RugbyRebels

I mean I said he doesn't have the speed of other 15's thinking players like Hodge.
I guess this depends on people's thoughts on rapid.
For me Conrad Smith was average speed but his defensive ability meant generally even "rapid 15's" struggled to get around him.

Tigersman wrote:I mean I said he doesn't have the speed of other 15's thinking players like Hodge.
I guess this depends on people's thoughts on rapid.
For me Conrad Smith was average speed but his defensive ability meant generally even "rapid 15's" struggled to get around him.

Not sure what point you are making now tbh. For me, pace at 15 poses essential questions for intl defences.

(Though agree ‘rapid’ is subjective. Faster than Goode or even Brown for sure. Smith was deceptively quick, but not super rapid it’s true)

So, away from the board's predilection for debates on the precise meanings of words, it's Leicester vs Montpellier in the final. I would've preferred Bath as I know they are within our range of beatable teams (despite our recent success in losing to them), but having the French at Twickenham with a crowd of 10,000 Tigers supporters isn't a bad advantage.

Puja

Banquo wrote:

Tigersman wrote:I mean I said he doesn't have the speed of other 15's thinking players like Hodge.
I guess this depends on people's thoughts on rapid.
For me Conrad Smith was average speed but his defensive ability meant generally even "rapid 15's" struggled to get around him.

Not sure what point you are making now tbh. For me, pace at 15 poses essential questions for intl defences.

(Though agree ‘rapid’ is subjective. Faster than Goode or even Brown for sure. Smith was deceptively quick, but not super rapid it’s true)

back in the day Smith was simply quick, oddly he slowed as he neared his 50th but compensated with better reading of the game

Puja wrote:So, away from the board's predilection for debates on the precise meanings of words, it's Leicester vs Montpellier in the final. I would've preferred Bath as I know they are within our range of beatable teams (despite our recent success in losing to them), but having the French at Twickenham with a crowd of 10,000 Tigers supporters isn't a bad advantage.

Puja

I prefer Montpellier personally. A) for variety as it's nice to mix up the teams you play. B) losing to Bath in a final probably due to our poor discipline would be an awful outcome for a final.

Given how loose Montpellier were you'd hope we'd be able to bring some structure to the game and control territory and possession.

Yeah - I agree with that.

Based upon yesterday’s game, I’d fancy Tigers to do well against Montpellier.