Tigers aim to get back on track

By Stopsy
October 2 2002

So who is it going to be this week? The team that managed to get it together against Harlequins and dismantled Newcastle or the team that has failed to fire on three occasions on the road?

Bath’s lack of try scoring to date would indicate that they are not firing on all cylinders behind the scrum and the forwards from the little I know of them, are still gelling into a unit.

The recipe should be the same for Bath as for Newcastle, Moody will be missed at the restarts. Get possession, keep it, go for territory (Stimmo – please wear your best boots), keep it calm, don’t throw the ball away because we can’t get through them at the first few attempts. Try taking them on in the centre as well as flinging the ball wide.

Backy must start but in the absence of Mad-Eye we could consider using Short at 6, do you remember blind side flankers? I wasn’t at the match on Sunday but Will Johnson didn’t get too many mentions.

If Austin is back and with Rod alongside to calm him down a bit then we should see a good return. Who at scrum half? Tom was injured and had a pretty torrid time on Sunday, Harry should start. Will we see Leon back? I hope so, I want to see some penetration from the centres (yes Chris, I’d like to see him pass as well!)

The only solace I can take from those three away losses is that the result came of us playing badly rather than playing well. Let’s pray we play like we know we can and send Bath back down the motorway with nothing from their previous 6 games against us except a memory of how sporting the crowd were.

Now where’s that dog got to?