Leicester Tigers
Leeds v Tigers AP Preview
By ChrisC
February 8 2011
I Predict a Riot By ChrisC I refer not to the title of the top ten hit from the Kaiser Chiefs who originated in Leeds where Tigers play this Sunday, but what will surely happen soon if the thorny problem of equitably financing the Premiership is not seriously addressed as The Angry Mob is forming.
When I started this week’s piece I wrote about the various areas where many supporters and indeed, I would guess, some clubs are unhappy with the state of our sport but when I’d finished I had to delete it as it had taken up most of the space for my musings which, per force, are to include a preview of this weekend’s fixture albeit hopefully not of a cringe worthy nature, a description with which one Tigers’ reader was kind enough to characterise my Scarlets’ preview.
Suffice it to say therefore that PRL, the organisation that administers the Premiership, has become an impediment to the development of the English game so much so that we have the unedifying spectacle of just two English club sides managing to qualify for the knock out phase of the Northern Hemisphere’s premier club competition with the rest stumbling to a valetudinarian exit.
The problems are deep seated in the whole way PRL egregiously controls the sport with a fervour seemingly aimed at a form of sporting social engineering, ensuring that the interests of the lowest common denominator are the best served.
The fault line runs from the distribution of EPS money to clubs who do not have any players within the EPS arrangement right through to the prejudicial withholding of funding to clubs promoted to the Premiership while those that fail and are relegated are featherbedded to provide the best possible chance of their resuming their spot at the top table, albeit at the foot thereof. Success supporting failure; how very 21st Century where Everything is Average Nowadays!
If PRL do not remove, or have removed, their dead hand from the tiller of the Premiership while the Celtic, French and Italian clubs have an essentially free rein to run their businesses as they see fit a another schism in the union could occur as the ambitious clubs breakaway from the Premiership, maybe joining with the Magners or better yet forming a Super League structure to sit atop the Premiership with simple relegation to and from it and a champion who, odd as it may seem, amasses the most points from a league where fixtures are played both home and away.
The RFU would have to be on side of course but without the ambitious Premiership clubs where is the EPS and where is the TV money, time for the forward looking and ambitious clubs to exercise their muscle and if they do then I Predict a Riot.
I could also comment on the standard of refereeing but on that subject I truly Can’t Say What I Mean.
In the meantime, and against this background, we have staggered through the meaningless LV= Cup pool stages of what purports to be a Modern day Knock Out Cup and arrived back at the Premiership.
I didn’t watch or listen to any club rugby last weekend as frankly I wasn’t interested enough, although I did watch all the Six Nations matches which were good fare with England playing skilful and controlled rugby against a Welsh side devoid of structure or composure. Toby Flood showed amazing coolness and maturity to be the best player on the pitch. Chris Ashton cemented his place as a World class finisher and Mike Phillips failed to teach Ben Youngs the lesson promised by some Welsh supporters or in any way “walk the walk” having done plenty of “talking the talk” though he did in the main successfully run away from the English back row. The match was a great spectacle and even the chaotic refereeing of Alain Rolland couldn’t spoil it.
In Rome a frankly awful Ireland came within a whisker of losing to Italy and had Mr Poite not permitted the Irish back row to be offside all afternoon it could easily have been an Italian victory.
In Paris – Mon Dieu – France were terrifyingly good against a not half bad Scottish side, even though Mr Barnes rather lost track of the scrum in the second half, an area where Scotland had been marmalised in the first period, however as usual the French decided to light up the Gauloises and break out the Pastis before the match was over but even their insouciance couldn’t catch them out. Let’s hope they don’t travel well to Twickenham or there could be problems.
I mentioned earlier the inequitable funding arrangements for clubs promoted to the Premiership however Tigers’ opponents this weekend last season overcame even that handicap to hold on to their Premiership status, at the expense of Worcester and with a management team of Neil Back and Andy Key they have, with skipper Marcos Wentzel, yeoman qualities of resistance, although worryingly they find themselves unexpectedly anchored at the foot of the Premiership now just four points adrift of Falcons who they meet at Headingly on 27th February however before that they have Tigers, also at home, and are down at Vicarage Road the next week, so not an easy time for them.
