Champions Cup: Leicester vs Treviso - 16th January, 19:45

Match Officials
Referee Ben Whitehouse (Wales)
Touch Judge 1 Sean Brickell (Wales)
Touch Judge 2 Gwyn Morris (Wales)
TMO Derek Bevan (Wales)
Citing Commissioner Patrice Frantschi (France)


Form Guide
20/12/15 Tigers 17 - 6 Munster 21,645
12/12/15 Munster 19 - 31 Tigers 22,261
21/11/15 Treviso 3 - 36 Tigers 2,300


19/12/15 SF Paris 40 - 14 Treviso 9,785
12/12/15 Treviso 17 - 50 SF Paris 4,600
21/11/15 Treviso 3 - 36 Tigers 2,300



Previous Meetings
21/11/15 Benetton Treviso 3 - 36 Leicester Tigers 2,300
11/1/14 Benetton Treviso 19 - 34 Leicester Tigers 4,425
18/10/13 Leicester Tigers 34 - 3 Benetton Treviso 19,838

Head to Head
9 Played 9
9 Wins 0
0 Losses 9
0 Draws 0
51 Tries 10
37 Conversions 8
10 Penalties 16
0 Drop Goals 3
359 Points 123



Teams

Leicester Tigers
15. Thomas Bell; 14. Adam Thompstone, 13. Matthew Tait, 12. Manu Tuilagi, 11. Vereniki Goneva; 10. Freddie Burns, 9. Ben Youngs; 1. Logovii Mulipola, 2. Tom Youngs, 3. Dan Cole, 4. Dom Barrow, 5. Graham Kitchener, 6. Michael Fitzgerald, 7. Tom Croft, 8. Jordan Crane
16. Harry Thacker, 17. Marcos Ayerza, 18. Fraser Balmain, 19. Sebastian De Chaves, 20. Laurence Pearce, 21. Jonathon Kitto, 22. Seremaia Bai, 23. Peter Betham

Benetton Treviso
15. Jayden Hayward; 14. Andrea Pratichetti, 13. Samuel Christie, 12. Alberto Sgarbi, 11. Simone Ragusi; 10. James Ambrosini, 9. Alberto Lucchese; 1. Alberto de Marchi, 2. Ornel Gega, 3. Salesi Manu, 4. Filo Paulo, 5. Jean-François Montauriol, 6. Marco Lazzaroni, 7. Francesco Minto, 8. Robert Barbieri
16. Davide Giazzon, 17. Cherif Traore, 18. Filippo Filippetto, 19. Marco Fuser, 20. Alessandro Zanni, 21. Abraham Jurgens Steyn, 22. Enrico Bacchin, 23. Luke McLean

Manu starts at 12, the position Eddie Jones wants him to play.

Can anyone tell me what the officials are like?

I've seen a little bit if Whitehouse, he strikes me as a potential international level referee but is a bit green at present. Expect the Owens interpretation of the breakdown and scrum as that's his mentor.

Bit concerned we have no 7 in the squad again.

Talking of 7

Will Owen starting for Donacter this weekend with Brugnara and Mykmiw (Spelling) on the bench
Tresidder and Worth are starting for Coventry (9 and 12)
Milne @ 5 (I think) for Rosslyn Park

trying to find some more.

No Bryant for Doncaster? He seemed to have a good spell there earlier in the season.

I wonder when we'll see JDV.

formerly known as Sam wrote:Bit concerned we have no 7 in the squad again.

Thacker should be...

Should be but unlikely with our lack of hooking options. We'll be fielding Tom Youngs of just as long as it takes to get a strangle hold on the game.

Interesting Tigers midfield, similar dynamic to what England may use.

Pretty much what we've fielded all season. Manu taking on the Smith hard line, big tackles role and Tait doing the Betham outside break attack role. What has set Smith apart from previous seasons has been his new found vision and passing ability will be interesting to see if Manu can implement that.

