Saracens

Unfortunately SNW still have an issue with supplying photos so having to reuse old ones!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 18/01/2024 08:11 by Darraghgirl.

Many thanks for the preview. I wish a safe and enjoyable visit to any who are coming up as long as we get the points. Hopefully it will be a good game.

Excellent preview. Don't forget we have the Leinster game to break up that 6 Nations period I believe but as you say, a somewhat relentless slog for those Internationals called up for the 6 Nations.
Also given its Pearce maybe Jamie George rather than Farrell doing the only talking!

Brilliant preview and thanks for the name check!

Hoping for a couple of returnees but that was almost a worse case scenario team and had assumed Hanro & Ben Youngs available!

Had benched O. Chessum because of the schedule for the International players and a 6 day turnaround for Tigers (getting my excuses in early)

I’ve noticed a few England players are missing in the matches tomorrow night, is there supposed to a rest for some?
Christie has played every week so could be one to sit this week out. Theo M too has played a fair bit.

Shouldn't this be a pre match related comments thread?

Quote:

tigerburnie
Shouldn't this be a pre match related comments thread?

Unfortunately SNW limits the number of characters in the title page and "Leicester tigers" takes up too many so had to abbreviate the rest. We know what we mean!!!!

I'll bite. Yes, and it's asking for you to post your thoughts before the match (not 'post match').
Of course you can come back with your after match comments tomorrow, if you wish.

Surely "post-match" is hyphenated? so 100% correct headline

Don't call me Shirley.........................................................................I miss those films.....................

Change 2post" to "add" or "make", but we know what is meant!

---

Successful hills are here to stay
Everything must be this way
Gentle streets where people play
Welcome to the Soft Parade

🌻🌻🌻

Saracens Men team to play Leicester Tigers:

1 Sam Crean
2 Kapeli Pifeleti
3 Christian Judge
4 Maro Itoje
5 Hugh Tizard
6 Theo McFarland
7 Juan Martin Gonzalez
8 Ben Earl
9 Gareth Simpson
10 Owen Farrell (c)
11 Lucio Cinti
12 Nick Tompkins
13 Elliot Daly
14 Rotimi Segun
15 Tom Parton

Replacements:
16 Theo Dan
17 Logovi’i Mulipola
18 Ollie Hoskins
19 Nick Isiekwe
20 Andy Christie
21 Ivan van Zyl
22 Manu Vunipola
23 Alex Lewington



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/01/2024 12:04 by Sarriebone.

Tigers 🐯

15 Freddie Steward [79]
14 Harry Simmons [36]
13 Dan Kelly [70]
12 Solomone Kata [9]
11 Mike Brown [18]
10 Handré Pollard [22]
9 Tom Whiteley [19]
1 James Cronin [24]
2 Julián Montoya (c) [49] *
3 Joe Heyes [134]
4 George Martin [71]
5 Ollie Chessum [50]
6 Matt Rogerson [12]
7 Tommy Reffell [107]
8 Jasper Wiese [68]

REPLACEMENTS

16 Finn Theobold-Thomas [4]
17 Francois van Wyk [43]
18 Will Hurd [35]
19 Harry Wells [187]
20 Kyle Hatherell [10]
21 Olly Cracknell [31]
22 Ben Youngs [308]
23 Jamie Shillcock [15]

The only returnee is Youngs on the bench, but at least Kata is fit and Mike Brown has extended his contract 👍

I wasn’t expecting Jamie to be rested but it makes sense. Big test for Crean and Pifeleti. I find it strange that IVZ isn’t starting a lot of the time but that is a strong looking bench.

Obviously decided to keep Billy out of Luke Pearces ear

Two very strong squads.

Some interesting choices in that 23. As ever not quite sure what is injury unavailability (Hartely? Davies?) what is rotation and what is tactical.

Looking at the starting 23 it feels like if the XV can still be in touch once the bench come on then Sarries have a chance despite Tigers also having a strong bench too.

Hopefully Pifeleti has spent the some of his recovery time practicing his darts. We have very strong lineout options and exciting quick backs to release off those set plays but we have to be able to hit our jumpers. Great to see McFarland at 6 and with he, Sarries locks, JMG and Christie we have some great lineout options in attack and defence.
Both wings but Segun especially chased brilliantly last game but I hope this is one that we keep the ball in hand more and test Tigers defence wider out. My preference would be to see Sarries, when we do kick, vary that more but I also feel we could put pressure of Tigers by kicking off the field to force them to take lineouts in their half at which we compete.

If we can cope with Tigers scrum, physicality and Reffell slowing and stealing ball at the breakdown then we have a chance!

Huge game for both Simpson and Crean. Good luck to both and the whole team. COYS.

