Leicester Tigers
Gloucester v Tigers Match Preview
By ChrisC
October 22 2012
Crime & Punishment I’m not much given to profanity. That’s not to say that I never utter an oath in extremis but when I do I feel diminished and disappointed with myself. I despise the way profanity has become part of common vocabulary and must admit to morphing into Victor Meldrew when a television programme is gratuitously peppered with the foulest of obscenities.
As a young boy my nemesis was a lad called David with whom I scrapped endlessly and then one day he swore at me. It was a word that would probably not be considered an oath now but then it was and to me, the most wonderfully wicked thing to say.
All the way home the word echoed around my head until, while eating tea with my parents, I could contain it no longer and it burst, like Alien, from my mouth. The knives and forks of my parents froze in mid air and they, as one, turned to look at me in open mouthed shock. It was silent, very, very silent in our kitchen until my mother quietly asked where I’d heard such a word and when I said that it was at school she sternly commanded me never to use such a word again – ever!
The next day at school “the word” was in wide currency. It was so exciting to be part of such depravity as I luxuriated in the very sound of it and feel of it on my lips.
We lived in two rooms at the top of a three storey Victorian house which we shared with other families and it was possible, when standing in the hallway, to see all the way up the stairwell to the top floor. Filled with devilment and while standing in the hallway I called for my mother who duly appeared and, whilst still wiping her hands, peered over the balustrade. I then proceeded to shout “the word” at her not once, not twice but thrice, the stairwell, with sunlight slanting in through its landing windows, giving a superb echoing resonance. Then I ran for it.
As the end of the school day approached the enormity of what I’d done dawned and with it the image of my mother and what was likely in store for me when I got home. That day I was not the first out of class but instead dawdled and then intently studied the flora and fauna as I dragged out my homeward journey. Upon my belated arrival my mother greeted me but said nothing of my lateness merely asking about school but nothing was said of that morning’s incident.
That evening it was our turn with the bathroom that all the families shared and so instead of the usual ritual of the tin bath I was to be bathed in the vast enamel tub, the gas geyser had been lit, the hot water drawn and there I was, in all my pinkness, being ministered to by my mother.
Casually she asked that I stick out my tongue and when I obliged she struck as fast as a Cobra, grabbing it with the face flannel so it could not regain the sanctuary of my mouth. She then proceeded to anoint my tongue with English Mustard that she’d prepared earlier and secreted in readiness. My mouth was then forced shut and held so. My eyes watered. My nose ran. It was excruciating. After a short time I was released spluttering and coughing and my mother quietly said “I told you NOT to swear”. And I never did again, that is not until I was well into adulthood and even then never in front of my parents. Oddly though I love English Mustard.
Did the punishment fit the crime? I don’t know but it certainly had the desired effect.
As I write this Andy Hazell, Gloucester’s open side flanker, awaits his disciplinary hearing for his assault on Mont de Marsan’s Sebastien Ormaechea, after his coach; Nigel Davies, for some reason asked for a postponement. What is pretty sure is that the veteran Cherry & White won’t be taking any part in the match with Tigers next Saturday and at the moment he, like us, is waiting to see what punishment the ERC’s marsupial assizes hands down.
The last time I watched Gloucester was when they managed a six point victory over arch rivals Bath at Kingsholm, the home side having clawed their way out of deep trouble early on when Bath’s Stephen Donald scored a try within 32 seconds of the kick off by arcing around Nick Wood, who had belatedly arrived in the back line and leaving Billy Twelvetrees flat footed and gaping as Donald shot inside him en route to the try line.
Ex Osprey loose-head; Paul James made an awful mess of Rupert Harden for the visitors and the Cherry & Whites leaked scrum penalties as Mr Pearson, having his final but by no means his finest hour in charge of a Premiership match, pinged them.
In the first half Gloucester’s hugely talented back division, with the exception of senior citizen; James Simpson-Daniel, looked as if they were preparing their own show reels for You Tube as they ran into blind alleys and refused to pass so they could go for individual stardom and Freddie Burns’ kicking was poor, to add to his poor judgement and game management.
Then after half time when Nigel Davies had presumably threatened them with a Saturday night wearing drag in Gloucester’s Eastgate Street, the home side were transformed, they ran nice support lines, there were offloads, accurate kicking and all manner of goodies on display as they started playing as a team and at last put Bath under pressure after they had already lost some of their composure in the dying minutes of the first period of play.
Still though Gloucester struggled to break down the visitors until, in the fifty-first minute full back Rob Cook got a well constructed and executed debut Premiership try.
Since that sunlit Saturday Gloucester have been engaged in the junior European competition; the Amlin Cup where they are in second spot, in a pool with current leaders; London Irish, Bordeaux Begles and the aforementioned Mont de Marsan.
In the first match against Mont de Marsan the Cherry & Whites fielded a side missing many of the usual starters and squeezed home by 11 points to 6 while the following week a more familiar line up, with Twelvetrees at fly-half, saw off Bordeaux Begles by a more decisive 25 points to 13, getting a try bonus in the process.
