tough to wrestle it back.

“We’ll hurt for 24 hours but we’ll get over it pretty quickly. Getting back to the Premiership, it’s tight towards the top of the table so a win next week is important.”

[CrumblingTerrace]

Your so right they just can’t all play together it just doesn’t seem to work, the back row look so much better with a breakdown threat in it, obviously raffell it 1st choice, but I think it looked better when ilione came on aswell as he did attack the break down but offer a slightly wider runner. I think McKellar needs to roll the dice and let more of the academy boys have a go at it and give them a run of games, like Bothwick did when he first came I know that 1st season we took some hammerings but they all improved the next season, then in the third season we won the premiership and most of them went on to become England starters.

We looked a lot better with Ilione. I don’t think his long term future is necessarily at 7 but he’s mobile and a jackal threat. The backrow last night lacked balance, as did the midfield.

I’ll be honest - I was being kind beforehand - but I don’t see what Hatherall and Rogerson bring aside from basic effort levels which is a minimum.

Cracknall carries harder and I think better over the ball too.

I agree with Ilione - he has to play 7 if Tommy is away and then have Cracknell coming on if we need it. I can see the logic about being the other way around - ease Ilione in to games rather than starting but he has to be given a crack given how lacklustre we are with the others across the back row

I think this is the biggest question mark in the squad, particularly with Jasper leaving.

Rogerson, Cracknell and Hatherell are good, hard-working players. But there's no dynamism. No pace. No deft handling. In attack, it makes us predictable.

I think we need a better mix in the back row.

[westwinds31]

We looked fine but with 13 men it’s very difficult.
Agree about the yellows. The first one seemed to come out of the blue - I think that was the 3rd penalty ? I don’t think the ref was great in terms of comms to the players. I like Theobald-Thomas he’s more angry than Mike Brown ! I must admit it was a one off but seeing Cockanasiga playing for Notts he wasn’t great but last night for the time he was as on he looked decent, quick feet and has some gas. Living down here in Glos is painful, you’d think they’d won the World Cup ! Let’s hope we can reverse it next week.

[ay2oh]

We looked fine but with 13 men it’s very difficult.
Agree about the yellows. The first one seemed to come out of the blue - I think that was the 3rd penalty ? I don’t think the ref was great in terms of comms to the players. I like Theobald-Thomas he’s more angry than Mike Brown ! I must admit it was a one off but seeing Cockanasiga playing for Notts he wasn’t great but last night for the time he was as on he looked decent, quick feet and has some gas. Living down here in Glos is painful, you’d think they’d won the World Cup ! Let’s hope we can reverse it next week.

let’s be honest Gloucester won’t win anything else for a while so they have to make the best of it

[Ian Cant]

Gloucester deserved their win as we cannot keep blaming the refs for our lack of discipline although I also agree that with 5 minutes to go we should have had a penalty try.I do like Dan McKellar but I do get annoyed when, as has happened a few times when we pre lost this season and he makes excuses then says “ it’s hard to come back!” I still think we haven’t backed Dan by getting a decent coaching set up to back him up.
Tigers should be able to fight back in games!

Agree that we need to give Ilione a run of games. He might even make a number 8!
We also need Chessum and Martin to stay fit as Wells is a decent back up but then we have no one else. Carter just doesn’t appear to be anywhere near Premiership standard! Maybe he just hasn’t settled in at Tigers!
Ps. Who coaches Italy’s backs?

[Tigers86asw]

Are there any comments from DM after last night? Be interested to know how he viewed the performance

Leicester Tigers head coach, Dan McKellar has reacted to Tigers 23-13 defeat to Gloucester in the Premiership Cup final.

Tigers led 6-3 at halftime but a barrage of penalties and two yellow cards changed the momentum of the contest, and the Cherries were well deserved winners on the night.

"Dan McKellar said: “We’re frustrated. There was a fifteen-minute period in the second half where we just lost all momentum, and they capitalised off the back of it. Way too many turnovers and penalties against us and they took advantage of it.”

“We rallied there late but when you’re down to 13 men, away from home, with a crowd of 15000 people and momentum is against you, it’s tough to wrestle it back.

“We’ll hurt for 24 hours but we’ll get over it pretty quickly. Getting back to the Premiership, it’s tight towards the top of the table so a win next week is important.”

Thank you. Still doesn’t acknowledge that with the ball we were terrible.

[RunTigerRun]

Gloucester deserved their win as we cannot keep blaming the refs for our lack of discipline although I also agree that with 5 minutes to go we should have had a penalty try.I do like Dan McKellar but I do get annoyed when, as has happened a few times when we pre lost this season and he makes excuses then says “ it’s hard to come back!” I still think we haven’t backed Dan by getting a decent coaching set up to back him up.
Tigers should be able to fight back in games!

Agree that we need to give Ilione a run of games. He might even make a number 8!
We also need Chessum and Martin to stay fit as Wells is a decent back up but then we have no one else. Carter just doesn’t appear to be anywhere near Premiership standard! Maybe he just hasn’t settled in at Tigers!
Ps. Who coaches Italy’s backs?

Ilione might be a decent Ben Earl style 8 if that’s a style of backrow we might look at?

