Pace vs Power
By RichW
April 27 2010
Let’s be honest we’d all like a little more of both, but in simple terms this was a game in which the inevitability of ‘power’ won out as rugby method. From the moment that flanker Asaeli Boko embarrassed Grieg (Nymphadora) Tonks by brushing aside his feeble tackle en route to the opening try; to the moment that Sarries’ vaunted England hopeful Noah Cato was induced to sit down by the rampaging
Manu Tuilagi (get this man a work permit!); to a dubious penalty try awarded, by a man they had, I assume, invited in off the street to officiate but which came as a consequence of another dominant display of scrummaging power by Julian (this is what I do on my night off) White alongside Joe Duffey and Robbie Harris; to the swarming straight-jacket imposed by a Tigers back-row given the freedom of the pitch by their front-five, this was a game in which pace and subtley were shown to be the lesser facets of our sport.
In Richard Haughton Sarries had the fastest man on the pitch though Lucas Amorosino might run him close, but it was a new physicality in Lucas’ game that most impressed. Whilst Moses Rauluni and Jake Sharp tried to keep Haughton, Cato and another big unit Kameli Ratuvou on the front foot it was thir inability to commit Tigers defenders that saw them fail to break through again. There may have once been concerns about Lucas’ physicality but the way he battled last night, making his own tackles and bursting out through two would be tacklers as he tried to counter with scrappy ball from deep will have convinced many that this is no longer a concern.
Even in wunderkind Twelvetrees it was the physical power of his game that most told. If occasionally he seemd to be trying too hard, he was a beast to put down and if I might have rather he ran at the space more often, with the ball in both hands, he punched the sort of holes that kept Sarries on the back foot for long periods and he has a hand off like a thunderclap. One could still see though why he is not quite ready for regular fist team action.
I’d not seen George Ford before. I have to ‘fess up’ as the vernacular has it. This was mine and the Mem’s first A-League fixture of the season. Events have conspired against us and so we have not managed our usual handful of games. What struck me most about this lad was how little willingness he seemed to have to attack. He had good ball much of the time but seemed unwilling to take it up to the line himself, where pace and subtlety can offer as much as power. He seemed largely content to be merely a conduit along which ball might travel to his bigger team-mates and at times appeared to be confused and prone to panic. Perhaps that is something for him still to learn if he is to realise his undoubted potential. He is however, like Tonks and Twelvetrees posessed of the most god-almighty-huge-boot which we saw come into increasing effect late on as Tigers, having established a lead through the afforementioned penalty try and a scintilating burst from a sharp looking Danny Hipkiss when he came on to replace Julian (some dodgy deal done with Sarries on his eligibility) put a series of howitzer like nudges behind and increasingly despiring Sarries back three.
As one of those near me suggested, despite him looking like he’s 8 stone wet through he’s brave in defence; not necessarily always effective but never shirking the work. The contrast with another young English 10, now Australia bound, was stark.
But, lest we overstate this, giving the impression that this was a plodding effort by the Tigers second string set on strangling the life out of Saracens Storm (no really!) it was far from it. Captain Ben Pienaar and his back row of the hugely impressive, returning Ben Woods and (new to me) Ed Slater were dynamic – far quicker about the park than their opposite numbers, allying pace to a brutality that did much to match the visitors tempo and to marr their structure and ambition. There were moments of subtlety too: a delightful off-loading exchange between the forwards and Sam Vesty’s beautifully weighted pass to open up the space for Hipkiss’ tryscoring burst. And there were in truth moments of chaos as Vesty, his form showing signs of returning just in time to leave us, Ford and Twelvetrees all sang periodically from different pages allowing the Sarries counter-attacking ambitions hope. But even on the counter pace failed to trunp the power of the home side’s game and as the evening wore on the visitors ball retention deserted them as the sheer force of the Tigers’ produced handling errors.
