Beziers seek revenge

By Mike Hill
December 12 2002

Last weekends enjoyable victory is but the first of a Gallic double-header with Beziers returning to Welford Road on Saturday. That result provided a much-needed boost after the demoralising loss of the home record to the Saints.

How much we can read into Saturday's victory is uncertain. Whilst we were undoubtedly much improved on the woeful showings against Northampton and London Irish I'm still not convinced everything is as hunky dory as the coaches are telling everyone. The defence has been tightened up considerably but the backs still lacked fluency going forward. The final score line of 24 - 12 flattered us since for most of the game the two sides were relatively evenly matched.

One player to look out for in the return leg is the quick silver scrum half and captain Mignoni who made some incisive breaks only to run out of support. His starting half back partner Dubois was less impressive and it is a surprise he is favoured over the Argentinian Quesada.

Beziers are famous in France for a pack as hard as granite that could out scrummage any side. Sadly for them that was back in the Seventies but the forward-dominated ethos lives on albeit slightly tarnished. On the evidence of last weekend despite a solid scrummage they are living in the past and need to improve their lineout and tactical kicking if they are to beat us.

The French line out wasn't helped by the loss of international hooker Sebastien Bruno and lock Thibaut Privat before half time. Once they had departed Corry, Johnson and Deacon had things all their own way. Given their fair share of luck Beziers could give us some real problems, Tigers need to up the tempo somewhat and get Murphy et al running into space more often.

The Beziers backs seemed uncertain at first, which turned to blind panic as Freddie short armed them into submission. A couple of times he was lucky not to be sent off but he was certainly effective. Ollie Smith enjoyed a fine game and completely outplayed the French centre pair.

Calvisano beating Neath in Italy has certainly made our forthcoming trip there more interesting but should Tigers do the double over Beziers we will be well on our way to a home quarterfinal. Tigers showed glimpses of form in France let's hope they can progress further this week and put in a really good performance.

My selection in the backs would be to play Austin at nine, Vesty at ten, Stimpson in from the cold at full back and Freddie replaced by Raynor at half time once the French have been softened up a bit.

A warm welcome to any French supporters who are making the trip