5 changes as Tigers head to Sandy Park

Leicester Tigers welcome back British Lions duo Geoff Parling and Tom Youngs to the starting line up after the pair have recovered from minor knocks.  Also returning to the Tigers line up is Mat Tait, the 38 times England international, at full back and Anthony Allen to the centres.  Robert Barbieri makes his Premiership starting debut a week after his unusual control at the base of the ruck immediately endeared him to Tigers fans.

Niall Morris switches to the wing to make room for Tait, from last week's 23 Scully and Seremaia Bai miss out entirely with Matt Smith retaining his place on the bench.  Up front Ghiraldini drops to the bench where he joins Tiziano Pasquali and a first time in the match day squad for Riccardo Brugnara makes an all Italian replacement front row.  Brugnara and Pasquali impressed this Monday in the A league and deserve their place.

Tom Croft's much antcipated return is put off another week despite being named in the starting line up last time out.  In the back row Gibson continues at 6 with Crane dropping to the bench.

Exeter are coming off a 6 day turnaround but unsurprisingly keep the same XV that ravaged newly promoted London Welsh in Oxford.  That means an early encounter for Thomas Waldrom with his old mates.  Waldrom played 112 times for the Tigers and has won Premiership Player of the Season in the past.  He made an immediate impact for the Devonians touching down twice last weekend.

In the centres Exeter give youth its head by playing two 21 year olds; Henry Slade made his name at fly half  in England U-20's inaugural Junior World Cup win but now features at 13, Sam Hill was 12 in that final and stays at inside centre now.  The young pair will be a target for Manu Tuilagi, just 23 himself.

Exeter's captain so far this season has been local hooker Jack Yeandle.  Yeandle is originally a product of Crediton but cut his teeth with Doncaster before returning to Devon with his home town team.  He is joined in the front row by fellow battle hardened ex-Championship players Carl Rimmer, originally from Coventry but signed from Cornish Pirates, and Tomas Francis, 22, who joined this summer from London Scottish.

One change to the match day 23 sees Damian Welch come into the bench in place of Don Armand.

Tigers have played Exeter 9 times since their promotion in 2010 winning 6 and losing 3.  The league campaign has seen the same side win both fixtures in the season each time; Exeter won both games in 2011/12 with Tigers completing the double in the other 3 season.  

Saturday's referee is Irish Londoner J.P. Doyle.  Doyle has experience of this fixture after taking charge of the Tigers win in January 2011; Doyle has a reputation of letting the game flow but when he awards penalties he is not shy at waving cards about as Tigers found to their cost in last year's semi final. 

On average during last season's regular Premiership season the home side had to commit 40% more penalties than the away side before seeing a yellow card from Doyle; so Exeter's bumper 13,000 crowd at an expanded Sandy Park may well prove the decisive factor in what will be a tight game.

Leicester
15 Mat Tait
14 Niall Morris
13 Manu Tuilagi
12 Anthony Allen
11 Vereniki Goneva
10 Freddie Burns
9 Ben Youngs (c)
1 Logovi'i Mulipola
2 Tom Youngs
3 Fraser Balmain
4 Graham Kitchener
5 Geoff Parling
6 Jamie Gibson
7 Julian Salvi
8 Robert Barbieri
Replacements
16 Leonardo Ghiraldini
17 Riccardo Brugnara
18 Tiziano Pasquali
19 Sebastian De Chaves
20 Jordan Crane
21 David Mele
22 Owen Williams
23 Matt Smith
Exeter: 
15 Chrysander Botha
14 Ian Whitten
13 Henry Slade
12 Sam Hill
11 Matt Jess
10 Gareth Steenson
9 Haydn Thomas
1 Carl Rimmer
2 Jack Yeandle (c)
3 Tomas Francis
4 Mitch Lees
5 Ryan Caldwell
6 Dave Ewers
7 Ben White
8 Thomas Waldrom
Replacements: 
16 Elvis Taione
17 Ben Moon
18 Moray Low
19 Damian Welch
20 Kai Horstmann
21 Will Chudley
22 Ceri Sweeney
23 Jack Arnott

Referee: JP Doyle
Touch Judges: Paul Burton, Robin Goodliffe
TMO: Rowan Kitt

Burns kicks Tigers to win in the rain

Tigers finished a mixed bag of a preseason with a tight 21-17 win against Cardiff in the Welford Road rain.  Freddie Burns slotted 11 points with tries from Bob Barbieri and Ben Youngs; Cardiff’s points came through a Lloyd Williams try, a Rhys Patchell drop goal and 3 Patchell penalties.