In the last round of the Premiership, over a month ago, Leeds just failed, by three points at 16 - 13, to beat Bath at the Recreation Ground although from what I saw and read they were unlucky to do so especially having broken their duck at home to Gloucester 15 – 13 the previous week.
Meanwhile Tigers were engaged in the match of the season beating Saints at Welford Road having themselves secured another away win down at Sandy Park against this season’s newbies; Exeter Chiefs, the previous week.
Leeds, having overcome the vicissitudes of their promotion year, signed eleven new players while nineteen players left the club in the closed season.
The home side are lightly inconvenienced by the Six Nations with just Steve Thompson and Rodriguez Moreno, who’s Spanish Metal will also be missing from their ranks, in the service of their countries.
Tigers of course have Cole, Castrogiovanni, Deacon, Youngs and Flood similarly engaged elsewhere with Croft, Murphy and maybe now Smith notable absentees through injury, so there’ll never be a better opportunity for Leeds to score another victory and claim a significant scalp in the process.
Up front Backy has been consistent over the past couple of fixtures in staring with ex Waratahs Aussie ‘A’ prop Gareth Hardy, Thompson and Swainston and what has been successful pairing at prop could continue by joining a trio facing a Tigers front row of White, Chuter and Ayerza. Leeds also have the evergreen Mike MacDonald and it could be that the Californian, and sixty time capped American Eagle, will get the nod against the experienced Tigers’ front row together with Argentinian Puma Juan Gomez, available if other steps are taken so as Leeds do not fall foul of their non Bosman quota.
With Thompson away and Titterell still injured presumably Mancunian Phil Nielsen will take over the #2 shirt and have young Scott Freer, who has now recovered from knee reconstruction returning to action in the LV= Cup, in the wings just as Tigers will have Boris Stankovitch with ex Leeds prop Bucknall and, if he is spared the wrath of the disciplinary committee who will be reviewing the ludicrous Red Card that the hapless referee, James Jones, dished out last Saturday, Rob Hawkins will be in support. If the committee feel obliged to further penalise the ex Bath man and compound the latest preposterous error from the over promoted Welsh official, then Duffey will probably be on the bench instead.
The Leeds front row looks a rugged outfit and there can be no doubt that they’ll take the battle to the Tigers and they are impressive at close quarters however as Leeds are third in the stats for scrums lost on their own ball I think that in a close contest Tigers’ should have the overall edge.
In the second row ex Tiger Marcos Wentzl will doubtless continue to make his talismanic presence felt and probably link with academy product Tom Denton who has been ever present this term.
Wentzl’s prowess at line out time is well known to Tigers’ supporters and the likely Tigers’ duo of George Skivington and Ed Slater will have a stern examination at line out time, Leeds having only lost eight line outs on their own throw in this year’s competition and with Browne near the top of the pile for line out steals I expect that at some point Steve Mafi will enter the equation.
Both sets of locks are very mobile and we can expect to see them all make their presence felt around the field.
This looks a very close area to me and it is to be hoped that both Skivington and Chuter are released from England duty.
In the breakaway forwards it will be interesting to see if Tigers only out and out #7, Ben Woods, gets to start instead of Newby’s six and a half given the probable presence of specialist open side Fourie who will be looking to prove his fitness to contest the England shirt with Tom Wood, who made such an excellent England debut against Wales in the absence of Lewis Moody. If Woods starts though Newby’s line out presence and the prodigious tackling, that has seen him near the top of the stats, will be lost, so my guess is that Newby will keep his place with Mafi and Woods appearing later on.
Elsewhere I expect to see ex Loiner, Jordan Crane continue his bludgeoning partnership with Tigers’ player of the season thus far, Thomas Waldrom, to whom you can honestly say “you Never Miss a Beat”.
The Leeds breakaway forwards are a similarly cohesive unit with Devonian stalwart and twice capped for Wales Rhys Oakley, who is another one of those blindside forwards who appears if by magic at the right time in the right place and who has great defensive skills. I expect him to join Fourie and new signing from Bath, Daniel Browne, who will be remembered as an extraordinarily aggressive ball carrier and tackler during his time both at the Recreation Ground and at Franklin’s Gardens.
