Women and Children First!

Tigers v Titans
By Chris Chaplin
April 28 2004

As the nub end of the season is upon us we have the strange situation where this week we meet what the league placings tell us is the worst team in the league and then the following week we meet the best. But on the Titan(ic) at least it’s “man the lifeboats” with Coach Steph Nel jumping the queue!

With the die having been long since cast as far as Rotherham is concerned it must be to their credit that they’ve tried to go on playing Premiership rugby and by all accounts they held Quins pretty close in the first half of their last match, having the Lion’s share of possession but turning it over at vital times so as to concede three scores by half time before Quins eased away to a 43 – 20 victory.

Tigers had to fight hard to get their 38 – 10 victory over Saracens and it was not until the last minutes of the game that they too pulled away adding to the 24-10 half time score-line.

After looking very dangerous and sharp in the opening forty minutes carelessness spilled in during the second half with too many attacking opportunities being wasted in the midfield as ball was knocked on, taken into contact or kicked away with the attacks consequently fizzling out.

With Gloucester having enlisted the help of yet another pair of poor line judges who allowed The Shed to make their decisions for them, Irish were denied the bonus point that would have put them on level terms with Tigers and with Tigers taking all five points available against Sarries Tigers can now only make sure that they collect the remaining ten points available before the end of the season proper and hope that the other results go in their favour, getting them into the Wildcard with home advantage. Although with Sale giving Falcons a right old thumping last Friday Tigers’ cause was not helped as the North Westerners leapfrogged into sixth place level on points with Quins leaving Tigers four points adrift of this pair of other Wildcard Wannabes and as it stands looking at an away tie at Kingsholm. Oh joy!

With Rotherham rarely seen on TV during their Premiership adventure I have had to rely on reports of their exploits and the common thread seems to have been that they are not as bad a team as their results suggest and if they can keep a core of their squad together during the coming year then they could easily be pushing for promotion again at the end of next season although at who’s expense remains to be seen.

It is strange when looking at the Titans’ squad that they’ve done quite so badly this season for while survival was always going to be an issue I doubt many thought that things would have been quite so grim for the newcomers, particularly as so many clubs played with dramatically reduced first fifteens for half the season while Titans lost just three players for some of the World Cup period.

There has been disruption on the coaching front with Nel and Umaga becoming involved as the season deteriorated with Schmid being demoted and now Ross Reynolds arrival and I’m not at all sure that this hasn’t just added to the problems that the Yorkshire club had in settling the thirteen new players with which they started the season, let alone the others that at one point seemed to be arriving on each South African Airways flight.

Tigers of course after their own share of travails welcome back Pat Howard and Richard Cockerill at the end of the season with John Wells taking up the mantle of Head Coach. Nothing too radical here and at least the transition into the new era should not be disruptive.

Titans front row against Quins comprised soon to be Sarrie prop and hitherto Titans stalwart Nick Lloyd at loose-head partnered by Colin Noon who have been a pretty stable combination this term and last now having the experienced ex Bath Hooker Andy Long, who made 89 appearances for the West Country side as well as bagging four caps for England, the last of which was in the ill starred World Cup Celebration match against the New Zealand Barbarians back in November. Joining Titans from Munster he’s a useful player. However against Tigers with Lloyd injured one of the mid-season imports Riaan Olckers looks set to start if he passes a late fitness test but otherwise Plan C is for Millmoor favourite, veteran Simon Bunting to start

While in any combination this looks a reasonable front row it’s hard to see them getting much change out of the Tigers trio where George Chuter joins with the ever improving Darren Morris and the imposing Julian White. I thought Chuter had one of his best matches in a Tigers shirt against Sarries and think that the front row of the scrum will be a pretty uncomfortable place for the Titans so I rather thought that the more experienced New Zealander John Rawson, who is on the bench, would start in an attempt to hold the line early on given the absence of the experienced Lloyd.

The second row holds no comfort for the Titans either with Johnno at his imperious best just now and although Ben Kay against Sarries was looking to be regaining some form up and coming star Louis Deacon is preferred to start. The Titans’ combination of the long serving Glen Kenworthy and giant US Eagle Luke Gross will have to be in exceptional form against the World Cup winning duo to get any change in either the tight or the loose.

Perhaps the back-row will provide some crumb of comfort for the visitors? Well against Quins Des Tuavii started on the blindside, a Samoan flanker who is on his second visit to Rotherham and is retained for Saturday, so we can bet he’ll be taking a robust approach in the loose linked up with one of the mid season imports from South Africa, Brad Macleod-Henderson at 8 who has managed to cross the whitewash twice during his nine appearances for the Titans but at openside Neil Spence is preferred to another South African Reinier (Bloues) Volschenck who featured in the Quins game.

