3 Star Tigers Take Ulster Scalp

A breath taking 20 minutes which saw Tigers score three tries was just enough to seal a crucial 25-18 European win against Ulster at Welford Road.

Tigers coped with losing talisman Manu Tuilagi on 14 minutes brilliantly by scoring tries from Owen Williams, Graham Kitchener and Freddie Burns in the next 20 minutes whilst Ulster crumbled from a solid 3-0 lead to trail 19-3 at the break.

And it could have been more had Tigers not started the day with the indifferent Burns attempting the kicks to the posts.

Ulster opened the scoring with a Paddy Jackson penalty on 8 minutes after Tigers had infringed at the ruck, and Tigers were lucky that the red haired Irishman was off target with an earlier kick or it could have been 6-0 down in almost as many minutes.

Tigers responded immediately as Blaine Scully leaped like a salmon to claim Burns' restart and power into the heart of the Ulster defence.  Eventually scragged down Ulster's last man looked to have deliberately knocked on in the following move but referee Poite was unmoved, not the only time Ulster were lucky to escape censure from the Frenchman.

Ben Youngs wasted two good opportunities in the 22 through a chip to no one and a floated pass that was intercepted but Tigers were not to be denied.  Julian Salvi broke down the right hand side before play was switched to Tuilagi rampaging down the left, drawing a penalty from Ulster on the 5m line; Manu re-injured his groin in the move though and was swiftly withdrawn as Tigers kicked for the corner.

From the lineout Tigers drove and were denied, the pack heaved again and were denied, before Owen Williams, warming to his role as a crash ball centre, took the ball at pace and with intent.  The Welshman slammed into three Ulster bodies and fought to successfully ground the ball.

There was no mistake with the conversion but Burns was off target with a later penalty skewing it badly wide right.  Again Ulster rode their luck with Mr Poite as Tommy Bowe's ugly challenge on Miles Benjamin in the air was punished with only a penalty.

Ulster challenged again but were unable to convert any possession to points; Tigers slowly won the kicking battle to gain good territory in the Ulster 22.  The conservative kicking strategy was vindicated when Youngs picked off an innocuous pass from the base of an Ulster maul setting Graham Kitchener up for the second try before the half hour mark.

Tigers extended the lead just 5 minutes later when Burns, now relieved of the goal kicking duties, dummied his way over bamboozaling four Ulster defenders in the process.  

Ulster were down to 14 men at this point following a yellow card to Craig Gilroy for yet another tackle on the man in the air.  Ulster were very fortunate that referee Poite did not produce a red card.  With these two incidents and the one last year against Saracens you have to ask is this a deliberate tactic from Ulster designed to intimidate opposition players?

Tigers looked to have taken full advantage from the extra man and the wave of momentum when Leonardo Ghiraldini twisted, worked, wrestled and squirmed his way over in the Crumbie corner on the stroke of half time but he was correctly denied by the TV ref; Ben Youngs foot just barely grazing the line before the final pass was completed.

Tigers won the lineout but were unable to finish the job off, forgetting how effective running hard, straight and flat to the gainline had been for Owen Williams' try instead we went wide and deep attempting to take advantage of the missing winger.  It did not work.

With the break for half time the momentum Tigers had built was lost and never to be regained.  The second half was almost all Ulsters.  The kicking game that was so effective in the first half was not so much over done as done much much worse.  Playing territory and forcing another mistake was a good strategy but badly employed.

For me much of the blame must go to Burns.  His kicking for territory was poor and when he did successfully earn us possession in their half he flippantly wasted it with his selfish and immature chips to nowhere and no one.  It was a real slap in the face when this alleged England contender was replaced by scrum half David Mele to see out the match.

But Tigers did start the half well extending their lead to 22-3 when Owen Williams converted a straight forward scrum penalty.  Ulster were a totally different team in the second half running the ball with vigour and verve, causing us all sorts of problems to our defence.  First they cut the gap with a penalty following Tigers collapsing an attacking maul.

Then they scored the try of the day, the first of two outstanding efforts; Ulster won 30 yards from a kicking duel between the back threes ending with a lineout on half way.  Sweeping a rare clean catching off the top they went through the hands, taking advantage of Miles Benjamin's poor decision to step in they raced into the 22 and smart running lines and sharp passing helped them evade the Tigers scramble defence for the try.

The score rattled Tigers.  They looked panicked.  Trying random 50m drop goals and retreating further into our shell.  A scrum penalty successfully converted by Williams helped calm the nerves, and of course eventually was the match winning score.

Ulster's second score had two parts, first was the delicious inside ball to British Lion Tommy Bowe who scythed his way forward, only stopped by a crunching Blaine Scully tackle.  Second was the finish by Franco van der Merwe, a huge swinging dummy was bought by all before the lumbering 6'6" beast dove over the ruck like an NFL running back diving over a pile of bodies.  In this game of course you've got to get back to ground the ball and the South African just about did despite the attentions of Ben Youngs.

