Tigers Vs Chiefs - Sat 3.05pm

[FKAS]

STARTING XV

15 Freddie Steward [87]
14 Mike Brown [26]
13 Matt Scott [79]
12 Dan Kelly [80]
11 Ollie Hassell-Collins [21]
10 Handré Pollard [32]
9 Jack van Poortvliet [72]
1 Francois van Wyk [53]
2 Julián Montoya (C) [58]
3 Dan Cole [322]
4 George Martin [65]
5 Harry Wells [198]
6 Hanro Liebenberg [106]
7 Tommy Reffell [113]
8 Jasper Wiese [78]

REPLACEMENTS

16 Charlie Clare [94]
17 James Cronin [33]
18 Joe Heyes [140]
19 Finn Carnduff [12]
20 Olly Cracknell [42]
21 Tom Whiteley [29]
22 Kieran Wilkinson [4]
23 Solomone Kata [18]

Exeter Chiefs:

15 Dan John
14 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso
13 Henry Slade
12 Joe Hawkins
11 Olly Woodburn
10 Harvey Skinner
9 Tom Cairns
1 Scott Sio
2 Max Norey
3 Marcus Street
4 Jack Dunne
5 Dafydd Jenkins (c)
6 Ethan Roots
7 Jacques Vermeulen
8 Greg Fisilau

Replacements:

16 Dan Frost
17 Billy Keast
18 Ehren Painter
19 Christ Tshiunza
20 Ross Vintcent
21 Niall Armstrong
22 Will Haydon-Wood
23 Zack Wimbush

[FKAS]

Wilkinson finally gets a go but only after he's confirmed as leaving the club at the end of the season. Pretty much as strong as Tigers can go, want to finish on a high after a turgid season.

Chiefs are in good form, have a high impact bench and a massive starting pack. I suspect IFW will get a hat trick.

[twitchy]

Great try from exe.

[FKAS]

Great try from exe.

The offload from Dan John when it looked like OHC had managed to take man and ball was sensational. IFW is almost a cheat code when it comes to finishing.

[FKAS]

Bar the try and one lineout for Chiefs it's been all Tigers. To many handling errors and some good Chiefs defending keeping it to just a penalty though.

[FKAS]

Well worked first phase move by Tigers sees Steward put OHC down the wing, he runs through Woodburn and Skinner and dots down. The scrum was in the Tigers half so that was some ground to make up.

[Oakboy]

On the day, swap the 9/10 combos, you'd swap the result.

Shame about Wiese's red.

[Puja]

Only got to watch the highlights, but it was nice to see Steward managing two 2-on-1s effectively. That's been the most disappointing thing in his form this back end of the season - his handling has been sloppy under pressure and he's killed several try-scoring opportunities.

Puja

[Mikey Brown]

That move to 12 is sounding more and more tempting.

[FKAS]

On the day, swap the 9/10 combos, you'd swap the result.

Shame about Wiese's red.

Dunno, Tigers looked far more willing to attack and threw what felt like more offloads in one game than they have all season. Move IFW over for Brown and that's a cricket score.

[FKAS]

Only got to watch the highlights, but it was nice to see Steward managing two 2-on-1s effectively. That's been the most disappointing thing in his form this back end of the season - his handling has been sloppy under pressure and he's killed several try-scoring opportunities.

Puja

He's been trying very hard post 6N to show more of his attacking game, somewhat hampered by Tigers not really having one. His inability to link with makeshift winger Shillcock looked poor but last weekend he created one try and today he was popping all over the pitch, he did drop a couple of passes but the amount of Steward seen in attack was noticeably more. He's clearly trying to prove a point to Slick Ballplay.

[Puja]

Only got to watch the highlights, but it was nice to see Steward managing two 2-on-1s effectively. That's been the most disappointing thing in his form this back end of the season - his handling has been sloppy under pressure and he's killed several try-scoring opportunities.

Puja

He's been trying very hard post 6N to show more of his attacking game, somewhat hampered by Tigers not really having one. His inability to link with makeshift winger Shillcock looked poor but last weekend he created one try and today he was popping all over the pitch, he did drop a couple of passes but the amount of Steward seen in attack was noticeably more. He's clearly trying to prove a point to Slick Ballplay.

Maybe not helped by our lack of attacking cohesion, but his basic skills have been dire. I think he's been trying too hard, putting pressure on himself, and ironically probably made himself much worse in attack by trying harder.

