By ChrisC
January 18 2011

The Italian Job  -  By ChrisC.                                                                                                          “You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off” is arguably the most famous line from the 1969 film classic The Italian Job as spoken by the film’s hero Charlie Croker but this Sunday Tigers will be looking to do more, much, much, more to their visitors from Treviso than just blow their doors off as Tigers must get a full five points from their final fixture in the pool stages of this year’s European Cup to end with the twenty-two points that are likely to be gleaned in pools elsewhere by other contenders for the final places in the quarter finals.

Maybe the team could run out to the strains of Matt Monro’s “On Days Like These” which was played over the opening sequence of the iconic Michael Caine movie for it is indeed on such days as next Sunday that Tigers’ mettle is tested. 

It would of course be very helpful if, as well as Tigers getting their own five points, Scarlets could win down in France or even restrict USAP to just four points which would see Tigers end as pool winners however while the former looks impossible the latter is merely unlikely given the potential drubbing that the USAP pack can be expected to mete out to the Welsh.

Last time Treviso got a bit of thumping by USAP who ran out 44 – 9 winners although at one point the Italian side were 9 – 3 ahead, thanks to the whistle of Welford Road favourite Alan Lewis and the boot of Treviso fly half William De Waal and they eventually went into the break level with the French giants, however after the half time oranges had been sucked and the USAP team had their Pastis they popped back out onto the field and gave the visitors a real pasting with five tries from Corvec, Sid, Laharrague and two from Candelon and as Treviso have a decent pack how Scarlets will fair heaven knows but my guess is that it won’t be pretty.

Down in deepest Wales Tigers put their away win hoodoo firmly behind them by adding a convincing victory against the aforesaid Scarlets to those achieved since Christmas at Exeter and London Irish.

Tigers just battered the Welsh regional side into submission with a mixture of brain and brawn in spite of the best efforts of Mr Rolland, who at scrum time especially produced what Sean Fitzpatrick described as an “inconsistent” performance – that’s one word for it, I can think of others!

Back in the balmy Italian afternoon of early October Treviso gave Tigers a massive fright, the double European Champions escaping with a 29-34 victory in an audition for a remake of The Great Escape.

Tigers though are in a somewhat different frame of mind these days when the daylight hours are still short, the air is freezing, the weather wet and the ground muddy.  However as I write this next Sunday is forecast to be sunny and 3 degrees but as this day of blessed sunshine is expected to be bracketed by two of rain and snow, like two ugly sisters,  who knows what Mother Nature will produce.

What will need to be produced by Tigers on the day will be a full strength, high tar, high fat performance complete with a health warning as they have yet another big match upon which any sort of progression in this year’s European Cup relies.

The Tigers’ pack will face a much sterner test from the Treviso pack than they did from the Scarlets who were rather like the apocryphal Italian tank with one forward gear and six reverse.

With the competition well out of the Italian side’s hands it’s difficult to judge what squad they’ll send to Welford Road as they have their own domestic matters to consider but although they were in the same position before last Saturday’s visit from USAP their team still had a sprinkling of those players that would usually be expected on parade.

Up front there were most of the usual suspects with only Barberi and Zanni missing from the pack.

Back in October Tigers laboured mightily against the Italians and I expect to see the same front row combination of Ignacio Fernandez-Rouyet, club skipper Leonardo Ghiraldini and Lorenzo Cittadini take their places opposite Marcos Ayerza, George Chuter and Martin Castrogiovanni.

Castrogiovanni has, of late, for me at least, looked out of sorts somehow and his demeanour won’t have been helped by Alain Rolland’s attitude toward effectively driving the Italian behemoth from the action at the Parc y Scarlets, so whether Dan Cole will get a start is a moot point and with Hawkins, White and Stankovitch also available for duty the resources in the front row are restored but it will still be a challenging afternoon.

