By Tigerstart
February 3 2003

A group of hardy souls gathered at Welford Road for this U21 clash with our traditional rivals but phones all over the Crumbie Terrace kept us in touch with the first team down at Bath.

The Tigers Cubs felt the power of enthusiasm from the terraces as U21-virgin Zara (Dippy) vocally came to her first game at Welford Road. I would say that she is loud, but I am sure that they could hear her at The Walkers Bowl.

It was certainly a Danny Hipkiss show, as the Leicester centre displayed a clean pair of heels in an enthralling and combative game, that Tigers won 20-16. The U21s maintained their exemplify record and head their League Championship, clearly streets ahead of their closest competition. The main team even added to the luxury of getting one over our closest rivals, as Murphy secured a try late in the game to secure a tight, but ever so pleasing, 15-8 victory over Bath.

Bath came out fighting hard from the kick-off. Tigers missed an early opportunity to pop a penalty over. Bath drove a maul, cleverly, and recycled possession but Tigers held firm. Tigers scrum-half Rolt put in an impressive performance, as he as he dictated the forwards and released quick ball. After a lineout on Tiger’s line, Rolt slapped on the thighs of his forwards as he made them heave down the field. In the 13th minute, Bath were awarded a penalty just inside Tigers 22 but they slotted it wide.

Bath continued to take the game by the scruff of the neck, as the ball was passed down the line to the quick winger Oniyidi-Frampton. Bath were awarded a penalty in front of the posts, which full-back Kingdom slotted over in the 17th minute. An impressive piece of play saw Rolt release quick ball through fly-half Taylor and his inside pass to Hipkiss gave him the space to break from mid-field to score in the left hand corner. Taylor added the conversion in the 19th minute to lead 7-3. Taylor, who normally plays full-back, controlled the game comfortably from NO.10 aided by an on-the-ball scrum-half. In the 25th minute, Bath chose to kick their penalty and opt for a lineout, but the ever-so sneaky Cubs turned over possession and cleared the pressure.

One of the key members of the front-row, Holford stormed over for a try in the 36th minute, which Taylor converted to extend Tigers lead to 14-3. Despite Bath being awarded a penalty as Tigers ball went forward and Bath’s winger charging down field, they could not breach Tigers strong defence. In injury time, Leicester’s penalty was worked well down the backline through Holtby and Sayer cleared his lines before the half time whistle.

The second-half saw a handbag scuffle where Abraham was sinbinned. Bath slotted over the penalty to narrow the score to 14-6. Tigers were awarded a penalty, which Taylor kicked for a lineout, and after a drive by the pack down the field, Taylor’s foresight exploited the West Country defence as he set up a lineout in the corner. In the 49th minute, Tigers had a penalty in front of the posts, as Bath came in from the side of the maul and Taylor extended Leicester’s lead to 17-6. Tigers missed an opportunity to cement the scoreline, as Hipkiss broke from midfield, went to ground and recycled possession, but with an overlap Tigers couldn’t score.

After a break by the Bath, lock Pendlebury touched down to narrow the scoreline to 17-11. Bath’s other lock, Hudson, had an injury scare and was stretched off, but thankfully it was not serious. Tigers scrummed down, but were penalised. Bath’s handling was poor, so Tigers played their advantage but their handling let them down as Rolt’s pass to Myring was poor. Abraham was held at a lineout, so Tigers gained a penalty, which they kicked and Bath retaliated by running ball but Myring stole the show by exposing Bath’s defence. Myring added a sweetly struck penalty in the 79th minute to settle any nerves. However, in injury time Tigers defence was breached a Johnson scored in the right hand corner.

The referee could just be heard saying,"I never used to have this trouble reffing that nice Mr. Cockerill down here

Razcal having seen the Bath U21s give us a good game and fearing mass sackings of their first team following relegation put his thoughts forward that “the Bath players would be playing first team Division One rugby at Orrell next season” (shouted out form the terraces, just some friendly banter in typically cool Raz-style).

Post-match interviews were conducted around the ABC bar, where the reporting team encamped themselves in the corner of the bar, waiting to lure unsuspecting players/coaches into their possie. U21s coach Dust Hare explained: “we were a bit disappointing, as we had not played together as a side since 7th December.” Despite a 20-16 win, Hare felt that: “we defended very well and we got the points to win the game. However, Bath looked more hungry out on the pitch”.