Crucially Paddy Jackson was unsuccessful from the simple conversion.  Did the young man get a case of the yips and skew his kick you wonder?  No, the growing force of Jamie Gibson was sharp on the uptake and using all of his 6'5" frame, all of his wingspan and all of his vertical leap he managed to charge down the conversion!  I can't remember ever seeing that in a top level game before.

That left the gap at 7 points and Tigers in a bit of a quandary when a chance for 3 points came.  Are we battling with Ulster or Toulon in this group?  Do we take 3 points and deny Ulster the losing bonus, or are we challenging Toulon, do we go for the try and damn the risk of Ulster's point or possible draw?

We went for the ambitious.  We went for the try.  We went for Toulon.

We messed it up.  Twice.  Then again sort of a third time.  Well, you can't fault the ambition.   First line out was taken cleanly and the maul set up, but Ulster resisted and emboldened by Tigers spurning the kick infringed again.  This time we tried a trick line out.  Why?  Your guess is as good as mine.  Ulster cleared but only to the 22.  We tried another trick line out.  Why?  According to ESPN's stats these were 2 of only 3 line outs we lost all game, the other was a not straight call.

Ulster tried for the draw but Tigers defence was stout and held out.  Before the match I'd have taken a win, any win, 2 weeks ago I'd probably have taken a close defeat; but today and last night I'm gutted we didn't kill them off with the 4th try.

Young Guns Secure Second Straight LV Victory

Tigers secured their second straight victory in the LV Cup on Friday night as they held off a late fight back by a determined Worcester to win 21-18 at Sixways.  

Tigers scored two tries through Michael Noone and a penalty try from a scrum, with the balance of the points coming from Welshman Owen Williams’s boot.  The Warriors in contrast were profligate with the boot missing 3 conversions and as many penalties, in such a close game it is hardly cutting edge insight to suggest this was this was the reason for the loss.

Tigers have a terrific record against Worcester with 18 wins out of 20 going into the game and the last loss being back in 2008.  The Warriors are the only current Premiership side to have never won at Welford Road and this win puts the streak back to 2008 at 10 games.

But the Worcester side looked set to break that streak after going 10-0 up after only 16 minutes.  First it was former Tigers centre Andy Symons with the long range penalty that dropped short.  I never saw Symons kick at goal for the Extras so this talent has been well hidden, or perhaps sensibly discouraged.  But the north London giant made up for it by finishing off Max Stelling’s break for the first try, then turning provider for Jake Abbott’s second.

The first was from a quality piece of centre play by Max Stelling.  Stelling beat the on rushing Purdy the grubbered through to keep the move alive.  Symons claimed the loose ball on the floor and the ball went through multiple phases before that man Symons popped up on the wing for the finish.

For the 2^nd try Henry Purdy simply failed to catch an up and under on halfway, Symons beat everyone to the bouncing ball, drew the last man and turned it inside to Abbott for the run in.

Owen Williams had struck the post with his first kick at goal but made amends as he guided Tigers back to 10-9 at half time.  His first penalty was for a ruck offence and the second when Worcester were offside. 

As in the Premiership fixture in September Sam Betty was given a ten minute rest by the referee, this time for killing the ball.  Tigers went for the scrum and were close to the try when Williams slotted the drop goal with clock past 40.  This was the first drop goal by a Tigers player for almost 2 years; the last?  Geordan Murphy’s match winner away to Saracens in February 2012.

Quickly after half time Worcester thought they had a 3^rd try but it was ruled out for a forward pass and it was Tigers who grabbed the next score through Michael Noone, scoring his 4^th in 5 games.  Noone went in at the corner after blindside work by Mele and quick hands from Jordan Crane.

Worcester’s Warwick was finally on the board with the boot in the 52nd minute but Tigers stretched their lead again with our old friend the penalty try making an appearance.  Outsized openside Jamie Gibson burst through a weak tackle from a Worcester replacement and charged to with a yard of the line.  A piled up ruck saw Tigers awarded the scrum; the pack turned the screw and the result was inevitable.

That was the winning score although Worcester was by no means done.  The last try was scored by Christian Scotland-Williamson sneaking into the corner after a lineout.  Former Tigers trialist Ignacio Mieres missed the quickly taken drop goal conversion.  There was time for one last attack but a cover tackle from debutant Pasqualle Dunn snuffed out any danger; in Worcester’s attempts to go wide the ball went to ground for Benjamin to hack into touch and end the game.

Meet the New Guys: Part Two

Name: Jamie Gibson

D.o.B.: 29/7/1990 (23 years old)

Position: Flanker

Experience: 69 Pro Games (London Irish)

At 6’5” and well over 16 stones it is fair to say that Gibson is hardly from the Neil Back School of opensides.  Frankly being openly sizest I doubt he can actually cut it as an openside with that height to overcome.  But apparently he is to be competition not for Steve Mafi and Tom Croft at 6 but for Julian Salvi as a 7.

