Tigers v Glaws

Teams are up for Tigers v Glaws. 2 great traditional clubs and the games are always physical to say the least! What are the chances of another 41-41 draw? Glaws have made a few changes some forced some to allow players a rest, but all in all I’m happy with that side considering its in the middle of the 6 nations. Tigers are the form side and Glaws haven’t won at Welford Road since Leon Lloyd’s intercept day in 2007! Even with my natural bias, I think this will be a tough one for Glaws to win. I’d be happy with a losing bonus point at this stage of the season.

TIGERS (thanks LT & Sam)
Geordan Murphy (capt): Horacio Agulla, Matt Smith, Billy Twelvetrees, Alesana Tuilagi; Toby Flood, Ben Youngs; Marcos Ayerza, George Chuter, Logoviii Mulipola, George Skivington, Graham Kitchener, Steve Mafi, Julian Salvi, Thomas Waldrom.

Reps: Rob Hawkins, Boris Stankovich, Julian White, Ben Pienaar, Craig Newby, James Grindal, George Ford, Scott Hamilton

GLAWS
Jonny May; Charlie Sharples, Mike Tindall (capt), Tim Molenaar, Tom Voyce; Freddie Burns, Dave Lewis; Nick Wood, Darren Dawidiuk, Rupert Harden; Will James, Alex Brown; Tom Savage, Matt Cox, Brett Deacon

Replacements:
Scott Lawson, Dan Murphy, Shaun Knight, Jim Hamilton, Akapusi Qera, Nick Runciman, Ryan Mills, Ollie Phillips

Team: Geordan Murphy (capt): Horacio Agulla, Matt Smith, Billy Twelvetrees, Alesana Tuilagi; Toby Flood, Ben Youngs; Marcos Ayerza, George Chuter, Logoviii Mulipola, George Skivington, Graham Kitchener, Steve Mafi, Julian Salvi, Thomas Waldrom.

Reps: Rob Hawkins, Boris Stankovich, Julian White, Ben Pienaar, Craig Newby, James Grindal, George Ford, Scott Hamilton

1.Ayerza
2.Chuter
3.Mulipola
4.Skivington
5.Kitchener
6.Mafi
7.Salvi
8.Waldrom
9.Youngs
10.Flood
11.A Tuilagi
12.Twelvetrees
13.Smith
14.Agulla
15.Murphy (c)

Bench; Stanko, Hawkins, White, Pienaar, Newby, Grindal, Ford, Hamilton.

Allen and Slater haven't overcome their knocks and so are watching from the stands. Odd that Pienaar (a utility backrower) is on the bench ahead of Calum Green (former England under 20s lock) but there you go. Sadly no Tom Youngs as of yet.

Certainly on paper Tigers look to have the stronger side and it's just great our nemesis Tuilagi is back in time for us! Its interesting to see 36 start. No doubt he and Molenaar will have points to prove.

The tigers backline - despite some typical Grindal passing - looked really slick against Falcons. Not something you can say about them normally this season. It will be interesting to see how Youngs and Flood settle in.

Well now Fords finding himslef behind Flood again he'll probably want to move to Gloucester. Im sure they could garuntee him the starting 12 shirt.

Looking forward to this game, is it on tv?

I still think it'll be a Tigers win but would love a draw like the last one! what's the weather forecast like anyone?

When can we expect to see Tait, Youngs and Harrison back from injury?

It was good to hear Cockerills views on the Youngs/Flood conundrum, hopefully the lack of pressure (he says) will help them out this weekend. Is it me or is Youngs still getting bigger too?

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:Well now Fords finding himslef behind Flood again he'll probably want to move to Gloucester. Im sure they could garuntee him the starting 12 shirt.

Sourpuss

yappysnap wrote:Looking forward to this game, is it on tv?

Yep, on Sky for a 1.00pm kick off.

Its interesting to see 36 start

Not really, if he doesn't play Forsyth would be in and after him we only have academy centres. Manu with England, Tait injured and Allen injured leaves us short on options.

When can we expect to see Tait, Youngs and Harrison back from injury?

Harrison was supposed to miss 2 or 3 weeks, this would be week 2. Youngs has been in the pre game warm ups so sometime in the next couple of weeks. No idea about Tait, the groin injury required surgery but he is supposed to be back around now, I guess it depends how long he takes to get back up to speed. Hopefully Allen and Slater will be back for next week.

Well now Fords finding himslef behind Flood again he'll probably want to move to Gloucester. Im sure they could garuntee him the starting 12 shirt.

Depends on the agent...

Sam, I was suggesting it was interesting 36 was starting in light of the fact it's against Gloucester. Points to prove all over the park. He'll want to show he's committed to Tigers for the rest of the season as well as giving us a glimpse of what he is capable of. Equally Molenaar will want to set down a marker that 36 isn't guaranteed the 12 spot that PSW is so fixated on!

I think the last time Molenaar faced Twelvetrees was a few years ago in the Tigers vs Nottingham pre season game. Moelnaar played well and carried in his usual physical fashion but was left with egg on his face as Twelvetrees gave him the run around. I think both were playing out of position at 13.

What's wrong with Sinbad, EFS and R Lawson??

EnglishReign wrote:What's wrong with Sinbad, EFS and R Lawson??

EFS picked up a knock early last week. Lawson was injured against Quins and I'm pretty sure Sinbad is being rested.