Lock Lee “hello girls” Morley put his thoughts forward to TT: “Credit to the team, we did enough to win, as we had the winning edge but we have only had a few training sessions together, recently”. Opposition winger, Victor Oniyidi-Frampton, commented that: “it was a very competitive and physical game, which was my first for a long time. We felt they could take Tigers out in the second half but Tigers had a very good back row, which took us out instead”. The most intriguing take on the day was Victor’s end line: “Always a good game, as there’s lots of history”.

First teamer Harry “Hazza” Ellis put his thoughts forward to an intrigued message board possie, up-dating us on his injury, as he has just had a knee operation where his kneecap had shifted around and that he was looking to be back in about 4 weeks time, currently undergoing plenty of rehabilitation. “The U21s grinded out a hard fought, physical game. Hipkiss played a very good game (likewise reflected in the jury panel’s decision to award him man-of-the-match) and Taylor controlled the game well. Bath came back with a very lucky try but the U21s held on to victory”.

The rising superiority of the Tiger Cubs was maintained and their popularity continues to soar, especially in the eyes of Hazza, where “the true fans” flock to watch the un-precedented victorious U21s. Tigers victory demonstrated the ideal platform for a team to work off with a Taylor commanding and Rolt dictating the game. Yet again the pack combined well and the backs opted to run the spread the ball wide, as well as the whole team being defensively strong. In particular, Hipkiss was everywhere in play, under rucks and mauls and endlessly breaking from midfield, and he thoroughly deserved the MOTM award, and in Raz’s words “was a class above the rest – why isn’t he playing in the main team?”

Scoring sequence:

17 mins Bath pen scored by Kingdom 0-3

19 mins Tigers try by Hipkiss and con by Taylor 7-3

36 mins Tigers try by Holford and con by Taylor 14-3

44 mins Bath pen by Kingdom 14-6

49 mins Tigers pen by Taylor 17-6

63 mins Bath try by Pendlebury 17-11

79 mins Tigers pen by Myring 20-11

83 mins Bath try by Johnson 20-16

Date: Saturday 1st February 2003 Time: 2.30pm k/o

Weather: Sunny, blue sky but a freezing cold air (just ask TT as her hands typing were red raw and Zara couldn’t keep still on the terraces)

Crowd: 250 brave souls (who cheered like crazy when the score was announced over the tannoy from the Rec)

Ref: Don Hale (Mr. Trigger happy with the whistle)

Man-of-the-match: Danny “posh kid” Hipkiss as judged by the match reporting team

Sin-bin: 43 mins Luke Abraham

Match reporting team: TT, Razcal, Inkworm, Zara, Pinky and Pinky’s dad

Tigers team: 15 Luke Sayer 14 Yomi Akinyemi 13 Steve Glitherow 12 Danny “posh kid” Hipkiss 11 John Holtby 10 Tim Taylor 9 Will Rolt 1 Peter Cook 2 James Buckland 3 Michael Holford (CAPT) 4 Tom Ryder 5 Lee “hello girls” Morley 6 Sam Raven 7 Ben Gerry 8 Luke Abraham Reps: Luke Myring (67 mins on for 10 Taylor), Adam Billig, David Jackson (75 mins on for 3 Buckland), Alex Loney (75 mins on for 9 Rolt), Matt Hampson (58 mins on for 4 Ryder), Rob Cooke (50 mins on for 3 Holford), Peter Clarke (67 mins on for 6 Raven).

Bath team: 15 Gary Kingdom 14 Victor Oniyidi-Frampton 13 Alex Crockett 12 Jemba Bull 11 Pat Johnson 10 Gareth Knox 9 Hadyn Thomas 1 James Graham 2 Matt Parfitt 3 Matt Stevens 4 Jonathon Pendlebury 5 James Hudosn 6 Wayne Sprangle 7 James Scaysbrook 8 Josh Lord Reps: Simon Cole, Joe Waterman, Adrain Hales, Steve Salvin, Ceri Jones, Matt Hastings, Rob Hawkins

Team P W D L F A BP P Leicester Tigers 11 11 0 0 391 148 9 53 Newcastle 12 8 1 3 301 202 8 42 Bath 14 8 0 6 343 278 8 40 Gloucester 10 8 1 1 292 140 4 38 Sale Jets 10 7 0 3 284 205 4 32 Bristol Shoguns 12 6 0 6 368 223 8 32 London Wasps 12 5 0 7 296 301 8 28 Worcester 14 4 0 10 300 424 8 24 NEC Harlequins 11 4 0 7 205 330 4 20 Northampton Saints 11 3 0 8 237 323 4 16 London Irish 10 2 0 8 192 320 4 12 Saracens 9 1 0 8 94 409 1 5