Leicester vs Bristol - Saturday

[Puja]

15 Freddie Steward [33]
14 Harry Potter [15]
13 Matías Moroni [15]
12 Matt Scott [23]
11 Kini Murimurivalu [21]
10 Johnny McPhillips [20]
9 Ben Youngs [262]

1 Ellis Genge [87]
2 Tom Youngs (c) [214]
3 Dan Cole [262]
4 Harry Wells [122]
5 Cameron Henderson [15]
6 George Martin [15]
7 Tommy Reffell [46]
8 Hanro Liebenberg [34]

REPLACEMENTS:
16 Julián Montoya [4]
17 James Whitcombe [6]
18 Joe Heyes [70]
19 Tomás Lavanini [35]
20 Jasper Wiese [18]
21 Richard Wigglesworth [14]
22 Zack Henry [25]
23 Nemani Nadolo [14]



Bristol Bears: 15. Max Malins; 14. Piers O’Conor, 13. Semi Radradra, 12. Siale Piutau, 11. Henry Purdy; 10. Callum Sheedy, 9. Harry Randall; 1. Yann Thomas, 2. Will Capon, 3. Kyle Sinckler, 4. Dave Attwood, 5. Chris Vui, 6. Steven Luatua (c), 7. Dan Thomas, 8. Nathan Hughes.

Replacements: 16. Jake Kerr, 17. Jake Woolmore, 18. John Afoa, 19. Joe Joyce, 20. Ben Earl, 21. Andy Uren, 22. Ioan Lloyd, 23. Alapati Leiua.

[Puja]

I can only assume that Ford is injured, as we're clearly not resting players for this game (with the possible exception of Wiese, but he is still in the XXIII and was rubbish against Wuss). Great to see Montoya back. Disappointed that once again Wigglesworth is preferred over JVP on the bench.

Sadly no sign of Bristol rotating, but I still think we stand an okay chance at this. First home game with a crowd, strong side put out, we know we *need* the win - we could spring a surprise. Depends on if we're planning on playing this week rather than just kicking the ball in the air and hoping the opposition screw up.

Puja

[FKAS]

To be fair the aerial game works perfectly well. It's just boring to watch. The issue tends to be when we get to the opposition 22 and run out of ideas past crash it up and rolling maul.

Hopefully we can do the damage up front and keep Bristol pinned back. I agree Ford must be injured and this perhaps explains his subdued end to the final if he was carrying a knock.

[Puja]

To be fair the aerial game works perfectly well. It's just boring to watch. The issue tends to be when we get to the opposition 22 and run out of ideas past crash it up and rolling maul.

Hopefully we can do the damage up front and keep Bristol pinned back. I agree Ford must be injured and this perhaps explains his subdued end to the final if he was carrying a knock.

The aerial game works perfectly well?! Did you watch us do our best to lose to Worcester last week?

Puja

[fivepointer]

Very good to see Randall back for Bris. Not sure about POC on the wing but I guess Lam wants to shoehorn his best players into the side.
Genge v Sinckler might be fun.

[FKAS]

To be fair the aerial game works perfectly well. It's just boring to watch. The issue tends to be when we get to the opposition 22 and run out of ideas past crash it up and rolling maul.

Hopefully we can do the damage up front and keep Bristol pinned back. I agree Ford must be injured and this perhaps explains his subdued end to the final if he was carrying a knock.

The aerial game works perfectly well?! Did you watch us do our best to lose to Worcester last week?

Puja

I've deleted that game from my memory due to the spectacular lack of ability shown by both sides. How many times did we cock up legitimate chances in their half? Henry missed about 8 points worth of kicks. We should have battered Wuss.

That worries me ahead of this game as again no Ford risks no direction though Steward at the back should help.

Lam has named what looks his most physical side. He looks like he's getting ready to play the narrow pitch and the attritional Tigers team fire with fire. Should be interesting and potentially for Lam a chance to try a different tactic against a poor man's version of Exeter, that's what we expect the final to be after all Chiefs Vs Bristol.

[Puja]

To be fair the aerial game works perfectly well. It's just boring to watch. The issue tends to be when we get to the opposition 22 and run out of ideas past crash it up and rolling maul.

