Leicester Tigers
Tigers v SArries Match Report
By JK
March 6 2011
Nothing Special I’m Afraid Under dull and grey East Midlands skies, the match started predictably with exchanges of penalties and proceeded as a tight affair, neither side being able to completely dominate the other.
Alex Goode’s three-point efforts were cancelled out by Jeremy Staunton’s but it soon became clear that the two teams had different priorities – Leicester to get some momentum going and Saracens to ensure that the match was as fragmented an affair as possible. This manifested itself by the visitors taking an age to get to every lineout and scrum frustrating Tigers and the crowd in the process.
A key factor therefore was how the ref would control things and Davey didn’t disappoint the Saracens. Every scrum took an aeon to set and as such, along with the lineouts, the game became an incredibly stop-start affair suiting the visitors’ game-plan perfectly.
I have never seen less actual rugby (as opposed to delays) in any match anywhere. The weather didn’t help either but Davey seemed to want to do as much as possible to ruin the game as a rugby spectacle.
When finally the Tigers did achieve a little flow, Manu Tuilagi produced the game’s only moment of brilliance, handing off two players and crashing through Goode then evading the desperate attentions of Borthwick to score in the corner from an improbable distance. A fantastic individual try, well worth another look on youtube and a clear contender for try of the season. Quite why the decision to award the try had to be referred to the video ref was beyond me… whatever did we do before the advent of try-line technology?
This should have been a pivotal moment for Tigers but they couldn’t breach the Saracens’ defence a second time and a further Goode penalty meant that the visitors were closer in scoreboard terms than they probably should have been at half-time.
Tigers seemed to start the second half brightly but constant slow scrums and a succession of technical refereeing mistakes meant that they were unable to trouble the scorers, a situation which, unusually was to last for the whole of the second half. Of particular note was a succession of free kicks (and one penalty) where Saracens failed to retreat 10 metres, each occasion being missed by both referee and touch judges.
The longer the game went on, the more Saracens seemed to believe in themselves and for the first time in the match put together some attacking rugby. That said, the only time they seemed to cross the gain line was by kicking and they never really looked like coming close to scoring a try. One period of some twenty successive phases (the majority going sideways or backwards) was finally overturned when Saracens conceded a penalty but a failure to kick long and then control the lineout meant that Tigers too never looked like completely relieving the pressure.
The telling statistic from second-half normal time was two penalties from Goode to one miss from Staunton and one reversal due to foul play of a penalty initially given to Tigers in a very central position in Saracens’ half. Watching the highlights on Sky Sports 4, the point was made and evidenced that several Saracens’ players were in front of Goode when he kicked the second, and ultimately decisive, penalty and again, this was a small infringement missed by the ref although Tigers shouldn’t have had to have relied on it for a win.
A pull on Tuilagi’s shirt when chasing a kick might have resulted in a yellow on a lucky Tigers day rather than just the subsequently missed penalty but this would have been harsh on the visitors. It is worth mentioning the ludicrous Stuart Barnes on Sky Sports 4 who didn’t believe it to be a penalty at all. Surely as a pundit and commentator, he is now well past his sell-by date.
The final five minutes with Saracens a point to the good saw both the best and worst Tigers play of the second half. An uncharacteristic knock-on from Scott Hamilton put Leicester under a great deal of pressure which was finally relieved by a penalty and a huge upfield advance thanks to the siege-gun boot of the newly introduced Twelvetrees. It could (and probably will) be argued that 36 should have been introduced earlier, especially as there was a suspicion of an injury to Staunton when he deferred touch-finding kicking duties to Hamilton. Certainly Billy’s superior distance-finding from penalties could have been useful and, with fresh legs, he may have achieved a greater deal of penetration than Staunton in the final fifteen minutes.
A penalty from the resulting lineout gave the blond messiah a chance to win the game for Tigers which might have been a fair result. Sadly for us one-eyed folk it was not to be and Saracens departed with the spoils – no repeat of last year’s last-gasp Twickenham heroics.
It could be argued that they were deserving winners – they defended resolutely for the most part and clearly arrived with a game plan to counter the Tigers’ key threats which ultimately proved successful. They played both referee and conditions well with Tigers making a series of silly mistakes and giving away ultimately costly penalties.
Saracens must have fancied it coming into the game with an almost full squad and there was no evidence to suggest that Tigers couldn’t have prevailed in this contest had all their internationals been present; I hope to be proved right in the post-season either at Welford Road or Twickenham.
All in all, nothing really special going on here aside from MOTM Tuilagi Junior’s try and a game to forget for Tigers fans and refereeing aficionados alike.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:03:21:19:50:02 by Stephen Bath.
Seriously,a fair report from your point of view.
From mine as a Sarrie, I think we fronted up to the best team in the country by miles, and with a bit of luck came away with a deserved win
We will see you at HQ in a couple of months.
Nev The sarrieman
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:03:06:22:16:16 by SimW.
Our opinion on Davey is obviously going to differ, as SimW says - personally I think you overstate his influence on the outcome and I disagree about the penalty for the pull-back on Tuilagi. But that's probably me being one-eyed...
A very accurate report nonetheless...
Just how it looked to me too.
I thought that Barnes shouting GOOD when Jez missed the penalty arising from the Tuilagi pull back at last showed with out doubt Barnes's bias against Tigers - as if we were ever in any such doubt of course. For my money he should be sanctioned for that partisan comment - at least ESPN gives good, unbiased and accurate match commentary.
Thats an interesting point. I get upset if we lose to anybody including Leicester.
Why are you not "Bovvered" on the rare ocassions you lose to us?
regards
Nevthesarrieman
He did try to talk his way out of it as soon as he said it, obviously relaisng he'd made an error but it really was case of "when you're in hole stop digging"
It's not Saracens fault that the 4 times they've played tigers and saints this season have been in the rest periods, you can only beat what's in front of you, but it's a particular oddity of this season that so many of your big games are in the rest periods.
If / when we lose games with a level playing field I care more about it.
He wasn't committed to holding on long after the ball had departed was he?
I'm not saying he should have got a yellow but on another day he could easily have got one.
Tuilagi was after the ball in quite close proximity to the tryline after all.
Jon.
If it had been a Tigers player who had committed the 'tackle' then everyone (i.e. anyone not asssociated with Tigers) would be screaming for action. Because it's us who've been 'wronged' everyone shrugs it off. Hey ho.
From a personal safety point of view, I'd be glad if a team mate would grab his shirt and not let go for a few seconds. If Alesana's fly-half missed the resulting penalty, I'd consider myself doubly fortunate.
As I've already said, I think a yellow would have been harsh but not out of the question.
What a grey day, as Larry would mince.
On the Tuilagi (A) incident - it was the holding on that was the issue - the tackler will have realised quickly that the ball had been kicked away if he had released him at that point I would have thought the penalty harsh. As it was a card was arguable but since Davey's performance was one of the more spineless and feeble I've seen this term it wasn't a likely occurrence.
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