Tigers kick off pre season

Leicester Tigers
15 Geordan Murphy
14 Scott Hamilton
13 Billy Twelvetrees
12 Anthony Allen
11 Mat Tait
10 George Ford
9 James Grindal
1 Boris Stankovich
2 Rob Hawkins
3 Kieran Brookes
4 Ed Slater
5 Graham Kitchener
6 Ben Woods
7 Julian Salvi
8 Thomas Waldrom

Tigers kick off their pre season with a game in France, vs Montpellier. The team is up but no subs are listed. Good to see club captain Geordan Murphy in the side as well as a potentially exciting backline with plenty of skill in the centres and pace on the wings. Ford getting his chance to lay down a marker as well.

Why are you not playing Young at scrum half?

Is Matthew Tait going to become a winger then?

Experimentation by the looks of it Beshocked. Grindal, Harrison and Young will all be given game time. I'd presume Grindal is being used in this game because he is experienced and although, he is slow and uncreative he rarely makes bad decisions and doesn't ship on rubbish ball to his 10. To that end it's likely he'll be helping bring Ford up to standard and offering some protection, in a similar way Wigglesworth and de Kock did with Farrell last season.

Tait is likely to fit in wherever some extra pace is needed. Geordan needs game time so gets the nod at fb. Tait hasn't played much in 2011 so out on the wing might be the best place to build his match fitness.

Looks like an exciting and strong team, glad to see Ford, Tait, Kitchener and Twelvetrees all playing.

I'm already looking forward to the season starting.

Me too Yappy. Apparently this game is streaming on some obscure channel somewhere so may have a looky for that this evening with a little help from the offy forum. Cockerill has been trying to mobilise the Tigers game whilst retaining the brute force of the pack and the sigings this summer seem a continuation of that. A very young side again this season, cost us in Europe last year but with the news Deacon will not be retiring post RWC as was feared the engine room should be stoked nicely.

I'll be at the annual friendly vs Nottingham at the end of the month which will see a more experimental side than this, I'm particularly looking forward to seeing 7s and England Students no 8 Richard de Carpienter make his bow in a Tigers shirt. A number 8 with 7s levels of pace is unheard of at Tigers (powerful work horses are the usual fare at Welford Rd) and he should offer something dramatically different to the backrow.

is this on tv or anything?

This was posted on the offy;

"you can watch the match on your laptop or computer by going to
myp2p.eu"

Tigers fans will be raving about Brookes by the end of the season, I guarantee it. He is (very) big, strong, quick and abrasive with the ball in hand. His scrummaging is solid if unspectacular (he is only 20 after all) and he can cover all three front row positions. Of all the players that have left Newcastle in the last couple of years, he is probably the one I’m most gutted about, he could/ should have been our tight head for years. He’ll have played for England’s first team by time he is 22/23/24. Still really, really gutted about this.

It's been fairly even but tigers are 14-0 down. Montpellier's tries have come from Leicester switching off. 36 has missed a long ramge penalty.

Montpellier are on top now. Everything Leicester does is behing the gain line and they are struggling to break the defence. Tigers have guffed up twice in the lineout from promising positions.

Montpellier player injured, Kitchner has hobbled off.

Thomas Waldrom goes over from short range after an extended period of pressure. 14-7

Ben Woods yellow carded for pushing the supporting lifters at the lineout.

Tigers get caught short down Hamilton's wing again and are punished.

19-7 on 30 minutes.

Great try (and some shocking defence), Montpellier move the ball through the hands and stretch Leicester all over the pitch. In in Hamilton's corner again.

26-7

Montpellier take a quick tap, swing the ball wide and score... Guess where?

33-7 HT

Not sure i'm going to bother watching the second half, Tigers have been pretty rubbish.

Tigers apparently pulled it back in the second half but not enough. 50-24 to Montpellier despite three tries from Tigers youngsters Ocampo, Forsyth and Armes.

Montpellier are in the final stages of pre season, this is Tigers first game. Not a good start though in when we won 4 back to back titles we never won a game in pre season so I'm not worried. Lots of rusty players needing game time and new boys learning the calls. Defence is an on going issue though.

Anywhere you can find out Montpellier's starting line up?

Was hamilton playing?

Did any one here how Tait/Twelvetrees and Ford played?

And what has happened to Parling is he still injured?

Shame about the score but not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.

Hamilton played on the wing, don't know if he went to fb when Geordan limped off. Don't know anything about Geordan's injury as I didn't see the game.

Parling will be back in action mid September. He's training but not up to match speed yet.

Blimey, when was the last time Tigers shipped 50 points against anyone under any circumstances?
Pre season joke game or not Cockerill will be livid.


As for Tait on the wing its no suprise. Tigers only have Hamilton and Tuilagi who ever score for them from there, and with Murphy fit (sooner than Id though) theres two options ahead of him at fullback.

[quote="MBTGOG"]Anywhere you can find out Montpellier's starting line up?[/quote

Montpleier started with
Leleimalefaga, Caudullo, Jgenti - Hancke, Privat - Bost, Tulou, Martin - Paillaugue, Lagarde - Artru, Bosch, Combezou, Audrin - Thiéry

finished with ? (not sure of that as many players came in):
CHOBET, Ladhuie, Van Vuuren - Demarco, Fakaté - VAN STADEN, MARTIN, Tulou - Tomas, Lagarde (then Paillaugue again) - Artru, Bosch, Bérard, Audrin, JB.Peyras

obviously a few internationals missing (ouedraggo, gordodze a couple of argentinians and fidjians) but his backline was quite good already.

here's a link of some highlights...

Yikes Murphy limping off injured? How long into the match? look bad?? info please!!!

Yikes Murphy limping off injured? How long into the match?

About 50 mins. Probabley just tweaked something, don't think he has actually played during 2011 so it's going to take a while for him to be up to speed and pulls and strains are unsuprising early on.

Was he doing ok before then in terms of a performance? Sorry for the interrogation Sam

In that link, Leicseter seemed to change out of their grey shirts at half time? Where they having some sort of Manchester United esque vision problems?

Was he doing ok before then in terms of a performance? Sorry for the interrogation Sam.

Don't know, my info is second hand from a couple of people who were there. He got 50 mins before going off but I think Tigers play was generally quite good but defence was weak.

Looking forward to seeing Parling come back in, I still have fond memories of that steal in the lineout v Saracens and he looked good on the England tour.

He'd probably be in the exteneded WC squad now if it wasn't for his injury problems.

Really not rating Ed Slater, he looked lost in the games I saw last season, needs more time in the A league.