6th Sense for Nottingham

6 Tigers are in Championship action this weekend as Nottingham take on Leeds at Headingley.  Leeds are 4th and need a win to secure a Play Off berth whilst Nottingham, in the week they announced they £250,000 to stay in business, have secured 2nd place and avoid Newcastle in the Semi Finals.

Alex Lewington and Jonny Harris both start after formerly announcing that they will be playing their rugby for London Irish next season and they are joined in the first XV by Ryan Bower and Harrison Lee-Everton.  Lee-Everton is the 13th Tigers player to feature on loan in the Championship this season.

Tom Price and Andy Forsyth are both named on the replacements bench to round out the 6.  Another 5 players in the match day squad have previously been on the books at Tigers.

London Irish's Alex Gray who will transfer to full time 7s next season is also named in the side. 

Nottingham Rugby:
15 David Jackson 
14 Alex Lewington 
13 Joe Cobden 
12 Joe Munro
11 Rhys Crane 
10 Rory Lynn 
9 Harrison Lee-Everton
1 Jonny Harris 
2 Joe Duffey 
3 Ryan Bower 
4 Dan Montagu
5 Joe Quinn 
6 Rupert Cooper 
7 Tom Calladine 
8 Alex Gray.
Replacements:
16 Shaun Malton 
17 Michael Holford 
18 Tom Price 
19 Phil Eggleshaw
20 Sean Romans 
21 James Arlidge 
22 Andy Forsyth.

4 Tigers to Face Pirates this Sunday

Tom Price makes his return to action this weekend after being named on the bench for promotion chasing Nottingham as they face Cornish Pirates live on Sky tomorrow lunch time.  

Price was making his debut for the Leicester first team when he went down at an innocuous looking ruck.  With the game not being recorded for TV it is still something of a mystery what happened next; but the result of it was Price being unconscious on the pitch for 10 minutes, requiring oxygen and being stretchered straight into the Infirmary.

It is remarkable that it is only 11 weeks later and he is back in action.  Tigers opponents that day were Wasps, the poet in me wishes he was named on our bench not Nottingham's but I'll take my victories where I find them.

Alex Lewington is set to start his 12th game of the season for the Green 'n' Whites and is joined by Jonny Harris making his 4th start at loosehead prop.  The pair have been heavily linked with leaving Tigers in the summer to join up with former Nottingham coach Glenn Delaney at London Irish.  The other edge of the Dual Registration sword. 

The 4th member of this motley crew is Ryan Bower who will join Price on the bench.  Bower is a regular in the Nottingham match day squad and is looking to make his 17th appearance in the Championship this season. 

A further seven of the Nottingham side have played for Tigers at either First XV, Extras or Academy level.

Nottingham
15 Andrew Savage 
14 Alex Lewington  
13 Tim Streather 
12 Joe Munro 
11 Rhys Crane 
10 James Arlidge 
9 Sean Romans
1 Jonny Harris 
2 Joe Duffey 
3 Michael Holford 
4 Dan Montagu 
5 Nic Rouse 
6 Rupert Cooper 
7 Brent Wilson (c) 
8 Alex Shaw.
Replacements
16 Shaun Malton 
17 Ryan Bower 
18 Tom Price 
19 Tom Calladine 
20 Finlay Barnham 
21 Joe Cobden 
22 David Jackson.

Extras! Extras! Read all about it!

The latest rumours are that two of Tigers younger fringe players in Jonny Harris and Alex Lewington are to leave the club in the summer and join London Irish.  Whilst it is disappointing to lose young players especially ones who haven’t really had a chance this post isn’t really about that. 

It’s about the chance to earn those opportunities through good form in the Extras.

The A league has been emasculated and is now a joke.  There are only 5 games and they were finished by October 15^th.  What sort of competition is only 5 games and over barely 7 weeks into a 40 week season?  Last year the competition was shifted to its current format because of the World Cup’s impact on squad depth, the original idea was for it to shift back to the 10 game season it had previously enjoyed but this was blocked by clubs like London Wasps and London Irish who don’t run large enough squads to fulfil these fixtures properly. 

The first question is do we even need an A league?  The answer is surely yes as second team rugby is still the best way to bring through younger players and keep your more senior reserves match fit.  Loan spells in the second division are also crucial for player’s development as they are full on serious rugby with winning the only aim, but second team rugby where players can almost embarrass the coach into giving them a chance with their form is the best way to make that final step from junior player into first team player.