Since the only real question is how large the scoreline will be, is most of the interest in seeing how Tuilagi goes? I would watch a to see that.

My thoughts exactly dr. Manu at 12 has been talked about for so long that I really want to see if it could work.

Manu should be the main point of interest doc yeah. If we start as poorly today as we did in the other game this season that both O'Connor and McCaffery weren't starting for then the scoreline could be smaller than people are imagining.

Against Worcester with Mike Williams, Croft and Crane making up the back row our breakdown and defence looked terrible until McCaffery was brought on as an early injury replacement. Youngs also came off the bench early and helped turn things round there too and thankfully he's starting today.

1. Get 5 points, preferably getting on top early enough to bring guys like the Youngs brothers of relatively early in the second half
2. Get Manu at least 40 minutes but hopefully a few more at the start of the second half as well
3. Show that we can hold a solid scrum without Ayerza on the pitch
4. Get Tommy Bell some game time at 10 now that Owen Williams is out long term with a jaw break
5. Display some breakdown presence without O'Connor or McCaffery

That's pretty much what I'm hoping for. In all honesty 1 and 2 are the only things in many peoples minds though as you say.

Folks need to remember that Manu has only played 20 minutes of rugby in 15 months so don't expect anything amazing from Manu at 12

Looks like Munster have done us a big favour and beaten stade

I think the interest in Tuilagi is two-fold. First, how fit he is in general.  Then comes the interest in playing him at 12.

Seems a bit odd to me that Eddie Jones is looking for a smashmouth runner at 12.  Australia have usually gone for the second playmaker at 12.  When Eddie coached Australia in the 2003 RWC he had Elton Flatley at 12 and Mortlock at 13.

doctor_grey wrote:I think the interest in Tuilagi is two-fold.  First, how fit he is in general.  Then comes the interest in playing him at 12.  

Seems a bit odd to me that Eddie Jones is looking for a smashmouth runner at 12.  Australia have usually gone for the second playmaker at 12.  When Eddie coached Australia in the 2003 RWC he had Elton Flatley at 12 and Mortlock at 13.

I suspect the case is that we have a bunch of cracking 13's some of whom may well turn out to be 'game changers' or whatever you want to call it (as long as its not 'world class...') and its a case of trying to fit more of them into the team. Tuilagi can potentially do a job at 12 which Joseph and Daly can't. And slade is injured for a good while

doctor_grey wrote:I think the interest in Tuilagi is two-fold.  First, how fit he is in general.  Then comes the interest in playing him at 12.  

Seems a bit odd to me that Eddie Jones is looking for a smashmouth runner at 12.  Australia have usually gone for the second playmaker at 12.  When Eddie coached Australia in the 2003 RWC he had Elton Flatley at 12 and Mortlock at 13.

I suppose we play the game a little differently up here and Eddie wants us to play a style that suits us.

Let's hope tigers play better than Leicester city just did..

Never heard of this ref, just 24 years old

Nice assist from Manu there

This ref is doing well, like how well he communicates with the players

We're going about our business pretty well Dim Barrow with his usual dumb penalty that was thankfully missed.

Ref seems confident without wanting to be centre of attention. Good start.

Crane should be kicking himself for ballsing up that try. Scrum is working nicely though.

This kills me to say it as a Munster fan but come on Tigers, get the TBP win

You know you love it Billy!

A lot more passing from Manu but I want to see him carry more

I do like to see the old rivals do well, especially against the French money dogs

Crane should of straightened up then. Can't see him being around much longer

Silly from Crane with the clear double movement but good vision from Burns with that chip.

If they can get the 4th try before half time then I hope Cockers looks to get the Youngs brothers off at the break to save them a bit.

Tommy Bell could do with game time at 10 with Owen injured too.

Utter rubbish from tigers there

nathan wrote:Never heard of this ref,  just 24 years old

He's being mentored by Nigel Owens and is very highly rated for his age. If he keeps going as he is then he could be an international ref at a very young age. I'm not sure what the youngest ever is...

