By Innings
January 8 2024

I have tried to write this as a match report, but that didn’t work.  Readers are already aware of the result, many have watched the match and many more have read reports in the Press and social media.  In addition, I found the game so poor to watch that I cannot bring myself to re-watch it, nor to cudgel my memory for recall of something so forgettable.  Consequently, I propose to write instead a sharing of thoughts about what this game indicated about the current state of affairs at two clubs, and what it could portend for the remainder of this season.

Let me begin with a few thoughts about the game.  This game marks the moment when every game is played with an eye on the end of the season, by the end of the weekend there are now just seven games left to play in the regular series. Two clubs in the bottom half of the Gallagher Premiership table meet in the hope that one or other can generate a win to re-start their faltering campaigns.  Both can see perfectly well that a loss will begin to drag on their hopes of home play-offs, perhaps even with play-off places of any kind imperilled.  They are even beginning to see that despite being giants of the domestic game they are actually struggling to ensure a place in next year’s Champions’ Cup, in whatever stupid format the organisers of that dogs’ dinner think will cash in best.  So, immediate pressure to generate improvements.

Both sides are desperate for a win, both urgently need to generate impetus, and both have injury lists that can only complicate matters.  Therefore, the game can be guaranteed to create tensions, commitment and high points.  Unfortunately, in this case, the tensions and commitment bring with them nerves, jitters and low points

Was this game won by Tigers’ ability to draw at least ten penalties from Sarries’ uncharacteristically poor set-piece and breakdown play?  Was Tigers’ failure to score a much-needed fourth try the result of Sarries’ ability to force Tigers to turn the ball over at least ten times? Was the endless kick tennis the result of both sides being aware that the opponents each had one of the most dangerous turnover jackals currently playing the Gallagher?  Was Sarries’ penalty count or Tigers’ inability to hold onto the ball simply the result of both teams trying so hard that they lost patience, calm and decision-taking?  Being unable to answer these questions leads me to the bigger question: are both Leicester Tiger and Saracens teams coached by coaching groups that have failed to accept that their squads are no longer the forces that they have been?  One fact is undeniable, which is that their aggregate ratio of games lost to games played has reached levels that would have seemed impossible to imagine at the beginning of this season.  A simple composite table explains this graphically.

Season 21/22 Played 48 Lost 10. Loss percentage 21%

Season 22/23 Played 40 Lost 13. Loss percentage 32%

23/24 to date  Played 22 Lost 10.  Loss percentage 45%

I am no gambler, but sometimes it is interesting to see where those who back their judgement with money are placing their bets.  On Saturday morning, Sarries were still odds-on to win the Premiership.  This afternoon, they have gone to almost 2-1 odds, although still favourites to win.  Tigers have drifted in like manner.  Thus, the money says that the weekend was a bad one for both sides’ hopes this season.  Of course, things are tight in every part of the table. Second to sixth are separated by only five points.  The leaders will take points off each other, and both Sarries and Tigers may yet have end-of season surges, as the latter so often do.  However, this weekend saw no excuse of international absences, which have frequently distorted the picture until the last games of the season.  My own view is that both clubs will be scratching their heads this afternoon, knowing that they are no more than single cogs in the machinery that includes five or six others that are perfectly capable of increasing further damage to the season’s hopes, or of finding that expectations on their upstart shoulders so increase their own pressures that they too begin to fall into losing the battles of the top two inches.

It is impossible to know what the two coaching set-ups are thinking, hoping or planning, because both groups are laudably tight-lipped when it comes to discussing players’ futures.  However, it is clear that developments in the competition have not been followed by developments in either squad that would have enabled them to keep up with what is happening elsewhere. One sure thing is that Sarries will be asking why their leadership groups seems to be picking up almost all the cards that have gone in Sarries’ direction this season.  The old military saying ‘Heads off, cabbages on’ should not apply to the old and bold, but it does at the Stonex.