Tigers debuted their new bright orange away kit, “Cherry Tomato” as the manufactures have it, and their new bright orange new big screen sponsors Sthil.  Equally eye catching was the opening 10 minutes; Tigers attacked with pace and vigour to score two tries of good quality.

First Manu Tuilagi took the ball down the Crumbie blindside; with his path blocked, belying the internet intellegencia who decry him as a bosh merchant without a brain or skill, he fancied his chances with a grubber kick.  The bounce deceived Wales 7s international Dan Fish and let Bob Barbieri claim the loose ball for his first try in Tigers colours.

The second was an all time Welford Road classic.  Burns threw a fantastic long pass to find Tuilagi, the Samoan burst powerfully through the middle before passing to Goneva.  The Fijian freed the arms and found Ben Youngs sweeping behind in support, who beat the last man to score.

Burns was on target with the first conversion but elicited the famous Crumbie groan when his second attempt sailed wide.  Welcome to Leicester, Freddie.

Cardiff had looked out of sorts in the early stages, as if Warburton and co. had celebrated the week’s long awaited peace deal between the WRU and the Regions a little bit too much.  The visitors eventually found their feet and scored from their first real attack.  Fly half Patchell made an outside break, his pace taking him away from a despairing Barbieri lunge, with the defence broken he committed Goneva before passing to Williams, the Welsh scrum half just eluded the covering defence to score.

Patchell missed the conversion but chipped further into the lead when referee Mathew Carley ruled Salvi offside from a contested high ball.  4 minutes later Patchell landed a second penalty for a half time score of 12-11.

Cardiff made a raft of substitutes at half time including a whole replacement front row; it made little difference as Tigers possessed superior power all game.  Patchell gave Cardiff the lead after half time with a superb drop goal and then stretched the lead following a bizarre penalty against a rampant Tigers scrum.

In a heavy down pour Tigers tightened up and started to utilise the forwards much more to bring the game under control.  Tigers produced a sustained period of pressure in the Cardiff half with the Welsh side giving away a penalty for Burns to reduce the arrears to two.

Some of the Tigers fans were disappointed that we didn’t try for the corner and the 5 points from the second half penalties, but I can’t agree with this.  Burns needs to get used to kicking at Welford Road and kicking under pressure.  The first priority has to be to win and kicking the goals was the way to do that.

Burns missed his first chance to go ahead after a fierce driving maul but just moments later a scrum penalty gave him a second chance which he took.  The coup de grace was applied after a towering Garryowen and a superb chase by Manu Tuilagi.

Tuilagi really was the difference between the two sides, the two times in the first half we gave him the ball in the opposition half we scored.  Manu's injury badly affect us last season, we failed to gain a single try bonus point during his abscence, so Cockrerill will hope to have Hinckley's favourite Samoan fit and firing all season.

Transfers: A summer update

Tigers have had another busy summer in the transfer department with 8 players joining the club and 15 moving on to pastures new.

After last season’s disappointing season Richard Cockerill has decided to splash out to capture 7 internationals.  With an extra £500,000 of salary cap money to spend Cockerill took advantage of internal strife at Treviso to prize 4 top class internationals from the Italian’s mitts, whilst also replacing playmakers Toby Flood and Dan Bowden with international options.

Tigers headline signing is England fly half Freddie Burns who joins from perennial rivals Gloucester.  Burns had a disappointing season, being kept out by Ryan Mills at Gloucester, but his performance in England’s first test with New Zealand has reassured many that Burns is a quality operator.

Burns is a Bath native but left his home town club for Gloucester at age 18; breaking into the Cherry ‘n’ Whites First XV in 2009 he made 98 starts in 5 seasons.  Burns is a running threat at fly half with his chip kick a particular favourite, but will have to prove his reliability under pressure; question marks have been raised over his temperament and equilibrium. 

