By JK
November 6 2011

Something new for this game and as a fairly recent convert to Twitter, I thought I’d structure the report around “tweets” and other internet postings. Thanks to all whose work appears.

 “It is hugely disappointing. We put ourselves in a position to win it. The penalty count was massively in our favour and we didn't take advantage of it.”

 Richard Cockerill of course quoted on bbc.co.uk and of course he’s massively understated the case. Fact is that “London Irish came from 24-7 down to draw at Leicester Tigers.” (BBC) and Tigers managed to snatch a draw from the jaws of victory in breathtaking style. “Hugely disappointing” doesn’t really begin to describe it. “This result is more disappointing than the whole WC period” from Twitter puts it into perspective along with “I'm sorry, but that 2nd half was totally unacceptable. Should never, ever let Irish back into that.”

 "They played well and defended well but we got what we deserved." Cockerill continued but I can’t really agree. London Irish were awful and set out their stall very early. Continuous offsides, collapsing and wheeling of scrums, delaying the put-in and generally doing anything possible to avoid having to scrummage – an area where they looked completely outgunned. “One of the most incredibly negative, cynical and game killing displays that I have had the misfortune to see” on the Unoffy board. (Not sure I quite agree, I’ve been at Saracens WR games for the last two years!).

 They seemed to be paying mid-way through the first half with a penalty try against and a sin-binning cancelling out a shock try by Hape earlier in the half. The Irish fans seem aggrieved (“your team benefitted from a poorly awarded penalty try”) but really the almost constant infringement at every scrum left the referee no real option.

 At this point I was settling down for a five-point win and a Flood penalty early in the half with another late in the first period saw Tigers go in at half time with a 13-7 advantage. Seems the LI fans were not expecting too much either: “You caned us in the first half and I thought we were going to concede a 40 pointer.” From the Unoffy.

 Caned in terms of the game but not really in terms of the scoreboard and one felt that a lack of control in the forwards and a lack of penetration in the backs meant that Tigers should have been well ahead and even out of sight. (The Sunday Times report agrees).

 For the backs to score no tries given the amount of possession they had from a pack going forward is a genuine cause for concern. Some point to a lack of pace: “we need searing pace: imagine what Wade could do on our wing with Manu and Allen at centres ?” but the problem is we don’t have Manu and Allen at centre currently and others are “not convinced searing pace is the issue. Just having 2 fit centres, Allen and Tuilagi will do!”. “How we're missing our centres. I can't remember the ball coming out wide toHamiltononce. A lot of Alex on the shoulder, not much else.”

 Further dominance early in the second half gave Flood a further penalty chance, successfully taken, followed by Tigers’ only try-scored with Tom Croft finishing a sweeping back move and theTMOtaking an eternity to confirm the score. TheSantanderstand seemed convinced even if LI thought “you had a try awarded which was just so daft it was beyond belief!;”

 At 24-7 with less than a quarter of the game left, shots at goal were abandoned in favour of kicks to the corner as Tigers clearly felt they had the game won. I wouldn’t have disagreed with that approach and noone really felt that Flood’s missed conversion attempt after Croft’s try would influence the result but in the end, that’s how it turned out to be.

 Back came Irish with an easy penalty and then a classic back-move try from Thompstone which, as in the first half, looked a little too easy to put them within seven points and the Tigers’ nerves started to show.

 The whole match domination of the lineout by Leicester continued on their own five metre line but a box kick out of defence from James Grindal (on for the excellent Sam Harrison) was charged down to heighten the jitters.

 This was followed in fairly short order by a line-out ball returned toStauntonwhose defensive kick was again charged down in the Clubhouse/CATstand corner and Irish dropped onto the rebound for a try, converted again by the excellent Homer to level the scores. Cockerill “"We got charged down from a box kick and then two minutes later we get charged down again for them to score and draw the game.”

 A missed drop goal attempt at the death from Flood denied Tigers a last gasp win.

 How to sum up then?

 Some more views from the ether:

 “MOC needs to sort this mess out pronto. We are dreaming if we think that we are going to beat ASM home or away” and “Poor performances all round in the backs. Shocking to have that amount of ball and do nothing with it. What is O'Conner doing?!?”

 It does seem that something is wrong in the backs. Not enough tries scored, even on the back of one of the most solid forward platforms Tigers are ever likely to create and not good enough in defence where Irish scored three tries from about six attacks. Their backs were simply better in all respects.

 Add to that a penalty count variously reported as 19-6 or 17-6 and the error looks all the more glaring.

 “Negative tactics locked up our entire back division, so they were the right tactics against us yesterday. Horacio and Smith did the best they could when they are not centres.”

 Which is clearly true but we cannot keep on finding excuses for dropped points. The World Cup is over and we have some injuries but our fifteen yesterday should have beaten their fifteen. Easily.

 With regard to negative tactics, this should be easy. Plan B. If they are constantly advancing on the very margins (and I'm being diplomatic) of being offside, chip it behind them and keep them turning. It’s a hard game to play if you’re running backwards to pick up the ball with a Tuilagi rapidly advancing in your direction.

