Tiger cubs maul mini Falcons
By Leipziger
September 15 2009
The Falcons' reserve team continued their losing start to the Guinness A League season last night with a 7-45 drubbing at the hands of James Grindal's Leicester, with the solidity of Laurence Ovens and Micky Ward in the scrum and Uche Oduoza's pace being among the few positives to take from a chilly night at Kingston Park.
Ward, Ovens and Oduoza were named in the starting lineup alongside fellow first-team squad members Peter Browne and Alex Walker, with Chris Pilgrim at scrum-half. Former Falcon Grindal was one of the more recognisable names in Leicester's side, although a lot of attention was focused on one of their backroom staff who looked like the dwarf from Lord of the Rings, complete with a beard not shaven since 2001 probably. There was yet another Tuilagi on the wing though. Leicester dominated the early play with Grindal firing some quick ball around in a way he rarely did for us near the end, and a kick across the 22 had to be fielded by Falcons centre Sep Visser. The Falcons put together a strong maul in our own half, and on the left Alex Walker went on a solo run only to be tackled on the 22 and Ovens knocked on, allowing Leicester to clear. The first try came on the quarter-hour when Leicester sent a good move left, Will Hurrell missed a scoring pass and was tackled but Joe Cobden was able to score anyway. Visser almost hit back straight away after Ovens broke through a few tackles on the 22 in front of goal but was pulled up for a forward pass, however the first home try wasn't long in coming with the speedy Oduoza running across field to set up Ovens for another crash. Pilgrim was slow in getting the ball out but the referee gave us a penalty, and the trialist scrum-half took the tap quickly. The ball came left and Oduoza out-ran the Tigger defence to score, Dan Rayson converting to give us a 7-5 lead. Leicester of course came back into our half, and Oduoza and Visser both needed to save tries. From Oduoza's touchdown behind the line, Leicester's scrum drove and when the ball was kicked to the left, Hurrell caught it, beat one defender and scored to put his side ahead again. George Ford converted. Shaun McCartney and Peter Browne could have got us on the scoresheet again with a two-on-one on the right, but the winger delayed the pass too long and by the time he released the ball Browne was in front of him. In injury time Leicester took a 7-19 lead into the break when Manu Tuilagi powered over from a five-minute scrum. The fact that Browne, Ovens and Micky Ward were taken off at half time for Andrew Archibald, Grant Shiells and Kieran Brookes suggests that the Falcons aren't taking this competition too seriously in terms of a result but rather use it just to give fringe players a run-out where possible and then to give youngsters some experience. Hopefully that is the case, as in the second half we rarely threatened the green half let alone their line. Just a couple of minutes after the break Tuilagi went over for another converted try, and with his team in complete ascendency Ford attempted what looked like an easy penalty, but missed. I wondered why he was kicking it at this point, Ma Leipy suggested he might need the practice, and from the simple miss she may well be right. Hurrell scored his second try on the far left when despite being isolated he danced between two defenders, and Tuilagi was set up by Cobden to complete his hat-trick. The latter score wasn't converted, leaving us just shy of conceding 40 points for now at 7-38. Our first real attack of the second half didn't come until 68 minutes. We turned over Ford and Matty Outson legged it upfield, but though we came left and looked to have scored, the referee had spotted a knock-on. Leicester went straight back onto the attack and from a good run by Lucas Amorosino, Matt Everard broke through our defence beside the posts and the conversion made the full-time score 7-45. It was a(nother after Sale last week?) harsh lesson for our young players, and hopefully this experience will help them improve. It was encouraging that Ovens, Ward and Walker held their own in the scrum in the first half, although Shiells and Brookes weren't quite as successful, and Oduoza looks sharp if prone to a few silly errors as most of our first team seem to be too. To digress, standing at the back of the East Stand last night I realised that the view probably is better from there, but I felt very much like a “spectator”, uninvolved in a way I don't feel in the South Stand. Then again, standing on halfway at Leeds I didn't feel like that so maybe it was just the fact that it was a reserve game with only a few hundred in attendance. Of course, the return game at Welford Road in January will probably have 6,000 people watching – more than saw our first team on Sunday. And there in one sentence is the difference between us and the Tiggers.
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Quote:Manu Tuilagi
Are they a nation in their own right now, the Tuilagi clan?
Quote:a lot of attention was focused on one of their backroom staff who looked like the dwarf from Lord of the Rings, complete with a beard not shaven since 2001 probably
you can't mean our lovely Ben Herring can you? Actually he was clean shaven for most of last season.