So what form of second team competition should we have?  We can’t just disregard the Wasps and Irish worries of small squads as we can’t force anyone to give us a game.  Also the sort of 80-5 thrashings when Leeds sent their U-19s doesn’t really help anyone.  Instead we can recognise that England is actually a small country, the furthest game would be Newcastle to Exeter which is only 6 hours travel, and get rid of these geographic conferences that means Tigers have to travel to Sale and Newcastle every year but never face Bath or Harlequins.  If we had two divisions based on talent rather than geography the quality would rise as the best sides would face each other more often than once a year in the play offs.  Or even better than that the clubs that don’t wish to participate don’t and the rest of us (perhaps Harlequins, Saracens, Northampton, Gloucester, Bath, Exeter, Newcastle and Leicester) play a single-pool double round-robin i.e. a straight league of 14 games.

Those 14 games would give the fringe players like Harris or Lewington the chance to push their claims for the first team in front of their won fans and with their own team mates all year round.  It would aid club togetherness as young players aren’t being harried from pillar to post to fulfil dual registration commitments.  It would also give clubs more fixtures to play at their grounds and attract fans to.  When the A league was worth its salt we were pulling in crowds of 5 thousand with 12 thousand coming to the final. 

But getting PRL to agree to anything that might cost any money is an ambitious proposition so the chances of any change coming about are slim to none.  However we can still help ourselves by arranging more Extras fixtures outside the A league.  I’m sure that Saints and Gloucester would like return fixtures, and surely we could get friendlies at this level against Exeter, Quins and Sarries?  Those sides all have biggish squads and academies that have similar needs to ours.  This is before we get to the Welsh regions.  Llanelli is furthest away and only 4 hours on the road, Newport just over 2 hours, these sides all have academies and large squads with their Welsh Premiership feeder clubs; we could arrange games with these sides just as we did in the amateur era.

Players like Michael Noone need to play and if the A league isn’t going to provide the games we have to go out and sort them ourselves rather than rely on PRL to solve our problems for us.

Jersey to start Clarefully

6 Tigers are in Championship action this weekend as they go out on loan in a quest to gain more experience and convince Richard Cockerill to give them a place in Tigers regular 23.

Charlie Clare will make his first start in the Championship for Jersey as they take on London Scottish at the Richmond Athletic Ground this Saturday.  Clare over takes David Felton after 3 appearances from the substitutes bench.

On Sunday at Meadow Lane Harry Wells becomes the 12th Tigers player to go out on a dual registration deal this season and the 8th to go to Nottingham.  He is the third Tigers lock to try his hand for the Green 'n' Whites after Joe Cain and Tom Price both suffered injuries.  Wells is named on the bench alongside Jonny Harris and Andy Forsyth whilst Alex Lewington makes his 6th start of the season for his home town team.  Ryan Bower comes into the starting XV after Iron Mike Holford was ruled out through injury and makes his first start since November.

Jersey
1 Sean McCarthy 
2 Charlie Clare 
3 Jon Brennan 
4 Nathan Hannay
5 Dave Markham 
6 Charlie Walker-Blair 
7 Fred Silcock 
8 Guy Thompson
9 Nicky Griffiths (capt) 
10 Michael Le Bourgeois 
11 Ed Dawson
12 Mark McCrea 
13 Max Stelling 
14 Mark Foster 
15 Barry Davies
Replacements
16 Richard Barrington 
17 Dave Felton 
18 James Gethings 
19 Talite Vaioleti 
20 Kingsley Lang 
21 Dave McCormack 
22 Donovan Sanders

Nottingham
15 Andrew Savage 
14 David Jackson 
13 Joe Cobden 
12 Joe Munro
11 Alex Lewington 
10 James Arldige 
9 Sean Romans
1 Matt Parr 
2 Joe Duffey 
3 Ryan Bower 
4 Joe Quinn
5 Nic Rouse 
6 Rupert Cooper 
7 Brent Wilson 
8 Alex Shaw
Replacements
16 Shaun Malton  
17 Jonny Harris 
18 Harry Wells 
19 Tom Calladine 
20 Finlay Barnham 
21 Rory Lynn 
22 Andy Forsyth.

