European Cup Rugby 31 March, 1 & 2 April

Tigers Vs Edinburgh teams are up the Friday game.

STARTING XV
15 Freddie Steward [68]
14 Anthony Watson [12]
13 Guy Porter [56]
12 Jimmy Gopperth [13]
11 Harry Potter [62]
10 Handré Pollard [10]
9 Jack van Poortvliet [61]
1 James Cronin [12]
2 Julián Montoya (c) [39]
3 Dan Cole [305]
4 George Martin [54]
5 Cameron Henderson [32]
6 Hanro Liebenberg [80]
7 Tommy Reffell [95]
8 Olly Cracknell [20]

REPLACEMENTS
16 Charlie Clare [74]
17 Tom West [6]
18 Joe Heyes [119]
19 Eli Snyman [31]
20 Jasper Wiese [56]
21 Sam Wolstenholme *
22 Charlie Atkinson [14]
23 Dan Kelly [51]


15. Emiliano Boffelli (28)
14. Darcy Graham (57)
13. Mark Bennett (85)
12. James Lang (36)
11. Duhan van der Merwe (72)

10. Blair Kinghorn (131)
9. Henry Pyrgos (81)

1. Pierre Schoeman (95)
2. Stuart McInally (174)
3. WP Nel (185)
4. Sam Skinner (11)
5. Grant Gilchrist (187) Co-captain
6. Jamie Ritchie (95) Co-captain
7. Hamish Watson (137)
8. Viliame Mata (113)

Replacements

16. Dave Cherry (68)
17. Boan Venter (43)
18. Luan de Bruin (19)
19. Marshall Sykes (39)
20. Luke Crosbie (83)
21. Ben Vellacott (36)
22. Cammy Hutchison (18)
23. Damien Hoyland (104)

Timely returns from injury for Porter and Kelly. Great to see them back.

Sensible rotation at prop, 9 and 8. Slightly surprising to see Ben Youngs out the squad entirely but he has been playing a lot of minutes. Mike Brown getting a deserved rest as well.

On paper Edinburgh starting with 15 internationals should make them to good for Leicester. Pre Christmas I would have been sure Edinburgh could have won this.

But they have totally imploded the last 3 months and really lack confidence at this point.

Think Leicester potentially will put 20 points on them because the last 3 URC matches Edinburgh really have been woeful.

Fully agree, on paper that is a quality Edinburgh team. However they have been shocking as of late, and I'm not sure the returning internationals have had the time to get back into the swing of things.

The last 3 months has coincided with the 6N. I'm not expecting an easy game, I'm expecting this one to be a bit of a slugfest.

Edinburgh showed up well against Sarries before Christmas. I'm hoping Welford Road helps swing this one.

Weise coming off the bench is going to be one to watch.

Edinburgh have done the inverse of Scarlets and Munster: started like a house on fire, now a smouldering pile of ashes.

Edinburgh have the quality to give Leicester a good game, it will all come down to whether mentally they are up for it as a whole.

Not sure why I just realised that Leicester-Edinburgh is this afternoon.  Should be a great curtain-raiser for the weekend.

Teams up for the Leinster v Ulster game:
Ulster: Lowry, Baloucoune, Hume, McCloskey, Stockdale, Burns, Doak; Sutherland, Herring, O'Toole, O'Connor, Treadwell, McCann, Timoney, Vermeulen.

Replacements: Stewart, O'Sullivan, Toomaga-Allen, Sheridan, Rea, Cooney, Moore, Moxham.

Leinster: Keenan, Larmour, O'Brien, Henshaw, Lowe, Byrne, Gibson-Park; Porter, Sheehan, Furlong, Molony, Ryan, Baird, van der Flier, Conan.

Replacements: McKee, Healy, Ala'alatoa, Jenkins, Penny, McGrath, Byrne, Frawley.

Winners of the Tigers Vs Edinburgh game will play the winners of Ulster Vs Leinster so will be keeping an eye on that one though I struggle to see anything bar a Leinster win this round or the following round if I'm honest.

That is genuinely one of the worst scrum decisions I've ever seen.

LeinsterFan4life wrote:That is genuinely one of the worst scrum decisions I've ever seen.