As always it will depend how the front fives perform however if, as I suspect, Tigers just get the edge then the Crane and Waldrom axis may gain some advantage around the fringes and, knowing them, through the centre of the rucks as well.
Behind the pack, and with Tigers’ half backs also being England’s half backs and of whom it would only be Half The Truth to say they won’t be missed, James Grindal and Jeremy Staunton look set to resume the partnership that has served Tigers well while Youngs and Flood are in absentia and they will need to be put in the right places by the Tigers’ pack to play their more conservative style with Staunton using his educated boot to keep play in the Leeds half with the latest Tigers’ scrum half prospect Sam Harrison and Billy Twelvetrees, fresh from his exploits with the Saxons, in reserve.
Leeds will probably start with ex Wasp, Welshman Warren Fury who, in spite of being twice capped for his country, has hitherto found it hard to nail down a starting spot at either London Irish or during his two spells at Wasps.
His half back partner is always a matter of some speculation as there have been changes at fly half aplenty with Ceiron Thomas, Chris Lewis-Pratt and Lachie Mackay all sharing the #10 shirt in this year’s Premiership. Adrian Jarvis is also now on his way having been released by Bristol – how many fly halves does one club need? They are treasures indeed but even a Ruby can lose its appeal if locked away.
My guess is that Chris Lewis-Pratt could get the nod ahead of Mackay this Sunday, with Jarvis on the bench if all the paperwork is in place, if only because the absence of Aussie Lachie Mackay would enable Argentinian Gomez to play and bolster the front row.
I expect Tony Allen to continue his sterling work at inside centre for Tigers, always assuming that Martin Johnson does not decide that England need some wit and ingenuity at #12 and calls him into the team to face Italy at Twickenham, if this is the case then we may get the chance to see the Saxons’ centre combination of Billy Twelvetrees and Manu Tuilagi which I hope we do anyway at some point in the proceedings.
The home side will probably continue with Scott Barrow, the ex Glasgow Warriors and St Helen’s league player being a fixture this term and presenting a typically hard running confrontational league style of centre play and Neil Back will be looking to the cross code convert to put another; Samoan international Henry Fa’afili, who’s been capped ten times under the Union code and who also spent time at Biarritz, into space against Manu Tuilagi, which could be some meeting as the old stager looks to reach the young tyro some lessons – we’ll see how Manu’s defensive studies having been going and whether he can help stop the Leeds off loading game!
Thus far Leeds have only made fewer clean breaks than Newcastle, who prop up the stat, so Back will want to see a substantial improvement especially as Tigers top the defenders beaten and metres gained stats and in the latter case once again only Falcons are worse performers than Leeds.
I think that the Tigers’ combinations will be the more effective on the day especially as I see Staunton getting Tuilagi into the plays early but the Leeds duo are both steeped in the League way of direct back play and will not hesitate to straighten the line, so will take all the stopping.
The Tigers’ back three will likely be Manu’s big brother Alex, who’s hit some real good form of late and it’s to be hoped that the month long lay-off has rested but not rusted him. As I write this there is some doubt over Matt Smith’s fitness and if he is forced from the action then we’ll probably see Lucas Amorosino get a start after his return from surgery and recent airing, they both linking with Scott Hamilton, who’ll be likely continue at full back in the absence of Geordan Murphy.
The Leeds back three is likely to be Michael Stephenson, another closed season signing from Bath and who’s been capped three times for England, seemingly having lost none of his pace, and Lee Blackett, the ex Rotherham winger who’s scored five times in all competitions this term with two of those coming in the Premiership against Quins.
Ex Scarlets’ fly half, Ceiron Thomas will almost certainly continue at full back for the hosts and bring his immaculate kicking game to augment that of his fly half colleague, whomsoever that may be. Thomas is very much a kicking full back but none the worse for that as he goes about his business well although he can miss tackles with more regularity than perhaps is desirable.