It will be interesting to see how they deal with a Tigers combination of Back., Corry and Will Johnson who is again preferred to Adam Balding, which is a bit of shame in my book as young Balding looked impressive during his short appearance last time and what’s happened to Henry Tuilagi? So comfort here for the Yorkshiremen? Not realistically, unless departed coach Nel uncovered some hitherto unknown gems that are of sufficient quality to justify the experienced Geraint Lewis languishing on the bench

All in all then the Tigers pack should dominate in all departments against the Titans’ back-row combination as well as in the tight five.

Behind the pack Irish International scrum-half Guy Easterby has seemingly wrested the shirt from ex Queensland Red Super 12 player and Fijian international Jacob Raulini who has also lost his bench spot to Charlie Harrison but if Easterby gets some decent ball he could be a threat to Tigers around the fringes, it could be a feisty battle with Harry Ellis who has continued to be in white hot form since his return from suspension.

Members’ Player of The Year Jaco van (etc) is another player who has been in exceptional form and now faces ex League player Phil Jones who has recovered from the injury sustained against Quins, when he was replaced by Jon Benson, the converted full back, and Titans will be thankful for Jones’ specialist skills and pace against Tigers’ Springbok if they are to have a chance of parity in this area of the game.

Outside of him local hero Samoan international Mike Umaga is seemingly well entrenched back in the centre at the expense of Peter Jorgensen who must be wishing for the friendly sights and sounds of Franklins Gardens. Umaga is another hard charging Pacific Islander and there should be some fair old collisions with the equally robust Daryl Gibson who has maintained his form throughout the trials and tribulations at Welford Road this season and I expect the added ingredient of guile that Gibson brings to his game will see him get past the Titans’ centre while his famous defensive capabilities should see him able to snuff out the very real threat that Umaga otherwise presents.

It would seem that ex Newport centre John Pritchard will keep his place too, a fit again Ollie Smith is surprisingly still not preferred to Leon Lloyd who it is true had a good game against Sarries. While in the close quarters stuff he looks vulnerable at centre he is back to his best in open play when he stretches those long legs of his and puts in some powerful direct running but it seems a forlorn hope for him to return to the wing where he could really play to his undoubted strengths and allow Ollie to play to his at outside centre. Against Titans? Well there will continue to be a question mark for me around Lloyd’s defence at centre which does not occur when Smith is there and if Umaga targets him it could be a chink in the Tigers’ defence.

Ex Sale winger Anthony Elliott is another big lad and seemingly takes a bit of stopping once on the hoof, with his partner against Quins, the quicksilver Michael Wood, who was the club’s top try scorer in their promotion season, getting over the line again against the bespangled ones but in spite of these credentials another South African, Giscard Pieters, is preferred, even to US Eagle Jason Keyter, who is on the bench.

Healey looked to be steadily regaining some of his old zip against Sarries and made a few good breaks as well as earning his corn in defence this could be the opportunity for us to see a bit of the old Oz magic perhaps?

As for the other wing Geordan will surely continue if he’s still not confident that his leg will stand up to front line kicking duties but I’d like to have seen Neil Baxter make a reappearance at some point as his silky skills could undo the visitors’ defence.

Full back for Titans at least seems settled with Argentinian Bernardo Stortoni, the 17 time Puma, well ensconced since his arrival and looking to show his attacking prowess to anybody who’s interested. Tigers on the other hand will likely continue playing Andy Goode out of position and hope that Jones, Stortoni and Umaga don’t start dropping kicks behind him to make him turn when he still looks both slow to the ball and generally shaky, this aspect of the full-back’s task apart though he is looking more assured but still looks at his best when in the line in the 10/12 channel.

With so many changes at Titans I must confess to have found this preview something of trial as while I more or less know who’s arrived at Millmoor it’s been a struggle to know who’s gone, apart that is from Earnshaw and Smyth. Is Cockle still there? What about Greef, Ewens, Jorgensen, Remnant and Jelley?

It’s difficult to imagine the Titans pack getting enough possession to enable Easterby to get his backs going and although they’ve seemingly nothing to play for a first win in the Premiership AND at Welford Road would be a sweet consolation to take back to National One and Tigers must beware of taking too much for granted and prematurely looking toward the last match of the season thereby letting concentration on this equally important fixture slip.

With so much at stake though and Wasps away next weekend I can’t see anything but a five point win for Tigers – and it’s a long time since I’ve said that.