Sale Sharks 13 Leicester Tigers 34

By Whaley Shark
October 29 2011

 Ooooh! They’re cunning those Tigers are. Spend the first half playing like they can’t really be bothered, let us have just enough of a half time lead to think we might win, then come out in the second half and blow us away. The Whaley Shark watched the wheels come off...... 

It was pretty obvious that a Premiership game against Tigers, bolstered by their World Cup returners, was going to be our first chance to see where we really stand in the pecking order. And the first half gave some grounds for optimism though, with hindsight, there were perhaps some hairline cracks which were later to become gaping chasms. Tigers pretty much dominated possession in the first ten minutes and where we had the chance to relieve the pressure it didn’t quite work- a missed penalty to touch, not straight at a lineout- and eventually Tigers got off the mark with a Flood penalty.

We then started to think we could compete by playing a looser, more adventurous game. One of Rob Miller’s express train runs was just stopped by last ditch Tigers’ defending, the forwards took it on, but we were held up over the line, Tigers won the 5 metre scrum and that was the end of that move. Casual defence by Tigers, dealing slowly with a well judged Dwayne Pell grubber in the corner, almost let Tom Brady in, but the TMO said ‘No’. Wame Lewaravu charged down a ponderous Leicester 22 dropout, a scrambling Tiger knocked on and we won an easily kickable penalty at the scrum. Good forward play at the restart took us to the Tigers ten metre line, Tigers offended again and Nick Macleod slotted a long range kick from wide on the left to take us into a 6-3 lead after almost half an hour.

Leicester started to respond, recycling the ball for phase after phase but actually being driven 20 metres backwards by some top quality defence. Eventually, however, the Tigers made ground, built a real threat on the left, lost the ball and we hacked in far down the pitch. The last defender was penalised for holding, and a quick tap penalty put Tom Brady over in the left corner. That was the last significant action of the half and, with the successful conversion, we went in 13-3 ahead.

Tigers started the second half with a good deal more purpose (have we managed to strip the blistered paint off the Away changing room walls yet?), setting up two penalty shots, one successful, in the first ten minutes. Tigers continued to build pressure, but eventually won a lineout on our 22, rolled the maul forward and spun the ball right to the largest of all Tuilagis, who scored under the posts. Flood’s conversion tied the scores.

We were still plugging away at this point, but the ball went loose as we attacked 35 metres out, Leicester put it into touch in the corner, pinched our lineout, and steamrollered over for a try by Castrogiovanni. From the restart they built another attack and, while the first rush was just kept out, Toby Flood nipped through a gap for Tigers’ third try. We then had a bit of a flurry, but to no purpose, and back came Tigers again. We lost a lineout 35 metres out and Tigers cut through our defence to put Ayerza over for the bonus point try. That was basically it- blown away by four tries in 12 minutes, our heads seemed to have dropped and, although we finished the match in Tigers’ half, we lacked our first half fire.

Until I wrote this, I must admit that I hadn’t appreciated just how abruptly the game was taken away from us. We were in it for an hour, then dead and buried not much more than ten minutes later. We never had the level of control that Tigers did so, whether in the loose, the scrum or the lineout, there was always a risk of error, and when we made one, Tigers pounced. As we fell further behind, we started to lose our heads and the match spiralled out of control. While our scrum was never strong, it hung in there, at least for the first half, but the lineout seemed to go horribly wrong. Without set piece ball, we were living on scraps and trying to play sevens rugby, which was never going to work out well.

On reflection, I think this result was always on the cards. Tigers, badly needing to put their Premiership campaign back on track, put out a strong and experienced side, while we looked like what we are- a work in progress. We ought to learn a lot from this, not least what it takes to compete seriously at the top of the Premiership. We’ve had a good start to the campaign and have more points in the bank than we could reasonably have expected, but we must put it properly into context and can’t let this derail us. Tigers will wallop better sides than us before the season’s over, while we will meet few tougher opponents. One of those will be Sarries next weekend and, having earned a passout, I am making the trek down to Vicarage Road. So watch this space.....

My Man of the Match- Dave Seymour, who gave his all, even when the cause was obviously lost.