Price is Right for Nottingham

Tom Price could become the 7th Tigers player to feature for Nottingham this season as he is named on the Green 'n' Whites bench for their trip to Rotherham.  Fellow Tigers Alex Lewington and Jonny Harris are named as starters whilst Ryan Bower and Andy Forsyth are also on the bench.  Elsewhere Jersey name Charlie Clare on the bench for their trip to Moseley and on New Year's Day Andy Symons played the second half for Doncaster as they lost to Newcastle, Kieran Brookes left the field with a suspected broken collarbone on 54 minutes.

Nottingham side to face Rotherham:
15 David Jackson 14 Alex Lewington 13 Tim Streather 12 Joe Munro
11 Rhys Crane 10 James Arlidge 9 Sean Romans 1 Jonny Harris 2 Shaun Malton 3 Michael Holford 4 Dan Montagu
5 Nic Rouse 6 Rupert Cooper 7 Brent Wilson 8 Tom Calladine.
Replacements
16 Scott Wright 17 Ryan Bower 18 Tom Price 19 Alex Shaw
20 Finlay Barnham 21 Joe Cobden 22 Andy Forsyth.

Jersey side to face Moseley:
1 Sean McCarthy 2 Dave Felton 3 Jon Brennan 4 Nathan Hannay (capt)
5 Dave Markham 6 Graham Bell 7 Kingsley Lang 8 Guy Thompson
9 Nicky Griffiths 10 Mike Le Bourgeois 11 Ed Dawson 12 Dai Bishop
13 Max Stelling 14 James Copsey 15 Glenn Bryce
Replacements
16 Richard Barrington 17 Charlie Clare 18 James Gethings 19 Rob Anderson
20 Brendan O’Brien 21 Ross Broadfoot 22 Tom Cooper

Magnificent 7 go out on Loan

Seven Tigers are out on loan this weekend as the Championship takes a break for the British and Irish Cup.

Kieran Brookes and Andy Symons both pull on Doncaster colours for the second time this season as the Knights travel to face Llandovery.  

George Oliver could make his Rotherham debut as he is named on the bench for the visit of Munster A, who have Johne Murphy lining up on the wing.

Nottingham feature four Tigers as they welcome Melrose to Meadow Lane tonight.  Joe Cain makes his first start for the Green 'n' Whites at lock, whilst in the backline Andy Forsyth lines up at 12 and Alex Lewington plays on the wing.  Ryan Bower makes up the quartet as he takes his place on the bench.

3 Tigers to face Pirates on loan

3 Tigers are named in Nottingahm's match day squad for their trip to Penzanzce to face the Cornish Pirates.  Alex Lewington starts on the right wing, Andy Forsyth slots onto the bench after taking the same place last week for the Tigers against Wasps and Ryan Bower joins him on the bench as Michael Holford returns to the Green 'n' Whites after his sojourn in Leicester colours last week.

Notts:
15 David Jackson  
14 Alex Lewington 
13 Tim Streather 
12 Joe Munro
11 Rhys Crane 
10 James Arlidge 
9 Sean Romans
1 Marr Parr 
2 Joe Duffey 
3 Michael Holford 
4 Dan Montagu
5 Nic Rouse 
6 Rupert Cooper 
7 Brent Wilson 
8 Alex Shaw
Replacements:
16 Shaun Malton 17 Ryan Bower 18 Joe Quinn 19 Tom Calladine 20 Finlay Barnham 21 Joe Cobden 22 Andy Forsyth

Loan Rangers

Kieran Brookes, Jonny Harris and Alex Lewington are all in Championship action this weekend after being loaned out for game time following the end of the A league campaign.

Keiran Brookes moves from National League 1 Loughborough Students to second bottom Championship side Doncaster Knights, he'll make his debut at tighthead tonight against Moseley at Castle Park.  If he features for Tigers against Wasps when we miss 4 props to international duty he will have played in the top 3 tiers of English Rugby, all before Christmas!

Alex Lewington returns to his home city of Nottingham where he enjoyed a successful loan spell last season contributing 4 tries in 20 appearances.  He is joined by prop Jonny Harris who features on the bench as Notts head to Brickfields to face surprise package Plymouth Albion.  Jonny has played 21 games over the past 3 years for Notts on Dual Registration from Tigers.

A League seasons ends with victory

The official Aviva A League season is already over, just 7 weeks into the season, as Tigers Extras have failed to progress to the semi finals stage.  Gloucester beat Northampton to ensure both sides progressed at Kingsholm on Monday night.