Nel doesn't paint a good picture, his backside is facing the assistant ref. Never straight.

Having said that he was applying all the pressure and Cronin couldn't keep his feet.

Mata's a lucky boy that wasn't reviewed. Swinging arm right to the face of Liebenburg, pretty nasty. Should be a card.

How the hell is that not a deliberate knock on. There's no chance he's going to catch that.

Error strewn dog fight tonight then.

I suspect Tigers will break out Weise for the second half, Cracknell looked on some discomfort as well.

formerly known as Sam wrote:Error strewn dog fight tonight then.

I suspect Tigers will break out Weise for the second half, Cracknell looked on some discomfort as well.

Shame the weather has disrupted what should've been a cracker. Still enjoying the dogfight.

Now the rain has stopped the game is opening up a bit. Edinburgh look like they've had a rollicking at half time as well.

I'm guessing my Superbru prediction of Leicester by 20 is down the crapper, eh boys?

What a try by Weise.

doctor_grey wrote:I'm guessing my Superbru prediction of Leicester by 20 is down the crapper, eh boys?

Yeah don't think that's happening.

formerly known as Sam wrote:

doctor_grey wrote:I'm guessing my Superbru prediction of Leicester by 20 is down the crapper, eh boys?

Yeah don't think that's happening.

Don't underestimate Edinburgh's ability to collapse.

LeinsterFan4life wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:

doctor_grey wrote:I'm guessing my Superbru prediction of Leicester by 20 is down the crapper, eh boys?

Yeah don't think that's happening.

Don't underestimate Edinburgh's ability to collapse.

All of a sudden, they really do look like they have an epic collapse in them!

Yeah I'm not so sure. A 7 points difference is not much in conditions like this when the ball can bounce anywhere or easily skid off fingers.

Hasn't been a classic by any stretch, but has been strangely absorbing.

Diamond has a mammoth task with this Edinburgh squad. It's such a shame to see a squad this talented wasted like this.

Congrats to Leicester all the same, hopefully you'll be in Dublin next weekend.

The issue for Edinburgh is that they have two fullbacks and no 10. As talented as Kinghorn is he's struggled to take on Tigers in the tactical battle.

Healy may answer the FH question for Edinburgh next season, but still no answer at SH.

Edinburgh season has been ruined by the mediocrity of their half backs all season long.

Part of the issue is I don't know how Edinburgh want to play. Their defence and forwards are prime spoilers, niggly and tough. They carry hard and direct. As soon as the backs get it, it's expansive. They'd be better playing hard and direct with their backs and using the 10 and 15s substantial boots to pin the opposition back.

BigGee wrote:Healy may answer the FH question for Edinburgh next season, but still no answer at SH.

Edinburgh season has been ruined by the mediocrity of their half backs all season long.

They are really poopie. Kinghorn is really clueless as a 10.

Well done Leicester, that was a tough old test, but you never felt they were going to lose it.

They will need to play much better than that to progress though, better sides than Edinburgh await!

Edinburgh aren't far off. Away from home against the reigning English champions it was a tough and hard fought game. A few adjustments and the new 10 there's a lot of quality and promise there.

I love Weise interviews. Refuses to take credit for anything, such a humble bloke for someone who is so confrontational on the field.

BigGee wrote:Well done Leicester, that was a tough old test, but you never felt they were going to lose it.

They will need to play much better than that to progress though, better sides than Edinburgh await!

I got more confident once Dan Kelly was on. The team just works when he's got and firing, defensive monster.

It's been a bit of a rebuild as Tigers fell apart after Borthwick and Sinfield left. I can't see us beating Leinster sadly but hopefully we make a game of it for more than 40 mins as that's all we managed last year. Well Leinster dominated the first 40 and we dominated the second, their attack was just better whilst they dominated.

If we can get a couple more of the injured lads back that will help as well.

From a Scottish perspective, the best we can take from the gsme was the form of Cameron Henderson, who made some pretty significsnt impacts throughout the game.

Surely a Scotland cap cannot be to far away!

BigGee wrote:From a Scottish perspective, the best we can take from the gsme was the form of Cameron Henderson, who made some pretty significsnt impacts throughout the game.

Surely a Scotland cap cannot be to far away!