By midway through the second half there was only one winner in it as the power of the home sides game took near complete control. Hipkiss’ try ended it by opening up an 9 point gap and with Vesty’s drop-goal (can anyone remember the last time Sam dropped a goal?) stretching the lead to 12 the contest was over.
It was a good evening – and not even ruined by the, frankly, appalling man in the middle. His random distribution of penalties appeared to be based on trying to use them all up – one at a time - but only once each mind! The break down was an utter shambles with the lottery method largely identifying the wrong side in a display of unease with anything resembling competition for the ball such as I have rarely seen. It took him over 70 minutes to ping either side for diving off their feet, and whilst Sarries probably had better luck with his guesswork given their less aggressive approach to the ruck, they must have been astonished when they received such a penalty – both sides having until that point flopped, careered, collapsed and hurled themselves into every ruck with impunity. A magnificent swan-dive by Manu being a personal favourite of mine! The penalty try awarded to Leicester was a nonsense with a try nothing like probable at that juncture and the yellow card for Sam Harrison extraordinary, given the number of other off the ball incidents he chose to let pass. Oh and then there was the ‘anyone for tennis’ moment as he blew up early for a kick to touch that clearly fell short whilst his assistant’s flag stayed down. His response? Play a ‘let’. Have another go! I don’t know his name – I don’t want to! I just don’t want to see him officiate again!
That we wouldn’t mind having some of the pace of a Haughton is true but I’d rather know I was going to have the ball and the most incisive moments of the night came from the Tigers and a little more patience from the midfield would probably have reulted in a greater reward for the pressure created.
Given the relative narrowness of our pitch and the contraints of the salary cap it’s easy to see where the premium is for Leicester but last night it was also easy to see where the relative quality of the two teams was. Whilst there was some pace in the Sarries quality back-line it was neutralised and eventually overwhelmed by the quality of Leicester’s power game.
One might observe ‘twas ever thus’!
In Richard Haughton Sarries had the fastest man on the pitch though Lucas Amorosino might run him close, but it was a new physicality in Lucas’ game that most impressed. Whilst Moses Rauluni and Jake Sharp tried to keep Haughton, Cato and another big unit Kameli Ratuvou on the front foot it was thir inability to commit Tigers defenders that saw them fail to break through again. There may have once been concerns about Lucas’ physicality but the way he battled last night, making his own tackles and bursting out through two would be tacklers as he tried to counter with scrappy ball from deep will have convinced many that this is no longer a concern.
Even in wunderkind Twelvetrees it was the physical power of his game that most told. If occasionally he seemd to be trying too hard, he was a beast to put down and if I might have rather he ran at the space more often, with the ball in both hands, he punched the sort of holes that kept Sarries on the back foot for long periods and he has a hand off like a thunderclap. One could still see though why he is not quite ready for regular fist team action.
I’d not seen George Ford before. I have to ‘fess up’ as the vernacular has it. This was mine and the Mem’s first A-League fixture of the season. Events have conspired against us and so we have not managed our usual handful of games. What struck me most about this lad was how little willingness he seemed to have to attack. He had good ball much of the time but seemed unwilling to take it up to the line himself, where pace and subtlety can offer as much as power. He seemed largely content to be merely a conduit along which ball might travel to his bigger team-mates and at times appeared to be confused and prone to panic. Perhaps that is something for him still to learn if he is to realise his undoubted potential. He is however, like Tonks and Twelvetrees posessed of the most god-almighty-huge-boot which we saw come into increasing effect late on as Tigers, having established a lead through the afforementioned penalty try and a scintilating burst from a sharp looking Danny Hipkiss when he came on to replace Julian (some dodgy deal done with Sarries on his eligibility) put a series of howitzer like nudges behind and increasingly despiring Sarries back three.
As one of those near me suggested, despite him looking like he’s 8 stone wet through he’s brave in defence; not necessarily always effective but never shirking the work. The contrast with another young English 10, now Australia bound, was stark.
