Leicester Tigers v ASM Clermont Auvergne

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Tigers team:

15 Geordan Murphy = 14 Horacio Agulla = 13 Matt Smith = 12 Manu Tuilagi = 11 Alesana Tuilagi = 10 Toby Flood = 9 Ben Youngs = 1 Boris Stankovich = 2 George Chuter = 3 Martin Castrogiovanni = 4 Louis Deacon = 5 George Skivington = 6 Tom Croft = 7 Jules Salvi = 8 Thomas Waldrom
16 Rob Hawkins = 17 Julian White = 18 Dan Cole = 19 Steve Mafi = 20 Ben Woods = 21 Sam Harrison = 22 Billy Twelvetrees = 23 Scott Hamilton

ASM Clermont Auvergne

15 Lee Byrne-14 Sitiveni Sivivatu-13 Regan King-12 Wesley Fofana-11 Julien Malzieu-10 David Skrela - 9 Morgan Parra - 1 Lionel Faure - 2 Ti'i Paulo - 3 Clément Ric - 4 Jamie Cudmore - 5 Jason White - 6 Gerhard Vosloo - 7 Alexandre Lapandry - 8 Julien Bonnaire
16 Benjamin Kayser - 17 Vincent Debaty - 18 Daniel Kotze - 19 Nathan Hines - 20 Elvis Vermeulen - 21 Kevin Senio - 22 Brock James - 23 Gavin Williams


A number of changes for Clermont. King & Skrela start in the backs, and several in the pack. Cudmore replacing Hines most noticable. White in second row an interesting call.
Looks like an injury for Ayerza as Bobo starts and two tightheads on the bench. Other changes for Tigers sees Waldrom start for Mafi, and Woods on teh bench for Slater.

You coming over sam? Ravenhill will be rocking, the hairs on my neck stand up just thinking about it! hope I can get tickets!

It will be a massively physical game I would imagine...

Sadly not, the heart says "yes" but the bank balance says "you must be joking".

yappysnap wrote:
I just find it bizzarre. Twelvetrees needs this big game experience and should be being helped to get as much as possible. If Leicester can't or won't do that then maybe he should look elsewhere.

I reckon he should head to Saints. Their outside backs would love having a distributor like 36 in the side.

DaveM wrote:

yappysnap wrote:
I just find it bizzarre. Twelvetrees needs this big game experience and should be being helped to get as much as possible. If Leicester can't or won't do that then maybe he should look elsewhere.

I reckon he should head to Saints. Their outside backs would love having a distributor like 36 in the side.

He could be Will Greenwood all over again... you know he has the potential to be a great centre but he is just going to warm the bench at Tigers. Maybe a move would be best for him personally, but it would be a shame for Leicester to lose him.

roddersm wrote:

Metal Tiger wrote:
It sure does make for an interesting table. Tigers are 1 of 3 teams that can still qualify. We go away to Ulster now, which for me is the group decider because if we win this... we win the group. And I'm not brushing aside Aironi but I think most Tigers fans will be very confident of a home win over them.

Our fate is in our own hands here, which is exactly how it should be. I really hate qualifying by other results going our way as it always feels like a hollow qualification.

Not sure how you work that out Metal Tiger, surely the fate of the group is in Clermont's hands? They have 3 bonus points and with Aironi and Ulster at home its hard not to see them picking up 9 or 10 points.

Roddersm,

Our fate is in our own hands because if we beat Ulster and Aironi we will win the group. We will have only lost 1 match and even if Clermont have the same points it goes on games won first... then head to head.

just find it bizzarre. Twelvetrees needs this big game experience and should be being helped to get as much as possible. If Leicester can't or won't do that then maybe he should look elsewhere.