Hopefully we can do the damage up front and keep Bristol pinned back. I agree Ford must be injured and this perhaps explains his subdued end to the final if he was carrying a knock.

The aerial game works perfectly well?! Did you watch us do our best to lose to Worcester last week?

Puja

I've deleted that game from my memory due to the spectacular lack of ability shown by both sides. How many times did we cock up legitimate chances in their half? Henry missed about 8 points worth of kicks. We should have battered Wuss.

That worries me ahead of this game as again no Ford risks no direction though Steward at the back should help.

Lam has named what looks his most physical side. He looks like he's getting ready to play the narrow pitch and the attritional Tigers team fire with fire. Should be interesting and potentially for Lam a chance to try a different tactic against a poor man's version of Exeter, that's what we expect the final to be after all Chiefs Vs Bristol.

I'd respond with how many times did Wuss give us easy penalties to give us field position. We didn't earn the position for either of our tries (and I don't remember many other legitimate chances in their half) and if I was a Wuss fan I'd be fuming that we'd chucked that away. We *should* have battered Wuss, but we didn't cause we showed zero ambition beyond kicking the ball away for Shillcock to catch and kick 20m further back from where we started.

I'm expecting a Sale vs "whichever of Bristol/Exeter finishes top and gets the easy game vs Quins" final myself. Think the Sharks are looking dangerous. I think you're right about Lam's planning though.

Puja

[FKAS]

Well Tigers all over Bristol. Tigers winning the collisions to the point where Hughes is now being used as the dummy option as Martin has cut him in half two or three times. 66% of the game played in the Bristol half but 11 Tigers handling errors and at least half of them unforced has meant we've only scores two pens.

Problem with playing Bristol is that they can score from nothing and two long range tries that will definitely make the highlights reel from this weekend have given them the lead.

[switchskier]

Bristol backrow needs a bit of work. Habe been comprehensively outplayed at the breakdown. Uren coming on has tightened things up a bit for them

[FKAS]

How Uren picking the ball out of an advancing Tigers scrum 5m from the tryline didn't lead to a penalty I don't know. Officials completely battled it in a complete fuck up. What the TMO was doing I don't know, though it was Dickson and he's less use than a chocolate kettle.

Lam's pathetic antics after the second yellow card should lead to a fine as that was really awful. Borthwick was furious and rightly so, calling Lam a liar.

Feeling more than a little robbed after that.

[fivepointer]

Really unseemly end to the game.
Plainly Afoa wasnt taken off for injury and should have come back on without any attempt to pretend he was unfit. If he couldnt return, then Thomas could as he has played at TH. Angling for uncontested scrums wasnt really an option. Surprised and disappointed by the Bris antics as i regard Lam as straight up bloke and this reflected poorly on him and the club.
Tigers will be kicking themselves for failing to close the game out. They had control of scrum and maul which should have seen them through.
Bris look vulnerable right now, relying an awful lot on some outstanding individual contributions.

[FKAS]

The problem with set piece domination, particularly the scrum, you are reliant on the officials rewarding you and when they look like they just want to go home then you don't really have the advantage.

Tigers butchered too many chances. Attacking play was better but we gifted Bristol tries and just weren't clinical during the majority of the game which was spent in their half. That's going to have to be the big work on for next season at Tigers.

[Puja]

How Uren picking the ball out of an advancing Tigers scrum 5m from the tryline didn't lead to a penalty I don't know. Officials completely battled it in a complete fuck up. What the TMO was doing I don't know, though it was Dickson and he's less use than a chocolate kettle.

Lam's pathetic antics after the second yellow card should lead to a fine as that was really awful. Borthwick was furious and rightly so, calling Lam a liar.

Feeling more than a little robbed after that.

Choose your penalty - either for Uren picking the ball out of the scrum or for Afoa getting folded in half by Genge's second wind. Either way, it was a shocking miss by the touch judge on the near side and no way we should have lost the game.

Lam really disappointed me and should be banned for a good number of games. He said, "No, he's injured. He's definitely injured; I'd never have taken John off if he wasn't injured. If you want to force him on and he gets seriously injured, that's on you [the ref]. That'll be on you if you make him play while injured."

