RugbyRebels

Leicester Tigers (v Sale Sharks, Welford Road, Sunday 3.00pm)
15 Jordan Olowofela
14 Adam Thompstone
13 Gareth Owen
12 Kyle Eastmond
11 Jonny May
10 George Ford
9 Ben White
1 Greg Bateman
2 Tom Youngs
3 Dan Cole
4 Mike Williams
5 Graham Kitchener
6 David Denton
7 Guy Thompson
8 Sione Kalamafoni

Replacements
16 Ross McMillan
17 David Feao
18 Joe Heyes
19 Harry Wells
20 Valentino Mapapalangi
21 Ben Youngs
22 Tom Hardwick
23 Jonah Holmes

v

Sharks: 15.Byron McGuigan; 14.Denny Solomona, 13.Sam James, 12.Mark Jennings, 11.Marland Yarde; 10.AJ MacGinty, 9.Will Cliff; 1.Ross Harrison, 2.Rob Webber, 3.WillGriff John, 4.Bryn Evans, 5.Andrei Ostrikov, 6.Jono Ross (capt.), 7.Tom Curry, 8.Josh Strauss

Replacements: 16.Curtis Langdon, 17.Alexandru Tarus, 18.Joe Jones, 19.James Phillips, 20.Josh Beaumont, 21.Ben Curry, 22.Gus Warr, 23.Rohan Janse Van Rensburg

So some noticeable changes.
White starting
Manu not involved (Hearing he trained but Murphy wanted to use it as a chance to give him some rest, we will see if that is true next week).
Olowofela keeps his place at 15.
Heyes returns to the bench
Mapapalangi makes his first appearance since his injury.
Hardwick back to being on the bench.

Veainu getting a longer rest or injured?

Puja

Puja wrote:Veainu getting a longer rest or injured?

Puja

HIA from the ball to the gob.
HIA takes I think 19 days now.

Heyes and Hardwick involved is good news, as is Olowofela and White starting. Manu's hamstring (sound familiar?) is not good news for club or Eddie Jones.
Why is Thompstone picked ahead of Holmes, who seems the better player to me?
Sale mix it up a bit and have a 5/2 bench split.
Be very surprised if Tigers dont get a convincing win.

Nick Mullins really winds me up for some reason.

I still don't get what the excitement is about Ben White. His passing is atrocious - indecisive, slow, and inaccurate. I didn't understand why England U20s picked him ahead of Brand and I don't get why Tigers are investing time in him.

Puja

Sale are so bloody frustrating. Basic skills failing when it looks like the hard work is done.

And again.

Are you allowed to jump into a tackle leading with your knee now?

Dismal reffing there. You don't expect much from the current crop, especially at Welford road, but if you're missing obstructions that blatant you need to be having a think about your chosen profession.

Again. Thompstone in from 90 degrees on the line and rewarded for it. That's a 6 point swing from 2 decisions in a couple of minutes.

When even Healey is calling them bad, despite them going Tigers way, you know you're having a 'mare.

16th man wrote:Again. Thompstone in from 90 degrees on the line and rewarded for it. That's a 6 point swing from 2 decisions in a couple of minutes.

When even Healey is calling them bad, despite them going Tigers way, you know you're having a 'mare.

Healey isn’t that biased towards Tigers really, he tends to favor the better attacking team.


Shite game difference being Ford v a none 10.

It was dire. Difference was goal kicking, some control at 10 and a better Tigers scrum.
Sale definitely did not have the rub of the refereeing green.
Players post tackle just lying on the ground with their arms outstetched, making no effort to get out of the way is becoming a real issue. For crissakes refs, ping them.

Tigersman wrote:

16th man wrote:Again. Thompstone in from 90 degrees on the line and rewarded for it. That's a 6 point swing from 2 decisions in a couple of minutes.

When even Healey is calling them bad, despite them going Tigers way, you know you're having a 'mare.

Healey isn’t that biased towards Tigers really, he tends to favor the better attacking team.


Shite game difference being Ford v a none 10.