He's played in big games before I don't think he needs the experience in terms of atmosphere and pressure (vs Perpignan and Sarries AP final last season, vs Saints a couple of weeks ago). He does need game time with Flood and Manu if he is going to successfully challenge Allen for the 12 shirt though. Something is clearly not right, I'm starting to wonder whether he's fully fit and whether the likes of Twelvetrees and Staunton are actually fully fit and have only been used in emergencies because of the midfield injury crisis. Would explain Staunton's massive lack of form vs LI and his immeadiate replacement on the bench by Twelvetrees come the HEC games.

Metal Tiger wrote:
Roddersm,

Our fate is in our own hands because if we beat Ulster and Aironi we will win the group. We will have only lost 1 match and even if Clermont have the same points it goes on games won first... then head to head.

Ah ok I'm with you now... ...well by that logic I suppose our fate is in our own hands too !

I would still say Clermont are in the strongest position, having secured 3 bonus points and with two home games to come, one v Aironi.

formerly known as Sam wrote:

just find it bizzarre. Twelvetrees needs this big game experience and should be being helped to get as much as possible. If Leicester can't or won't do that then maybe he should look elsewhere.

He's played in big games before I don't think he needs the experience in terms of atmosphere and pressure (vs Perpignan and Sarries AP final last season, vs Saints a couple of weeks ago). He does need game time with Flood and Manu if he is going to successfully challenge Allen for the 12 shirt though. Something is clearly not right, I'm starting to wonder whether he's fully fit and whether the likes of Twelvetrees and Staunton are actually fully fit and have only been used in emergencies because of the midfield injury crisis. Would explain Staunton's massive lack of form vs LI and his immeadiate replacement on the bench by Twelvetrees come the HEC games.

He needs a lot more experience, he should have spent the last couple of seasons starting at centre for his club. Instead he's been shuffled around the backline then benched or not even in the team.

He definitely should be moving if he can't get guaranteed first team action frequently.

I fear that will happen Yappy especially with his contract up at the end of the season. Having said that apparently Saints and Gloucester are trying to tempt away Allen who is also out of contract in the summer. I suspect both of those teams would also be interested in Twelvetrees. We need to keep at least one of the two (young Forsyth could step up if one leaves). Apparently the club and Allen are some distance apart in their valuations but that is only rumours.

roddersm wrote:

Metal Tiger wrote:
Roddersm,

Our fate is in our own hands because if we beat Ulster and Aironi we will win the group. We will have only lost 1 match and even if Clermont have the same points it goes on games won first... then head to head.

Ah ok I'm with you now... ...well by that logic I suppose our fate is in our own hands too !

I would still say Clermont are in the strongest position, having secured 3 bonus points and with two home games to come, one v Aironi.

No Arguments from me there.... any of us can win this group at the mo. If you turn us over at Ravenhill then you will have the pool decider against Clermont on the final week... that is unless Aironi surprise everyone and turn Clermont over!

Come on Aironi!

formerly known as Sam wrote:I fear that will happen Yappy especially with his contract up at the end of the season. Having said that apparently Saints and Gloucester are trying to tempt away Allen who is also out of contract in the summer. I suspect both of those teams would also be interested in Twelvetrees. We need to keep at least one of the two (young Forsyth could step up if one leaves). Apparently the club and Allen are some distance apart in their valuations but that is only rumours.

I'd forgotten Gloucester. With EPS on his way that would be a good move for either of them, with the other staying at Tigers. I wonder if Allen would want to go back though, and I can't believe Leicester would want to lose him, so I'd have thought Twelvetrees is the most likely departure. As an England fan I want to see him playing every week at 12 (or even at FH), and I just don't see that happening at Leicester. Tuilagi can provide back up to Allen at 12.

Tuilagi can provide back up to Allen at 12. .

That really isn't a good move. Manu is just not as effective. Even for his try at the weekend he lined up at 13 in the move with Smith slotting in at 12 so he would be the dummy runner. If one of the two left it would be Forsyth stepping up from the academy (similar skills to Billy but smaller frame so limited crash ball). Billy would be in line to get more game time should Staunton's fall out of favour continue. Then again we don't know the injury condition of either of the players.