Tigers meanwhile, having dealt summarily with Sale, got themselves in the soup in France and then got a bonus point win over their old rivals; the Ospreys, at Welford Road to confirm themselves as still very much in the mix for to head the pool with Treviso home and away next up followed by Toulouse having to visit Welford Road, while Tigers have the task of visiting Swansea.
Against Ospreys the Tigers’ front row had a fine old time and as a consequence got the benefit of a flush of penalties from Mr Poite who put in a good performance and certainly the best I’ve seen from any match official thus far this term.
Dan Cole especially made mincemeat of his opposite number, ably assisted by strong performances from Mulipola and Tom Youngs with Cole taking on the mantle of open side flanker at many of the breakdowns, an area where Tigers looked even more discommoded once he gave way to Castrogiovanni.
In my mind a starting trio has now emerged in Cole, Youngs and Mulipola with Castrogiovanni still looking for his scrummaging mojo and Ayerza needing doses of WD40 after his prolonged period of inactivity.
It’ll be interesting to see if Nigel Davies sticks with Australian born Harden to take on Mulipola as the Gloucester scrum looked more stable once he’d been replaced by young local lad Shaun Knight who looks to be a good prospect. I think that if there’s a question mark over Harden there’s unlikely to be over Australian Huia Edmonds who, like Harden, was very impressive in the loose although less so at the set piece where he was teamed with the ever reliable Nick Wood, who for long periods seemed to be the front row and if the home side’s scrum stabilised with the arrival of Knight the substituting of Wood with ex London Irish loose-head Dan Murphy had the opposite effect.
If, as I suspect, Davies keeps faith with Harden who’s already started five times in the Premiership this season and was a starter in all but two matches last year, and he doesn’t improve over his performance against Bath then I can see a distinct advantage for the visitors.
Young Tom Savage is getting plenty of game time for the Cherry & Whites this term and I expect the Essex born lock to again partner Tigers’ old boy Jim Hamilton in the second row. Skipper Hamilton is as feisty as ever and his frustration was palpable at times against Bath as his charges stuttered and fumbled and went off message. Savage is a very modern lock, mobile and athletic but it was when old timer Welshman Will James belatedly made an appearance that the Gloucester line out looked threatening and against the Tigers I wonder if there’s a temptation for Davies to give the veteran, who joined from Pontypridd way back in 2006, a start?
It was great to see Louis Deacon make his reappearance from various injuries and come through unscathed against the Ospreys. I am a great fan of the athletic Graham Kitchener but I’d like to see the grunt of Deacon at scrum time and his being partnered with England colleague Geoff Parling. There may be a pairing that are better readers of opposition strategy but I can’t think of them. Kitchener would, for me, be the perfect impact substitute once opposition defences tire and he can gallop at them like a demented cart horse. With Alex Brown missing since the first match of the season, when he went off injured against Northampton, the cerebral element of line out play is lessened for the hosts so here again I can see an edge for Tigers, especially as with Crane and Mafi likely to be again involved they have an enhanced presence.
With Tigers still denied the services of Julian Salvi and Richard Cockerill unprepared to deploy Thorpe the Tigers’ back row has a distinctly odd and unbalanced feel to it and, until he wore himself out, Ospreys’ Tipuric had it pretty much his own way at the breakdown last Sunday and once again lack of cover permitted a score from a breakdown when Ryan Jones took advantage to get a try before the crowd had wiped the beer froth from their faces.
In the probable starting trio of Steve Mafi, Jordan Crane and Thomas Waldrom, Tigers certainly have a combination that will carry the ball up and the same applies to Gloucester where ex Nottingham blind-side; Tongan Sione Kalamafoni looks set to become a Kingsholm favourite and will be facing his compatriot Mafi, who’ll be wearing one of those odd blue shirts. Kalamafoni is a real predator around the tackle area but like his colleagues; Fijian international Akapusi Qera and England’s Ben Morgan, is not of the get down and dirty variety of flanker in the Andy Hazell, Julian Salvi mould. It’s maybe instructive that Gloucester’s top ball stealer is one Billy Twelvetrees who outperforms his back row colleagues.
I can therefore see plenty of running and boshing from the respective back rows but that the breakdown will be a scrappy, loose affair and hence a lottery, so the Gloucester forwards will need to get round the back of defensive rucks with more despatch than they did against Bath.
At scrum half young Dan Robson has been getting the nod from Nigel Davies ahead of stalwart Dave Lewis and now that fifty-one time All Black Jimmy Cowan, having made his first start for Gloucester against Bordeaux Begles, has had his Premiership debut as a replacement against Bath, I expect Lewis’s appearances on the team sheet will be limited. Cowan has been round the block and back so there’s shed loads of experience.
Too early to judge how he’ll fare in the Premiership for as we know not all southern hemisphere players find their skills entirely and immediately transferrable and there’s not an All Black back row to lend a hand but in any event Ben Youngs will be looking forward to having such an experienced adversary.
