Tigers v Gloucester Match Preview
By ChisC
December 24 2012
Game For Anything I had a client who was a keen hunter and on a pre Christmas visit to his office, as part of my annual pilgrimage to dispense bottles of seasonal good cheer to my largest clients, he gave me a brace of pheasants which were as they had landed after he’d taken them from the Suffolk sky the day before.
On a wet, dark, pre-Christmas afternoon it was a long and seemingly endless car journey from East Anglia to my Gloucestershire home. By the time I arrived the aroma from the back of my estate car suggested the birds were in need of urgent attention as the car heater had had a deleterious effect on them. So with the help of my less than ecstatic wife, who was settled in front of the fire with a glass of Pinot Grigio, we set to plucking and eviscerating our feathered arrivals, all the while with our two Dobermans in close and rapt attendance, ever willing to assist with disposal of the offal, they were kind like that were those two!
After this introduction we found some good butchers licensed to sell game and we have enjoyed it ever since.
As I enjoyed a brandy after a lunch of venison I had to smile at what my mother would have made of eating venison, pheasant, hare, partridge and the like.
When she was in charge of comestibles at home we invariably had a capon for lunch on Christmas Day. My father producing the bird with a flourish on Christmas Eve as we clasped our chests in mock Dickensian amazement “....and we thought we’d have nothing to eat” as if!!
Chicken was a luxury food back then with the regular Sunday roast either: beef, lamb, pork or sometimes boiled salt beef. Fowl was reserved for Christmas whereas now the little souls have even to sacrifice their nuggets all year round.
Meat and two veg., were the staple diet with meat a pre requisite, other than on Fridays, when it was always fish on the menu. Pizza was something to do with a tower in Italy that hadn’t been properly built and curry was far too foreign and exotic to be trusted.
The fastest food was from the fish and chip shop while Chinese takeaways were folks from the Far East being deported and what would she have thought of chips cooked in the oven and not a deep fat fryer?
She was quite shocked by the advent of Vesta Curries during the 1970s and that we should eat this pre constructed food. Vestas were indeed awful but somehow sophisticated – it was the 1970s remember when fondue was all the rage. Kipper ties and flares were the height of male fashion, while shamefully midis and maxis had replaced mini-skirts, need I say more?
If I’d told her that in years to come people would buy water in bottles from shops instead of turning on the tap she’d have waved her hand at me in dismissal and told me not to be so silly, as people would have to have more money than sense to do such a thing!
Many other things have changed over the years but one thing that hasn’t changed is the keen anticipation of a meeting between Tigers and that other fiercely traditional rugby club Gloucester and this weekend again there is the prospect of a game to savour.
Both clubs had successful outcomes last weekend with Tigers running our comfortable winners at Reading against London Irish while, after a lot of anguish, at Kingsholm Gloucester squeezed home by just two points from Exeter who’s Alcott scored the only try of the match, the Cherry and Whites having to rely on the boot of Freddie Burns for all of their points which emanated from penalties awarded by referee Lly ApGeraint-Roberts.
I thought that for periods Exeter looked the better side although it wasn’t until the second half that the Exeter pack started to get the measure of the youthful Gloucester front row and it was fitting that hooker Alcott got the match’s solitary try.
Meanwhile Tigers put on an accomplished display against London Irish and in spite of the score line remaining close until the closing exchanges it was hard to see how the disorganised home side were going to get a try let alone a victory. Lucky for Brian Smith that things up at Salford have been in an even worse state, although having managed to get a losing bonus point at Adams Park Steve Diamond’s charges are now just five points behind London Irish, who next visit the Stoop while Sale have Worcester to face at home. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see joint occupants of bottom slot come next Saturday evening.
At close of play on Saturday Tigers found that their Christmas stocking had a parcel with third place in it. With Gloucester just two points behind in fourth the outcome of Saturday’s match at Welford Road could be pivotal.
With Martin Castrogiovanni back home in Argentina Dan Cole got a long shift against Irish and gave Lahiff a torrid afternoon. I rather expect that the hugely influential Cole will be on parade again next Saturday and it will be interesting to see who coach Nigel Davies gives the Cheery and White loose head shirt to, Murphy or Nick Wood? My bet is that it’ll be Wood who trots out at Welford Road as he’s one of the very few who can cope with the incumbent England tight head, who’s in full cry at the moment.
Young Cornishman Darren Dawiduk has had a run of starts at hooker for the Cherry and Whites, keeping his place against Exeter even though Aussie Huia Edmonds was available and on the Kingsholm bench. Against the experienced Tigers front row, which will almost certainly feature the bustling aggression of Tom Youngs, I expect though to see the ex Wallaby get a start.