I don’t see the hosts’ back three really getting enough space or structure to work with and that they will be having to make largely long range forays so I suspect that tries will most likely come from the forwards grinding out an attritional battle whenever they have the opportunity, a method of which the coaches will surely say to the players that they Like It Too Much.
This is a must win game for both contestants as Tigers can’t slip up against the bottom of the league side regardless of the obstacles put in their way by the absurdity of playing a full league programme while international fixtures are underway and Leeds must not lose any more home fixtures if they are to have a chance to overhaul Newcastle as they can’t have Good Days, Bad Days.
It’s going to be a very tricky fixture for Tigers but I just have the feeling that against the odds they’ll sneak a win and add to Leeds problems although hopefully this won’t lead to cries from the crowd directed at the coaching team of Off With Their Heads.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:02:19:10:13:08 by Stephen Bath.
If Smith isn't fit I can see Agulla at 15 and Hamilton on the Wing.
PRL need to wake up and smell the coffee currently brewing. There has never been a better time for the leading clubs to gain support from the RFU who have a new Chief Executive in John Steele.
John's bold reorganization of the RFU has received unanimous support from the RFU 57 old F***s, and as he is a former player and coach of the Saints will be well aware of the Premierships problems. He has after all had the benefit of advice from both Keith Barnwell and Peter Wheeler.
The time may be near when change will be possible, let’s hope so.
I think however, Woods will continue with England as he was awesome last week and deserves his spot. Which will then allow Fourie another game with us (heres hoping).
Our front row will be McDonald, Asbo and Juan Gomez to start as Mackey I beleive is injured, which will be worth watching against your A,B,C.
Looking forward to the game. Enjoy the Headingley hospitality.
My opinion - fwiw - is that our back three will feature Agulla on one flank and Alex on t'other with Scott twixt them though the 'two full-backs' preferred at Tigers and which this selection will allows serves to blur those roles somewhat.
Fourie, it appears has been retained by Johnno and will deputise, I imagine, for Wood/Haskell.
I wish Leeds well - I would hope they survive this season to fight again and that a revival begins soon - but not this week.
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I also don't think that it would be ideal for SH and BT to be paired like this. Pick one, perhaps, but not both.
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Odd since 36 was playing at 12 that day and even he couldn't help the capped Staunton to greater heights
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For goodness sake - stop this denigrating of players it does nothing to advance the credibility of your blind faith in 36.
I could list Twelevtrees errors in various matches as all players make them but wouldn't dream of doing so just to advance my argument that at the moment the proven international fly half is my choice for the shirt.
I watched the last game against Leeds and will watch the game on Sunday - we ought to be aiming for 5 points .
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He also featured in the Powergen Cup winning side at Wasps and the Tigers side that won the 2009/10 league and end of season knockout cup.
He has started for Tigers in 17 Premiership matches and made 9 appearances from the bench. He has scored 189 Premiership points for Tigers. (23 conversions. 45 penalties. 1 drop goal and 1 try).
In his Premiership career he has scored 524 points from 59 starts and 30 appearances from the bench
His CV includes spells at Munster, Wasps, Quins and London Irish.
He is the top opposition points scorer at Welford Road in a single match.
Hope this helps.
He will be 31 this May.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:02:09:15:34:02 by ChrisC.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:02:09:16:10:45 by Rich W.
You'll be 24 Hours From Ulcer, A Whiter Shade of Pale if you keep fretting till It's Good News Week, Oh Boy!
There's The Concrete and The Clay where Bright Eyes should be, Those Boots Were Made For Walking across a Bridge Over Troubled Waters but instead A World in Union remains an Impossible Dream until someone Hit[s] [Them] With My Rhythm Stick
Till then, Don't Jump Off The Roof Dad
'Lions led by donkeys' .. Lest we forget
Enjoy the day - but not too much!
Safe journey to all who venture up the M1.
Miserati - and Proud to be!
Unfortunately, he has only made one first team appearance this season so we haven't had a decent chance to try out some of our new songs for him ...
Waiting for the good times ...
..and waiting ....
... and waiting ...
I believe it is only a fiver in on Sunday, for standing, so bring a few extra folk with you, as we hope to, and make it the biggest crowd of the season for us. Cheers.
May the best team win.
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