The combination of Martin and Henderson has been fantastic for a couple of months now. Henderson is back at the form he had before his knee issues stopped his career for about a year. He was fantastic Vs Bristol last weekend as well. If Scotland don't cap him soon I suspect Borthwick will be on the phone asking him how Scottish he really feels.

formerly known as Sam wrote:
I love Weise interviews. Refuses to take credit for anything, such a humble bloke for someone who is so confrontational on the field.

Shame he's such a dirty, cheating, horrible so and so on it....

Rather funny with Diamonds comments pre-game of basically roughing Weise up......didn't really go to plan.

Sgt_Pooly wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:
I love Weise interviews. Refuses to take credit for anything, such a humble bloke for someone who is so confrontational on the field.

Shame he's such a dirty, cheating, horrible so and so on it....

Rather funny with Diamonds comments pre-game of basically roughing Weise up......didn't really go to plan.

Yeah such a dirty cheat he's not picked up a card of any colour or a suspension since 2021. He certainly had issues but has worked past them. I don't think there's a better 8 in the league. He's so relentless and explosive. Could do with developing an offloading game maybe.

Wigglesworth did say after the game he told Weise about those comments pre game just to fire him up a bit. He certainly came on looking to make a statement and did so in style.

Last night in commentary they mentioned a directive to the refs to focus on hands on the ground at the breakdown - looks like the ref in the Stormers v Quins match didn't get the memo.  

Pen went 100% wrong way and Stormers score from the resulting pen & line-out.

Add that to 2 forward passes in the build-up to Stormers first try and Quins are getting a bit hard done by ...

Quins arguably should have had a PT there too - Stormers player on the ground played the ball and stopped an almost certain pick up and score ...

Heaf wrote:Last night in commentary they mentioned a directive to the refs to focus on hands on the ground at the breakdown - looks like the ref in the Stormers v Quins match didn't get the memo.  

Pen went 100% wrong way and Stormers score from the resulting pen & line-out.

Add that to 2 forward passes in the build-up to Stormers first try and Quins are getting a bit hard done by ...

Yeah, I saw that.  It was quite obvious too.

On another note, I'm all for endeavour, but Quins really should have kicked the points there, going in at half time only a score behind would have been a good result after being beasted in large section of that half.  For all the hype about the Stormers' front row in the build up, Quins have gained parity and even edged it at times in the scrum.

Heaf wrote:Quins arguably should have had a PT there too - Stormers player on the ground played the ball and stopped an almost certain pick up and score ...

Again, it was right in front of the linesman and completely obvious, you can only assume that he doesn't know the rules?

Holy cow, Sharks put one up on Munster like I haven't seen in quite a while.  Score was 43-14 at the 60 minute mark, after which it was garbaage time. Sharks are such a good team.

doctor_grey wrote:Still, Sharks put one up on Munster like I haven't seen in quite a while.  Score was 43-14 at the 60 minute mark, after which it was garbaage time.  

Yeah, and there was only three points in at half time so I'm slightly fearing for Quins here.  I can see them wilting towards the end, they needed to make hay whilst they were still fresh.

Predictably terrible start to the half as well. Just what they didn't need.

It is a bit worrying that the on field decision was a try, he was about a foot short of the line...

Quins' line-out has been absolutely pants, can't see how Walker is the back up hooker for England.

Now Stormers awarded a try after a foot in touch - officials are hopeless again. Similar to when Irish played Stormers away - the officials were dreadful then too.

Heaf wrote:Now Stormers awarded a try after a foot in touch - officials are hopeless again.  Similar to when Irish played Stormers away - the officials were dreadful then too.

I don't know if it was or wasn't but I can't believe they didn't look at it, there must have been a question of millimetres.

There was an angle shown a long time after play restarted that showed it was 100% in touch IMO ...

Quins just getting smashed in attack. They are having to fight so hard to make a metre, the forwards have been poor. Dombrandt isn't looking like an international 8 and the decision to go with two opensides isn't paying off.

And yet Stormers have 3 tries they shouldn't have ...

Yeah Quins rag dolled a bit, couldn't make any ground and didn't get any luck with the bounce of the ball when they gambled.

They also lost far too many lineouts, so hard to win matches when that isn't secure.