Leicester Tigers
Tigers v Exeter Match Preview
By ChrisC
August 29 2011
It could be You ! Infamously the slogan of the National Lottery, it occurred to me when thinking about my first piece for the 2011/12 club rugby season how the unexpected twists and turns of life makes it something of a lottery.
When Summer began I reckon that Rupert Murdoch didn’t think he’d be making an appearance before, a customary inept, Parliamentary Select Committee to account for the illegal actions of some of his minions amongst the 53000 employees of News Corp., but instead would be finalising the now aborted takeover of BSkyB. Similarly others within the political elite and the Metropolitan Police would have scoffed had they been told that their relationship with Murdoch and his acolytes would have come into the spotlight before the sun had reached its seasonal zenith.
All that though, of limited interest to the public once the initial frisson of scandal had passed, was surpassed by the riots and looting led by the feral gang ridden underclass of our cities.
Residents of the East Coast of the USA didn’t know at the end of May that three months later they would see widespread damage from Tropical Storm Irene and Gadaffi wouldn’t have thought that he’d be hiding out having seen his regime collapse with the help of NATO, who rather oddly seem to have decided that any government is better than Gadaffi’s provided they let us have some cheap oil.
A collapse of global stock markets was also a surprise, brought about by incompetent financial management particularly in the Eurozone and the USA where so many politicians remain in denial about the need to reduce their sovereign indebtedness.
In sport only the most ardent cricket follower dared to hope that England would become the best test side in the World so to many it was something of a surprise when they did and who’d have thought Leicestershire would have won the 20/20 competition. Andy Murray meanwhile once again flattered to deceive, dashing hopes of a British Wimbledon champion – so no surprise there at least!
Martin Johnson wouldn’t have anticipated that the lottery of life would have seen the glow of winning the Six Nations, albeit somewhat tarnished by the performance against Ireland in the closing match of the competition, fade so dramatically with the same sort of lack lustre performance against Wales into which his team slid in Dublin, after all the players had been ensconced for months in a seemingly never ending training camp, preparation had been exemplary but the team looked over coached and tired.
The final warm up match against the self same Ireland, England’s Nemesis when they tried to secure a long overdue Grand Slam, produced a better performance and England’s first win in Ireland for eight years, so Martin Johnson et al will go to the World Cup lighter of step with a victory under their collective belts.
England then set off for the World Cup in New Zealand with their band of wounded soldiers leaving behind the lottery that is now the Aviva Premiership.
With Tigers missing 11 key players to the World Cup alone and benighted with injuries in the back row for the opening months of the tournament, those not so affected will be thinking “it could be us” this season and this week’s opponents for Tigers at Welford Road must be looking for an early season campaign at the end of which they are more than capable of finding themselves in the top places of the Premiership by the time Winter arrives and with it the return of the World Cup players of which Exeter only have three absent; new signings Craig Mitchell (Wales) and Gonzalo Camacho (Argentina) as well as Junior Poluleuligaga (Samoa)
The Chiefs provided stern opposition last season and came uncomfortably close to beating Tigers when they visited Welford Road in the opening rounds so, with Tigers denuded, they will be fancying their chances of pulling it off this time around.
The Devonian club have made some good signings amongst them ex Tiger Peter Short from Bath to bolster their already forceful pack where he is joined by Quins stalwart John Andress.
Kevin Barrett has joined from Saracens to augment at scrum half and, like Andress who managed just six starts last term while Barrett made only four appearances from the Saracens’ bench, had struggled to get game time.
Another Quin to venture to the West Country is the aforementioned Argentinian international winger; Gonzalo Camacho, who did get his chances at the south London club. He has a good turn of speed showing some skilful touches and of course scoring the winning try for Quins in their securing of the Amlin Cup last term.
Tigers have also recruited well in the close season with Matthew Tait getting a chance to show what he can do when playing for a decent side, his experiences thus far having been with Newcastle, Sale and England when all were experiencing their own travails.
Micky Young and Kieran Brookes were both stand out players in a poor Newcastle side last season and will bring welcome reinforcement to the front row and scrum half while Graham Kitchener, fresh from playing his eye catching parts in Worcester’s Championship winning side and last season’s Churchill Cup, adds to the strength in Tigers’ locking department.
I am particularly excited by the recruitment of Julian Salvi from the Brumbies as during his time at Bath I thought him to be an excellent player, a dog at the tackle area and a ferocious defender, he provides a welcome addition to Woods at open side and I hope that he will help arrest the problems that dogged Tigers at the breakdown last season, hopefully without giving away too many penalties.
