A. Tiger Cubs tear
into Gloucester
After this Saturday’s first team win against Wasps Tigers
fans were treated to a second game as the Academy entertained Gloucester in the
new Under 18s Academy League. This was
Tigers fourth game of the season and they went in unbeaten after wins against
Leeds, Worcester and Newcastle having yet to concede a try. They showed the future is bright with a
thumping 48-15 win, maintaining the unbeaten record and scoring 8 tries but
unfortunately conceding two, something to work on during the week! Welsh wing wizard Rhys Williams caught my eye
with two tries including a lovely inside line for his first. To emphases how young these players are when
Williams made his second team debut against Worcester he played against Craig
Gilles who had made his Bath debut before Williams was even born! Other players to impress were the centres
Javiah Pohe and Henry Purdy, two of the three “over age” players allowed in the
side, as well as fly half and captain Oli Bryant.
B. Tigers Strength Finds New Depths
Tigers’ squad depth was to the fore on the Saturday as we
coped without 14 players on international duty with England, Italy and England
Saxons as well as missing 3 players to injury and 6 players voluntarily rested. Despite that full matchday squad of players
missing we could still get the bonus point at a canter. Micky Young and Dan Bowden showed top form
and must be pushing for starts against London Welsh whilst Vereniki Goneva was
back on top form and provided the spark of genius for the last try that we have
sometimes been missing this season.
Cockerill really does have some top options available to him; I hope he
can use them to the best of their ability.
C. Tigers a-peeling
Mulipola’s try was the second in this season’s LV Cup from a
lineout peel move. This time Tom Price
claimed the lineout before dropping the ball into Rob Andrew’s hands, the burly
South African then popped the ball to Mulipola wrapping round from the back of
the line out down the 5m channel.
Earlier in the year against London Irish It was Ed Slater who claimed
the lineout before Michael Noone peeled round from front to back and off load
out of the tackle to Rob Andrew who buried over by the posts. Are we using the LV Cup to fine tune some moves
in a less pressurised and less analysed environment that we plan to use at the
end of the season? Or just running
through the play book to keep our eye in?
Or is the “peel” a favourite of Rob Andrew who seems to be calling the
shots in these games? I won’t be
surprised if we see it used in Toulon as a “surprise” attack.
No comments:
Post a Comment