But, lest we overstate this, giving the impression that this was a plodding effort by the Tigers second string set on strangling the life out of Saracens Storm (no really!) it was far from it. Captain Ben Pienaar and his back row of the hugely impressive, returning Ben Woods and (new to me) Ed Slater were dynamic – far quicker about the park than their opposite numbers, allying pace to a brutality that did much to match the visitors tempo and to marr their structure and ambition. There were moments of subtlety too: a delightful off-loading exchange between the forwards and Sam Vesty’s beautifully weighted pass to open up the space for Hipkiss’ tryscoring burst. And there were in truth moments of chaos as Vesty, his form showing signs of returning just in time to leave us, Ford and Twelvetrees all sang periodically from different pages allowing the Sarries counter-attacking ambitions hope. But even on the counter pace failed to trunp the power of the home side’s game and as the evening wore on the visitors ball retention deserted them as the sheer force of the Tigers’ produced handling errors.
By midway through the second half there was only one winner in it as the power of the home sides game took near complete control. Hipkiss’ try ended it by opening up an 9 point gap and with Vesty’s drop-goal (can anyone remember the last time Sam dropped a goal?) stretching the lead to 12 the contest was over.
It was a good evening – and not even ruined by the, frankly, appalling man in the middle. His random distribution of penalties appeared to be based on trying to use them all up – one at a time - but only once each mind! The break down was an utter shambles with the lottery method largely identifying the wrong side in a display of unease with anything resembling competition for the ball such as I have rarely seen. It took him over 70 minutes to ping either side for diving off their feet, and whilst Sarries probably had better luck with his guesswork given their less aggressive approach to the ruck, they must have been astonished when they received such a penalty – both sides having until that point flopped, careered, collapsed and hurled themselves into every ruck with impunity. A magnificent swan-dive by Manu being a personal favourite of mine! The penalty try awarded to Leicester was a nonsense with a try nothing like probable at that juncture and the yellow card for Sam Harrison extraordinary, given the number of other off the ball incidents he chose to let pass. Oh and then there was the ‘anyone for tennis’ moment as he blew up early for a kick to touch that clearly fell short whilst his assistant’s flag stayed down. His response? Play a ‘let’. Have another go! I don’t know his name – I don’t want to! I just don’t want to see him officiate again!
That we wouldn’t mind having some of the pace of a Haughton is true but I’d rather know I was going to have the ball and the most incisive moments of the night came from the Tigers and a little more patience from the midfield would probably have reulted in a greater reward for the pressure created.
Given the relative narrowness of our pitch and the contraints of the salary cap it’s easy to see where the premium is for Leicester but last night it was also easy to see where the relative quality of the two teams was. Whilst there was some pace in the Sarries quality back-line it was neutralised and eventually overwhelmed by the quality of Leicester’s power game.
One might observe ‘twas ever thus’!
Pace vs Power
Posted by: TheLeicesterTigers.co.uk (IP Logged)
Date: 27/04/2010 16:25
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Re: Pace vs Power
Posted by: TigerChick (IP Logged)
Date: 27/04/2010 16:26
A big thank you to RichW!
Will update the site with news stories and reports. Supporting the Tigers fans community
Email me via tigerchick "at" ymail "dot" com (No spam!)
Will update the site with news stories and reports. Supporting the Tigers fans community
Email me via tigerchick "at" ymail "dot" com (No spam!)
Re: Pace vs Power
Posted by: ChrisC (IP Logged)
Date: 27/04/2010 16:44
Lyrical, positively lyrical!!
Ta mate!
Ta mate!
Re: Pace vs Power
Posted by: grannyg (IP Logged)
Date: 27/04/2010 16:51
Excellent and accurate summary Richw. Well done.
Re: Pace vs Power
Posted by: Stopsy (IP Logged)
Date: 27/04/2010 18:07
Many thanks Rich, great work.
Re: Pace vs Power
Posted by: Jon T (IP Logged)
Date: 27/04/2010 18:15
Pretty Accurate Rich, Just the one point re George Ford.
