40m Mele kick saves Tigers' blushes

Tigers required a last second penalty from second half replacement David Mele to spare their blushes and return from Melrose with an 11-8 victory over Edinburgh.  Tigers were wasteful in possession but committed in defence; two Goneva tries ruled out by a Scottish referee providing a gentle reminder of why serious games have neutral referees.

Cockerill named a multicultural starting line up with 9 different nationalities represented, if we count Barbieri as Canadian, and the globally assembled Tigers started brightly.  The borders were bathed in sunshine as Tigers attacked through the forwards into the Edinburgh 22.  Interplay between backs and forwards, Croft particularly to the fore, allowed Niall Morris to scythe towards the posts.  The Irishman was tackled short but good retention by Sio & Croft let Ben Youngs whip the pass out to Seremaia Bai whose pop pass out of a dump tackle gave Mulipola an easy finish after just 10 minutes. 

Freddie Burns was skew-if with his conversion attempt and generally failed to impress on his Leicester debut.  Two promising positions were wasted with his indulgent chip kicks and a further simple penalty was cuffed right in the second half.  Owen Williams will surely start against Newcastle unless Burns can find some better form against Cardiff next week.

Tigers fans will be worried as Geoff Parling was withdrawn after only 14 minutes with another head knock.  It seemed innocuous at the time but so did last season’s that ruled him out of the semi-final.  Harry Wells replaced him and impressed, taking full advantage of his second chance at Tigers.  Bedford will be wondering when they will be getting their man back.

Tigers scrum struggled in the first half as Aniseko Sio seemed unable to stay low and was popped up more than once.  Edinburgh missed a 17^th minute penalty after Tigers struggled with an advancing Scottish scrum.

Burns made it 8-0 after 26 mins with a simple kick 5 metres out and in front of the posts.  Tigers had turned down an earlier penalty to go for the corner and were rumbling well towards the line before Edinburgh refused to roll away.  Ben Youngs wasted the advantage with a speculative wide pass to no one in particular.

The forwards were taking a battering from the Scots and Edinburgh was able to take their first real possession inside the Tigers 22.  Stout defending denied them and Goneva looked to have grabbed a crucial interception, racing 95m for a second Tigers try, only for the Scottish referee to rule out his length of the field effort for a phantom offside.

Edinburgh took full advantage of their home based referee’s reprieve; Roddy Grant crashed over for a try following an impressive Edinburgh maul.  A 14 point swing on the stroke of half time meant the home side trailed by a solitary point, 8-7, rather than 15-0.

As the sides swapped ends at half time the heavens opened and what had been a glorious day turned grey, wet and sodden.  Edinburgh rang the changes, most notably Tom Heathcote at fly half, whilst Tigers replaced the ineffectual Sio with Riccardo Brugnara.  The Italian shored up the scrum and made some noticeable carries in his 23 minute cameo, before giving way to Tom Bristow for the final efforts.

The rain badly affected the game, what had been a tight but high quality game descended into more handling errors and scrums as both sides struggled for their first half fluency.  Tigers were again first to make waves with a neat grubber kick from Burns finding a charging Goneva to dot down.  Again the home side were saved by some lamentable refereeing.  Goneva’s score chalked off again for the phantom offside offence. 

It is worth remembering that marginally better execution (or better refereeing) would have put Tigers 22-0 up rather than scrapping around at 8-7.  

More subs were now made with Briggs, Balmain, Crane and Mele replacing Ghiraldini, Mulipola, Croft and Youngs.  The new front row found more favour with the refereeing earning 62^nd minute penalty bang in front of the posts and 22m out.  As mentioned above Burns had left his kicking boots at home and shunted the ball right of the sticks.  

Burns and Morris were subbed in the 64^th minute to be replaced by Pohe and Smith, Fijian Bai moving to fly half.  Without being harsh on Smith or Pohe both are more physical players and the back line suffered from the lack of subtlety and from the lack of kickers to clear the lines in defence.

The rain and reported gusting wind made life difficult for Edinburgh’s kickers too.  The home side by now had their tail up and were asking Tigers all sorts of searching questions.  Old fashioned fast paced forwards ruck play was to the fore for the Scots as Tigers defence struggled to turn ball over or stem the flow. 

The home side missed a penalty on 68 minutes when Tigers were ruled to have gone off their feet then on 72 minutes Edinburgh were awarded a penalty for a midfield offside (not for Briggs excellent turnover at the same ruck it should be noted).  Using his earlier effort as a length finder Tom Heathcote showed fellow Bathonian Burns how to do it nailing his kick through the middle from 35m out for Edinburgh to take the lead for the first time 10-7.

Tigers kick off did not go 10, though Edinburgh clearly played the ball first, so they were awarded the half way scrum and when the scrum collapsed Heathcote was given an opportunity to hammer the final nail into Tigers’ coffin.  This time it was just too far though and Tigers were reprieved.

Now fully psyched up and raring to go Tigers tore into the Scottish defence but were found wanting as they could not break through.  With the clocking ticking down Goneva was held up and turned over on the far the touchline on the Edinburgh 10m line.  With that brilliant defence Edinburgh surely must have felt they had won it.  All they had to do was secure the scrum and see out a phase, maybe two, to secure the win.

But Balmain and co. were not lying down.  The Tigers pack, wary of the Scots tricks at the last scum, powered forward to disrupt the wonderfully named Sam Hidalgo-Clyne (perhaps a Spanish-Scottish ship building conglomerate?) at the base of the scrum.