In the match against Scarlets the now usual anarchy continued at the scrum benignly watched by Mr Rolland from close quarters, better to see how not to do it I suppose, but as this weekend we are due to have Romain Poite in charge of the whistle let’s hope against hope that some sanity is restored and if the Frenchman requires assistance he is blessed not only to have the inhabitants of the Crumbie to give their own, and totally unbiased, input but this week he’s doubly blessed as the fourth official is scheduled to be Rhys Davies, better known to users of this site as “Used To Be A Ref” and I’m sure he too will look forward to any advice attendees have to give him – not!

In the second row I wouldn’t be surprised to see Antonio Pavenello with South African born Cornelius van Zyl try to reprise their performance in Treviso when they were pests to the Tigers’ line out however since then with Louis Deacon returned and George Skivington fully repaying the coaches’ patience, things have changed in the Tigers’ set piece with Craig Newby and Steve Mafi having some considerable success in compensating for the ongoing loss of Tom Croft.

In the breakaway forwards the excellent Canadian Robert Barberi was missing against USAP with Fijian born Manoa Vosawai in the squad and squad regular, one time Italian international and ex Racing Metro player, Marco Filippucci starting.

Last time the two teams met Tigers faced current Italian international Alessandro Zanni who had an excellent game around the breakdown but he too was missing last week and South African Benjamin Vermaak started in harness with #8 Italian international Paul Derbyshire who also featured in the October fixture.

If the Italian club start with Barberi, Zanni and Derbyshire then I think we can safely say that they’ve come to make a real fight of it around the contact area which they’ll look to smother, all three being faster to the ball than a Yorkshireman leaving the bar when it’s his round.

However there are holes around the fringes and provided Tigers defend their own ball with sufficient rigour then I reckon there will be opportunities for the Tigers’ breakaway forwards to go through the middle and get Ben Youngs into space.

I think with the performances of Waldrom, Newby and Crane of late that, if they are all fit, then they are odds on to start with the excellent Steve Mafi waiting in the wings to cause the kind of problems late on that he did against Scarlets, there shouldn’t be an issue here even if Newby is not recovered.  Mafi is a tall lad and so seems to attract the attention of referees who like nothing better than a tall poppy to make life simple, the high tackle for which he was pinged on Saturday last was very marginal to my mind with similar tackles being normal currency throughout the match, just consistency please referees.

The Treviso half back pairing from October of Italian international, Fabio Semenzato and Kristopher Burton was replaced against USAP by the all South African partnership of Tobias Botes and William De Waal, the latter, at 32 years old, has been around a bit with spells at; Leopards, Bulls, Cats (now the Lions), Cheetahs and Stormers, Free State and Western Province in his homeland and Narbonne in France.  A case of “have boots will travel”.

With Ben Youngs in sparkling form against Scarlets and Toby Flood coming back to his best the Tigers’ half backs should be able to benefit from any good go forward ball.  Sadly just as they have found themselves again after the Autumn Internationals they have to go back to England – oh it’s such madness!  Toby Flood still looks less than comfortable with his kicking to me and missed some admittedly tricky shots down at Llanelli that ordinarily I’d have expected him to get, let’s hope that England don’t try to “help” him any further and just leave him alone to play his natural game, for which I guess he was selected in the first place, and do their best not to break him this time.

In the centre Alberto Sgarbi, who prefers the wing where he was selected for Italy in 2008, played at inside centre last time the two clubs met but last Saturday Argentinian born Gonzalo Garcia, who has played eighteen times for Italy, including last year’s 33 – 10 loss to Wales in the Six Nations, got the nod.

He was joined by Ezio Galon who prefers the full back role although he was selected by his country on the wing back in 2008 in the same squad as his putative centre partner this Sunday. 

Tigers will presumably not be too upset if Tommaso Benvenuti, who has just enjoyed his 20^th birthday and is in the international reckoning for Italy, who touched down twice against them back in October, is busy elsewhere as he was superb at taking his chances that Autumn Day when Tigers collective sphincter spent much of the match tightly clenched.

Tony Allen had another good match against the Scarlets and aside from once letting the ball bounce, when a catch looked a simpler and safer proposition, it was another impressive performance and for me he was well in the running for Man of The Match.