Gonna be some tries here... any pubs in the Hammersmith, possibly as far as Chiswick or Fulham, likely to show it? Otherwise I'll just have to listen again

Please have a good match, watching the Superrugby and comparing it to the Quins Newcastle fray last night has been depressing!

I didn't think Quins Falcons was that bad rugby wise, just stupid indiscipline. Those punches on Marler were especially unintelligent, when Falcons were in a good position. Didn't help that the ref was a complete helmet.

Found out Sinbad picked up a slight knock, nothing serious by the sound of it.

HongKongCherry wrote:Found out Sinbad picked up a slight knock, nothing serious by the sound of it.

Fair enough, he's been instrumental all season and could do with a rest anyway. Forgot about EFS and couldn't recall seeing Lawson injured on Saturday but ah well. Molenaar played well at Welford Rd last season and Voyce is no slouch, so hopefully will be a good performance.

Weather holding up in Leicester? Bit drizzly down here, hope it clears up.

Good start from Glos, May taken out in the air and Burns nails the kick.

0-3
2 mins

Weather condtions aren't great

How far did TTE slide there?!?

He was like a scud missile!

Leicester try from short range.

That looks like a massive double movement to me, why didn't the ref go upstairs?

7-3
14 min

Mulipola is credited with the try.

If while Waldrum was sliding he had popped the ball up to Tuilagi it could have been another try

What the heck were Gloucester doing there??

Glos lucky to get away with that, Tigers are tearing them a new one.

They do look pretty pumped don't they?

Waldrum's having a pretty good game, with Flood putting him through the gaps

That looks like another double movement to me, Youngs was crawling towards the line!

Either way, good break from Youngs and the score doesn't flatter Tigers.

22-3

Yes dominant pack for Tigers & Youngs & Flood looking good though with that advantage up front they should!

Stuart Barnes is an idiot. The ref saw the grounding therefore asked if there was anything stopping it. The fact the grounding isn't seen on the video is irrelevant. Is he really that clueless.

It did look like May may have been holding on to Youngs and therefore it was holding on. The ref obviously disagreed.

Bit annoyed with some decisions here...

Poopie happens I'm afraid EnglishReign. It comes and goes for all of us.

Kitchener looks stronger now.

Tigers a bit fortunate again with a knock on in the build up. Beautiful little kick from Twelvetrees for Matt Smith to get on the end of.

Kitchener seems to have settled now. If Deacon keeps getting injured (or retires) and Parling is with England he'll be getting plenty of time next season.

Poor decision from Jonny May. He's been brilliant so far this season but he is getting a rough lesson today.

HammerofThunor wrote:Kitchener seems to have settled now. If Deacon keeps getting injured (or retires) and Parling is with England he'll be getting plenty of time next season.

Yeah, he's always had the speed and good hands, but he seems to be adding steel and strength to his game now.

HammerofThunor wrote:Poopie happens I'm afraid EnglishReign. It comes and goes for all of us.

One or two I can deal with.

It relatively well known that Leicester have complicated lineout calls and most new locks struggle to pick them up quickly. It's not taken him as long as it has others. I think the lineout specialists take longer than most due to it being a strong part of their game

EnglishReign, probably doesn't help that most seem to end in tries Chin up

Yay, Waldrom's off. Watch this comeback

I know rugby is played in all weathers & Glaws have been dealt a lesson today but I would have liked to have seen a game including Trinder, Sharples, Simpson-Daniel in the dry.

Looking forward to seeing George Ford on now to.

BigTrevsbigmac wrote:I know rugby is played in all weathers & Glaws have been dealt a lesson today but I would have liked to have seen a game including Trinder, Sharples, Simpson-Daniel in the dry.

Looking forward to seeing George Ford on now to.

You and I both Trev. Glaws been dominated all day long.

Well played Tigers, hope we can displace Saints in the top4 mix and maybe meet you on a nice dry day at Twickers.

What a performance by the Tigers. This looks... ominous

Better start feeding our pack on the raw meat as the Tigers are looking scary... Suddenly i'm even more nervous about the play offs, at least though it should be sunny by then (please be sunny by then!).

Imagine that pack next season when they could have Tuilagi joined by Thompson, Tait and Benjamin.

Commiserations Glos, hope Wood isn't badly hurt for you guys.

Good game from a tigers point of view. We dominated every aspect of play and the only way glaws could score was from a Salvi brain fart.

I can understand some of the glaws fans irritation but to be honest the scores were coming and how glaws played the whole game with 15 is anybody's guess. Had the mulipola try not been given they'd have been down a flanker (no attempt to retreat 10m for the penalty), Lewis took out alesana and 2 warnings were given for taking out supporting runners (which didn't stop happening the ref stopped pinging them).

The glaws pack did improve with the return of Hamilton and if they can bring in some meat around him they should be fine as Burns actually played well despite the conditions. He just had no possession or territory.

Can't say anything other than we were 2nd best in every aspect. I wonder if the previous 3 games took their tool, as we just weren't physical enough. Whilst 3 of the tries shouldn't have been given it wouldn't have made a blind bit of difference as Tigers were always going to win that.

I did find it very surprising that the smallest player in the Jeff could have such an impact upon a man mountain like Tuilagi. It may have been a penalty, but there is absolutely no place in the game for such play acting.

All in all though, very well played Tigers.

Looks like Gloucester would benefit from getting a new 12.
How about trying to sign Athony Allen?