Roaming in the Gloaming to Gloucester

By ChrisC
October 26 2010

Firstly this week a travel tip for Tigers’ supporters travelling to the match from Leicester –turn left when you get to the M1 and take the low road do not head North on the high road to Scotland. I make this point only because to the unwary looking at the old West Country club these days it would be easy to think that it was now Galashiels instead of Gloucester so Scottish is the set up but fear not the grand old club is still at Castle Grim as it has been since 1891.

With a Scottish owner in Tom Walkinshaw, a Scottish Head Coach in Bryan Redpath and five members of the Scottish national team (Hamilton, Dickson, Scott Lawson, Rory Lawson and Strokosch) there’s a real motif Ecosse at Gloucester these days.

The Cherry and Whites had another close call at Kingsholm last Saturday when, with just a few minutes to go, they were being held 26-26 by Quins, having been up 26-13 at half time, but were saved by Tigers’ old boy Brett Deacon with a last gasp try.

At Welford Road, Bath came with a damage limitation game plan, the height of their ambition being a bonus point and in the early stages it seemed as if they’d be frustrated as Tigers looked likely to steamroller over them but then three issues conspired against the home team. The first – the weather – it rained so hard that Noah was seen sailing his Ark up the Aylestone Road. The second, for some reason Tigers decided to ignore the conditions and played far, far too much rugby, more suitable for a balmy Spring day and thirdly the malign influence of Kiwi referee Andrew Small.

On Saturday he seemed to be refereeing the two teams using different laws for each so inconsistent was his decision making. Again he had no idea of how to manage the scrum adding to his usual requirement of timing the engagement using an Atomic Clock, the need to use a laser to measure the distance between the front rows. He failed to spot that Bath were alternately delaying engagement and engaging early and that Claassens was feeding the second row (of course!)

He demonstrated absolutely no empathy with the players trying to play in terrible conditions persisting in penalising players off their feet at the breakdown using his now infamous “Random Penalty Generator” and of course he didn’t like Tigers’ rucking Bath off their ball one little bit – very un-Leagunion. It’s not just that he is so inconsistent but that he is so often just plain wrong.

It seems to me that we need look no further than Mr Small for an indication of how the World Cup will be refereed next year when it is held in the birth place of Leagunion. New Zealand have, with the help of their non scrummaging Australian lapdogs, perpetrated the biggest confidence trick ever, with the connivance of the hapless IRB, to tilt the playing field so far toward the Antipodean preference for depowered set piece play as to make crampons a necessity for the non SANZAR teams engaged in the competition.

As far as next Saturday is concerned we know that Youngs, Cole, Flood, Chuter and Croft are going to be at Pennyhill Park this week with England who have decided that they know better than the player and his every day coaches as to the readiness of Toby Flood for international duty but they had to weigh this against the potential absence of Wilkinson and a “not quite ready” Flood in preference to a possibly injured Flood.

Down at Kingsholm David Attwood, Doran-Jones and Mike Tindall will be off in England camp too however it will be interesting to see how the Scottish management cabal in the West Country respond to any request from Andy Robinson to release their Scotland players before they need to.

In the pack I expect to see Tigers revert to the Castrogiovanni/Ayerza propping duopoly but whether Duffey or Hawkins starts or Chuter is released from his third place in the England pecking order and starts at #2 depends on injuries and the whim of Johnno. It seems likely that the home side will start with a front row of Nick Wood, Ollie Azam and French “A” international Pierre Capdevielle which will be a hard headed combination but one which I think will be matched by the Tigers’ trio and the Gloucester pack hasn’t exactly covered itself with glory at scrum time this season losing thirteen scrums on their own ball, only Bath having a worse record in this year’s Premiership

In the second row Tigers’ lose their main strike weapon with Tom Croft absent leaving Skivington and Slater to hold the fort. As Croft is the main receiver, and a faultless one at that, I see some real weakness here as Gloucester will have Alex Brown on duty, who remains one of the best line out forwards around. His default partner, Dave Attwood, will also be absent so maybe we’ll see the reappearance of Welshman Will James who has yet to start in this year’s Premiership, his presence being limited to the bench early on. If selected he is a feisty individual and with Brown would be a real handful both in the loose and at the set piece.

While I have grave misgivings here it has to be remembered that in this year’s Premiership Gloucester have lost twelve line outs on their own ball while Tigers have lost just seven and Ed Slater is in the echelons of top line out stealers, added to which Ollie Azam, as well as not being able to prop, or so it’s alleged, also has problems with throwing in, so maybe I’m being overly pessimistic, let’s hope so.

With Croft missing I expect that Tigers will start with Craig Newby, Ben Woods and Thomas Waldrom who has beaten more defenders than any other player. This is a capable breakaway unit although obviously missing the out and out pace of Croft they’ll have the carrying capacity of Waldrom who is the only forward in the most metres gained league. It’s also technically adept, which it will need to be as Gloucester lose few attacking rucks.

