Toothless Tigers Fail To Shine In The Autumn Sun

100Biarritz
By vicky_c
November 1 2004

If the promising start to the season boded well for some silverware this year, the wheels well and truly came off this weekend in the autumnal sunshine of the Pays-Basque.

Leicester started brightly enough; piling some early pressure onto Biarritz and slowly driving them back towards their own try line. A driving maul led to a promising attack, and a nice reverse flick from Goode ended up on the floor and gave away the first of many turnovers.

Leicester were pinned back into their own half, but they slowly worked their way out with a break from Goode, through Rabeni and on to Murphy, who couldn’t seem to find a way through.

Goode’s next kick was carried over the line giving the 5m scrum to the Tigers. The scrum didn’t settle and Leicester chose to scrum again after being awarded a free kick. The next one resulted in a full penalty when Balan couldn’t seem to deal with Julian’s power and he went to ground. Goode elected to kick and the score was 0-3 to the Tigers.

From the re-start, some wayward passing was rescued by Holtby, but slowly Biarritz were finding their feet and starting to get into the game. Cocky left the pitch to have his head sewn up and was briefly replaced by Buckland. French TV decided that live pictures from the dressing room were actually more interesting than the match for a few moments so it wasn’t for the squeamish.

Biarritz were awarded a penalty which Yachvili converted, levelling the scores.
More wayward passing and failed touch finds didn’t help and Tigers were looking very out of sorts. Brusque was another thorn in the Tigers side and Biarritz started to look like they were finding some holes in Leicester’s defence. Some poor discipline was also starting to creep in and Biarritz were awarded another penalty which Yachvili missed.

A turnover found its way to Rabeni who powered towards the line, but he chose the flick pass to Vesty, when in truth he probably could have gone over with his own momentum. Vesty was scragged by Harinordoquy, but there was judged to be a penalty for joining at the side. Goode chose to kick but missed.
The Tigers kept trying to be adventurous, but unfortunately it was one of those days when it just didn’t come off.

Biarritz’s first try came from a scintillating break up the middle from Traille, who caused havoc for most for the afternoon.

Will Johnson was caught at the base of a scrum in the Tigers 22, the ball ended up with Traille who calmly fed Martin Aramburu who scored close to the posts having gone through missed tackles from Vesty and Rabeni. Yachvili duly converted and Biarritz were in front 10-3, a position they never looked like relinquishing.
Whilst Leicester were struggling to get any sort of penetration going, Biarritz were starting to find more space and the game was starting to get away from the Tigers. More wayward kicking from Murphy, straight to Brusque’s arms, and more awful passing in the midfield led to more possession for Biarritz.

A deft grubber from Brusque found Bidabe bursting through. The ball eventually ended up with Marlu who turned on the afterburners and left Vesty clutching at thin air as he scooted over for Biarritz’s second try of the afternoon. Yachvili stepped up to convert and the Tigers were trailing 17-3.

Biarritz gave away a kickable penalty which Goode missed and Yachvili seemed to be catching the same problem when he also failed a few minutes later.

Even the rolling maul couldn’t seem to do the usual amount of damage. Julian and Harinordoquy traded handbags as one rolling maul approached the Biarritz try line, after Julian had taken exception to having his legs taken away. The resulting penalty pinned the Tigers back 40m and the Tigers were back where they started.
Biarritz snaffled a Leicester line out and started to drive the Tigers backwards. Patient build up saw Brusque fail in his attempt at a drop goal. The situation was rectified shortly afterwards when another drive saw Biarritz awarded a penalty close to the line Yachvili chose to go for the drop goal instead and Biarritz were in danger of blowing Leicester away at 20-3.

Yachvili opened Biarritz’s account in the second half with another penalty. At this point, Henry entered the fray.

A restart found Leicester with a scrum deep into Biarritz territory but again the pressure could not be converted into points and the ball was turned over. Biarritz went scorching off up the field and were saved by the fact that they too turned over, although Leicester didn’t seem to know what to do with the ball and ended up giving the ball straight back.

Leicester’s sole try came out of nothing really. Goode kicked through into a space that suddenly opened up. The Biarritz defender fumbled, Holtby hacked on and Rabeni was in close attendance to pounce onto the ball. Goode missed the conversion and then missed another penalty shortly afterwards.

A strong burst by Rabeni through the centre brought another good opportunity but the ball was slowed up on the right 2m short of the line. The play switched to the left and the ball found its way to Backy who could not reach for the line and this attack was snuffed out when the ball was turned over.

It seemed strange that we only started kicking for the corner in the last 10 or so minutes and we were virtually camped in Biarritz’s half. But for all of the pressure, no points were forthcoming.

Biarritz should have been down to 14 men in the last few minutes for persistent infringement. They had our measure though and close to the end, our players were well marshalled by their defence and another turnover was conceded.

One final attack from a line out found its way to Vesty who crashed over the line. The TMO adjuged that the ball had not been grounded because of the Biarritz player underneath him and that just about summed up the afternoon.

Leicester were killed by the number of mistakes and a failure to protect the ball in both the line out and open play. Coupled with an inability to get any penetration, all too often promising attacks ended up turning swiftly into defence. They seemed very lacklustre and out of sorts.

Credit to Biarritz, their defence was so strong that they forced a lot of our mistakes, but inaccurate passing let us down badly. It is difficult to believe that this is the same team that went to the Causeway last week and were so negative.
If our season isn’t to disintegrate then a swift re-grouping is required ahead of the visit of the tractor boys next week.

Biarritz: N Brusque; P Bidabe, F Martin Aramburu, D Traille (T Lacroix 60), J Marlu; J Peyrelongue, D Yachvili; P Balan (Avril 75), B August (J-M Gonzalez 62), D Avril (B Lecouls 62), J Thion (capt), D Couzinet (O Booyse 58), S Betsen, I Harinordoquy, S Malonga (C Milheres 67).

Leicester: G Murphy; J Holtby (A Tuilagi 49), S Rabeni (M Cornwell 80), D Gibson, S Vesty; A Goode, H Ellis; G Rowntree (D Morris 63), R Cockerill (J Buckland 6-13, 49), J White, M Johnson (capt), B Kay, L Moody, N Back (B Deacon 70), W Johnson (H Tuilagi 44).

Scores: 0-3 Goode pen, 3-3 Yachvili pen, 8-3 Martin Aramburu try, 10-3 Yachvili con, 15-3 Marlu try, 17-3 Yachvili con, 20-3 Yachvili drop goal, 23-3 Yachvili pen, 23-8 Rabeni try.

Referee: D Courtney (Ireland)

My MOTM: Serge Betsen