Manu Tuilagi brought his usual measure of fear and trepidation to the opposition down at Parc y Scarlets as he charged around like a baby Rhino and looks certain to continue developing his partnership with Allen which is a good mix of skills and one with which the visitors may experience some problems.

They are a tough pair these Italian centres and Allen and Tuilagi M will need to ensure they don’t bundle their way through if play fragments but I haven’t seen any great creativity from them and with due diligence exercised the Tigers’ defensive line should not be unduly troubled.

Last Saturday Ludovicio Nitoglia was one of the survivors from the last fixture with Tigers having now featured in both his club’s defeats by USAP.

Last time against Tigers he was paired up out wide with Andy Vilk, who we will remember him for his time at Saints and his exploits in the England sevens side back in 2006 when he played alongside Tom Varndell in the side that won a Silver Medal in the Commonwealth Games.  He left Saints back at the end of the 2005/6 season and is still pacey with the step of a sevens player and has featured in all Treviso’s European matches other than last Saturday when Benjamin  De Jager, who has himself scored 35 tries in European competitions, wore the #11 shirt in what was his only appearance in this year’s competition.

Matt Smith has done nothing to suggest that he should not keep his place as his defence alone stands him in good stead and from his try scoring record we know he has the pace to cause problems in attack when he gets a sniff.

Alex Tuilagi, maybe miffed at all the attention his little brother is getting, had a good game last weekend securing one text book turnover and giving the opposition defence plenty to concentrate on.

At fullback Treviso have the options of Luke McLean and Joe Maddock, the latter equally at home on the wing, although last week Aussie Brendan Williams started while a sun tanned Scott Hamilton returned for Tigers.

Hamilton looked very accomplished at full back with his performance under the high ball exemplary and clearing kicks of the highest order – if only everything was as reliable as Scott Hamilton – perhaps he should be nicknamed VW.

While I believe that the Treviso forwards will give the usual good account of themselves I don’t honestly think that for all their international experience the backs, unless Joe Maddock starts, and which, as he has thus far, rather oddly, made only one start with two appearances from the bench in this year’s competition, looks doubtful, will have the penetration to emerge victorious and deny Tigers their place in the European Cup quarter finals.

If Tigers come up short they will be in the same position as the gang in the Italian Job and watch their booty slide away from them as they wait for salvation while suspended over the abyss of elimination from the competition.

If though, as I believe will be the case, Tigers prevail and get the requisite five points may I suggest that the crowd disperse to the closing music from the Italian Job; "Getta Bloomin' Move On" (usually referred to as "The Self Preservation Society") for it would be very apposite in the circumstances

Venuto su voi tigr!

Tigers v Treviso Match Preview

Discussion started by TheLeicesterTigers.co.uk , 18/01/2011 19:33

TheLeicesterTigers.co.uk
18/01/2011 19:33

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:01:25:16:24:43 by Stephen Bath.

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Stopsy
18/01/2011 20:27

Thanks again Chris

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Yorkie
18/01/2011 20:48

Thanks Chris.

Great suggestion for the end of game music too.

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harlequinade
18/01/2011 22:04

Quote:

all three being faster to the ball than a Yorkshireman leaving the bar when it’s his round.

who can he mean?

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Rich W
18/01/2011 23:18

All of them!

Good stuff as always Chris!

...

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ttbb
20/01/2011 12:03

Not bad for a monoglot slatestealer. Excellent preview!

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Rich W
20/01/2011 12:17

...

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ChrisC
20/01/2011 13:19

Le sue gentili parole sono molto apprezzate dal vostro umile corrispondente




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:01:20:13:20:14 by ChrisC.

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Tigersfan1
21/01/2011 09:37

Great preview, many thanks again

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IDLETIMES
21/01/2011 12:50

Well done again Chris. Of course with so many games playing on Fri. and Sat.we might have a better idea of just what we need to do even though we are more likely to finish 2nd rather than top. Only an amazing result from Scarlets can give us top spot and a possible home draw.

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Tiggs
21/01/2011 13:10

I have no doubt that we will achieve what is necessary for a home QF, but doubt that Scarlets will hold their part of the bargain.

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