With Marcos Ayerza also in top form and Mulipola back to his rampaging best it’ll be interesting who Davies decides to deploy against the Argentinian. The choice for the Welsh coach looks to be between Australian born Rupert Harden, who joined the West Country side from Tynedale back in 2009, and ex Edinburgh prop Shaun Knight who played for Scotland in the IRB Junior World Championship and the Under 20 Six Nations. If Davies’s rotation policy is continued it looks as if Harden will get the gig as he did in the previous meeting between the sides back at the end of October, when the Tigers gave the home side’s front row trio a difficult afternoon.
Ex Tiger Jim Hamilton looks set to continue the exodus of the cohort of Scottish players that was assembled during Tom Walkinshaw’s stewardship of the famous old club and I’d bet the big Scots’ lock will add to his thirteen starts this term by returning to the place where he first made his name. Still enormously aggressive I anticipate that Welshman Will James will be preferred from the start over Tom Savage to form a tough and uncompromising line out presence.
With the superb Alex Brown now forced into an injury induced early retirement and Hamilton’s departure Gloucester are reportedly putting their Old Spot proboscis around Geoff Parling, another lock who’s come to prominence under the tutelage of the Tigers’ coaching team. Should Parling indeed depart at least we know there’ll be no muddying of the motivational waters for the move with complaints of lack of game time or international aspirations thereby being thwarted. Parling is a key player for Tigers and a fixture in the international side. When available and not sidelined by injury or international duties, both of which have required considerable forbearance from Tigers since his arrival from Newcastle, he’s one of the first on the team sheet. No if he leaves Tigers it’ll be for money – pure and simple.
The contest between Parling and Hamilton will therefore be an interesting sub plot.
There could be a brutal encounter between Louis Deacon, whos captaincy of the Tigers last Saturday, when Geordan Murphy started, is an addition to the “Cockerill Mysteries” volume, and Will James who’s a real bruiser of a lock.
When Tigers visited Kingsholm a month or so back they were denied the services of Julian Salvi which made a dramatic difference to their capabilities at the breakdown but this Saturday he’s back and with a shiny new contract in his pocket. Although there are few more deadly than Akapusi Qera when it comes to ball carrying and popping up like a Fijian genie on sumptuous support lines, he’s not a traditional open side and with Andy Hazell still suspended I guess the nearest Davies’ has got to one of this dying breed is Matt Cox.
I can’t imagine that Qera won’t be in the starting line up at Welford Road and he’s dangerous, as his five tries in all competitions in the first half of the season proves, bringing as it does his tally since joining the Cherry & Whites for the 2007/08 term to nineteen. Salvi’s no slouch in the try scoring stakes either having three notches on his scrum cap this season to add to the five already there from the last.
Thomas Waldrom was excluded from the London Irish match due to a calf injury and Jordan Crane looked to be getting back to his old self, not there yet but there’s light at the end of the tunnel I just hope that it’s not a reflection from Ben Morgan’s scrum cap as the hard charging #8 will be bearing down on Crane who’ll have to tackle like a demon if the England #8 is to be stopped.
There have been mutterings that Tom Croft may make an appearance in this match although given that it’s unusual for Cockerill to break the Vow of Omerta, that characterises so much of Tigers’ managements’ communication with the supporters, I’m taking this with a large pinch of Maldon. If the British Lion is fit how lovely for him to have to face an onrushing Sione Kalamafoni who’s been pretty much ever present in the Gloucester back row since joining from Nottingham at the start of the season.
If Waldrom is still hors de combat and with Slater unlikely to start I guess Brett Deacon could again get the nod from Cockerill to make an appearance mates on the blind side against his erstwhile team mates. I’d prefer to see the versatile Ed Slater against the big Gloucester back row as well as adding his influence to the line out, which I think will be close.
It’s hard to think of a harder and more effective, heavyweight, charging back row in the Premiership than Kalamafoni, Qera and Morgan however I’m not sure that they’ll fare so well in the dark, wet recesses of the breakdown on what’s currently forecast to be a day of light rain and wind in Leicester.
All in all I expect to see Tigers pack win the battle of the tight confines while Gloucester may have an edge in the loose but will it be a day for open play? I wonder. If it’s not then Tigers must not try to force matters as they seemed to have developed a tendency to do of late.
Jimmy Cowan is a stereotypical irritating scrum half straight out of the Austin Healey mould and he’ll give Ben Youngs the run around given half a chance. You don’t get to be an All Black on over fifty occasions without being from the very top drawer and Ben Youngs will have to be at his best if he’s not to look callow in the face of such experience.
Youngs played pretty well against London Irish. Some of his passes were a bit wayward, as was some of his kicking but he looked to be coming back to form – and not a moment too soon and will the mysterious missing Micky Young finally get to play a part? Who knows?