In the last round of fixtures Tigers traveled to Sale with a strong side featuring both Deacon brothers and Matt Tait.  They romped to a 10 try 61-20 victory with a hat trick from burgeoning winger Alex Lewington and a brace from the impressive Irishman Michael Noone.  Other scores came from Andy Forsyth, Henry Purdy, Micky Young, Matt Tait and Pat Phibbs.  Matt Cornwell added 11 points with the boot.

Over the course of the 5 game season Tigers used 43 players, with 31 different starter, 9 have been involved in all 5 games but only 3 players (Matt Cornwell, Fraser Balmain and Alex Lewington) have started every game.  11 players have featured a single time, from Louis Deacon and George Chuter at one end of the spectrum to Tom Bellak and George Oliver at the other.

Top try scorer has been summer signing from Wasps Henry Purdy who has touched down 6 times in only 4 starts.  Alex Lewington scored 4 and Michael Noone scored 3.  Matt Cornwell notched 20 conversions from 31 attempts and was also succesful with 2 penalties for a grand total of 46 points.  Overall 17 players a scored a try and a penalty try was also scored when Alex Lewington was taken out with the line begging.

Tigers outscored their opponents 201 to 142 points over the 5 games, including winning the try battle 31 to 17.

This has been a mixed season for Tigers Extras.  They lost against the only 2 decent sides they faced but romped to massive victories against the weaklings in the group.  They looked pretty handy in the two home games I saw but the standard of the competition has collapsed from a high point of the mid noughties.  It used to be a better standard than the Championship but now resides somewhere around National League 1's mid table.  So it is very difficult where to place even the standout players like Henry Purdy, Alex Lewington or the two young props Fraser Balmain or Kieran Brookes.  Are they ready for the first team or not?  Who knows and with Cockerill's less than progressive use of the academy we may never find out.  It's definitely a grim life for the ones that struggle at this level.

Really the A league has evolved into a joke tournament.  England is a small country and a regional competition is unnecessary and makes the competition weaker.  It is frankly a shame that Tigers can't play the likes of Harlequins, Saracens or Exeter on a regular basis and instead have to schlep to Sale to put 61 points on a side that isn't fit for competition.  Last year we put 80 points on Leeds.  We could get games as uncompetitive as that by playing Nottingham, Moseley and Bedford and save a lot of money on diesel for the team bus.  Instead the A league should move to two national divisions of 6 with promotion and relegation between the divisions, and playing a full 10 game double round robin fixture list.  This could be supplemented with friendlies and local derbies as desired by the individual clubs.  What ever happens it can't, surely, stagger on with this ridicules micro schedule for much longer.

High Noone as Tigers tame flustered Falcons.

Michael Noone made a dream start to his Tigers career as he scored a scorching breakaway try on debut. After smart work from Scott Steele turned ball over from a Newcastle scrum Noone showed the Geordie pack a clean pair of heels as he outpaced the cover defence to touch down in the left hand corner.  As the saying goes No-one is perfect!

Tigers raced away to a 7 try win securing the bonus point after only 22 minutes, as a scintillating first half hour put the Tigers way beyond the grasp of the Newcastle side.

After the first try established the lead it was never lost, on 13 minutes after heavy pressure from the forwards the otherwise unimpressive Bowden danced through the Newcastle defence to touch down under the posts.   Cornwell added the extras to make it 12-3.

Newcastle did claw a try back and it was the least they deserved for a concerted if blunt forward effort eventually relented to allow the backs the ball. It was shifted right to left and Michael Tait scored in the corner.

The next try was scored by Adam Thompstone after very strong running from the impressive Alex Lewington.  His strength through contact is reminiscant of great wingers of the past like Dave Lougheed or Horacio Agulla. 

Lewington was creator again as opposite winger Henry Purdy barged over for the bonus point try.  On the wrap around Lewington barged past 5 defenders before releasing Purdy, who still had work to do himself beating the Newcastle hooker to the line.

Purdy bagged his brace just 5 minutes later as a solid scrum fronted up by former Newcastle Royal Grammar School-Boy Fraser Balmain and former Falcon Kieran Brookes allowed Tigers an attacking platform to work from.  Morris took the ball to the line before releasing Purdy, a summer signing from Wasps academy, who beat his man on the outside possibly benefitting from no TMO as he was rapidly approaching the touchline.

Milky Bar Kid look alike Joel Hodgson slotted a penalty to round off the half.

