London Irish v Tigers

There's a huge pressure on both teams to win and also there's scrap for bonus points.

Teams:

Leicester Tigers (v London Irish, Madejski Stadium, Sunday 3pm)
15 Geordan Murphy (c)
14 Horacio Agulla
13 Manu Tuilagi
12 Billy Twelvetrees
11 Alesana Tuilagi
10 Toby Flood
9 Ben Youngs
1 Marcos Ayerza
2 George Chuter
3 Dan Cole
4 George Skivington
5 Geoff Parling
6 Steve Mafi
7 Julian Salvi
8 Thomas Waldrom

Replacements
16 Tom Youngs
17 Martin Castrogiovanni
18 Logovi'i Mulipola
19 Tom Croft
20 Craig Newby
21 James Grindal
22 Anthony Allen
23 Scott Hamilton

London Irish: 15 Tom Homer, 14 Marland Yarde, 13
Jonathan Joseph, 12 Steven Shingler; 11 Sailosi Tagicakibau, 10 Dan
Bowden, 9 Darren Allinson; 1 Alex Corbisiero, 2 David Paice, 3 Faan
Rautenbach, 4 Nick Kennedy (); 5 Bryn Evans, 6 Matt Garvey; 7 Declan
Danaher; 8 Jamie Gibson. Replacements: 16 James
Buckland, 17 Max Lahiff, 18 Paulica Ion, 19 Bob Casey, 20 Alex Gray, 21
Ofisa Treviranus, 22 Delon Armitage, 23 Paul Hodgson

Just the six LI forwards on the LI bench.

Allinson could be in trouble for the after the whistle scrap with youngs. Right hand and figures in and around the eye area. Don't think it was deliberate but it was reckless,

How youngs stayed on the pitch I don't know, he could miss a game or two as well. Can understand his frustrations though, the ref is only reffing one team.

Hmmmm, Mr Ben Youngs could be in trouble for that. I don't think any of the punches made contact. unsure about the knee though.

Surprised the ref didnt have a word with the LI 9 for running 10 meters and tackling young's to the ground.

Tigers need to step it up! Irish are looking good today.

also what's the bell's you can hear on Leicesters lineouts? Never heard them before, is that the fans?

thank god, LI pinged for not rolling away

we need to learn to tackle again, it's just like the beginning of the season.

grrrrrrrr, tigers your tackling is crap!

Great try Irish. Great celebration Homer!

Agreed brilliant celebration!

GET IN THERE!!

lovely try

grindal...... oh dear

this is going to be close... gulp

how the hell is that a pen to irish!!!! they had someone laying on the floor kicking it back!!!!

great kick though!

please dont miss Flood!!

get in there!

Lei 34 - lir 32

amazing! bonus point win!!!!!!

Lahiff needs to learn to pass the bloody ball

Belting game! Didn't know who was gonna win at any point until Croft scooped the ball up! Top 2 is on for Leicester, but they will need to step it up from todays performance.

Mulipola showing he can smash it up on the loosehead too! How do we keep finding these gems!

Absolutely gutted. Think if the touch judge didn't bottle it, Irish could have won as playing with 1 man down for 45 mins in that heat would have been difficult even for Tigers.

But thats all ifs and buts and our inability to get more than 6 points in the first 20 minutes cost us dearly. Trev played well when he came on, and Losi was strong as normal. Leicester front 5 were good as expected and Flood was very good. The combo of Flood-Bowden-Manu could be lethal next year.

Can't see past Sarries or Tigers for this years AP.

Cockerill confirmed that Bowden is coming - will be interesting but a shame we replace an English player with an overseas one.

I thought both scrum halves were lucky to stay on the pitch. Allinson's retaliation to Young's retaliation was just as blatant.

LondonTiger wrote:Cockerill confirmed that Bowden is coming - will be interesting but a shame we replace an English player with an overseas one.

I thought both scrum halves were lucky to stay on the pitch. Allinson's retaliation to Young's retaliation was just as blatant.

Bowden will be english qualified pretty soon, and has stated an interest in playing for England.

Bowden will be EQ next year. I'm at the ground still, great game, I'm peed

LondonTiger wrote:Cockerill confirmed that Bowden is coming - will be interesting but a shame we replace an English player with an overseas one.

I thought both scrum halves were lucky to stay on the pitch. Allinson's retaliation to Young's retaliation was just as blatant.

As for Bowden, I agree that it's a shame. But the way in which the season is organised with so many club games held during the International season, what else is to be expected?

On the Youngs incident, it looks as though Ben will be cited, but surely not for a long ban. The provocation was pretty intense and as you say, there was the second Irish retaliation.

Ozzy3213 wrote:Bowden will be EQ next year. I'm at the ground still, great game, I'm peed

More bloody EQs. I hope that England don't go near him.

p.s. Toulon v Racing on at the mo. Stefan's playing well.

It was Surreal. 20000 people celebrating St Paddys day a week late and I was the only Irishman on the field!" - Geordan Murphy post match.Lol

That was a cracking game today, right down to the last minute, and to honest i thought that Homer had just won the game for the Irish. But just like that old saying, you never beat Lecister until the final whistle blows.

Well played Croft for scoring that try at the end of play.

Gutted but proud of my team today.

Fair play to the Tiggers though, very powerful forward unit, best team won in the end.

Great game could have gone either way.

Both teams played flat & were prepared to run. Homer looks another solid player on the fringes of England. He has got some boot on him.
Flood is gradually returning to the player we know he is.

Irish must be gutted on missing out on the bonus point but I guess they were pushing fr the win at the end.

Tagicakibau's stats for that match are startling, 10 defenders beaten, 94 metres carried and a clean break. A big plus for Irish to have got him back this last month, he's been in cracking form the last couple of games I've seen, even if the team hasn't produced the results.

On a similar note, have only seen the highlights, but the stats suggest Miller was doing well at FB for Sale this weekend despite his side getting thumped. 6 defenders beaten, 3 clean breaks and 80 metres carried.

niwatts wrote:Tagicakibau's stats for that match are startling, 10 defenders beaten, 94 metres carried and a clean break. A big plus for Irish to have got him back this last month, he's been in cracking form the last couple of games I've seen, even if the team hasn't produced the results.

On a similar note, have only seen the highlights, but the stats suggest Miller was doing well at FB for Sale this weekend despite his side getting thumped. 6 defenders beaten, 3 clean breaks and 80 metres carried.

Do missed tackles count as defenders beaten, some of our tackling was so so poor!

Was the tackling all that bad? At times the alignment wasn't great and gaps appeared but I cannot remember many tackles attempted and missed.

Most of Losi's gains will have come from that first run at teh kick-off when he evaded the chasers and hared down the touch line, just being tackled by Agulla.

LondonTiger wrote:Was the tackling all that bad? At times the alignment wasn't great and gaps appeared but I cannot remember many tackles attempted and missed.

Most of Losi's gains will have come from that first run at teh kick-off when he evaded the chasers and hared down the touch line, just being tackled by Agulla.

I'm fairly certain we were dropping off a fair few tackles. Anyone got any stat's?