Tigers battle to vital win

A gritty, a battling, a brilliant performance from Tigers ended the 3 game losing run and restored some pride with a 6 point win over equally troubled Harlequins.  17 points from the boot of Welshman Owen Williams and a try of rare quality from Californian Blaine Scully was enough to see off the Londoners who responded with a 3 penalties from Kiwi Nick Evans and a sniping try from Karl Dickson.

This was an old fashioned match with both teams attempting to win the arm wrestle up front, both teams decidedly only playing when it was clearly on and neither team making a rash of substitutes; Tigers made 2 subs and Quins only 3.

Tigers made a fast start; Fraser Balmain and Leonardo Ghiraldini sweeping a loose ball in midfield away to Ben Youngs.  The ball was quickly shifted through Mat Tait and Manu Tuilagi for Jamie Gibson to roam into some open space.  The blindside did well to hold the ball for long enough to commit last man Luke Wallace just enough to let Blaine Scully squeeze by for the American's fifth try for the club.

Some Quins fans have been suggesting the final pass was forward.  All I can say is that after last year the irony is delicious.

Tigers will feel hard done by Wigglesworth's first penalty against them, even on multiple viewings I can't find an offence.  No help from BT sport who seem to view actually discussing why penalties were given as completely beneath them.  Rizzo's drive is directly over the ball and Gibson's release and roll speedy.  Either way Evans made a good 3 points.

The next spell saw three penalties in as many minutes.  First a scrum penalty against Quins was converted from 43m out by Williams; Quins dragged one back after Ghiraldini collapsed the maul he set up with a stand up tackle on Tikoirotuma; Tigers rounded off the period with another 3 points from long range after Will Collier's lazy attempt to slow play down at a ruck.

Tigers had a great chance to go further ahead before half time; Quins failed to deal with a fairly standard garryown and Goneva was first to the bouncing ball, only a try saving tackle from Matt Hopper forcing the Fijian into touch stopped a certain 5 pointer.  

Owen Williams' usually reliable radar was then faulty at two more long range attempts but in my view both should have been re-taken. 

The reason was rule of the game 21.5 (c) :

If the kicker indicates to the referee the intent to kick at goal, the opposing team must stand still with their hands by their sides from the time the kicker starts to approach to kick until the ball is kicked.

The Londoners seemed to think they were at Piccadilly circus such was the movement at Williams' kick, following a bit of sealing off from replacement hooker Dave Ward.  Lock forward George Robson was the chief offender both times.

Tigers did get another 3 points in the first half after a tough penalty against Chris Robshaw for what seemed to be a good disruption attempt.  This time the kick was from the 22 rather than half way and the tireless Quins managed to keep themselves still for a moment.

After half time it was much the same, trading penalties, Tigers eeking out a territorial advantage with a better executed kicking game.  Evans opened the scoring 5 minutes in; Balmain simply lost his footing at a Quins scrum and such are the rules of the game a good kicker like Evans takes 3 points.

Williams canceled the slip immediately, Scully's hustle from the kick off was rewarded with a dominant man-and-ball tackle on Tikoirotuma forcing the Fijian to hold on for the penalty.  Williams gained the 3 points and had a chance to extend the lead 5 minutes later.

Salvi poached an over throw, Tigers were rampant in the Quins 22 surging forwards and left.  Going right against the grain Williams on an outside arc could have gone himself but instead forced the pass in front of Scully who was unable to take it.

Williams was treated for a blow to face, which he took clearing out a ruck.  After the game Williams could be seen vomiting profusely on the side of the pitch, a common symptom of the current zeitgeist injury concussion.

Whether it was the head knock, the now torrential down pour or simply the difficulty Williams was unsuccessful with another 40m+ long range kick a few minutes later.

A fairly simple 3 points was offered almost 20 minutes after the last disturbance to the score board, Charlie Mathews getting on the wrong side of a tackle. Williams took the 3 and Tigers must have felt the game was won.

Harlequins to their credit responded immediately; claiming the re-start, upping the tempo and gaining possession inside Tigers 22 for the first time in the match.  The sealing off was blatant even by modern standards but unpunished as Quins recycled possession probing for a gap.  Eventually they manufactured one as Karl Dickson took advantage of Manu Tuilagi being unaware of his surroundings on the fringe defence.

