Sale vs Leicester - Friday

[Puja]

Sale Sharks: L James; McGuigan, S James, Hill, Yarde; MacGinty, De Klerk; Rodd, Van der Merwe, Oosthuizen, Wiese, Beaumont (capt), J-L du Preez, T Curry, D du Preez.

Replacements: Ashman, Harrison, John, Phillips, Nield, Quirke, Wilkinson, Doherty.

Leicester Tigers: Henry; Van Wyk, Moroni, Kelly, Murimurivalu; McPhillips, B Youngs (capt); De Bruin, Clare, Heyes, Henderson, Lavanini, Martin, Brink, Liebenberg.

Replacements: Dolly, Whitcombe, Hurd, Green, Wiese, Van Poortvliet, Williams, Steward.

[Puja]

I mean, I feel like I want to make a comment about Borthwick having given this game up for lost with the mass rotation, but this is very similar to the side that I said that about against Connacht and they turned out okay. In Borthwick We Trust, I guess.

Quirke vs JVP should be a fun little duel later in the game.

Puja

[twitchy]

Puja do you know what is happening with forum downtime?

[FKAS]

I mean, I feel like I want to make a comment about Borthwick having given this game up for lost with the mass rotation, but this is very similar to the side that I said that about against Connacht and they turned out okay. In Borthwick We Trust, I guess.

Quirke vs JVP should be a fun little duel later in the game.

Puja

Agreed. Looking at those teams you think that's a Sale win but with Borthwick you just don't know.

Faff Vs Benny and then Quirke Vs JVP. Tasty scrum half match ups. Set piece could be critical if Tigers can't get something out of those it'll be a very long evening.

Also Dolly and Kelly back at the club that deemed them not good enough. How fired up will they be?

[fivepointer]

Some rotation from both sides. Think thats fair enough and does allow chances for some good young players to get game time.
sCrums should be interesting. The Rodd-Heyes match up is one to keep an eye on as is the 2 young SH's from the bench.
Nice to see Wilkinson in the 23 for Sale. He looked promising at u20 but has hardly featured at all since then.

[chris1850]

Some rotation from both sides. Think thats fair enough and does allow chances for some good young players to get game time.
sCrums should be interesting. The Rodd-Heyes match up is one to keep an eye on as is the 2 young SH's from the bench.
Nice to see Wilkinson in the 23 for Sale. He looked promising at u20 but has hardly featured at all since then.

Had a very serious injury that kept him out for 12 months

[Raggs]

Puja do you know what is happening with forum downtime?

Yeah, would be nice to know.

[Scrumhead]

I mean, I feel like I want to make a comment about Borthwick having given this game up for lost with the mass rotation, but this is very similar to the side that I said that about against Connacht and they turned out okay. In Borthwick We Trust, I guess.

Quirke vs JVP should be a fun little duel later in the game.

Puja

Yep. I thought the same. Looks like a very callow lineup but they’ve surprised me before so who knows?

[FKAS]

Ah Miss Claire on the TMO, expect her to influence a card this evening.

Sale fancying it. Very kickable penalty turned down for a kick to the corner.

[Oakboy]

Apart from Heyes, Leicester look poor. Was there a scrum in the 1st half? I don't remember one.

[Peej]

With that Murimurivalu no try, did he really propel himself forward?

[FKAS]

No scrum in the first half.

Tigers denied a stonewall penalty try and a brilliant finish from Murimurivalu. What is the TMO doing?

[FKAS]

Apart from Heyes, Leicester look poor. Was there a scrum in the 1st half? I don't remember one.

Tigers were really poor for the first half an hour.

[TheNomad]

Is Steward Injured?

[FKAS]

Wow, Sanderson will be fuming. Horrific discipline from Sale. Two yellow cards and a penalty try in three minutes and you can't argue with any.

[FKAS]

Is Steward Injured?

Just come off the bench. Was rotated to the bench for a bit of a rest.

[FKAS]

And the difference tonight was the first half where Tigers back three lost the kicking battle is spectacular fashion. The introduction of Steward after half time was massive in fixing that.

The other key difference was the Sale forwards ability to look after the ball. Sale were able to create tries through multiple phases in our 22 and wind down the yellow card period through playing phases to nothing. Tigers on the other hand just made errors ball in hand all too often, it just didn't click and wasted chances in that second half.

Just got to hope that some of the younger lads are learning from this and we'll benefit in the future.

[Puja]

In Borthwick We Trust, I guess.

Sack him!

Can't complain too much about that game - Sale were just better than our rotated team and put continuous pressure on us. We only really looked at the races when it was 15 vs 13. Some promising signs from the youngsters though and, like FKAS says, hopefully they've gained a bit of handy experience.

Puja

[FKAS]

In Borthwick We Trust, I guess.

Sack him!

Can't complain too much about that game - Sale were just better than our rotated team and put continuous pressure on us. We only really looked at the races when it was 15 vs 13. Some promising signs from the youngsters though and, like FKAS says, hopefully they've gained a bit of handy experience.