 The seeming lack of a plan B meant that “like Eng[land] we have a game plan written around certain players without the ability to adapt.”

 “Too much pressure on the big guns to perform?” “Signs of serious faults in spirit/coaching?”

 It did seem to me that Flood is trying to do far too much himself but without quality in the centre, maybe he doesn’t have too many options. Good work from Marcos, Castro and Parling though and standards noticeably declined when they went off. Dan Cole strangely anonymous. I hope his thoughts are not resting in Barnet (or Capetown, orWatford, or wherever!)

 Selection? “I'm afraid it is the same story asEngland's world cup exit. Poor selection. The sooner RC realises that Grindal andStauntonare more use as a a firm of undertakers than a pair of journeymen capable of closing out a game the better” (Unoffy).

 "I don't believe I'd be overstating their impact if I said the game changed whenStauntoncame on for Smith (Due to injury perhaps), and Grindal came on forHarrison." (Unoffy again).

 We have what we have due to salary caps and injuries but I can’t understand for the life of me why Flood didn’t take the last defensive pass after the lineout and clear the ball. If he’s our (andEngland’s?) best number 10, he has to stand up and be counted at the right moment. Jonny would never have shirked that responsibility. Really don’t understand whyStauntonhad to be playing at first receiver instead of Flood or why Grindal had to be on the pitch instead ofHarrison.

 And for the elephant in the room:

 “Don't direct hurt at a poor result towards a team that played the referee as well as Tigers used to.”

 “Blame Pearson, not Irish.”

 “LI don't want to scrum or stay onside. Lucky to only have 1 yellow. Incredibly negative.”

 “Irish played offside and blocked all match. Neither Pearson nor his assistants saw fit to penalise them.”

 Just about sums it up but don’t forget delaying the put in, forward passes and not allowingLeicesterto play advantage. Woefully inadequate. Irish played the referee better but Premiership Rugby should be primarily about playing the game and not the referee. The fact that Irish were able to draw the game by playing the referee is a sad indictment but not quite so sad as Leicester’s failure to win a game which was patently there fore taking – not because of the world cup, not because of injuries but because of an inability to execute a plan B and an unhealthy dose of stupidity at the end.

 So what now? ““Signs of serious faults in spirit/coaching?” ‘Fraid so. We need a defence coach and an attack coach. Corry and Healey? If, in a world cup year, Cockerill keeps on keeping on, expecting the big turnaround after the world cup has finished, he will only have himself to blame when the same happens as happened to our previous coaches in world cup years. The world cup and injuries may not be completely blameless (we know from experience that players take a while to get back into it) but we cannot afford to keep dropping points to teams we should be demolishing.

 Is this a new phenomenon? Not really. The game plan of soak up the pressure, play the ref and hope to pick up on Tigers’ mistakes has been executed atWelford Roadtwo years in a row by Saracens.GloucesterandBathplayed it last season and possiblyExeterthis. It’s becoming familiar and needs to be stopped. It does make for a very tedious lack of a spectacle indeed but really, it's the best chance these guys have got of geting a result so who can blame them for trying it?

 MoM: Tom Homer

Tigers v London Irish match Report

Discussion started by TheLeicesterTigers.co.uk , 06/11/2011 16:31

TheLeicesterTigers.co.uk
06/11/2011 16:31

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2011:11:14:19:28:10 by Stephen Bath.

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Ozzy3213
06/11/2011 21:21

That's a really cool idea for a match report, using tweets and other social media comment to describe the game and how people felt it went.

Genuinely impressed with that.

Probably helps that I think one of my comments has made in there!

Anyhow, good luck for the rest of the season, and I look forwards to hosting you guys at this seasons Paddy's Day Party game.

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JK
06/11/2011 22:39

Thank you Pete. That does something to alleviate my bad mood resulting from the game.

At least a few people are likely to agree with me this way.

It's the first match when I've really looked at Twitter during the game.

I'm very conscious that match reports are a lot of work but I am singularly unqualified to be the lone voice - even if I do believe that I am right!!

Good to get a few LI views in too, even if I don't agree with them!

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Purebob
06/11/2011 23:24

Yeah a good review of a frustrating game.

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Ozzy3213
06/11/2011 23:27

Ah, we'll never all agree mate, I did our match report last week for our game against Bath and came in for some stick from a Bath fan for not giving them enough credit, despite prefacing my report by saying it was less of a match report and more my observations and musings as to where we went wrong.

It all seems a bit doom and gloom with some Tigers fans at the moment, but you lot will be there or thereabouts come the end of the season, I would expect a strong run from the New Year onwards once you have the likes of Allen and Manu back, and given the tight nature of the table this season, I suspect you will nick a play off place for about the millionth season in a row.

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Jon_r43
07/11/2011 02:48

PCPete

Agree a good way to do a match report See here for one I did for a game I didn't want to think to much about!!

Some interesting parallels to Saturday... Nick on Twitter not playing.... Will Greenwood excited by our opposition doing well!!

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Stopsy
07/11/2011 08:32

Many thanks JK.

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Duncan Keene
07/11/2011 10:13

A very accurate report. Well Done.

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Tiggs
14/11/2011 19:27

Cheers JK !!

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