Toulon vs Leicester

[Puja]

Leicester Tigers (v RC Toulonnais, Stade Felix-Mayol, Saturday 8.00pm - UK time)

TIGERS XV

15 Kini Murimurivalu
14 Harry Potter
13 Jaco Taute
12 Matt Scott
11 Nemani Nadolo
10 George Ford (vc)
9 Ben Youngs
1 Ellis Genge
2 Tom Youngs (c)
3 Dan Cole
4 Tomás Lavanini
5 Calum Green
6 Harry Wells
7 Tommy Reffell
8 Hanro Liebenberg

REPLACEMENTS

16 Charlie Clare
17 Facundo Gigena
18 Nephi Leatigaga
19 Thom Smith
20 Luke Wallace
21 Ben White
22 Zack Henry
23 Dan Kelly


RC Toulonnais: 15 Daniel Ikpefan, 14 Masivesi Dakuwaqa, 13 Bryce Heem, 12 Duncan Paia'aua, 11 Gabin Villière, 10 Louis Carbonel, 9 Tane Takulua; 1 Jean Baptiste Gros, 2 Anthony Etrillard (c), 3 Beka Gigashvili, 4 Swan Rebbadj, 5 Romain Taofifenua, 6 Charles Ollivon, 7 Raphael Lakafia, 8 Sergio Parisse.
Reps: 16 Bastien Soury, 17 Sébastien Taofifenua, 18 Emerick Setiano, 19 Erwan Dridi, 20 Brian Alainu'uese, 21 Julien Ory, 22 Anthony Meric, 23 Facundo Isa.

[Puja]

No Freddie Steward this week - not sure if that's injury or if we're just preferring the experienced of Murimurivalu for this game. Odd that he's not in the 23 altogether if it's not injury though.

I've given up complaining about playing 3 locks and 2 back row on the bench now. The rest of the team looks good though - I think we should be looking to take the game to Toulon and really challenge for this.

Puja

[FKAS]

Has some of the minging coldy flu stuff that's been going round hit the squad a little? Would explain why no Steward, Porter, Worth but Kelly in at 23. Good to see then backing Thom Smith again, hopefully this game time will see him push on though it's a big ask if he has to come off the bench and go head to head with Facundo Isa.

[Raggs]

Seems rather cheeky to ask, seeing I've done a grand total of 1 or 2 match threads, but can we have time and date in the titles? I check this site for my kickoff times more than anywhere else .

[FKAS]

How is that a try and not a penalty to us? Not even close to releasing in the tackle.

[Raggs]

I feel sorry for Ford here. Players are barely giving him options, running lines straight into contact. Dire stuff. Few key players for Tigers, but it's far too few.

[FKAS]

Unsure what's worse the lottery that is the ref decision making or the awful Tigers habit of making unforced errors resulting in Toulon points. Tigers should be winning this unforced errors are gifting Toulon nearly all of their points

[Puja]

I feel sorry for Ford here. Players are barely giving him options, running lines straight into contact. Dire stuff. Few key players for Tigers, but it's far too few.

Ford's also having a nightmare personally. Loose kicks to the Toulon back 3, that free kick mistake, that penalty mistake. He's our best player generally, but he's been poor tonight.

Puja

[Puja]

That ref was terrible. I mean, we were definitely masters of our own downfall, but the first two Toulon tries came from turnovers that were clear Leicester penalties (not releasing and then in at the side) and that decision to disallow the Genge try at the end was comedic and ignored the basic laws of physics.

The key moment was when we'd managed to go from 20-6 to 20-14, had a kickable penalty for 20-17, and instead went for touch and Ford kicked it touch in goal. Wrong decision, appalling execution, took our momentum away and gave Toulon a second wind that they never relinquished.

Annoying cause that game was eminently winnable. So many of our big players had such poor games and yet we were still in touch for a lot of it. Bristol should absolutely wipe the floor with them.

Puja

[Raggs]

I feel sorry for Ford here. Players are barely giving him options, running lines straight into contact. Dire stuff. Few key players for Tigers, but it's far too few.

Ford's also having a nightmare personally. Loose kicks to the Toulon back 3, that free kick mistake, that penalty mistake. He's our best player generally, but he's been poor tonight.

Puja

Yeah, my comment was made before he really went to trash too though.

[FKAS]

That ref was terrible. I mean, we were definitely masters of our own downfall, but the first two Toulon tries came from turnovers that were clear Leicester penalties (not releasing and then in at the side) and that decision to disallow the Genge try at the end was comedic and ignored the basic laws of physics.

The key moment was when we'd managed to go from 20-6 to 20-14, had a kickable penalty for 20-17, and instead went for touch and Ford kicked it touch in goal. Wrong decision, appalling execution, took our momentum away and gave Toulon a second wind that they never relinquished.

Annoying cause that game was eminently winnable. So many of our big players had such poor games and yet we were still in touch for a lot of it. Bristol should absolutely wipe the floor with them.

Puja

Yep agree with all of that. Disappointed with our half backs, Benny went through the motions and Ford had a shocker. There were signs our attack might actually come to something but so little cohesion cost us repeatedly. Murimurivalu looks for Wells, Wells is running a line but has no intention of taking a pass. Ball goes to floor and couple of phases later second try. Pretty much how most their scores went.

The officials were so poor I really hope the ref and TMO in particular are removed from European games because they could easily ruin a tighter game in the future. Sir didn't seem to know the updated breakdown interpretation until half time and the TMO casually overlooked two high tackles which should have been cards (one for each side) and when asked to review the fight that left Colely livid just replied "nothing" immediately. Did he even look? Absolute shambles.

[fivepointer]

The officials were quite poor. They seemed to have quite a problem in communicating and the use - or non use - of the TMO was very odd at times.
That said, Tigers were 2nd best and are still a team trying to find their way.