I thought Quins would keep going with the style that reaped them immediate rewards but instead they were content to play kick tennis and hoof the ball off the field with the clock dead.  Shows that Tigers aren't the only side in the league that might be lacking a bit of confidence.

2014/15 Season Preview: Harlequins

Harlequins

Founded: 1866

Years in Top Tier: 26

Last Year: 4^th in Prem (67 points), Heineken Cup group stage, Amlin Challenge Cup Semi Finals, Anglo Welsh Cup group stages

Europe: Champions Cup

Director of Rugby: Conor O’Shea

Transfers:

In: Marland Yarde (London Irish), Asaeli Tikoirotuma (Waikato Chiefs)

Out: Tom Guest (London Irish), Sam Smith (Worcester), Maurie Fa’asavalu (Oyonnax), Nick Kennedy (Retirement), Nick Mayhew (Unknown), Paul Sackey (Unknown), Tim Molenaar (London Welsh)

Ins: 2

Outs: 7

A poor 2013/14 by Quins recent standards has caused the Londoners to open up the cheque book for two of the most exciting signings in the league.

Marlon Yarde, son of the delightfully name Scotland (yes, really), needs no introduction.  He was in devastating form for England over the summer and has really kicked on to become England’s stand out wing. 

Asaeli Tikoirotuma is more of an unknown for most of us in Europe.  Joining from the Waikato Chiefs where he played wing for the 2013 Super Rugby winning side he has scored 13 tries in 40 starts for the New Zealanders and has represented Fiji 6 times, mainly at centre.  Like many Fijians he is quick, strong and elusive.  Let’s just hope he doesn’t have quite the same impact as Vereniki Goneva.

Together with Mike Brown they make the most fearsome back three in the Premiership.

Quins are losing Mo Fa’asavalu, the bruising Samoan flanker, but otherwise hold the squad together.  Last year’s loss of Ollie Kohn has still not adequately been replaced but Kyle Sinckler seems to have over taken Will Collier and specialist film maker Paul Doran-Jones at tighthead and has almost reached the standards set by James Johnson.

Beloved by the “national” London based dead tree press and the referees their style can be exhilarating when in full flow but there is a hint of a soft underbelly and a reliance on England players that will be missing for 14 odd weeks of the season.

Last year it took a lengthy winning run at the end of the season, complete with some incredible luck, to sneak 4^th place from Bath on the final day, with a tough run of fixtures from January to the end of the 6 Nations and the World Cup providing a bigger distraction than for most clubs I don’t think Quins will quiet be able to make the play offs this season.

Prediction: 5^th

Same Old Tigers, Always Cheating?

It’s become part of the sporting folklore, a myth as old as time, Leicester cheat.  You hear it everywhere, from crazy message board conspiracy theorists to allegedly professional pundits.  We’re successful because we cheat and give away shed loads of penalties.  But is there any truth to that?

We never see any analysis of penalties, occasionally we might see a table of yellow cards, but you never see the number of offences each team commits.  Until now.  ESPN.co.uk keeps the penalty count for each Premiership game; using the power of addition I’ve crunched the numbers and found out whether that old wives tale has any basis in fact.
 

Frustratingly for a complete data set one match, Saracens v London Irish at Allianz Park, is missing.  Therefore Saracens and London Irish’s number are averaged over 21 rather than 22 games. 

From this we can see that the two dirtiest teams were the bottom half strugglers Gloucester and Irish, averaging around 13 penalties a game.  Tigers on the other hand were the second cleanest team in the league, only Mike Ford’s Bath conceded fewer penalties during the season.

On the other side of the ledger it was Bath who was the most fouled against, with Leicester and Harlequins almost inseparable behind them in second and third place respectively.  Myth busted.  Tigers are more sinned against than sinners.

Across the league overall penalties conceded average to be very similar.  Roughly speaking a side, over the season, will give away between 10 and 13 penalties per match; the majority average 11 per game.  Penalties awarded are a little bit more dispersed with the top 5 almost 2 penalties per game better off than the middle 5. 