There are little sub plots all over the place and none more interesting than that at fly-half where the incumbent England fly –half should be facing the true pretender to the shirt. Obviously Farrell is purported to be the heir apparent but for me it’s Burns. There are great similarities of style between Flood and Burns so it’ll be fascinating to see how the plot unfolds.
The intrigue continues at inside centre where Gloucester’s Billy Twelvetrees will square up to the player who out performed him when the youngster was at Tigers and who kept hold of the mantle of first choice for the #12 shirt.
Twelvetrees spends a good deal of time at and around the breakdown while Allen is tackling and marshalling his defence, both of which he did with great efficiency at Reading. I was thinking when I watched him play against London Irish how, when watching Allen, I often feel about him as I did about Dean Richards’ magical ability to be in the right place at the right time. Both players also have the ability where, having made a tackle and been buried at the bottom of a pile of bodies they somehow extricate themselves and when the next tackle has to be made then, hey presto, there they are again.
In the outside centre slot I expect to see Mike Tindall confronting the new inhabitant of his old international shirt. If there’s an example of “been there – done that” it’s Tindall who I expect will be back from Sandringham in time to participate. Tindall rarely puts a foot wrong and although he has lost a yard or three of pace now he remains a bastion of reliability and stability for his young team mates. I’m sure Manu Tuilagi will be relishing the chance to put one over the old master but he’ll have to continue the improvement we saw for much of the match at Reading and he’ll have to restrain himself from rushing out of the defensive line as he did when trying to collar Jonathan Joseph, not only finding himself clutching at thin air but getting the defence all at sea.
Out wide Charlie Sharples, mysteriously dropped by England even though he has two tries from two starts on his log book, looks sure to start in the #14 shirt at Welford Road. He’s started six Premiership matches this term but has just the one try to his name thus far to add to the two he got in the Amlin Cup. On the other wing I expect to see Irishman Shane Monahan, who is a newcomer to Kingsholm having joined for this season from Rotherham, for whom he scored eleven tries in his season with the Yorkshire side, having passed though both Leinster and Connacht en route to the West Country. He’s a real bag of tricks is Shane and, in an almost James Simpson-Danielesque way, pops up all over the show running some lovely lines at tremendous speed.
Niall Morris had a simply splendid game against London Irish and only a penalty try thwarted his hat trick. Here’s another of those sub plots; Morris is also ex Leinster and was there in the same 2009/10 season as was Monahan, making two appearances in the Magners’ league whereas Monahan made just the one. Both also played for Ireland in Under 19 World Cups. So they’ll enjoy meeting up and reminiscing I’m sure!
Adam Thompstone once again acquitted himself well with a good performance against London Irish to build on his impressive debut season for the Tigers. With his instinct for the try line it’s hard to see how he can be left out of the starting line up against Gloucester.
With Geordan Murphy reportedly only starting last weekend due to Matt. Tait having a hamstring injury, sustained in training, I guess, if he’s fit, Tait will take over the #15 shirt. This would be a young and exciting back three for the home side and with ex Cornish Pirate Rob Cook making the absolute best of his opportunity in the absence of Ollie Morgan, as well as holding off the challenge of Martyn Thomas who came on board the good ship Cherry & White this season having disembarked from Newport Gwent Dragons, the visitors may field a back three no less exciting. It’s just a shame we’ll once again be denied the chance to see the mesmerising James Simpson-Daniel, who’s once again injured.
I do hope that if Tigers are indeed without Geordan Murphy they’ll keep their composure as Murphy has the same role as does Tindall; when things go awry to just” put a foot on the ball” and consider the situation and options.
The last time these two teams met at Welford Road in the festive season was back on 2nd January 2005. I was there that day. It snowed and Tigers lost 13-28.
But I think at Welford Road this Christmas/New Year season Tigers should have enough to get a victory and my goodness third versus fourth should be a Christmas Cracker.
Game on – as they say!!!
Happy New Year!
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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2013:01:01:00:58:40 by Tiggs.
Great preview for which my thanks. Let's hope for a win
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year with I hope a rampant Tigers on the charge for honours.
Have a good holiday in Spain.
I would be astonished were this so
But I think at Welford Road this Christmas/New Year season Tigers should have enough to get a victory and my goodness third versus fourth should be a Christmas Cracker.
Though, with this I can agree
Thanks again Chris, another splendid diatribe .. hope Christmas is good to you and yours and the new year even better .. oh, and thanks for something far more interesting that bl00dy Strictly!
'Lions led by donkeys' .. Lest we forget
I suppose my only observation might be that it may be hard for the Glaws back-row to be at their most effective ball in hand if they are having to commit numbers to a breakdown that may include (if Deacon B starts) 2 specialist flankers. They may simply not get the freedom to run - either that or they may not get the ball. I'm struggling somewhat to see where we don't have a significant advantage up front.
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