Exeter Chiefs vs Leicester Tigers

Exeter Chiefs:

15 Luke Arscott
14 Jack Nowell
13 Sireli Naqelevuki
12 Phil Dollman
11 Matt Jess
10 Gareth Steenson
9 Haydn Thomas
1 Carl Rimmer
2 Jack Yeandle
3 Hoani Tui
4 Dean Mumm
5 Damian Welch
6 Ben White
7 James Scaysbrook
8 Richard Baxter (c)

Replacements
16 Chris Whitehead
17 Brett Sturgess
18 Craig Mitchell
19 James Hanks
20 Dave Ewers
21 Will Chudley
22 Henry Slade
23 Ian Whitten

Most of the squad back to full fitness: long-term injuries still for Tom Johnson, Aly Muldowney and Si Alcott; niggles for Jason Shoemark and Tom Hayes. No places for the departing Gonzo Camacho, Nacho Mieres, and Josh Tatupu. England U20 flyhalf Henry Slade earns a spot on the bench

Leicester Tiggers:

15 Mathew Tait
14 Niall Morris
13 Manusamoa Tuilagi
12 Anthony Allen
11 Adam Thompstone
10 Toby Flood (c)
9 Ben Youngs
1 Marcos Ayerza
2 Tom Youngs
3 Dan Cole
4 Ed Slater
5 Geoff Parling
6 Tom Croft
7 Julian Salvi
8 Jordan Crane

Replacements
16 Rob Hawkins
17 Logovi'i Mulipola
18 Martin Castrogiovanni
19 Thomas Waldrom
20 Graham Kitchener
21 Sam Harrison
22 George Ford
23 Matt Smith

Looks weak

Good looking Tigers side agreed. Still think their back three is an area that can be exploited. Especially in defence.

Tigers have some very decent forwards on the bench they can bring on as reinforcements. Tigers strength in the props department is just silly!

The weather is utterly grim in the south-west at the mo, v v v windy, wet and cold - whichever side adapts best to the conditions, in what I suspect will be a tight game, could well take the points - how much of a hangover do we expect the England lads to have?

I think It's going to be a big ask of Slater tomorrow, we need him to put in a Louis old school Deacon style shift in the boiler room. It's going to be a big battle in the tight and in the awful conditions It's where the game will be won and lost.

We could have really used Murphy's ability under the high ball and with the boot for this one.

Didn't think Castro would make this game.

Chiefs on a roll - yesssss

What's the weather like down there? Will the game go ahead?

Does not look snowbound on traffic cam, unlike where I am right now.

We've got an inch maybe two inches up here in North Leicestershire. It's still coming down as well. Chiefs website say there's no problems.

Now the IWs are firmly shut for the duration, I'd expect the Tigers to kick on. I can't remember the last time the team returned unscathed from International duty.
That's pretty much a top squad.

I suspect it will be Exeter Chuffs come 7pm.

Plus as a bonus : it's on ESPN.

It's cold but clear at the moment, and I'd expect the ground to be in good nick (unlike the Tiggers team after 80 mins)!

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:It's cold but clear at the moment, and I'd expect the ground to be in good nick (unlike the Tiggers team after 80 mins)!

Chiefs will have to offer a hell of a lot more than they did in the reverse fixture. While Tigers were determined to make amends for losing both fixtures last season, Chiefs were disappointingly poor. From memory Rob Baxter described it as like watching Men against Boys.

Touche As!

The BBC weather forecast is dry but with Easterly winds of ~27mph.

What's the orientation of Sandy Park?
After mauling the chuffers' tender behinds, Floody will need to boot the points.

p.s. Have you predicted another 120-0 win for the Chiefs in the SG game?

LondonTiger wrote:

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:It's cold but clear at the moment, and I'd expect the ground to be in good nick (unlike the Tiggers team after 80 mins)!

Chiefs will have to offer a hell of a lot more than they did in the reverse fixture. While Tigers were determined to make amends for losing both fixtures last season, Chiefs were disappointingly poor. From memory Rob Baxter described it as like watching Men against Boys.

LT, that match was a lifetime ago, about as apt as comparing recent performance to duffing up Quins back in October! Hope all is well with you and yours

greytiger wrote:Touche As!

The BBC weather forecast is dry but with Easterly winds of ~27mph.

What's the orientation of Sandy Park?
After mauling the chuffers' tender behinds, Floody will need to boot the points.

p.s. Have you predicted another 120-0 win for the Chiefs in the SG game?

Got up to 150-0 for one game, can't remember which! Think I went for a sensible 5 pointer for this one

The orientation means the wind swirls quite dramatically, and an easterly will be across the pitch, slightly from one corner - perfect conditions for dead-eye Steeno

Come on Chiefs! Do us a favour and spank those tiggers! You owe us after what we let you get away with at the Stoop last month

Ssshh Yappy, the dramatic draw is tomorrow's offering.

Come on Tigers. We need a big lift before Toulon away.

Score predictions?

I'm going for a tigers win by 8.

Hmmm, some of the tigers players look a bit tired.

Leicester have been woeful, far too lateral and real lack of intensity.

Fantastic defence all game by Exeter, but boy that was a slog.

Second half was pretty dire. Hopefully Geordam is going to be back next week as Tait isn't quite up there just yet. Benny played well but Flood wasn't at his best.

Couple of big performances saw us through though, Tom Youngs was brilliant and Ed Slater should be man of the match.

Exeter seemed to shoot themselves in the foot with the subs which took away momentum and Thomas who was having a very intelligent game at 9.

Flood was really poor.

Carrying by Slater and Crane, lineout with Parling and Croft were the best things for us.

Can't be too harsh on Flood he did make several breaks and scored all our points.

Flood was very up and down, some very good breaks and looked fairly dangerous on front foot ball but kicking out of hand was poor and at times was standing too flat for his own good. That has been a massive problem for Tigers all season IMO, dont know why they do it.

It's not so much the flat thing, as Austin pointed out in commentary It's how flat and wide he stands making it incredibly hard for Ben to get good passes to him in these conditions which hinders any attempted momentum.

The scoreline never lies, bravo Tiggers

But felt a fair result would have seen Steeno's final kick crawl over the bar. Ach well, next week Wuss

I've heard on the radio* that Cockers said that a draw would have been fair.
And I agree.

*Unfortunately R5 was busy reporting on a load of gas-guzzlers tearing round a track from the other end of the world. Just what's needed, jetting a small factory into an already polluted Indian Ocean atoll to create a further excavate the hole in the Antarctic Ozone layer and to destroy further fossil resources. Hey ho.

greytiger wrote:I've heard on the radio* that Cockers said that a draw would have been fair.
And I agree.

*Unfortunately R5 was busy reporting on a load of gas-guzzlers tearing round a track from the other end of the world. Just what's needed, jetting a small factory into an already polluted Indian Ocean atoll to create a further excavate the hole in the Antarctic Ozone layer and to destroy further fossil resources. Hey ho.

Those gas-guzzlers help define our future eco cars, well they will do more next year.

Yeah right Nathan. Swallow the propaganda whole and uncritically.

greytiger wrote:Yeah right Nathan. Swallow the propaganda whole and uncritically.

Lol, perhaps I just understand a bit more about it than you?