That's not just a little massaging of the truth - that is open, bald-faced lying to the referee to gain an advantage. And then, when Iain Tempest said, "Fine, if he's injured, then you will have to lose another player to come off as well and play with 13," suddenly Afoa was fine to play. Disappointing.

Overshadowed a good game. Leicester still need to build a functioning attacking game, but we look so much better than we used to. The fact that we're disappointed not to've beaten Bristol is a sign of how far we've come.

Puja

[switchskier]

Thought that Bristol were going to carve Leicester up after the first 20 minutes but they never got enough ball to do so. Can't see them beating Exeter or Sale playing like that, though a semi against quin's could end up at 50 apiece.

Thought that Malins looked far better than Stewart, who I was disappointed in tbh. He lacks a bit of x-factor on that showing, never attacked with conviction.

[Puja]

Thought that Bristol were going to carve Leicester up after the first 20 minutes but they never got enough ball to do so. Can't see them beating Exeter or Sale playing like that, though a semi against quin's could end up at 50 apiece.

Thought that Malins looked far better than Stewart, who I was disappointed in tbh. He lacks a bit of x-factor on that showing, never attacked with conviction.

I think Steward's having a mini-slump - understandable given it's his first full senior season and the pressure he's facing from the press attention. He's learning on the job and made a few mistakes today that a more experienced player wouldn't have. As long as he learns from these games, he'll be right going forwards.

Puja

[FKAS]

I think Steward is also struggling because we have changed the way we attack and there was a definite onus on him to be the second playmaker at the back. He's got the skills for that but it's a lot of responsibility and he's up against a classy Bristol backline. It's a bit like the final, not a good game by his standards but never lower than a 6/10. He's only 20 there's going to be bumps in the road.

Malins did look strong at the back for Bristol, very smooth performance from him.

George Martin was my man of the match, huge shift in defence to cut down the Bristol big balls carriers up front. He virtually took Hughes out the game. A few good carries himself and a turnover.

[fivepointer]

Malins made some blunders too but his good moments stood out. Steward just isnt doing quite enough with the ball for me.

Randall made a difference for Bris.

[Puja]

I think Steward is also struggling because we have changed the way we attack and there was a definite onus on him to be the second playmaker at the back. He's got the skills for that but it's a lot of responsibility and he's up against a classy Bristol backline. It's a bit like the final, not a good game by his standards but never lower than a 6/10. He's only 20 there's going to be bumps in the road.

Malins did look strong at the back for Bristol, very smooth performance from him.

George Martin was my man of the match, huge shift in defence to cut down the Bristol big balls carriers up front. He virtually took Hughes out the game. A few good carries himself and a turnover.

Definitely agreed on Martin - headhunted Hughes and cut him in half three times when he was on the charge. Best game I've seen from him and that's not faint praise.

I do wish some of the Leicester forwards would change their scrum-caps/hair though. It's already hard enough on the wide shot to pick apart black scrum-cap, dark floppy hair, scraggy beard, and lanky Harry Wells and George Martin, and this game turned up the difficulty level by having Henderson start as well.

Puja

[Scrumhead]

How Uren picking the ball out of an advancing Tigers scrum 5m from the tryline didn't lead to a penalty I don't know. Officials completely battled it in a complete fuck up. What the TMO was doing I don't know, though it was Dickson and he's less use than a chocolate kettle.

Lam's pathetic antics after the second yellow card should lead to a fine as that was really awful. Borthwick was furious and rightly so, calling Lam a liar.

Feeling more than a little robbed after that.

Choose your penalty - either for Uren picking the ball out of the scrum or for Afoa getting folded in half by Genge's second wind. Either way, it was a shocking miss by the touch judge on the near side and no way we should have lost the game.

Lam really disappointed me and should be banned for a good number of games. He said, "No, he's injured. He's definitely injured; I'd never have taken John off if he wasn't injured. If you want to force him on and he gets seriously injured, that's on you [the ref]. That'll be on you if you make him play while injured."

That's not just a little massaging of the truth - that is open, bald-faced lying to the referee to gain an advantage. And then, when Iain Tempest said, "Fine, if he's injured, then you will have to lose another player to come off as well and play with 13," suddenly Afoa was fine to play. Disappointing.

Overshadowed a good game. Leicester still need to build a functioning attacking game, but we look so much better than we used to. The fact that we're disappointed not to've beaten Bristol is a sign of how far we've come.