He did have one of his least effective games for us on Monday, just one of those things I think, he is only a teenager and he's played a huge amount of rugby for us and Internationally this year, he may be starting to feel the pace and the effect of 9 months of hard games.
He's been a much more positive threat going forward in previous games, as you say a Billy 12t's wasn't at his creative best either, so that may have been a refection on the quality of the opposition.
He's a fantastic prospect for his age, and give him 2 or 3 years and he may well be challenging Floody in much the same way Toby pushed St Jonny at Newcastle.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010:04:27:21:17:38 by Jon T.
He did have one of his least effective games for us on Monday, just one of those things I think, he is only a teenager and he's played a huge amount of rugby for us and Internationally this year, he may be starting to feel the pace and the effect of 9 months of hard games.
He's been a much more positive threat going forward in previous games, as you say a Billy 12t's wasn't at his creative best either, so that may have been a refection on the quality of the opposition.
He's a fantastic prospect for his age, and give him 2 or 3 years and he may well be challenging Floody in much the same way Toby pushed St Jonny at Newcastle.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010:04:27:21:17:38 by Jon T.
Re: Pace vs Power
Posted by: mentallymadmax (IP Logged)
Date: 27/04/2010 19:12
Remember little George is only 17!
He probably was using Vesty a bit too much because he was the experienced one. But his all round ability is incredible for a 17 year old, and will only improve with age.
He probably was using Vesty a bit too much because he was the experienced one. But his all round ability is incredible for a 17 year old, and will only improve with age.
Re: Pace vs Power
Posted by: Tiggs (IP Logged)
Date: 27/04/2010 20:30
Cheers Rich, spot on. Understated about the ref though !
Re: Pace vs Power
Posted by: Dalmatian (IP Logged)
Date: 27/04/2010 23:04
I really wanted to be there last night but was arrested by the mem's truculent desire for DIY, poor excuse I know, but 'twas the way. Your account of proceedings was an entertaining read and I'm encouraged to be there for the final if circumstances allow. Thanks pal!
Re: Pace vs Power
Posted by: AndreaW (IP Logged)
Date: 28/04/2010 17:34
Tiggs - if you think that was understated you should have seen the original version :-)
Re: Pace vs Power
Posted by: Tiggs (IP Logged)
Date: 28/04/2010 18:24
I actually assumed that Rich wasn't there, as I couldn't hear him !!
Re: Pace vs Power
Posted by: Rich W (IP Logged)
Date: 28/04/2010 19:19
And I thought I was quite restrained...
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Re: Pace vs Power
Posted by: odd-shaped vagaries (IP Logged)
Date: 28/04/2010 20:34
After all that sycophancy I might to venture, 'What does he know?'
... but as I wasn't there and I know that he does bl00dy well know, I will instead venture yet more sycophancy
'Lions led by donkeys' .. Lest we forget
... but as I wasn't there and I know that he does bl00dy well know, I will instead venture yet more sycophancy
'Lions led by donkeys' .. Lest we forget
Re: Pace vs Power
Posted by: AndreaW (IP Logged)
Date: 28/04/2010 21:55
couldn't hear him? Did you have industrial strength ear plugs in ? Oh and can i borrow them ?Re: Pace vs Power
Posted by: hww27 (IP Logged)
Date: 28/04/2010 22:09
There was plenty of noise round where I was standing!!! I think I had all of the shouters behind me
Excellent report Rich - thanks
Excellent report Rich - thanks
Re: Pace vs Power
Posted by: TigerTom (IP Logged)
Date: 29/04/2010 13:13
I think you're a little unfair on the man off the street. I'm fairly sure that anyone wandering round welford road on monday just before 7, would have had a much better game that the guy actually in charge. Mind you I only saw the second half due to doing the guides run - why is it always my turn when the A team are playing :-(
Re: Pace vs Power
Posted by: Rich W (IP Logged)
Date: 29/04/2010 14:07
Tom I actually think he improved in the 2nd period!
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