The start of the second half has been a good time for Leicester this season with the first team bagging tries in both games so far.  The A team didn’t want to be outdone and duly had their own fast start in front of most of the first team squad, plus Tigers legends John Wells, sitting next to Geordan Murphy, and Freddie Tuilagi in deep conversation with Dean Richards.  If a stack of Samoans turn up to Newcastle in the coming weeks we will know why!  Scott Steele took the ball from a quick ruck, shifting on the Dan Bowden.  Bowden threw a trademark wide miss pass, whether he is capable of passing under 15 metres is yet to be established, to Morris who drew in more defenders before Thompstone, playing 13, had a strong finish from 20 yards.  He was brought down on the line and it wasn’t immediately clear whether he or debutant Noone had got the score.  Thompstone was awarded it and thus sealed his brace for the night.

Newcastle then laid siege to the Tigers line thanks to some refereeing that wouldn’t have been out of place in an under 14s match, fittingly as the touch judge Rob Debney was my old school teacher!  Eventually the Geordies tired of trying to force a try over and settled for another Milky Bar Kid penalty.

Tigers 7^th and final try came after a lovely weighted chip from Syston’s Matt Cornwell, fresh from his spell in Mogliano, set up a Falcons line out 5 metres out.  The Geordie line out misfired all game, less so after the introduction of kiwi first team hooker Mike Mayhew but he suffered just the same this time as Tigers poached the line out.  Relentless drives resulted in Fraser Balmain being awarded a try.  Surely a good repost to the club that didn’t think him good enough at 18.

Ironically Falcons hooker George McGuigan was to profit from an over thrown lineout as he got a consolation try right at the death.  A good run from Falcon’s England group prospect Zack Kilbridge was snuffed out by a strong Matt Cornwell cover tackle, however Jimmy Stevens couldn’t find his man and the ball dropped into McGuigan’s thankful hands. 

Impressive performances:

Alex Lewington: strong carries made the difference early doors must be in line for a Premiership start soon.

 Fraser Balmain & Kieran Brookes: solid all day in the set piece and a real nuisance in the breakdown.  Responded well to a poor return last week and Balmian took his try well.

Needs to improve:

Dan Bowden: Needs to cut out the silly miss passes and focus on getting the ball through the hands.  If Allen went down today I’d rather have Matt Cornwell play 12 at Wembley.  Looked much more effective when he was more direct and using the short passes.

Man of the Match:

Has to go to Michael Noone, fantastic try to start the night off and was a real terrier the whole night.  Hopefully will sign on full time and could start pushing Waldrom and Crane for starts if this performance was anything to go by.

12 to go out on Loan?

Simon Cohen has revealed that up to 12 of Tigers youngsters may go out on loan to gain first team experience.  And unlike in previous years Nottingham will not gain an automatic monopoly.  Already confirmed is Hinckley boy Ryan Bower returning to Nottingham where he gained rave reviews last year, he will compete with Soar Valley's Michael Holford and another ex-Tiger in Matt Parr.  

But who could the other 12 be and where might they go?  Nottingham seem very thin on props and locks, especially after Mitchell Todd's sad death, so might we see Johnny Allen or Fraser Balmain go to help out on the loosehead and perhaps Joe Cain to help out in the second row.  Richard De Carpentier suffered with injuries last year but looked impressive in his cameos, he may well get another shot somewhere.  

In the backs Scott Steele, once he regains fitness, may well be farmed out to smooth some of his rough edges whilst Andy Forsyth and Alex Lewington might also be loaned out for game time.  In the younger generation Cornish-Maori Javiah Pohe is a bright prospect.

Nottingham is an obvious location for lots of these players, though with Glen Delaney being replaced with ex-Bath lock Martin Haag perhaps Tigers will be more circumspect with the less experienced coach.  Rotherham Titans might be best placed to benefit, Andre Bester is a highly thought of coach with a similar hard working philosophy to that of Tigers. Moseley, Bedford and Doncaster might also benefit, especially Doncaster as Moseley already have some loan players from Northampton and Bedford from Saracens.

Tiger Cubs thoroughly bummed

The J.P. Morgan 7s series continued in usual fashion for Tigers as they once again failed to win a match succumbing to Saints in a closely fought encounter 26-24 before the two biggest defeats in the series history.  Beating our record from last year we lost 50-5 against Sale before London Welsh heaped more humiliation on the Tiger Cubs beating them 52-5.

Commendable performances: Joe "Co" Cain, Tom Hudson and Alex Lewington.

Waste of space: Alex Wooldridge, thanks for trying but fuck off and never darken my door again.