Guardian preview.
[www.theguardian.com]

Safe travels

Big, big game today if we want to be near the top of the league come the end of season. The sides look fairly evenly matched so could very well be a cliff hanger right to the end. COYS.

Scrum v lineout then breakdown are the areas that will decide it for me. On paper and form we should have the upper hand in the scrum, you will dominate the lineout and the breakdown will be fascinating

Agree Stopsy. I do think that whilst your lineout has been struggling you have all the pieces in place for it to be good so I'm not sure if that will be as clearcut despite being confident we have great options there in the lineout we have struggled with accuracy from hooker previously.

Unlike COYS I feel Tigers have a very obvious advantage in terms of a nearer full squad but we play with the teams available! Hoping yesterdays news doesn't factor in our performance unless its in a positive way (I think that's all the excuses bases covered!!)

I can't say that I'm as confident as some here that it will even be close but we need to take advantage of the huge favour Bears did for us yesterday.

---

Successful hills are here to stay
Everything must be this way
Gentle streets where people play
Welcome to the Soft Parade

🌻🌻🌻

Quote:

OldMarovian
I feel Tigers have a very obvious advantage in terms of a nearer full squad but we play with the teams available! Hoping yesterday’s news doesn't factor in our performance unless it’s in a positive way (I think that's all the excuses bases covered!!)

Nice try OM but can’t let you have that excuse
Injuries whilst in different positions for those that would get in a 23, roughly about the same number.

Saracens

Mako (Banned)
Mawi
West
Riccioni
RAH
CHH
Willis
Loz
And probably a couple I have missed!

🐯
Centres/Wings
Scott
Porter
OHC
Bassett
Watson

Hooker
Clare
Dolly
Vanes

Other Positions
JVP
Cam Henderson
Liebenberg
Cole

It's where the injuries are for us tigersimon. Our prop resources and until recently lock too.
As were seeing without at least parity up front Rugby is a very difficult game! I think you have a similar issue at hooker.

The lad Montoya looks promising 😊

Quote:

OldMarovian
It's where the injuries are for us tigersimon. Our prop resources and until recently lock too.
As were seeing without at least parity up front Rugby is a very difficult game! I think you have a similar issue at hooker.

Appreciate it’s all in the Front row (& was at lock)
Hooker is 1st choice starting but then probably 5th for FTT with no disrespect to the guy!
The other is the centre/wing with Brown out on the wing and being forced to play Kata/Kelly again when Kata could probably do with a rest. As we discussed earlier in the week my worst case scenario team was Steward starting at 13 and it’s quite likely we have gone 6-2 today because of the number of backs out.
Just don’t knock the ball on and I will hope Pollard can control the game without putting the ball into touch unless it’s a 50/22 or from a PK!
Enjoy the game (but not too much)!

Quote:

Stopsy
The lad Montoya looks promising 😊

I think given time he might prove himself Stopsy

Quote:

Stopsy
The lad Montoya looks promising 😊

🤣

Tight one so far 12-10 at HT

A cracking game so far

My daughter is at the game and tells me the fans were booing Farrel at the half time whistle with ‘le Boo’! Imaginative to say the least.

Quote:

Nosher1979
My daughter is at the game and tells me the fans were booing Farrel at the half time whistle with ‘le Boo’! Imaginative to say the least.

If he hasn’t made his mind up yet that’ll do it

Ridiculous yellow given to Maro

Does anyone have the figures on the number of penalties we’ve conceded at the scrum this season? I think it will cost us a spot in the play offs.

Quote:

#wolfpack1
Does anyone have the figures on the number of penalties we’ve conceded at the scrum this season? I think it will cost us a spot in the play offs.

It is a coaching issue this.

I know we’re missing plenty, but it doesn’t really matter who plays- every week we shuffle the cards and every week we get battered.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/01/2024 16:35 by #wolfpack1.

Not getting the rub of the green with some of the decisions. Even Austin Healey feels we are some of the decisions!

Pinged for obstructing... And then Leicester do exactly the same thing and it's fine...

A lot of growing concern for this season. Faz looked completely off it today, and IVZ seems to be struggling a bit this season. Ben looked good as always, as did JMG and little Theo. But it’s just been a bit underwhelming so far this season.

We needed that, good luck going forwards.

Leicester dominated our scrum, Pearce really did not have a good game with the whistle (Itoje yellow was bananas) and we made that far worse by giving away far too many silly penalties! I think 6th in the table feels about right given the mediocre performances we are putting in most weeks. Only one really decent performance so far this year, away against Quins. Really difficult to be optimistic about next week at this moment. Lots and lots for the coaches to do.

I thoroughly enjoyed that game. Some amazing skills on show. If we can work on catching the ball/accuracy I’ll be even happier.
A great game between two good squads on the day.
The number of penalties conceded probably reflects the pressure we put you under and as you know, refs tend to favour the side applying the pressure.