Gibson is not altogether a typical Tigers player having gone to super posh Marlborough School, whose fees of over £30,000 a year will be more than most Tigers fans earn in the same period.  After that school of hard knocks Gibson went on to read Classics (that’s the super useful subject of ancient Greek and Latin) at University College, Oxford for the bargain price of £9,000 a year. 

At least he should be able to give Richard Cockerill some posher insults to hurl at the officials.

Despite the claim he will be covering 7 I can’t help but feel Gibson will be used mostly as a utility back row sub replacing whoever is playing worst.

Name: David Mele

D.o.B.: 22/10/1985 (27 years old)

Position: Scrum Half

Experience: 141 Pro Games (Perpignan)

Mele is your typical French scrum half.  Short, aggressive, prone to a bit of diving, a goal kicker and confident enough to turn his hand to fly half.  Mele was an ever present for Perpignan last season slotting in at both his favoured scrum half position and at fly half.  A prodigious goal kicker, including 14 drop goals (compared to Flood’s singular effort for Tigers) he doesn’t trouble the scorers with tries too often as he has only scored twice in his 141 games for the Catalan side.

Mele has come with the intention of ousting Lions scrum half Ben Youngs from the side and winning French international caps but may have to make do with scrapping against Sam Harrison for the right to warm the bench.  Harrison has seen off many pretenders to his position in recent years so I wouldn’t bet against him.

Primarily Mele will be used when Youngs is on England duty and should be good enough to allow a little bit more rotation as Tigers push for trophies on three fronts this season.

Name: Neil Briggs

D.o.B.: 1/6/1985 (28 years old)

Position: Hooker

Experience: 185 games (2 Sheffield, 22 Rotherham, 122 Sale, 21 Bourgoin, 18 London Welsh)

There would have been a time when a player moving on to his 6^th club by the time he was 28 would have been the butt of the old “more clubs than Tigers Woods” jokes.  These days it seems to be if not exactly common certainly unremarkable.  Except I am remarking on it.  Well whatever.

Briggs started his career proper by playing a season at Rotherham before spending the bulk of his career to date at Sale, where he was part of their Champion side in 2006.  A fall out with Mike Brewer saw a move to ProD2 with recently relegated Bourgoin, after their monetary problems he joined Lyn Jones for London Welsh’s Premiership adventure.

Briggs is coming to provide more competition to Tom Youngs as first choice hooker and will probably force Rob Hawkins, who has never quite convinced, down to third place.  Like many of the current squad Briggs in the 27-28 age bracket so should be entering his prime.  Almost like Cockerill has had a long term plan or something.

Name: Gonzalo Camacho

D.o.B.: 28/8/1984 (29 years old)

Position: Winger

Experience: 77 Pro Games (21 Argentina, 30 Harlequins, 26 Exeter)

Camacho joins Tigers from Exeter Chiefs where the emergence of Cornish youngster Jack Nowell limited his opportunities last season to just 8 games.  The previous season he had been a mainstay of the Exeter side as he featured 18 times.

Previous to his stint at Exeter Camacho had become a crucial part of a resurgent Quins side, leaving the summer before they won their inaugural title having played 26 times in 2010/11.

Never exactly a prolific winger Camacho has only scored 7 tries in 56 games of English Rugby; those numbers do warrant the question of what exactly do we want with a 29 year old winger who will be missing until October when we have Morris, Goneva, Thompstone, Benjamin and Hamilton as well as a plethora of academy lads available to us?

Argentina regularly pick him ahead of Horacio Agulla, who impressed us all so much, so maybe these highly paid professional coaches see something I am missing.  Argentina test commitments mean Camacho will be missing until the Ulster away game at the very earliest as that is 6 days after the last game in the Rugby Championship.

Name: Blaine Scully

D.o.B.: 29/2/1988

Position: Full Back

Experience: 12 Pro Games (USA)

Californian Scully joined the club on trial over the summer, as exclusively revealed by @LTUSM, and impressed in Tigers best ever campaign in the J.P. Morgan 7s.  Scully was an ever present in the Eagles line up for the 2011 World Cup at Full Back and it seems that is the position he will fill for the Tigers.

Born and raised in Sacramento, California, Scully only took up Rugby when he enrolled at UCLA where he played for two years before transferring to Cal, which is the University of California Berkeley, for a further three years.   At Cal he won two national titles and was named as an All American.  All of this makes Tigers his first ever proper Rugby club!  Might as well start at the top I suppose.

Scully is providing cover at full back whilst Mat Tait recovers from a summer operation and his initial deal runs until Christmas.  Scully will probably get his chance in the A League and the LV Cup to press his claims for further game time.  

Read Part One Here