FKAS wrote:It's been all Tigers this half but now we're are under pressure with a Leinster scrum on the 5m. Ref is doing his best to depower the Tigers scrum this game. Twice the assistant has called Tigers pens and twice sir has said play on. Again Leinster's front row go down and again he refuses to give anything.
It all depends on who you support and what you want to see.
I'd say the Tigers front row themselves get away with a fair bit of skullduggery.
Genge is quite good at playing the mystified Mr. Innocent
Leinster were a class outfit, but we threw away a golden chance of a semi-final there. So many opportunities in the Leinster 22 just absolutely murdered. Montoya was terrible at the lineout, but the calls weren't great either - Ryan had clearly done his homework. We badly missed Kelly at 12, as the backline looked disjointed.
Just very disappointed, as that was eminently winnable, but we just didn't have the precision. Leinster were clinical and put us away.
FKAS wrote:It's been all Tigers this half but now we're are under pressure with a Leinster scrum on the 5m. Ref is doing his best to depower the Tigers scrum this game. Twice the assistant has called Tigers pens and twice sir has said play on. Again Leinster's front row go down and again he refuses to give anything.
It all depends on who you support and what you want to see.
I'd say the Tigers front row themselves get away with a fair bit of skullduggery.
Genge is quite good at playing the mystified Mr. Innocent
Show me an innocent prop and it'll be someone who doesn't play at a high level. At the end of the day you do whatever you can get away with irrespective of position but with props scrum penalties are obviously a big advantage.
Furlong wanted to scrum and battle but the replacement tighthead took the scrum down every time and gambled that the ref would see it his way. Fair play it worked but sir didn't have the best game, got to feel the Irish comments after the 6N game had an effect, especially when his assistant is calling a penalty from the side he can't see and he's waving it away. Both looseheads struggled for Leinster, good for Heyes to get stuck into an experienced operator like Healy. Porter must be happy Cole has been retired by Eddie.
Puja wrote:Leinster were a class outfit, but we threw away a golden chance of a semi-final there. So many opportunities in the Leinster 22 just absolutely murdered. Montoya was terrible at the lineout, but the calls weren't great either - Ryan had clearly done his homework. We badly missed Kelly at 12, as the backline looked disjointed.
Just very disappointed, as that was eminently winnable, but we just didn't have the precision. Leinster were clinical and put us away.
Puja
Yep, that's what the review will be on Monday morning. In big games against top teams you can't be making that many mistakes. 7 handling errors (at least one of which looked like it was a possible try), numerous messed up lineouts in the opposition 22 and getting held up over the line when it was a three on one if the pass goes. Got to be more clinical.
Kelly is a huge loss at present and I'm worried if he's not back for the Prem knock outs we might have a tough time. We very much need to win the next two to ensure Sarries and Quins have to face off. I do worry about our midfield defence against Sarries or Quins in the big game without Kelly's ferocity in defence.
Tigersman wrote:This might seem reactionary but does Ford have a big game mentality?
Yesterday v Leinster
Last season v Montpellier
RWC final
Bath v Sarries prem final
Can he control the game as well in a tough must win game?
Didn’t see the game, but from the comments above sounds like there were plenty of entries in to the 22 that were then botched. Was he anything to do with losing possession?
Tigersman wrote:This might seem reactionary but does Ford have a big game mentality?
Yesterday v Leinster
Last season v Montpellier
RWC final
Bath v Sarries prem final
Can he control the game as well in a tough must win game?
Didn’t see the game, but from the comments above sounds like there were plenty of entries in to the 22 that were then botched. Was he anything to do with losing possession?
We lost about 5 lineouts where we'd kicked for touch in their 22 aiming for the maul, including at least 2 where the 3 points woud've been automatic had we kicked for goal. That was the main killer. The rest of it was mostly wank hands dropping simple passes. If anything, when Ford was responsible for the call and clinical execution for Ashton's try.
At risk of summoning Banquo, we did end up needing JVP on the bench. Wigglesworth was the right choice for the expected tight game where we needed someone with experience who wouldn't make mistakes, but having gone 0-20 down by half-time, he wasn't the type of player that you could bring on in a chase situation, even with Youngs having a poor game.
Tigersman wrote:I was thinking more the first 30 when we had zero structure in the game.
Tigers had chances later that we botched but Leinster was in 3rd gear they could’ve jumped an extra 2 if needed. Game was lost in the first 30.
We had entries to their 22 in the first 30. As Puja says we bungled them in various ways. The attack game was predictable and Leinster were waiting, far too easy to pick out which of our big ball carriers was going to smash it up and Leinster just doubled up with their tacklers to stop them. When we started to mix up the play a bit in the second half (and stopped dropping the ball, mostly) we actually threatened the gain line on multiple phases.
I'm not sure Leinster could have gone through the gears. They tried to break out and play further up the field at various times and got shoved back. I'm sure some of their subs might not have come on and Gibson-Park and Sexton might have stayed ok longer which would have helped. Irrespective of how far ahead you are you don't want to spend long periods of a half camped in your own half defending waves of attack. Cullen admitted after the game they were under pressure during the second half and weren't that happy with how it went compared to the first. You can tell how nervous they were getting when they went for the 3 points when finally getting into our half. I was a bit surprised there I thought they'd play more phases up the field and look to throw a few shots of their own to try and change the balance of the game a bit, they only got up there by us bungling another attack and then a routine clearance as well.