It was a lot better performance than it could have been with our sick bay. Maros yellow must have been a cumulative penalty but was probably decisive. Nicks penalty was soft likewise but I also think was through referee frustration at previous infringements.

With 7 games to go and next three against front runners, we need get the strategy and discipline right.

With regard to Maro’s yellow card, it was because he tackled Wiese having not retreated behind his goal line.

Healey was wrong, plain and simple.

OPPOSING TEAM AT A PENALTY OR FREE-KICK

When a penalty or free-kick is awarded, the opposing team must immediately retreat 10 metres towards their own goal line or until they have reached their goal line if that is closer.

Even if the penalty or free-kick is taken quickly and the kicker’s team is playing the ball, opposing players must keep retreating the necessary distance. They may not take part in the game until they have done so.

If it is taken so quickly that opponents have no opportunity to retreat, they will not be sanctioned for this. However, they may not take part in the game until they have retreated 10 metres from the mark or until a team-mate who was 10 metres from the mark has moved in front of them.

The opposing team may not do anything to delay the kick or obstruct the kicker, including intentionally taking, throwing or kicking the ball out of reach of the team awarded the penalty.

Bordeaux away could get messy.

Disappointing performance although not unexpected given how we have been playing. Scrum a major issue but otherwise we just looked underpowered. Also doesn’t help when your 10 drops 3 absolute clangers in the first half.

Given the distance Wiesse travelled I thought Maro was a bit unlucky to get the yellow but probably didnt make any difference. We never looked like scoring in the second half.

It was all very well for Healey to count through Wiesse's paces and make it more than 10 metres that he covered, but he was going obliquely!

Maro didn't retreat far enough and there wasn't a team mate moving forwards to put him onside. Often the scrum half hares back when there's a chance of a quick penalty and then advances. We were caught napping, but we had been put so much on the back foot that it was hard to be ready.

Too many things like that went wrong and we couldn't take our chances. But Tigers' handling was poor, so we can't complain too much. At least we didn't lose from 26 - 0 up after 20 minutes!

---

Successful hills are here to stay
Everything must be this way
Gentle streets where people play
Welcome to the Soft Parade

🌻🌻🌻

Looking more and more like a transition season. Vunipolae and OF probably gone.
I hope we can keep Cinti and Gonzalez but we need a prop or 2 and a good 10 to replace OF
We can make the playoffs (with a good run post 6N) but I can’t see us getting far in Europe nor to a Prem final this year. Had to come eventually, key is how we rebuild. Will be interesting to watch as we still have a lot of great players

On the positive side we generally handled Wiese well, Parton and Roti did well and Daley looked class. There were glimpses were weren’t far off, but we lack a heavy duty ball carrier.
Willis and Mawi particularly can’t come back soon enough. It was always going to be a massive ask of Crean to step up from Ampthill to Tigers away.
Really sorry for Kapelli, waited months for a chance and injured in 5 minutes.

Quote:

The Bard
Really sorry for Kapelli, waited months for a chance and injured in 5 minutes.

Agree. That's really unfortunate for the big lad. Also hope the others who took knocks are ok. Steward played on but looked uncomfortable after the collision with Cinti (which I felt we were lucky not to be penalised for)

Quote:

The Bard
On the positive side we generally handled Wiese well, Parton and Roti did well and Daly looked class. There were glimpses were weren’t far off, but we lack a heavy duty ball carrier

Agree on Weise the problem was he wasn't their only heavy carrier! Kata had a good game too.
Daly had a very good game. Beautifully played in attack for the try and holding up Kelly was exceptional.
Obviously it is great to have heavy duty carriers and I agree that it will help hugely when they return but we seem determined to play as if we have them rather than embracing that we have a lighter, athletic backrow and playing to space.

For me there were a few pivotal Sarries moments. Farrells poor throw for the interception (imagine if Manu had done that) Dan going for the line and getting isolated (he has form for that and needs to think in terms of support if he doesn't make it) and McFarland straightening the line when we had a 5 on 3 overlap. All those were things in our control rather than the referees.

I felt like Sarries did a lot right but ultimately I was left with the same feeling as against Bath and Saints that we just need to play a bit more ball-in-hand. We have both the backs and the forwards for it (if not the dominant platform) but yet again we are seemingly happier to play without the ball and continue to kick away good possession just outside the opposition 22 when we had a fast back kicking and a fast back outside them. Is it really a better % play to kick away rather than attack the line especially with players like Segun, Cinti, Daly etc? We had genuine pace up against two of the slower backs in the league in Brown and Steward but we never tested them.

Not sure there is an answer to playing behind a struggling scrum but I think Healey was spot on that it probably involves "playing" a bit more.

AP agree with that. I do think Tigers handling was poor under pressure rather than in isolation and we can certainly credit the team with that.