Was it my imagination or did Ford strut a foot taller when he became captain? Suddenly, he was in charge. For England, perhaps that is it. Dump Farrell completely, make Ford the skipper and let him run things. I know it was only a club game against an ordinary Sale outfit, but that is what I want Ford doing. That or leave him out completely. A subordinate Ford is not worth having. A Ford running the show is a proper FH.

Oakboy wrote:

Tigersman wrote:

16th man wrote:Again. Thompstone in from 90 degrees on the line and rewarded for it. That's a 6 point swing from 2 decisions in a couple of minutes.

When even Healey is calling them bad, despite them going Tigers way, you know you're having a 'mare.

Healey isn’t that biased towards Tigers really, he tends to favor the better attacking team.


Shite game difference being Ford v a none 10.

Was it my imagination or did Ford strut a foot taller when he became captain? Suddenly, he was in charge. For England, perhaps that is it. Dump Farrell completely, make Ford the skipper and let him run things. I know it was only a club game against an ordinary Sale outfit, but that is what I want Ford doing. That or leave him out completely. A subordinate Ford is not worth having. A Ford running the show is a proper FH.

Yeh, it's an odd one everyone says Ford can't handle the pressure but to me he almost seems to want the pressure.
He wants to be the guy in charge, and he plays a much more controlling game when he doesn't have a Toomua or Farrell at 12 IMO, It's why Eastmond works so well a good playmaker but he is an attacking threat in his own right.

Tigersman wrote: Yeh, it's an odd one everyone says Ford can't handle the pressure but to me he almost seems to want the pressure.
He wants to be the guy in charge, and he plays a much more controlling game when he doesn't have a Toomua or Farrell at 12 IMO, It's why Eastmond works so well a good playmaker but he is an attacking threat in his own right.

He wasn't captain (Hartley was) but he certainly seemed to take on more responsibility against Argentina in 2017 and thrived on it, having a great tour.

Tigers could do with going not renewing Kitchener and Fitzgerald contracts and trying to sign a top lock maybe even look at making a marquee signing there someone like Retallick, Etzebeth or Whitelock if possible.
Or maybe more realistic top end lock options like Snymon, De Toit, De Jager or Lavanini.

Good shout, but please not Lavanini. He is a horribly dirty player with few redeeming qualities.

Tigersman wrote:Tigers could do with going not renewing Kitchener and Fitzgerald contracts and trying to sign a top lock maybe even look at making a marquee signing there someone like Retallick, Etzebeth or Whitelock if possible.
Or maybe more realistic top end lock options like Snymon, De Toit, De Jager or Lavanini.

With all possible due respect, please fuck right off.

morepork wrote:

Tigersman wrote:Tigers could do with going not renewing Kitchener and Fitzgerald contracts and trying to sign a top lock maybe even look at making a marquee signing there someone like Retallick, Etzebeth or Whitelock if possible.
Or maybe more realistic top end lock options like Snymon, De Toit, De Jager or Lavanini.

With all possible due respect, please fuck right off.

Look I'm just assuming Whitelock will be 100% anyway at 31 after the world cup it will be his chance to earn a nice retirement fund potentially so why not us....... (I really can't see Retallick leaving yet though he could prob have another world cup in him).

Also Would take Crotty as Toomua marquee replacement please.

Crotty may have early onset dementia if he gets his brain rattled much more.

In all seriousness, there’s a few of the older All Blacks that will surely fancy a last pay day up North.

Whitelock is probably a contender to succeed Read as captain so he may stick around, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Crotty head in this direction. Owen Franks might fancy following his brother and Moody is another with the potential to easily cash-in.

What a terrible game. Both teams were dire, the spectacle was dire, the ref was dire - the two highlighted decision against Sale were terrible, but he also let Sale away with murder in the maul a few times in the first half. The only saving graces were Tom Curry showing his class again and Leicester managing to scrape the relegation 8-pointer.

Puja

I agree that Tom Curry looked special but his performance typified an uncomfortable feeling I have with rucks and mauls. Basically, it is all about constant dialogue with the referee to operate effectively on the edge. It should not be. The laws have to be made clearer and far more has to be done to get them applied with consistency. Can it be right that a backrower needs a communications degree from charm school to compete?