Exeter had a good pre season and the admirable Rob Baxter and his coaching team will be pleased with their new acquisitions following decisive wins over Connacht, where they won by 47 points to 10 on their visit to the Emerald Isle, and over West Country neighbours Pirates, who they thrashed 58 points to 3 in a seven try rout of their erstwhile Championship colleagues.
In their last pre season Exeter welcomed Scarlets to Sandy Park and where, watched by Tigers’ Richard Cockerill and Peter Wheeler, they prevailed over the Welsh outfit by 16 points to 13 from the visitors.
By all accounts Chiefs had to flex their defensive muscles to keep the Scarlets out whereas previously it had been attack to the fore.
Tigers meanwhile stuttered before thumping Lyon at Welford Road and the final pre season, against Nottingham, saw Tigers run out comfortable 32 - 10 winners with a major re jigging of the team in the second half, to give others a run, keeping the score down.
It is always especially tricky for me, your humble correspondent, to guess at starting line ups this early in the season when form has not been established and the mindset of the coaches cannot begin to be divined however from the pre season and the perceived opportunity for Exeter to score a famous victory at Welford Road against the Tigers, weakened as they are not only by World Cup duties but also injuries to Staunton, Smith, Newby and Crane, I expect to see a strong Chiefs’ side make the journey up the M5.
As Tigers’ supporters will know the ecstasy of a victory at Welford Road is rarely balanced by the opposition’s acknowledgement that their victory was against a team weakened not merely by the vicissitudes of play but by the mores of international demands on the club, amelioration of which is constrained by financial strictures imposed by the preposterous PRL who treat the Premiership as a social engineering project and I have wondered whether Barak Obama spent time there getting some pointers for his similar experiment on the American people.
As during previous World Cup periods I expect to see stars of the future emerge and amongst those Kieran Brookes could well be numbered. The young tight head prop was impressive when I saw him play for Newcastle and trying to fill the capacious boots of his mentor; Carl Hayman and now, in partnership with the experienced George Chuter and Boris Stankovitch in this opening period of the season, he will take the opportunity to let the missing Castrogiovanni and Cole know there’s a new kid on the tight head block.
Brookes and Chuter bring modern day mobility to the front row while Stankovitch is a ferocious scrummager and a rock on the loose head side.
The Tigers’ trio will most probably face new boy Andress, South London born Neil Clark and powerhouse New Zealander Hoani Tui with new signing, ten time capped Wales prop, Craig Mitchell adding to their resources following his arrival from Ospreys once his World Cup duties are over.
The Chiefs’ front row was impressive last season and I expect them to be even more of a handful this year so it will be a stern test.
At lock, with Geoff Parling still injured and fit again Louis Deacon with England, I expect to see Skivington leading the line out, a role into which he grew during his inaugural season with Tigers, and be assisted by one of the finds of last term; Ed Slater. Both have impressive mobility but will need to be on their mettle against the efficient and aggressive Chiefs, where I expect to see club captain, the redoubtable Irishman Tommy Hayes, who last season made a remarkable 22 Premiership starts each lasting a full 80 minutes for the Devonian team, which is an amazing achievement.
I think he’ll be partnered by the ever present Hanks with reserves in the form of another new signing; Stafford born Aly Muldowney or maybe ex Tiger Peter Short, who arrive from Glasgow and Bath respectively and who, in Muldowney’s case, will be looking forward to the warmer West Country climes. The visitors have great strength in depth here and will be a real challenge at the set piece where Tigers will need Steve Mafi’s assistance.
With the back row depleted by injuries and World Cup demands I can see Tongan Steve Mafi building on his impressive debut season when he displayed excellence at the set piece and deeds of derring -do in the loose.
Another looking to build on his exploits of last term will be Thomas Waldrom who, after much fanfare surrounding his English heritage and, having been injured by England was then rejected by them. England will miss his go forward as much as Tigers will welcome it and in partnership with new boy Julian Salvi, who, when at Bath in 2009/10 was my player of the season, I can see an improvement at the breakdown, which was real Achilles Heel for Tigers last year.