Andy Hazell pulled out at the last minute last weekend with food poisoning but I expect to see him restored at open side this week and join Brett Deacon, who is fast becoming a favourite of the Shedites, and either that old warhorse Peter Buxton or more likely Luke Narraway, as I believe the talismanic Fijian Akapusa Qera is unwell.

I can see the Tigers’ pack having an edge at the scrum but struggling at the line out with honours even in the loose.

Behind the pack with, per force, James Grindal steps in to link up with Billy Twelvetrees. I think they may make a good combination with the steady Grindal compensating for the gung ho of the youngster, although young Billy will have to stand deeper given the slower, albeit perhaps more precise, service he can expect from Grindal than has been afforded by Youngs in this year’s competition who has made the greatest number of bad passes.

It’s also to be hoped that the blond bombshell been doing some kicking practice as he currently has the dubious honour of missing the most conversions in this year’s competition, a distinction he shares with his likely opposite number on Saturday, Gloucester’s Nicky Robinson.

For the home side, with Rory Lawson absent with a broken hand, Mancunian Dave Lewis is in the #9 hot seat and scored a lovely try against Quins straight out of the Ben Youngs playbook, scurrying around the wheeling attacking five metre scrum, like a gerbil finding Freddie Starr was visiting, to dash over the Quins’ line!

Doubtless we’ll see Robinson continuing at Fly half where I’d bet he’ll spend a lot of time putting the ball into the Tigers’ 22 and banking on his forwards exploiting the Tigers’ potential problems at the line out. The Welshman’s place kicking blows hot and cold though, sometimes he’ll kick anything from anywhere and split the posts at will, while other times he’ll seem unable to hit a barn door at twenty paces witnessed by his being the least successful penalty taker in the Premiership.

At inside centre ex Cherry and White favourite Anthony Allen is sure to start for Tigers and continue his burgeoning partnership with Matt Smith who is making the #13 shirt his own with his displays this term combining strength in defence and guile in attack.

With the superb Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu having a knee injury his line breaking excellence will be missing but young Henry Trinder has shown what lucky people they are at Kingsholm to have him however he’ll have to do without the comforting figure of Mike Tindall beside him this week and with Tim Molenaar nursing a shoulder injury my guess is that James Simpson-Daniel may be drafted into the #13 position, which is, in my opinion, where he should play anyway as he can be devastating there with a low centre of gravity, thighs the size of a front row forward giving him tremendous acceleration and all this with a great step off either foot .

On the wings it would be a surprise equal to Anne Widdecombe winning Strictly Come Dancing if the redoubtable Scott Hamilton is missing and against the likely Gloucester wide men we’ll surely see Alex Tuilagi before he goes off to play for Samoa for a couple of weeks.

Hong Kong born Charlie Sharples has been a fixture on the wing for the Cherries this term, at just 6’0” and 14stone 8lb he’s positively sylph like in these days of behemoth wingers but he’s an effective lad having crossed the whitewash seven times in eighteen appearances in last year’s Premiership, opening his account this year against Quins last weekend but he, with Nicky Robinson, will want to stop turning over ball with such frequency.

I suspect we may see the return of Tongan Lesley Vainikolo on the other wing facing Alex Tuilagi and if so I hope that the new stand at Kingsholm has strong foundations when those two clash as it’ll be seismic. It’s to be hoped that the Tigers’ powerhouse gets his defensive game together as if there’s any more sloppiness there the home side’s backs will pounce and if it happens to be Simpson-Daniel it will be goodnight Vienna. It may also add to Geordan’s unenviable position as the player conceding most turnovers in this year’s competition.

Olly Morgan is once again fit and so I expect to see this accomplished, fast and well balanced player coming hard and fast from deep, he can deconstruct play wonderfully and will be a real threat and not somebody to kick long ball to.

Geordan Murphy will certainly complete the Tigers’ back three if he’s recovered from his knock last weekend and once again captain the side.

I was baffled that he didn’t better manage the approach of the team when the weather closed in last week and from the post match interview Richard Cockerill was similarly perplexed.

It does sometime seem that the hugely talented Irishman over estimates the abilities of his colleagues to play the expansive style of rugby that he favours regardless of the prevailing weather conditions. The forecast for next Saturday is for light rain which will mean the ball is slippery, it will also have been a wet week in Gloucester and Kingsholm doesn’t drain particularly well, so it may well be a time to keep the Champagne rugby on ice and do a job through the forwards.

It’s never easy to go to Kingsholm and with a depleted team in the gloaming of a wet Saturday evening in Gloucestershire, at the end of October the auguries are not good for another Tigers’ victory – so a home win for the McCherries I fear.

Posted by: TheLeicesterTigers.co.uk (IP Logged)

Date: 26/10/2010 22:22

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010:10:31:17:22:11 by TigerChick.