Puja

Actually I thought we were shoddy when down Sale were down to 13. When we had them on their line at 14 fine. But after the restart we cocked up (again, a day next week just on restarts required) Sale just took the ball and ran the clock down. When we did get it in that period we looked unsure whether to stick to the game plan or try to run it. That part of the game was most frustrating for me because we just didn't seem to trust ourselves. Those 7 minutes were when we badly missed Ford.

Better from Lavanini and Henderson played alright but I still feel we're missing something from the row. Green and Wells are not a first choice pairing. I'd have liked to see us push Martin up alongside Henderson when Weise came on instead of Brink coming off. As an aside Brink looks like he's finally finding his form.

Hopefully Burns next season will bring the direction that McPhillips and Henry couldn't supply today. Really disappointed in McPhillips who'd looked like he'd finally turned a corner and then today was just a bit meh.

I suspect Eddie will have looked at Heyes and Steward and thought they looked classy both looked older than their years and Steward in particular was a touch of class. Luke James didn't help any chance of selection.

[Beasties]

No scrum in the first half.

Tigers denied a stonewall penalty try and a brilliant finish from Murimurivalu. What is the TMO doing?

That was just silly. And the three Sale players tackling Youngs 15 secs before that from the pen.

[Beasties]

Steward is just impressive.

[Puja]

In Borthwick We Trust, I guess.

Sack him!

Can't complain too much about that game - Sale were just better than our rotated team and put continuous pressure on us. We only really looked at the races when it was 15 vs 13. Some promising signs from the youngsters though and, like FKAS says, hopefully they've gained a bit of handy experience.

Puja

Actually I thought we were shoddy when down Sale were down to 13. When we had them on their line at 14 fine. But after the restart we cocked up (again, a day next week just on restarts required) Sale just took the ball and ran the clock down. When we did get it in that period we looked unsure whether to stick to the game plan or try to run it. That part of the game was most frustrating for me because we just didn't seem to trust ourselves. Those 7 minutes were when we badly missed Ford.

Better from Lavanini and Henderson played alright but I still feel we're missing something from the row. Green and Wells are not a first choice pairing. I'd have liked to see us push Martin up alongside Henderson when Weise came on instead of Brink coming off. As an aside Brink looks like he's finally finding his form.

Hopefully Burns next season will bring the direction that McPhillips and Henry couldn't supply today. Really disappointed in McPhillips who'd looked like he'd finally turned a corner and then today was just a bit meh.

I suspect Eddie will have looked at Heyes and Steward and thought they looked classy both looked older than their years and Steward in particular was a touch of class. Luke James didn't help any chance of selection.

Disagree on that - thought Lavanini looked utterly rubbish. Worse than usual and I'm not generally a fan.

Agreed on Heyes and Steward. Heyes especially has really kicked on this season and now genuinely looks like a contender for England's third 3, rather than just the promising youngster he was before.

Puja

[TheNomad]

Heyes is great. Our stock of tight heads is looking pretty good right now. Wouldn’t say the same at loose head.

As for Steward, he’s just so bloody dependable. He’s not as elusive as Malins or Freeman, but he’s got so much to his game. Having that level of dominance under the high ball is a weapon on its own

[fivepointer]

Heyes is coming along very nicely. He was all over Rodd in that first scrum in particular and looked lively in the loose. He should see some action with England this summer. As should Steward, who again impressed.
Overall Tigers 2nd best, though they had a good claim for a penalty try and i'm not convinced the Murimurivalu effort should have been disallowed. We've seen very similar lunges for the line awarded with a try.

[FKAS]

Puja, Lavanini started off quite poorly but grew into the game a bit. Didn't give his normal dumb penalties away and secured a pretty vital turnover penalty about 10m from our own line. For me better than in recent games though I'm still worried about losing him this summer.

Steward doesn't have the dancing feet but I thought that run from inside his own 22 up to halfway then offload was impressive. One of the players he left grasping at thin air was Tom Curry and he went through the tackle of de Klerk. That long striding swerve running style reminds me of someone and I can't quite place it. We start seeing more of that type of thing and he'll be an England regular because all his basics at the back are so rock solid. He really helped out backline when he came on, yesterday's game underlined his importance to the team. A 20 year old in his first full season really shouldn't have that kind of stabilising effect on a team that has internationals and experienced players in it.

Heyes has grown into a genuine contender for international honours but he has played nearly 70 games for Tigers first team so it's not like he's a complete novice. Nomad, I don't think the loosehead stocks are too bad with Obano and Genge both still under 30 by the next world cup and we've seen young Rodd and Whitcombe get game time last night and they are both 20. Loads of time for those two to develop and Rodd is already commanding the first choice at Sale. I just hope Eddie takes some of the young props and develops them on the summer tour. It'll be better for us in the long run.