Irish Resist Tiger Mauling
By PV
March 8 2010
Having reported on our ’home’ match against Leinster Lions, I thought it would make sense to select some other wild cats in the form of the Leicester Tigers to share my latest thoughts, but this time I bring you a report with some teeth.
March 8 2010
Having reported on our ’home’ match against Leinster Lions, I thought it would make sense to select some other wild cats in the form of the Leicester Tigers to share my latest thoughts, but this time I bring you a report with some teeth.
I won’t bother with the preamble over the weather and the craic, as I have to confess, I watched this from the anaemic discomfort of my pied a tere in Canary Wharf. So onto the match, Leicester were heavily tooled up in the back line to have a go at our makeshift backs and when you look at Murphy, Tuqiri, Hamilton, and Tuilagi, that’s some combination to slip into your back five, ironically, it was Anthony Allen who was to prove as damaging if not more than his fellow predators.
Frankly in the first 20 minutes we were blown away by a combination of Tigers’ ambition and our own incompetence. They were out to prove their worth following their defeat to their biggest rivals, the Saints last weekend and the painful news that Moody has elected to move to Bath next season, who’d have thought it….?
And boy did we feel that backlash in those early phases, summed up by a fantastic finish by Hamilton and a disastrous interception try by Castrogiovanni from an oft too used inside pass move to Hewat by Mapasua – in our own 22!
So – we were 25 – 3 down and everything was looking pretty grim, but once again, and as has so often been the case this season, Steffon came to the fore, piling over just before half time to give the score some respectability. This was converted by Homer, who’d missed a few kickable goals earlier in the half. He was soon to be succeeded by Lamb who was to be only slightly more successful as the game progressed.
The second half was to see a far more balanced game with neither side in the ascendancy, I put this down to two factors, I conject that Toby and Mike had a few harsh words at half time which gave more clarity to our boys and their game plan, but I know that Staunton is no Toby Flood, and an easier player to read and defend against. And here is my case in point, the number 10 is the pivot and so key to how well you perform as a team. I know Lamb and Malone have come under varying degrees of flack this season (some merited, some unfair), but even the mighty Tigers have proved to us that if you don’t have a quality 10 who can stand flat and judge WHEN to pass long and short, as well as slotting goals and positioning well on the pitch from his hoof, you’re going to be in trouble.
We closed the gap with three penalties from Lamb, who replaced a strangely misfiring Homer with the kicking duties, only to have the final nail hammered into the coffin by a Tigers try from the returning Chuter. Final score – Tigers 35 – 19 Irish
Our pack put in a strong performance in the second half and our front row (minus Clarke and Paice) performed well, as did our back five in the pack. Although controversial, I feel we were more dangerous with Lamb at 9 against Quins than with Hodgson against Tigers. I’m not suggesting that we dispense with Hodgson, but he must work on his box kicking and adding a dash more creativity to his current portfolio.
As for the remaining backs, well we have some serious work to do, Mapusua appears tired and overworked, Elvis has underperformed all season, Rudd is an honest fighter, but no speed merchant, Hewat is a 15, and Homer is a brave young talent who does as he is told, but should be playing wing in exchange for Hewat at 15. We all know this, it seems blindingly obvious – but who am I to challenge the coaches who see these guys day to day on the training paddock. I thinks its fair to say that the inside pass to Hewat has been found out and that we need a bigger box of tricks which the players can execute in competitive matches, breaking the line and scoring tries on the drier pitches.
So where do we go from here, there’s no rugby until the 28 March, but in that time we won’t see a return of some key players who really make us click, Losi, Danaher, Dermody, Thompstone, Corbisiero. Then we have Sale, when I look at their performance this season and yesterday, I believe we will win that game and are in a relatively healthy state as a club, the key challenge will be the following weekend against Wasps at Adams Park, hopefully within this period, we will have managed to sort out our backs selection and get a few more first teamers fit.
This next 6 games will define where this club goes over the next two seasons, we’ll either qualify for the HC and maybe the play offs, or we’ll continue to slip into mid table mediocrity. I have always feared that our lack of depth and reliance on maturing our academy may see us stretched, lets hope this isn’t realised and we achieve what the club deserves, if we do, I think we can attract some more depth and talent next season, if we don’t…………………………
Take the three!
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Posted by: The Craic www.londonirish.org (IP Logged)
Date: 08/03/2010 19:06
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Re: Irish Resist Tiger Mauling
Posted by: PV (IP Logged)
Date: 08/03/2010 20:51
Cheers Stopsy, apologies for it being late. I tried not to analyse the game end to end like last time.
Re: Irish Resist Tiger Mauling
Posted by: MH@Biorra (IP Logged)
Date: 09/03/2010 08:02
PV
Thanks for that.
Interesting observations regarding Paul Hodgson, without doubt he is not quite on top of his game at the moment.
Thanks for that.
Interesting observations regarding Paul Hodgson, without doubt he is not quite on top of his game at the moment.
Re: Irish Resist Tiger Mauling
Posted by: PV (IP Logged)
Date: 09/03/2010 10:16
He seems a bit off the boil, its what the England camp does to you, apparently!
Some major thinking for Catt on who he resigns and signs next season as it doesnt look to pretty in the back division at the moment. If your inside backs dont function, it doesnt matter how great your wings are!
Some major thinking for Catt on who he resigns and signs next season as it doesnt look to pretty in the back division at the moment. If your inside backs dont function, it doesnt matter how great your wings are!
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