London Irish: 15 Tommy Bell, 14 Alex Lewington, 13 Aseli Tikoirotuma, 12 Greig Tonks, 11 Topsy Ojo, 10 James Marshall, 9 Ben Meehan, 1 Ben Franks, 2 David Paice (c), 3 Petrus Du Plessis, 4 Franco van der Merwe, 5 Sebastian de Chaves, 6 Josh McNally, 7 Blair Cowan, 8 Jake Schatz

Replacements: 16 Todd Gleave, 17 Harry Elrington, 18 Ollie Hoskins, 19 Teofilo Paulo, 20 Lasha Lomidze, 21 Scott Steele, 22 Theo Brophy Clews, 23 Tom Fowlie

So Johnny Williams and Trev are injured? Surprised at Fowlie not getting a start. What e does Glisenan need to do to get a regular game? Would have preferred Hoskins as the starting tighthead. Pleased to see Tonks at inside centre and hopefully fast service from Ben to Marshall and Tonks will create try situations.

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Come on you Irish

Paul

I like the look of the bacline quite well balanced. Fowlie is unlucky not to get a start but another impressive stint off the bench and he should be first choice come european matches.

Surprised Fai'inga isn't in the squad, did he pick up a niggle at newcastle?

Someone needs to have a word with Trev not to keep getting unnecessarily injured flying in to contact when there is no need.

Quote:

Jamiepep1
I like the look of the bacline quite well balanced. Fowlie is unlucky not to get a start but another impressive stint off the bench and he should be first choice come european matches.
Surprised Fai'inga isn't in the squad, did he pick up a niggle at newcastle?

I believe he has picked up a knock.

Leicester Tigers (v London Irish, away, Saturday 3.00pm)

15 Telusa Veainu
14 Nick Malouf
13 Gareth Owen
12 Matt Toomua
11 Jonny May
10 George Ford (c)
9 Sam Harrison
1 Greg Bateman
2 George McGuigan
3 Dan Cole
4 Dan Tuohy
5 Dom Barrow
6 Sione Kalamafoni
7 Will Evans
8 Valentino Mapapalangi

Replacements
16 Tom Youngs
17 Ellis Genge
18 Patrick Cilliers
19 Harry Wells
20 Luke Hamilton
21 Ben Youngs
22 Joe Ford
23 Mathew Tait

Thanks AW, strong side and bench you have there.

Strong but beatable Quality on bench with Genge & both Youngs but play for 80 mins like the second half on Friday & we can edge this.

Strong side, excited to see what the Aussie boys can bring to the table. Shame that Nalaga, Williams, Fainga'a and Trev are injured so soon. Porecki presumably too, this is asking a lot of Gleave who's only played for us a handful of times so hopefully he can rise to the challenge.

I'm hoping the absentees are indicative of the increasingly attritional Premiership as a whole rather than a training issue, Quins have 45% of their squad unavailable and some sides haven't even been able to field A League teams. Saw on Twitter on Tuesday we were actually training against Quins to make up the numbers for both sides.

Delighted to see Greg start, hopefully he'll primarily help shore up midfield, and should also provide options in attack!

and lets hope Ben gives us some real'zip' !!

It's Friday midday and as ever I'm really optimistic for a positive result tomorrow! Some things never change! COYI!!

Nalaga out with a broken arm which isn't great news

Be interesting to see how our new signings go, Tuohy and Evans both have plenty of experience and Mapapalangi looks like the real deal with international experience as well. I think we might pinch this.
COME ON YOU TIGERRRRrrrrrsssssss.

Tigers by 40.

Quote:

Tigers by 40.

So on that basis a 20-30 point loss for LI would be a disappointing result for Tigers then?

I admire your optimism Ajax, tigers by 60 for me

If the intention is to dominate possession and play the whole match in their half, then that team would do, but that rather assumes that George Ford has his worse game of the season,unable to cope with our first up tackling.Should that not happen then our backs are gonna look very lightweight again. Arriving just as the opposition touches down, has become our trade mark this year. A couple of our star backs, have rarely completed a proper tackle,always looking to nick,and other teams notice and target this. Our success in the opening game came of the back of fearsome first up tackling and until we replicate this we won't win again.

That's a shame about fai'inga as I thought he made a good impact when he was on and hoped he'd get a run of games, hopefully not too much of a lay off.

Happy with that team, very pleased Tonks & Meehan are on from the start and looking forward to seeing what schatz can do. A tough first game for him!

I hope for us to look more comfortable in possession from the start, no need to force things, we have enough playmakers on the field to find the gaps. And please please a better defensive showing! We are at home and no matter who we are playing they need to be made to work for every single point!

I want to get in on this, tigers by 100!!

Forget the pessimism. I’d rather like a win.

Failing that a LBP. And failing that a Worcester loss.

There are some on our offy demanding a bonus point win, it would be nice, but we have to back up last weeks performance and I'll be happy to win by less than 7.

Backline very light on tackling so I do fear the scoreline.
Tiks is not a centre, so can we stop playing him there and put him on the wing. Quins let him go and in the almost three years he has been with us he hasn't exactly dazzled

Quote:

jekyll
Backline very light on tackling so I do fear the scoreline.
Tiks is not a centre, so can we stop playing him there and put him on the wing. Quins let him go and in the almost three years he has been with us he hasn't exactly dazzled

Given our current injuries, who would you replace him with?

Tom Fowlie.

And he gives the added bonuses of tackling, and not jumping out of the defensive line.

Quote:

Shawshank
Tom Fowlie.
And he gives the added bonuses of tackling, and not jumping out of the defensive line.

^^ This. I think Fowlie has got something to add to the party, and I hope he gets the chance today to prove this, so.

Feared it would be close