High Points and Low Points of the season
By Rich W
August 10 2006
Just a list – in no particular order – of my high points and low points of the season. Ok bad news first… Low points: Away form – improving towards the end of the year – but poor overall.
Newcastle home and away – discipline – need I say more? If two games this year highlighted our appalling disciplinary problem – well these two baby…they were the ones. Simply awful!
The new away shirt – neither stripy nor green, white and scarlet – not a Tigers shirt – yuk!
The ongoing awful beer at WR. Why, pray tell, can Northampton, Gloucester and Bath all provide a half decent drop of real ale (ok in Saints case only just half-decent…but y’know) and we can’t. Get it sorted Tigers!
Pressure games – that’s 0 for 5 in the last two seasons and 0 for 3 this term. For a team that used to have more mental strength than any other – this is just unacceptable. If this one eyed aging correspondent thinks he knows what the problems are then surely the great and the good at Welford Road must do.
Quality rugby – or rather lack of it. Too many changes between and during games, uncertain, nebulous ambitions and a general lack of intensity. For the first year since professionalism the standard of rugby played at Tigers and across the Premiership has declined. Remember the story about the goose that laid the golden egg – don’t kill it! Quality entertainment on the pitch is what we need to grow – not extraneous competitions and matches, legal wrangles and exhausted players.
Oh and while we’re on it – legal wrangles – if there’s so much money in the sport that we can afford to give it to the lawyers then lets get rid of that perennial gripe – the salary cap. Capische?
The Walker’s Stadium – not a rugby ground – never will be – give it up! Huge queues for lousy beer from horrible ‘bars’; dreadful performance on the tannoy; matched only by a dreadful lack of noise from we fans and one of the most clueless performances on the pitch for many a year. Shame we managed another one a couple of months later! This is a low one!
Twickenham! Two years out of two we’ve gone to HQ in the so-called Championship Final and failed to turn up – at least this year I didn’t pay for the dubious honour of going – but it didn’t make it any easier to watch. I don’t much care about winning the pay-off final – but if we’re playing I like to see Tigers perform – and they didn’t!
Anything to do with England – ‘nuff said.
And finally:
Giving the Swan & Rushes another chance after the Walkers Stadium debacle having walked out in October determined that it was the last time I would wait over 25 minutes to be served in there because they had failed to anticipate that a Tigers game might involve an upturn in their Friday night trade – this after running out of beer more than twice in previous weeks. SO there I am thoroughly down-hearted at the awfulness of Tigers performance giving it another go because it’s closer than Out of the Vaults – and they’ve no staff and are running out of beer! Damnit! Fool me once – shame on you. Fool me twice…you get my drift!
Ok – not all bad news…
High Points:
Tom Varndell – well he had to be in it. Maybe not the finished article yet but hat-tricks and hand-offs the boy is a joy to watch – so long as he doesn’t get man and ball – qv England!
Deano back at WR – without getting too much into the rights and wrongs and the whys and wherefores of it all – good to see him again.
Shane Jennings: OK we may still be struggling to replace Backy’s roll as Johnno’s 1st Lieut but the Irishman has at least made sure that Backy’s loss on the pitch hasn’t been felt. Outstanding debut season – my God they must have some good loosies in Ireland!
The A-team – champions again. Well done guys. Passion and flair and a willingness to try things, playing with freedom and expression. Where the senior game has been dull and dour this has been the complete opposite. Now to transfer some of that to the seniors.
Northampton away: from the pre-match music (on a sound system that works) to the half decent beer and the nail-biting climax – what a good evening out – especially in the local afterwards with all the village Saints fans eating humble pie – ah! One of the few really outstanding games of the season.
Matt Hampson! OK serious here for a minute. The lad is quite simply a star, to have gone through so much and come out so positive – he’s twice the man I’ll ever be and I’m not ashamed to admit that there was a tear in my eye at the Walkers when they said he was in the crowd. If his accident was tragic then his battle with adversity is nothing short of an inspiration; uplifting and humbling. Definitely a high point! Good luck Hambo!
The new home shirt – stripey, green, red and white – a proper shirt – ooooohhh lovely! Hurrah!
Ten minutes of brilliance against Stade Francais. What a try Louis Deacon; what a recovery of composure Andy Goode; what a finish! Hairs on the back of my neck; screamed myself hoarse; emotionally drained – everything, the whole nine yards! Wow!
Pat Howard – the jury may still be out on his efficacy as a head coach and the Tigers structure may well not be the one to get the best from him but the fact that he’s staying another year gives us a period of stability, albeit brief, in which to plan for the future. Good news…if the planning gets done!
Another year of underachievement by Newcastle, Sarries and B**h. When you look at them you start to think that second ain’t so bad!
Black 125th Anniversary shirts – nice, stylish.
Agreement on the purchase of the ground etc from LCC – at last – progress towards a redeveloped Welford Road.
The demotion of Andy Robinson – and he’s still too dull to see it for what it is!
And finally the rabble that I stand with and drink with every week. Thanks guys for making every week a high point!