Bath vs Tigers at the Rec

Anthony Allen picked up an injury in the match against Saracens last week and Mickey Young is out with a calf injury. They join Kieran Brookes, Jordan Crane, Calum Green, Craig Newby, George Skivington and Julian White on the sidelines.

Leicester Tigers (v Bath Rugby, The Recreation Ground, Saturday 3.15pm)
15 Niall Morris
14 Scott Hamilton
13 Matt Smith
12 Billy Twelvetrees
11 Mathew Tait
10 Jeremy Staunton
9 James Grindal
1 Boris Stankovich
2 George Chuter (c)
3 Michael Holford
4 Ed Slater
5 Geoff Parling
6 Steve Mafi
7 Ben Woods
8 Julian Salvi

Replacements
16 Tom Youngs
17 Jonny Harris
18 Peter Bucknall
19 Graham Kitchener
20 Ben Pienaar
21 Sam Harrison
22 George Ford
23 Andy Forsyth


Bath Rugby
15 Nick Abendanon
14 Matt Carraro
13 Dan Hipkiss
12 Ben Williams
11 Tom Biggs
10 Sam Vesty
9 Michael Claassens (c)
1 David Flatman
2 Pieter Dixon
3 Kane Palma-Newport
4 Dave Attwood
5 Ryan Caldwell
6 Ben Skirving
7 Guy Mercer
8 Simon Taylor

Replacements
16 Ross Batty
17 Charlie Beech
18 Duncan Bell
19 Will Spencer
20 Andy Beattie
21 Mark McMillan
22 Tom Heathcote
23 Olly Woodburn

Good to see Pienaar back in action following his injury lay off but not so pleased he has replaced Armes who I rate more highly and offers more of the ball carrying/ball stealing qualities I think we need. Massive boost is the return of Parling who is the top lineout operator in the prem and I can only hopes he lasts longer than on his last come back. Not sure why we've bothered recalling Staunton either, maybe just to rest young George Ford a bit.

Glad to see Parling back, hope he can find form pretty quickly!

Good to see him back, the last ten months must have been horrible for him. With a bit of luck he'll make an impact in the Tiger's injury hit pack and avoid an instant England call up allowing us to have a decent lineout all year round.

Thought occured to me the other day that Tigers should really make an offer on Tom Rees, he's injury plagued at the moment but a change of setting and playing in a dominant team ccould be perfect for him and he'd bring everything you're missing in the backrow too.

After the last few seasons he may well want to get out of Wycombe and Young may not be as willing to give him the time he needs.

That's what Salvi has been signed for (rumour has it on a one year deal as injury cover that will be extended by another year in the summer), we've got young Tom Armes on the books as well and he is getting closer and closer to the first team so hopefully he'll step up sooner rather than later. The scottish under 20 openside Hamish Watson is also on the books and impressed at the last Junior RWC.

Don't think we can stretch to bringing Rees as well, especially with Newby to return from injury for the end of the season and some important contract negociations regarding Cole and Ayerza to go through before next season.

Yappysnap won't Rees be out for almost the entire season?

I think Leicester have enough crocked players as it is.

That Bath front three doesn't look that great. The crocked Leicester front three could get parity.

Looks like an inspirational halfback partnership for Leicester. Could they be the key to Leicester?

Why is Hamilton on the wing? I do think Leicester do lack a proper winger or two.

Hamilton's best position is on the wing he only covers full back when Murphy is injured. Morris is supposedly a full back first and a winger second. After some of the woeful attempts at cover tackles by Hamilton last week he's been moved into the line where he knows the players around him and will be able to keep the organisation better. Which is where Morris has struggled, he's been tackling well but is often caught out because he doesn't know the players around him.

The less we mention Grindal and Staunton the better, they are reliable and that's about as positive as I can go. I hope Harrison gets a run out as he is quick and an excellent footballer (can play 9 and 10) and will give us more zip, he's got a bullet of a pass but is comparible to Ford in size so can be bullied by bigger more experienced players.

Wise move playing Staunton,we need someone with a wise head just to steady the ship slightly! What is it with Cockers and Grindal,he should be our 3rd choice at the min not first.

Lets hope the bruising training session we had in the week did the trick and that we have sorted out our awful defence!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/sep/30/leicester-tigers-turnover-record

only if we could spend some more of that money!!

Hamilton out?

Soon the Tigers will have to chose between pensioners an embryos.

Hamilton was a loss but Forsyth did ok. Disappointing result in the end but a much improved performance and if Tigers had, had a decent tighthead available I think we'd have won that one.

I can't believe Bath struggled to put that Tigers side away.

Doesn't fill me with much confidence for the season ahead if I'm honest!

You seemed to make a lot of good half breaks but then allow yourselves to get bogged down in the following phases. The support for your runners from deep was pretty poor as well. This was a game Bath dominated in terms of posession and territory (as you should have done) but failed to make the pressure count.

Some of the penalties given away must annoy you as well as Tigers showed some good attacking instincts but were never in a position to really take you on up front (Stanko, Chuter and Holford were poor). Suprised Bath didn't back their set piece more as certainly in the first half the Tigers scrum was on the rack and the lineout was about equal (thanks mainly to Parling returning).