Hopefully today will be the start of the turn and he'll come back next year a better player for his troubles.

Puja

[FKAS]

Only got to watch the highlights, but it was nice to see Steward managing two 2-on-1s effectively. That's been the most disappointing thing in his form this back end of the season - his handling has been sloppy under pressure and he's killed several try-scoring opportunities.

Puja

He's been trying very hard post 6N to show more of his attacking game, somewhat hampered by Tigers not really having one. His inability to link with makeshift winger Shillcock looked poor but last weekend he created one try and today he was popping all over the pitch, he did drop a couple of passes but the amount of Steward seen in attack was noticeably more. He's clearly trying to prove a point to Slick Ballplay.

Maybe not helped by our lack of attacking cohesion, but his basic skills have been dire. I think he's been trying too hard, putting pressure on himself, and ironically probably made himself much worse in attack by trying harder.

Hopefully today will be the start of the turn and he'll come back next year a better player for his troubles.

Puja

Very much so though I would say he was fantastic Vs Bristol in a frustrating performance. He showed some lovely touches in that game, including a 50:22 George Ford style iirc.

Definitely trying to advance his game which I'm not going to knock. As you say no attacking cohesion and no right winger haven't helped. Hopefully we have a settled back 3 next season.

[twitchy]

Well done tigers. Exe very much a work in progress, flashes of brilliance and then some schoolboy errors. Also I'm sure people are getting a bit sick of hearing praise for IFW but he deserves it all.

[FKAS]

Well done tigers. Exe very much a work in progress, flashes of brilliance and then some schoolboy errors. Also I'm sure people are getting a bit sick of hearing praise for IFW but he deserves it all.

IFW really is like a cheat code. Beats defenders he just has no right to and does the job in defence as well. Needs to curb his enthusiasm just a tad. Picked up a needless yellow card for a massively over optimistic attempted intercept. Then nearly picked up a second for tackling Steward in the air, he was nowhere near getting the ball so just tackled Freddie. It was pure luck Freddie landed on his his back and not his neck. He doesn't need to contest everything in defence quite so full on, it'll cost him if he doesn't just pull back a touch. Maybe an experience thing.

Otherwise he was sensational again. Huge boost he's picked England over Wales.

[Puja]

Well done tigers. Exe very much a work in progress, flashes of brilliance and then some schoolboy errors. Also I'm sure people are getting a bit sick of hearing praise for IFW but he deserves it all.

IFW really is like a cheat code. Beats defenders he just has no right to and does the job in defence as well. Needs to curb his enthusiasm just a tad. Picked up a needless yellow card for a massively over optimistic attempted intercept. Then nearly picked up a second for tackling Steward in the air, he was nowhere near getting the ball so just tackled Freddie. It was pure luck Freddie landed on his his back and not his neck. He doesn't need to contest everything in defence quite so full on, it'll cost him if he doesn't just pull back a touch. Maybe an experience thing.

Otherwise he was sensational again. Huge boost he's picked England over Wales.

Really easy to forget, with how good he's been and how fast he's improved, that he had played literally one Premiership game before this season.

Puja

[FKAS]

Well done tigers. Exe very much a work in progress, flashes of brilliance and then some schoolboy errors. Also I'm sure people are getting a bit sick of hearing praise for IFW but he deserves it all.

IFW really is like a cheat code. Beats defenders he just has no right to and does the job in defence as well. Needs to curb his enthusiasm just a tad. Picked up a needless yellow card for a massively over optimistic attempted intercept. Then nearly picked up a second for tackling Steward in the air, he was nowhere near getting the ball so just tackled Freddie. It was pure luck Freddie landed on his his back and not his neck. He doesn't need to contest everything in defence quite so full on, it'll cost him if he doesn't just pull back a touch. Maybe an experience thing.

Otherwise he was sensational again. Huge boost he's picked England over Wales.

Really easy to forget, with how good he's been and how fast he's improved, that he had played literally one Premiership game before this season.

Puja

Yeah just think he might develop and become even better...

[Mikey Brown]

World Cup winner Jasper Wiese will miss almost all of South Africa's summer internationals after being handed a six-game ban following his final match for Leicester Tigers.

The 28-year-old was shown a red card in the win against Exeter on Saturday after driving Ross Vintcent into the ground head first at a ruck.

Wiese was charged with foul play and handed the minimum suspension for the offence after admitting guilt.

