Tigers vs Ulster

[Epaminondas Pules]

The return of Carnduff!


STARTING XV

15 Freddie Steward [99]

14 Josh Bassett [22]

13 Izaia Perese [8]

12 Solomone Kata [29]

11 Ollie Hassell-Collins [35]

10 Handré Pollard [41]

9 Jack van Poortvliet [84]

1 Nicky Smith [11]

2 Julián Montoya (C) [66]

3 Joe Heyes [152]

4 Cameron Henderson [51]

5 Jed Holloway [5]

6 Finn Carnduff [14]

7 Tommy Reffell [125]

8 Olly Cracknell [54]

REPLACEMENTS

16 Charlie Clare [107]

17 James Whitcombe [59]

18 Dan Cole [332]

19 Harry Wells [208]

20 Emeka Ilione [32]

21 Ben Youngs [325]

22 Jamie Shillcock [39]

23 Joseph Woodward [19]

[FKAS]

15. Ethan McIlroy (67)
14. Werner Kok (11)
13. Ben Carson (8)
12. Jude Postlethwaite (21)
11. Zac Ward (2)
10. Aidan Morgan (10)
9. Nathan Doak (77)

1. Andrew Warwick (205)
2. John Andrew (128)
3. Scott Wilson (23)
4. Iain Henderson (Capt) (159)
5. Cormac Izuchukwu (35)
6. James McNabney (10)
7. Nick Timoney (155)
8. David McCann (56)

Replacements:
16. James McCormick (9)
17. Eric O’Sullivan (125)
18. Corrie Barrett (6)
19. Kieran Treadwell (168)
20. Harry Sheridan (36)
21. John Cooney (147)
22. Jack Murphy (2)
23. Rory Telfer (3)

[FKAS]

Carnduff and Perese are back, yay. No Liebenburg, Chessum or Martin, damn. Kata still at 12 despite being outplayed by Kelly in recent weeks, FFS.

[Scrumhead]

Good to see Carnduff go straight into the side.

[FKAS]

Good to see Carnduff go straight into the side.

Hanro limped off pretty much on halftime last week looking very uncomfortable. Rogerson played the second half but didn't really do much to show that he deserved more of a look in.

Carnduff is very highly rated, was supposed to start Vs Newcastle something like three games into the season but broke his foot in the warm up or on the captain's run. Really late in the day injury. There's been pictures of him training for a few weeks so guessing he's been on the cusp of a comeback since around Christmas. The injury gives him a great chance to impress.

[Slater582]

Hat-trick for Bassett. Hassell-Collins also has a couple of tries.

[Mikey Brown]

What’s going on with the kickers? Did Pollard go off? Only looking at the beeb scores.

[FKAS]

What’s going on with the kickers? Did Pollard go off? Only looking at the beeb scores.

He did. Just before he went off he let Steward take the touchline conversion (which Steward nailed quite impressively). Whether that was because Pollard had taken a knock I dunno. Could be that it's Freddie's 100th and he wanted a shot at goal cause he's got a bit of stick for his goal kicking from Ben and Dan on their podcast (in jest).

[FKAS]

Tigers battered Ulster, particularly in the second half, but the number of errors in attack was pretty awful. Way too many knock ons, wayward passes and runners not in the right position.

Steward deservedly man of the match with several assists, Bassett had a shocking first 20 mins but ended up with a hat trick of tries, OHC made up for his miscommunication with Pollard that led to Ulster's only try and grabbed a couple of tries with some nice runs as well. Lineout was a bit of a shambles with Ian Henderson disrupting and the scrum definitely missed George Martin providing the pushing power. Tigers were generally edging it but would have wanted more than that.