Puja

100%. Very disappointing indeed.

If Tempest had any balls, Tigers would have won that game.

I also agree on Martin having his best game. Still looks light for a lock, but very promising as a 6.

[FKAS]

George Martin tips the scales of north of 18 stone. I do think there's certainly a lot of room in his frame for him to fill out more as he finishes his physical development. I think he'll be comfortably past 19 stone in the next year or so and could end up as a 20 stone monster. The key will be to keep up the level of mobility he has currently. Blindside suits him now and he can then move into lock with all the experience he's gained playing 6.

Henderson looks a bit light at the minute but doesn't have the mobility to drop to 6. He needs to add more power to his game and I suspect we'll see him come back and fill the shirt out a little more after pre season.

[Puja]

How Uren picking the ball out of an advancing Tigers scrum 5m from the tryline didn't lead to a penalty I don't know. Officials completely battled it in a complete fuck up. What the TMO was doing I don't know, though it was Dickson and he's less use than a chocolate kettle.

Lam's pathetic antics after the second yellow card should lead to a fine as that was really awful. Borthwick was furious and rightly so, calling Lam a liar.

Feeling more than a little robbed after that.

Choose your penalty - either for Uren picking the ball out of the scrum or for Afoa getting folded in half by Genge's second wind. Either way, it was a shocking miss by the touch judge on the near side and no way we should have lost the game.

Lam really disappointed me and should be banned for a good number of games. He said, "No, he's injured. He's definitely injured; I'd never have taken John off if he wasn't injured. If you want to force him on and he gets seriously injured, that's on you [the ref]. That'll be on you if you make him play while injured."

That's not just a little massaging of the truth - that is open, bald-faced lying to the referee to gain an advantage. And then, when Iain Tempest said, "Fine, if he's injured, then you will have to lose another player to come off as well and play with 13," suddenly Afoa was fine to play. Disappointing.

Overshadowed a good game. Leicester still need to build a functioning attacking game, but we look so much better than we used to. The fact that we're disappointed not to've beaten Bristol is a sign of how far we've come.

Puja

100%. Very disappointing indeed.

If Tempest had any balls, Tigers would have won that game.

I also agree on Martin having his best game. Still looks light for a lock, but very promising as a 6.

In fairness to Tempest, the last call was 100% the touch judge's fault - the ref was around the other side of the scrum and relied on his touch judge to pay attention to the events happening 3m in front of him.

I was also very impressed by the way Tempest handled the conversation with Lam. I'm not 100% sure whether, had Afoa actually been injured rather than "injured", the law allows for the referee to demand that a side goes down to 13. I know if you lose a player to injury to cause uncontested, you get punished by not being able to replace them, but I don't think there's anything in the lawbook to allow the ref to say a second player must go off if it happens because of a yellow card. I suspect Mr Tempest may have been bending the laws slightly there to achieve justice/encourage Lam to examine whether he wanted to continue to insist that Afoa was "injured".

Puja

[FKAS]

No it was brought into the law a while back. If you go down to uncontested because of yellow card then you have to sacrifice another player. It's to stop exactly what Lam and co were trying to get away with which is where your scrum is being humped and you go "yeah sorry, no more props". As soon as Tempest insisted that Bristol would go down to 13 the conversation started taking a different turn. Bristol wanted to be down 14 but with uncontested. Down to 13 but forced to have 8 in the scrum was not what they fancied.

[FKAS]

Also agree the A/R and TMO are to blame for the absolute farce over the last call. Pair of them ballsed that right up.

[Magic_sponge]

I just caught up on this and I just can't believe the ending. I'm neutral in the match, but I think Bristol may have lost a few 'second team' fans. Leicester thoroughly deserved to win that in my opinion. Not sure I could stomach if I was a Tigers fan. Wow.

[Digby]

There is a player might reasonably go off as a tactical sub and then realise they've picked up an injury once cooling down on the sidelines. Whatever there was a game for Leicester to win quite easily there, but whilst they had a maul and scrum they had little to no ability to pass the ball, and that caused a few problems, some comically bad passing, some comically bad refusing to pass in case the pass was comically bad just butchering chances to score. This likely still represents serious progress for Leicester