Another scum and another huge effort from the Geordie bruiser and his mates earned Tigers a shot at redemption and avoiding a second embarrassing defeat in a week.  The clock had gone past 80 and it was the last play.  Frenchman David Mele stepped up to the task and drilled his kick, high and handsome it sailed through the posts to the delight of the huge travelling army of Tigers fans.

Cockerill will be pleased with the determination shown in defence and in those final scrums from the young props but will be worried by the form of Burns. 

Tigers: Morris (Smith 63); Scully, Tuilagi, Bai, Goneva; Burns (Pohe 63), Youngs (Mele 56); Sio (Brugnara H/T(Bristow 63)), Ghiraldini (Briggs 52), Mulipola (Balmian 52); De Chaves, Parling (Wells 14), Croft (Crane 52), Salvi, Barbieri.

Scoring: 5-0 Mulipoa Try 10 mins;8-0 Burns Pen 26 mins; 8-7 Grant Try 40mins, Tonks Con; 8-10 Heatcote Pen 72 mins; 11-10 Mele Pen 80 mins.

Goneva the Great Roars Tigers to Victory as it all goes Pear shaped for Worcester

2 moments of Fijian brilliance lit up Welford Road as first Josh Matavesi then Vereniki Goneva scored scintillating individual tries.  Worcester’s Matavesi brought the Warriors to within 10 points in the second half after his loop round the back of a ruck was swiftly followed by an outrageous dummy which did for Ed Slater, Anthony Allen and half the crowd.

Not being the quickest player to grace the Welford Road turf he only just made it in the corner following pressure from Niall Morris and Julian Slavi.

But not for the first time Vereniki Goneva cast his spell and the Tigers crowd was enchanted, as was the Warriors defence, he stepped inside one, two, three, back outside round four, five, six before wriggling through seven and eight to claim the bonus point try with only 6 seconds to go.  

Tigers started brightly; Lamb spotted the overlap and Tigers went from their own 22.  The ball was spread from Parling onto Thompstone who raced away into the Worcester half.  Zimbabwean Mike Williams flopped an arm round the side of the ruck and dragged the ball onto his side, the referee spotted it and Lamb made no mistake putting Tigers up 3-0 early.

Tigers extended their lead to 8-0 when Adam Thompstone pounced on Niall Morris’s delicately weighted kick through.  Anthony Allen had run the dummy line to hold the midfield and Goneva had swept round the back, beautifully passing almost 15 meters to find Morris also joining the line.

Lamb and Mieres exchanged penalties to make it 11-3.
 

With the clock now past 40 Tigers were attacking into the Worcester 22.  Jordan Crane made a powerful burst through the middle of the ruck, twisting to free his hands and make the pop the pass to the onrushing David Mele who scooted in to score on his competitive debut for the club.  Mele scored only twice in his 7 years at Perpginan but along with his pre-season tries against Ulster and Jersey that is already three in his first month at the Tigers!

Lamb’s simple conversion made it 18-3 at half time.

Tigers further stretched their lead when Jordan Crane was on the back of a driving maul.  Young referee Luke Pearce spotted the grounding and thankfully awarded the try without re-course to the TMO, if we had had to go “upstairs” they might have struggled to see the grounding.

Worcester were down to 14 men at this point after Mike Williams’s late charge on Ryan Lamb.  Dean Ryan was not a happy bunny, sarcastically declaring “I'd forgotten you're not allowed to touch a Leicester No10 at Welford Road, I should have mentioned it to everyone before the game.”  How anyone could forget such a basic tenant of the game is beyond me.

Tigers’ lineout then started to malfunction with 2 misses and one scrappy win destroying momentum.  Pearce harshly ruled Parling was blocking on what the lineout nerds describe as a “shift drive”, which was what I thought Americans called manual cars but apparently is when the catcher pass down to another player to set up a maul.  Either way the opportunity was gone and Worcester grasped this chance at the last chance saloon with both hands, drinking deep.

Professional arsehole Chris Jones was introduced to the action at this point and annoyingly managed to slip through the challenge of Logovi’i Mulipola to get the Worcester side back into contention.

Cornish born Fijian Matavesi was next to enter the stage with his outrageous dummy that fooled everyone.

Ryan Lamb had started the game fantastically but as the pressure came on his game fell apart, he seemed to suffer from mental fatigue; getting bored and just hoof it away after a handful of phases.  That is not the way to get the best out of Tigers muti-phase tactics and he was hooked off before it all went pear shaped and Worcester got any closer.

Owen Williams didn’t have long, only 5 minutes, but this briefest morsel of a cameo had the Crumbie stand slathering for much more than an amuse bouche next time.  Williams’s long pass sent Tom Croft galloping down the touchline.  The roar went up as the crowd anticipated another trademark Tom Croft score.  But face stamping scrum half Paul Hodgson showed some shoe in the other sense to get across and make the try saving tackle.

Showing his nous earned from 171 First class games for Leicester, England & the Lions Croft kept his ankles in the air, the ball in play and kept the chance of the bonus point try alive.  Mele spread it to Williams who found Goneva in at inside centre.  Then the Flying Fijian’s magic feet bamboozled the tiring Worcester defence and found the try line to rapturous applause from the Leicester faithful.

After the game there was some concern that Dan Cole might have bitten Ignacio Mieres in the 76^th minute.  Replays however showed that the Argentine play maker’s hands in Cole’s mouth and no reaction until the tackle collapsed on the floor.  Now Rugby’s “justice” system can never surprise with its ability to ban players for nothing; but surely we can safely say that the offence of having your mouth fingered whilst tackled is not going to be added to the list that now includes swearing in the vicinity of a touch judge.

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