How on earth does Wiese get the minimum sanction for any kind of foul play at this point? Does he have to have specifically dropped people on their heads before to qualify as having previous?

Either way it's a nice bookend to his Leicester career, having seemed to get his shit together for a good period in the middle.

[Puja]

World Cup winner Jasper Wiese will miss almost all of South Africa's summer internationals after being handed a six-game ban following his final match for Leicester Tigers.

The 28-year-old was shown a red card in the win against Exeter on Saturday after driving Ross Vintcent into the ground head first at a ruck.

Wiese was charged with foul play and handed the minimum suspension for the offence after admitting guilt.

How on earth does Wiese get the minimum sanction for any kind of foul play at this point? Does he have to have specifically dropped people on their heads before to qualify as having previous?

Either way it's a nice bookend to his Leicester career, having seemed to get his shit together for a good period in the middle.

I think when they're saying "minimum" there, they mean it in terms of being a low-end dropping on head - it wasn't a lift up, turn and drop from a height, it was a wrestle in a ruck that went a bit wrong. I think it's low-end 6 weeks, medium 8 weeks, high end 10 weeks, he came in at low-end, but didn't get any mitigation because of all the previous. I reserve the right to be wrong, as that's speculation, but would seem to make sense to me.

Puja

[Mikey Brown]

Well that makes a lot more sense if that’s the case. Cheers.

[FKAS]

6 weeks for one of the softest red cards you'll see. Weise picked up and moved a player lying on the wrong side who was trying to kick the ball out because Dickson refused to blow the whistle. The player was dropped a foot at most with no force or weight behind it. Neither the player nor his teammates made any sort of complaint.

You'll see worse go completely unnoticed by officials, this one only stood out because of how Weise picked up an opposition forward with so little ease and moved him. The Skinner tackle on Whiteley at the end was more dangerous and only got yellow.

[Puja]

6 weeks for one of the softest red cards you'll see. Weise picked up and moved a player lying on the wrong side who was trying to kick the ball out because Dickson refused to blow the whistle. The player was dropped a foot at most with no force or weight behind it. Neither the player nor his teammates made any sort of complaint.

You'll see worse go completely unnoticed by officials, this one only stood out because of how Weise picked up an opposition forward with so little ease and moved him. The Skinner tackle on Whiteley at the end was more dangerous and only got yellow.

Ehhh, can't say as I agree. He did put a bit of force into accelerating him into the ground and I think the problem was that it was entirely unnecessary. Vintcent is fucking about and has nearly hit JVP in the face with Martin's leg, but Wiese puts a shoulder into him which takes him out of action and stops him interfering. It's then after that that Wiese makes the conscious effort to pick him up, flip him over, and drop him on his head.

It's a definite red, but not the worst you'll ever see - I agree with the low-end sanction.



Puja

[FKAS]

After Weise rucks him out the way Vincent then tries to stand up and go again and which point he gets picked and tossed. Weise should have been more careful there's no doubt about it but the term accelerate is doing some very heavy lifting there when a player hits the ground that slowly.

As a red card it's technically correct as he goes past the horizontal and lands on his head. As the player was being a dick and the ref refused to referee what was right in front of him I'd say the blame deserves to be shared a bit. No harm done ultimately and as I said no Chiefs player even complains which is normally a good indication that it's not serious.

Six weeks is overkill. If it was an English international and not Weise there's no way it's 6 weeks. If it's Farrell, 1 week.

[Puja]

Six weeks is overkill. If it was an English international and not Weise there's no way it's 6 weeks. If it's Farrell, 1 week.

I mean, that's a given, but that's because Farrell's a special boy who just leads so well.

I think your thoughts about the fairness are being warped by Wiese getting no mitigation from having such a poor record. Usually that offence would be punished by the same 6 week ban, but because it's reduced down and announced as 3 weeks, you'd nod your head and say "Fair enough".

Puja

[FKAS]

Six weeks is overkill. If it was an English international and not Weise there's no way it's 6 weeks. If it's Farrell, 1 week.

I mean, that's a given, but that's because Farrell's a special boy who just leads so well.

I think your thoughts about the fairness are being warped by Wiese getting no mitigation from having such a poor record. Usually that offence would be punished by the same 6 week ban, but because it's reduced down and announced as 3 weeks, you'd nod your head and say "Fair enough".

Puja

That's true.