Leicester 37 Sale 31
By Whaley Shark
April 13 2009
On a pleasant early April afternoon, the Whaley Shark found his way down to Leicester to watch what was billed as the make-or-break game for the Sharks’ season. He saw some of the action…
April 13 2009
On a pleasant early April afternoon, the Whaley Shark found his way down to Leicester to watch what was billed as the make-or-break game for the Sharks’ season. He saw some of the action…
Watching rugby end-on: I don’t normally do it, but that’s what I ended up doing, just a couple of rows back in the Clubhouse Stand, which appears to be made of Meccano, at Leicester week ago. Many of you saw it all on the telly and have probably said all there is to say about the big things, so this isn’t about whether Julian White should have been sent off, or whether we should have beaten a side playing for an hour with 14 men; rather it’s just a few snapshots that stick in the memory…..
The first half was certainly value for money, with the Mark Cueto show going on just a few yards in front of me. First, from a lineout deep in the Tigers 22, the ball moves from Peel to Hodgson, who wrong foots the defenders, slipping it inside to Quates who touches down under the posts. Just at the end of the half, there’s something that looks suspiciously like a Sale backs move. Dwayne Peel nips round the end of a lineout, feeds Andy Sheridan who makes ground and Matt Tait works the ball to Quates, who just squeaks into the corner. In between Mark Cueto’s two tries, Charlie also fired up a high kick which rolled into the in-goal and Quates was just beaten to the touchdown by a couple of desperate Tigers defenders.
Since we are defending the Clubhouse end in the second half, I decide I’d be quite happy to see nothing at all for the next forty minutes, but it’s not to be. First I get a sense of what it’s like to see the Tigers’ Tuilagi rampaging straight at you (most unnerving) and, although Quates stops him, Tuilagi offloads to Dan Hipkiss who runs in unchallenged.
Just on the hour, in a spell of sustained pressure, Tigers have a scrum about 30 metres out. They batter at the Sale defence, but we scramble well and every Tigers attacker seems to be hauled down by two defenders. But then there’s a Leicester half-break, they gain ground and Toby Flood sticks an inch-perfect grubber kick between two defenders. The ball sits up for their winger, Scott Hamilton, arcing in from the right, and I can see the wicked grin on his face as he grasps the ball and scores under the posts.
Finally, with ten minutes to go, there’s a repeat of the Tuilagi experience. While he’s eventually brought to a halt, Dan Hipkiss is in support and Tigers the move the ball left to allow Sam Vesty to score.
So the best thing about watching this way is definitely the immediacy of the game. You’re very close to the action and you feel the effort and impact much more vividly. You also get more feeling for the shape of the game as you see attackers moving the ball wide or changing the angle of a run, and defenders scramble across. Bad things- when play is more than about 30 metres away, it’s very difficult to see what’s going on, and when they’re up the other end, the players are just little stick men.
Overall though, I really enjoyed our day out- really pulsating game, great atmosphere, good banter and no complaints about the result- Tigers played like men possessed and we just couldn’t quite break their resolve.
The first half was certainly value for money, with the Mark Cueto show going on just a few yards in front of me. First, from a lineout deep in the Tigers 22, the ball moves from Peel to Hodgson, who wrong foots the defenders, slipping it inside to Quates who touches down under the posts. Just at the end of the half, there’s something that looks suspiciously like a Sale backs move. Dwayne Peel nips round the end of a lineout, feeds Andy Sheridan who makes ground and Matt Tait works the ball to Quates, who just squeaks into the corner. In between Mark Cueto’s two tries, Charlie also fired up a high kick which rolled into the in-goal and Quates was just beaten to the touchdown by a couple of desperate Tigers defenders.
Since we are defending the Clubhouse end in the second half, I decide I’d be quite happy to see nothing at all for the next forty minutes, but it’s not to be. First I get a sense of what it’s like to see the Tigers’ Tuilagi rampaging straight at you (most unnerving) and, although Quates stops him, Tuilagi offloads to Dan Hipkiss who runs in unchallenged.
Just on the hour, in a spell of sustained pressure, Tigers have a scrum about 30 metres out. They batter at the Sale defence, but we scramble well and every Tigers attacker seems to be hauled down by two defenders. But then there’s a Leicester half-break, they gain ground and Toby Flood sticks an inch-perfect grubber kick between two defenders. The ball sits up for their winger, Scott Hamilton, arcing in from the right, and I can see the wicked grin on his face as he grasps the ball and scores under the posts.
Finally, with ten minutes to go, there’s a repeat of the Tuilagi experience. While he’s eventually brought to a halt, Dan Hipkiss is in support and Tigers the move the ball left to allow Sam Vesty to score.
So the best thing about watching this way is definitely the immediacy of the game. You’re very close to the action and you feel the effort and impact much more vividly. You also get more feeling for the shape of the game as you see attackers moving the ball wide or changing the angle of a run, and defenders scramble across. Bad things- when play is more than about 30 metres away, it’s very difficult to see what’s going on, and when they’re up the other end, the players are just little stick men.
Overall though, I really enjoyed our day out- really pulsating game, great atmosphere, good banter and no complaints about the result- Tigers played like men possessed and we just couldn’t quite break their resolve.
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