Exeter will presumably start with the impressive Richard Baxter and German born England Saxon Tom Johnson who is a remarkable athlete with the pace of a centre, well obviously, save for Manu Tuilagi, not an England centre, but you get my point. Johnson also scored six Premiership tries last season. James Scaysbrook was another ever present and in fact the Chiefs’ back row has an admirably settled look to it with Baxter, Johnson and the ex Bath man making 21., 17 and 22 starts respectively last season and, aside from an occasional appearance by Phillips, formed an enduring and tight knit partnership, being formidably aggressive at the breakdown where Tigers will need to stand toe to toe if crucial possession is not to be ceded to the visitors.
Behind the pack I’m hoping to see another ex Falcon, Micky Young, bring his pace and stable service to the Tigers’ back division. Young was another who struggled manfully in a woeful Falcons’ side and on occasion obviously felt the need to force matters which earned him the opprobrium of certain sections of the small Falcons’ supporter base and he will need to restrain himself and realise that he has a good team around him now and has no need to embark on flights that would make Icarus appear the epitome of circumspection .
Opposing him behind a pack, that I think will go well against Tigers, will probably be Haydn Thomas who is very much the incumbent having made 20 Premiership appearances last season following his move from Bristol where he spent a couple of seasons after leaving Gloucester, however as the Midlander picked up a rib injury against Scarlets and with Samoan Junior Poluleuligaga called up for World Cup duty Kevin Barrett, who sounds to have played well when he replaced Thomas on the 17 minute mark against Scarlets, could get his chance if Thomas doesn’t recover as expected.
With Waldrom likely to be at #8 for Tigers, , I can see Young getting space to operate as Waldrom is of a more expansive mind set than Jordan Crane who is once again missing injured as he was until 5th November last term, not making his season’s debut until the first round of the LV Cup.
Crane is more inclined to hold the ball at the base which is a fine tactic when the scrum is totally dominant however I don’t see this as being the case against Exeter and with Waldrom’s speed from the base I expect to see him get the better of this contest and bring his half backs into play more quickly by creating space for them.
At fly half, with Toby Flood in New Zealand and Jeremy Staunton struggling with injury, I expect to see the cultured play of George Ford in the #10 shirt looking to capitalise on the dynamism, pace and service of Young.
For Exeter their talisman; Dungannon born Gareth Steenson, will be looking to add to the 177 Premiership points that made a major contribution to his team’s achievements in their first season in the top level competition. The Irishman is a solid performer in the Jeremy Staunton mould and once again Exeter will rely on his prowess with the boot, the dynamic Argentinian international full back Ignacio Mieres seeming to be the other fly half to come on when things loosen up.
England’s conservative attitude to centre play has provided the Tigers with the services of one of the standout players of last season; Tony Allen.
I think that Allen will relish the chance of playing on the front foot outside Young and Ford and will be invaluable in defensive support of Ford although I rather expect that we’ll see Billy Twelvetrees move into the #10 channel in defensive situations where his brawn and prodigious boot will be crucial and provide a valuable option. Twelvetrees got plenty of game time last season, albeit at fly half which is really not his forte, but I was disappointed that later in the season he did not see more time in the centre from the bench however he looks likely to have a run at outside centre while Manu Tuilagi is away, so it’s up to him to make his case this time.
Exeter have signed Josh Tatupu from Castres, another Samoan, albeit having been born in New Zealand, being capped just once for his country. He can play either at centre or on the wing and has been given the chance to demonstrate his skills in both positions during Exeter’s pre season.
I suspect though that South African Bryan Rennie will again join with the defensively superb Kiwi Jason Shoemark against Tigers as they formed a good partnership last year.
Out wide and with Geordan Murphy’s last minute call up to the Ireland squad likely to see Scott Hamilton at full back I hope to see new boy Matthew Tait demonstrate the electric pace that we’ve seen in the past. I also hope Matt Smith is employed on the other wing where his experience and pace will be welcome.
For the visitors I expect to see ex Cherry and White; Mark Foster, who has blossomed at Sandy Park after being something of a bit part player at Gloucester, continue on one wing with local hero, the tireless Frenchman Nic Sestaret, on the other, while the reliable and pacey Luke Arscott continues in the #15 shirt and looks to come into the line in support.
I think though that it’s likely that the Tigers back three will get the better service and have the pace to prevail .
An intriguing opening to the new season between two true rugby clubs rooted in their cities in what’s likely to be a close match.
So it’s time to roll those big money balls and I think that in spite of the severe handicaps foisted upon the home side the first number out this season will be #4 – points to Tigers.
(Special Acknowledgement to SK88 for all his work in producing lists of transfers and RWC absentees which has made my job so much easier – thanks SK88)
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:09:04:20:02:43 by Stephen Bath.
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