Crane having a bit of a shocker. He doesn't read the line out well at all. Not managed a try with two botched attempts.

Our defence hasn't been as aggressive as required but fourth try is secured.

formerly known as Sam wrote:Crane having a bit of a shocker. He doesn't read the line out well at all. Not managed a try with two botched attempts.

Our defence hasn't been as aggressive as required but fourth try is secured.

When does his contract end? I think he's really gone off the boil this season

Snow!

nathan wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:Crane having a bit of a shocker. He doesn't read the line out well at all. Not managed a try with two botched attempts.

Our defence hasn't been as aggressive as required but fourth try is secured.

When does his contract end? I think he's really gone off the boil this season

I think he was ok earlier in the season. An injury means he's barely played so it's understandable he's rusty. He could have done with making a mark though as the wintery months are generally where he's most effective.

I think he could be let go in the summer as we have a number of options at 8 these days.

Any idea when Fonua is back?

Looked to me like Manu spent at least as much time in an OC role as an IC one, and clearly lacking some fitness, but he made some nice short passes, which is encouraging. Struggle to see how he will be properly fit before the end of the 6N, though

Crane man sausage up again

One thing I will say about this ref, is he should lose the attitude a bit other than that he's had a great game

Manu was never going to be fully fit so I'm pretty happy with his efforts today. He fitted in well with the new back structure which as Poorfour notes is far more interchangeable.

Crane improved over the game. His offload in the build up to the Pearce try was pretty nice. Good to see Barrow get the MOTM award. Once he got his trademark dumb penalty out the way he had a good powerful shift.

Tigers seem to have slipped under the radar a bit, as all the talk in Europe is about Saracens and the French. They're now one of two teams to have secured a home quarter final, and looking at their record in Europe this year it's very impressive. Well done Tigers, quite a lot left in it with regards to some other games but who do you think you'll be playing at the quarters?

Not the most exciting game as a neutral, but the commentators were brilliant. Made the game for me with their humour

I do like the majority of the BT comentators. Kay and Austin are particularly good as old team mates who both always have an opinion.

I don't mind who we get in the knock outs as long as we are playing at WR. Playing away from WR we're nowhere near as strong.

Well that was a weird experience. Treviso were so poor that it was almost a semi unopposed session, in front of what felt like a half full Welford Road. The weather and the late kick off, allied to a pretty much guaranteed win, seemed to keep most of the ST holders near me away from the event - and I have to say that as I strugglerd back down south I was regretting my decision to go.

Reading this thread I am surprised by the negativity around Jordan Crane. I will have to watch my recording of the game - but from the stand he seemed to be one of our better players, introducing calm where it was needed - especially when the sleet and snow arrived. He seemed to be everywhere - clearing out rucks and mauls and just generally tidying up.

thing that struck me the most was the obvious work that had gone on in the frot row. the props (all 4) looked really solid and allowed both hookers to strike the ball quickly to the back of the scrum - though at times I thought that we could have been pinged for foot up.

Was slightly surprised to get back and see Barrow won MotM. Despite only being on 50 minutes I would have given it to Tom Youngs - he was immense yet again and is for me the front runner to be our player of the season.

Biggest disappointment was Kitto. I though he constantly slowed things down and his passing often put our players on the back foot. The comparison with YBY, who put on the best passing display I have seen from a SH this season, was marked.

I think Crane just made a few high profile errors, perhaps he wasn't as bad as I thought - I tend to get a bit emotional haha

High profile errors tend to be a touch less high profile without the TV repeating it I guess.

and to be honest it was so cold I could excuse many errors anyway

LondonTiger wrote:High profile errors tend to be a touch less high profile without the TV repeating it I guess.

Very true, they were mainly handling errors and the inability to finish off a couple of chances

anyway looking forward to a home 1/4 final and most of the injured back and available.