Champions Cup Pool 4: Leicester Tigers v Stade Francais, 13 November

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Leicester Tigers v Stade Francais
Friday 13 November 2015
KO: 19:45
Welford Road, Leicester

Live on BT Sport / beIN Sports

Referee John Lacey (Ireland)
Touch Judge 1 David Wilkinson (Ireland)
Touch Judge 2 Olly Hodges (Ireland)
Fourth Official Ian Tempest (England)
TMO Simon McDowell (Ireland)
Citing Commissioner Maurizio Vancini (Italy)

A. Head to Head

8 Played 8
4 Wins 4
4 Losses 4
0 Draws 0
164 Points 199

B. Form

01 Apr 2007
Leicester Tigers 21 - 20 Stade Francais

15 Jan 2006
Leicester Tigers 29 - 22 Stade Francais

29 Oct 2005
Stade Francais 12 - 6 Leicester Tigers

30 Jan 2004
Leicester Tigers 13 - 26 Stade Francais

06 Dec 2003
Stade Francais 26 - 15 Leicester Tigers

C. Teams

Leicester Tigers

15 Matthew Tait (capt)
14 Adam Thompstone
13 Peter Betham
12 Matt Smith
11 Vereniki Goneva
10 Owen Williams
9 Ben Youngs

1 Marcos Ayerza
2 Tom Youngs
3 Dan Cole
4 Mike Williams
5 Michael Fitzgerald
6 Tom Croft
7 Brendon O'Connor
8 Lachlan McCaffrey

16 Leonardo Ghiraldini
17 Matias Aguero
18 Fraser Balmain
19 Dom Barrow
20 Jordan Crane
21 Sam Harrison
22 Seremaia Bai
23 Telusa Veainu

Stade Francais

15 Hugo Bonneval
14 Julien Arias
13 Paul Williams
12 Herman Meyer Bosman
11 Jérémy Sinzelle
10 Morné Steyn
9 Julien Dupuy

1 Zak Taulafo
2 Laurent Panis
3 Adrien Oleon
4 Paul Gabrillagues
5 Pascal Papé
6 Patrick Sio
7 Sylvain Nicolas
8 Sergio Parisse (capt)

16 Dany Priso
17 Zurabi Zhvania
18 Rabah Slimani
19 Alexandre Flanquart
20 Jonathan Ross
21 Julien Tomas
22 Waisea Vuidarvuwalu
23 Josaia Raisuqe

Breaks were good Nathan, but it was his passing and decisions that were poor. Too often tigers just went side to side in to the teeth of a rush defence.

The game plan was to go side to side to wear down the Stade power pack. Owen did fairly well in not great conditions. He certainly suffered not having a second playmaker outside him to help with those second passes. It's quite a change from the last two seasons and he is still adapting to the new game plan having missed all of pre season. So whilst it wasn't where we'd want it to be there's no concern.

Oh definitely, still a really good game and great to see that adventure. I was just thinking that Williams probably needs a bit more work.

Oh he definitely needs a bit of fine tuning. His game management needs some work and that is a lot of pressure at present with no other back line playmaker to lean on. I'd like to see him start using the inside pop instead of always trying to go himself as although that's the right option we then lose him to the bottom of ruck for the next phase. I'd also like to see him trust his boot and kick to the corners instead of trying to play too much rugby around our own ten metre line.

Had he made pre season I think we'd be seeing those sort of things already but as is he's in the deep end. I guess the original plan would have been to slowly reintroduce him whilst Burns started but his injury out paid to that. Bell getting injured hasn't helped either.