Taking second billing is 67 cap Italian international hooker Leonardo Ghiraldini who joins from Treviso.  The Italian started his career at Petrarca in his birthplace of Padova; in 2005 he joined Calvisano who he captained to the 2008 Italian Championship.  After the untimely demise of the Lombardy club he moved to Treviso where he added a second Scudetto before the Benetton boys joined the Pro12 in 2010.

Ghiraldini comes to provide competition to Tom Youngs as first choice hooker, replacing Rob Hawkins in the squad.  The Italian has a similar reputation to Youngs: a tough carrying, ball of energy with some fans questioning his throwing at the highest levels.

Treviso provides three other recruits this term: outside back Christian Loamanu, number 8 Robert Barbieri and prop Michele Rizzo. 

Most exotic is Christian Loamanu, a Tongan born Japanese winger; he has drawn comparison to Alesana Tuilagi with his bullocking style.  He has also been subject to notable controversy, such as a nightclub brawl with a female professional wrestler and being banned for life from Rugby in Japan for taking Marijuana “and other chemical substances” whatever they might be. 

His comparatively banal European career has seen him spend 3 seasons in the Top 14 with Toulon before 2 seasons splitting time between centre, wing and the backrow for Treviso in the Pro12. 

Keeping up in the confusing nationality stakes is Robert Barbieri.  Know as Bob he was born and raised in Toronto before being spotted by Italian scouts on a Canada Under 19s tour to Europe.  Barbieri has been Treviso’s regular number 8 in recent seasons but is more than comfortable on the flank gaining 30 of his 37 Italy caps there thanks to the presence of a certain Sergio Parisse.

Last but not least amongst the Treviso joiners is prop Michele Rizzo.  31 year old Rizzo is perhaps best known for getting red carded in this year’s Six nations encounter after punching Stade Francais’s Rabah Slimani.  Rizzo, like compatriot Ghiraldini, is from the Italian rugby heartland of Veneto.  Starting out with Petrarca, where he was captain, he joined Treviso in 2009.  Rizzo takes Boris Stankovich’s place in the squad as experienced cover for Marcos Ayerza.

Dan Bowden’s departure to Japan is offset by the arrival of wily veteran Seremaia Bai, the 35 year old Fijian Fly half-cum-inside centre has won 57 international caps.  Tigers will be Bai’s 8^th club in 7 countries after a well travelled career that has seen him play for Cross Keys in Wales, Eastern Suburbs in Australia, Tailevu Knights in Fiji, Southland in New Zealand and Secom Ruggets in Japan.

Bai joins from Castres in France.  Last year he played the full 80 minutes in their upset victory against Toulon; this year he came off the bench to take Castres back to the final with a beautifully struck drop goal in extra time to break Montpellier’s hearts.

Tigers’ summer business is completed with two rough diamonds.  Laurence Pearce is a 6”3’ 20 stones wrecking ball No.8 signed from Rotherham; originally from Kesteven he tried his hand at league with Hull F.C. before switching back to Rugby.  Aniseko Sio is a Samoan loosehead prop who signs from Samoan club Vaimoso.  Both will aim to impress in the Extras and force their way into the First XV like Steve Mafi, Logo Mulipola and Ed Slater before them.

Transfers:

In: Freddie Burns (Gloucester), Leonardo Ghiraldini (Treviso), Christian Loamanu (Treviso), Robert Barbieri (Treviso),  Michele Rizzo (Treviso),  Seremaia Bai (Castres), Laurence Pearce (Rotherham),  Aniseko Sio (Vaimoso)

Out: Toby Flood (Toulouse), Thomas Waldrom (Exeter), Dan Bowden (Yamaha Jubilo then Auckland Blues), Boris Stankovich (Newport), Rob Hawkins (Newcastle), George Chuter (Retirement), Scott Steele (London Irish), Ryan Bower (Worcester), Joe Cain (Retirement), Michael Noone (Unknown), Jerome Schuster (Tarbes), Pasqualle Dunn (Unknown), Lucas Guillaume (Unknown), Henry Purdy (Gloucester), Harry Rudkin (Unknown)

Ins: 8

Outs: 15