[sapajo]

Are there any comments from DM after last night? Be interested to know how he viewed the performance

Leicester Tigers head coach, Dan McKellar has reacted to Tigers 23-13 defeat to Gloucester in the Premiership Cup final.

Tigers led 6-3 at halftime but a barrage of penalties and two yellow cards changed the momentum of the contest, and the Cherries were well deserved winners on the night.

"Dan McKellar said: “We’re frustrated. There was a fifteen-minute period in the second half where we just lost all momentum, and they capitalised off the back of it. Way too many turnovers and penalties against us and they took advantage of it.”

“We rallied there late but when you’re down to 13 men, away from home, with a crowd of 15000 people and momentum is against you, it’s tough to wrestle it back.

“We’ll hurt for 24 hours but we’ll get over it pretty quickly. Getting back to the Premiership, it’s tight towards the top of the table so a win next week is important.”

Thank you. Still doesn’t acknowledge that with the ball we were terrible.

Thought his comments were underwhelming

[No6_Flanker]

Ilione might be a decent Ben Earl style 8 if that’s a style of backrow we might look at?

He certainly doesn’t Earl’s mobility, I’m not sure why people think that Ilione isn’t a 7?

[sk 88]

Having watched the Under 20s game today, I thought Carnduff had another really good game and was a little unlucky not to get MOM.

I agree with many people that young guys like Illione, , Carnduff, Chessum Jnr, need to be given a shot ahead of the likes of Carter and Rogerson in these types of games. If they lose so be it, then they’ve been given valuable experience.
The only possible exception is prop where it might not always be wise to give a youngster a go unless they are exceptional like the young laddie who plays for sale …. -FordJour?

To be fair he's been injured since early November, he he's not played a match of any type since then so there must be some injury.

Ilione has played more this season than any previous season combined, so he is making progress even if I agree that I'd have used him more.

[LE18]

Is this just a pre-premiership warm up or a genuine effort for silverware?
The one to count is the prem match.

I dont know how you can say that, we are in a Final and had a 50/50 chance to win a trophy. Premier lose a match and we could end up with nothing.

[LE18]

Evening all.. well.. I’m speechless! I honestly can’t believe what I have just watched.. unbelievable.. We deserved to win that, no doubt about it. I’ve never seen 2 penalties get yellow cards like that without even a warning.. then the maul gets brought down 2m out at the other end and it is just a penalty.. awful.. finally found his yellow for Glos when it was all too late.. shame Tom didn’t get over the whitewash early doors as that would have made it a 10-0 game and perhaps we would have hung on.. oh well..

cagey game understandably early on with lots of kicking and we kept a dangerous Glos side almost scoreless for the entire half. Plus we silenced the annoying drone from the shed. Go in 6-0 at HT and it’s all to play for. Unfortunately the cherry and white robber in the middle had other ideas! Armed with a whistle and a one-sided yellow card he set about ruining a perfectly good game of rugby. Granted it wasn’t a spectacle to watch but 2 sides feeling each other out in a cagey final. Funny old thing 15 vs 13 and it’s game over.

We would have won that with Mr Barnes in the middle. Shame.. I have no doubt we will smash them at MWWR next week with a decent officiating team. I don’t like blaming the officials but I honestly can’t believe what I have just witnessed.

Not our finest performance granted but 2 yellows decided that game. We should have played more rugby for sure but the game was in the balance until the double sin bin.. hard to recover from that

Agreed 100%, especially doutful cards produced without warning or repeat penalties. After that our boys desperate with only 13 men and inevitable they desperately tried to defend and gave away penalties.

[KiwiTig]

We looked fine but with 13 men it’s very difficult.
Agree about the yellows. The first one seemed to come out of the blue - I think that was the 3rd penalty ? I don’t think the ref was great in terms of comms to the players. I like Theobald-Thomas he’s more angry than Mike Brown ! I must admit it was a one off but seeing Cockanasiga playing for Notts he wasn’t great but last night for the time he was as on he looked decent, quick feet and has some gas. Living down here in Glos is painful, you’d think they’d won the World Cup ! Let’s hope we can reverse it next week.

I also like the aggression of TT but I hope he is able to control it …he looked like a man possessed off the ball last night and was being pulled back by his teammates on several occasions-a wiser man could target that vulnerability.

[mol2]

All we can say is that sides who provide international players get penalised in this tournament.
Gloucester had nearly a full squad to select from Tigers had a host of players missing because they are current internationals or former international players tied by the World Cup.

I ignore injury absence because that’s the nature of rugby and applicable to all teams.

Perhaps sides with fewer international absences should have to nominate 4 or 5 players at the start of the tournament deemed internationals with the league ratifying that theses players are the most likely to be internationals for teams without players called up.

Then it becomes an even/fair tournament where younger players get opportunities throughout.

[RagingBull]

I thought the first half tactics was pretty spot on. Whiteley scores that run in and we win the game imo.

The losing our heads and not changing tactics when down to 13 men cost us. It was poor managing that.
Rogerson did what was asked of him in the 1st half, pulled a big defensive shift. But Ilione needed to come on when we went down. He coves more ground and could potentially slow the ball.

I don't think it was as bad as people say as a game. Certainly didn't see anywhere to suggest Gloucester was more physical as a team against 15 men they looked very average.