Tigers’ supporters will have been relieved to see that presumably the Toulouse gendarmerie had located where the gang that had kidnapped Tigers’ half backs had stashed them and secured their release, the two imposters that played against Toulouse hopefully under lock and key in some French dungeon never to be seen again.
The real Ben Youngs was clearly glad to have been released and put on a good display. Some of his passing was still wild enough that Toby Flood had to do an audition for 20/20 cricket but it was a good performance, though Man of The Match was over egging it a bit for me.
Toby Flood, another released detainee, also had a better afternoon with the faster service from Youngs, who eradicated much of the Strictly Come Dancing business before he passed to his England half-back partner. Flood’s kicking was excellent and his interception try, executed to perfection, shows what a key role Tony Allen plays, Flood’s post match interview crediting his inside centre colleague with the analysis and call that enabled Flood to grab the glory of Allen’s brain work.
Against Bath Burns was not at all himself and can by turn be sublime and silly and in the first half he and his partner at inside centre; Billy Twelvetrees, now shorn of his trademark flowing locks, were so self absorbed that such attacking opportunities as there were, against an outstanding Bath defence, came to naught as they ran down cul-de-sacs rather than release the splendid Henry Trinder who, once he got some ball later on, again showed what an outstanding talent he is.
It will be fascinating to watch Flood and Burns, the pretender to Flood’s England shirt, probing away at each other and displaying their kicking prowess. If both sets of half-backs are on form then my money is on the England national duo, behind what I think will be another strong performance from their forwards, getting the best of things.
No less fascinating will be the contest between Twelvetrees and his old mentor at Tigers; Tony Allen, who will be relishing his return to Kingsholm, where he first came to prominence as much as will Twelvetrees to be facing his erstwhile colleagues and showing them what they’re missing.
In the second half against Bath Twelvetrees, one horrid missed tackle on Donald aside, put on a good show and got Trinder and his outside backs in to play. Allen was everywhere for Tigers against the Ospreys and in addition to designing Flood’s try he made a stunning off load in the tackle to see Tuilagi over for his first of the afternoon. Were Allen more of the “look at me, look at me” type of player he would be lauded from the rooftops, as it is he quietly gets on with his business for Tigers as he did once upon a time for Gloucester, where he’s still a favourite son.
Tuilagi looked sharp but he wasn’t in the mood for passing the ball once he got it however he took his two tries with great aplomb, showing that he’s coming back to form.
Charlie Sharples has been injured and after a bit of a pipe opener in the Amlin, when he nabbed a brace of tries, he’ll be on parade against Tigers. Given the threat that his presence will provide I’d like to see Matt Smith, the architect of Youngs’ try when he turned a speculative hack by Waldrom into great ball for Mafi to feed to Youngs, bring his defensive prowess to bear against the big Gloucester winger as I don’t see that Goneva brings anything to the party that Smith doesn’t and the Fijian’s defence does give me conniptions at times.
With James Simpson-Daniel in compelling form and sure to be on the other wing defence will again be a big driver in Tigers’ selection and with Morris doing nothing wrong and defensively sound I can see that he’ll get another start. At full back Geordan Murphy can’t be far away from being fit and while Crane is growing into the captaincy role the re-emergence of Murphy would be a welcome fillip.
Ollie Morgan is reportedly still on crutches and continues, like Tigers’ Mat Tait, to have his career blighted by injury and with Jonny May also on the injured list ex Cornish Pirate Rob Cook made his third consecutive Premiership start and celebrated with his debut Premiership try.
The twenty-eight year old Lincoln born full back looks splendid coming forward and with both Simpson-Daniel and Sharples joining him in the Gloucester back three it would very unwise for Tigers to engage in any of the hapless kicking we see at times, one of which from Ben Youngs early on last Sunday, started the sequence of play that led swiftly to Ospreys quick-fire try.
Kingsholm is, like Welford Road, an extraordinarily difficult place to visit but, also like Welford Road, away teams can harvest wins and I have an odd feeling that this weekend may be one of those occasions.
Digg
Delicious
Facebook
Reddit
Stumbleupon22/10/2012 20:14
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012:10:29:22:20:45 by Tiggs.
That said isn't about time we went on a run of try bonus point games?
Castro Youngs Ayerza
Deacon parling
Mafi crane Waldrom
Youngs
Flood
Smith
Allen
Tuilagi
Hamilton
Murphy.
Subs
Chuter
Logo
Cole
Kitchener
Thorpe or deacon
Harrison
Ford
Goneva
And then add in
Salvi, Young, Murphy
More Leicester Tigers headlines
- All the Latest Tigers News From Around the World
- All the Latest Tigers News From Around the World
- All the Latest Tigers News from around the World
- All the Latets Tigers News From Around the World
- All the Latest Tigers News From Around the World
- All the Latest Tigers News From Around the World
- All the Latest Tigers News From Around the World
- All the Latest Tigers News From Around the World
- All the Latest Tigers News from Around the World