Over the whole season Bath gained 92 net penalties, i.e. more than they conceded, interestingly Worcester were the only side outside that top 5 with a positive balance.  Tigers were second with a positive balance of 52 net penalties.  At the wrong end were Gloucester (-52), Wasps (-53) and Irish (-65).

The interesting bit is when the yellow cards get dished out.  You’d think that the most befouled teams would gain the most from the referees, which would make sense as yellow cards were introduced to deal with persistent infringement, and that as penalties conceded are very flat so would be yellow cards.

But no.  The yellow card numbers go haywire.  If we take yellow cards per penalty Tigers had to foul 14.4 times to see yellow but Exeter were allowed to get away with 34.3 penalties before losing a man.  Harlequins conceded 30 more penalties than the Tigers but saw 3 fewer yellows, whilst the Tigers cheat myth seems to be false the one about Harlequins being the RFU’s darlings seems to be borne out.  For the opposition to get a yellow card against Tigers or Saracens they need to give away 21.8 penalties but the Quins need only 12.8 penalties to gain a 10 minute advantage.

Despite Tigers running such a positive balance of net penalties (+52) we have seen 3 more players sin binned than the opposition.  Harlequins on the other hand have a net balance of only +22 but have 9 fewer players sin binned than their opponents.  Given how tight the playoff race was, and how tight the play offs promise to be, it does not seem farfetched that effectively playing a whole match extra against 14 men gives Quins an advantage.

Home and away differences are also apparent.  Only 3 teams conceded more at home than they were awarded, and Tigers concede 40% fewer penalties at home compared to away.  Over the whole league the away side has to concede 3 fewer penalties to get a yellow card than the home side.  The yellow card numbers are again striking and not good reading ahead of our semi final; at home Tigers see yellow every 22^nd penalty offence but away that drops to 12, the lowest in the league.

One final really stand out result.  Andrew Small has refereed 19 games this season and seen 14 away wins.  How come he couldn’t get our semi?

Awesome Foursome Line Up For Quins Test

Champions Leicester Tigers travel to Harlequins knowing that a win will secure themselves a place in the play offs for the 10th straight year.  A win will also put Tigers above Northampton and into position for a home semi final, for 48 hours at least.

Despite recording a maximum 5 points in the win against Wasps Richard Cockerill makes 5 changes to his starting XV.  The entire front row swaps over as Marcos Ayerza and Logo Mulipola start at prop with Stankovich and Balmain going onto the bench.  Neil Briggs makes his first start in 3 months as he is preferred to Rob Hawkins as hooker.  Tom Youngs is rested in line with EPS requirements.

In the backs former captain Toby Flood is reunited with Ben Youngs, Anthony Allen and Manu Tuilagi.  The awesome foursome have not played together in almost a year, the last time the quartet all started was against Northampton in last year's victorious play off final against Northampton.  Domestically they have lost only 1 of their 15 games together.

Owen Williams is unlucky to miss out but Cockerill has commented that after 6 straight starts he feels the young player needs to rest and mentally recuperate from some tough atmospheres.

Harlequins have become a bogey side for Tigers.  Quins failed to beat Tigers in 14 straight games from 2003 to 2010; but in the last 6 games the Londoners have won 5.  Tigers sole win was last year's Play Off Semi Final at Welford Road. 

The league meeting earlier this season was scarred with controversy; Julian Salvi received his only ever yellow card for the club on Tigers 2nd penalty of the match and Quins scored two tries, including one ruled fair on the controversial "momentum" interpretation of a forward pass, during those 10 minutes.  The referee that day was Tim Wigglesworth and fresh from his contentious refereeing of the fierce Gloucester-Bath derby the RFU have once again turned a deaf ear to controversy.  

Harlequins tactics of deliberately holding defenders down off the ball was highlighted by BT Sport this week, hopefully Wigglesworth was watching as without a keen eyed referee teams are helpless against the cynicism of the Harlequins machine. 

Harlequins name an unchanged side from the one which secured their own bonus point win away to Sale.  Full Back Mike Brown has been gaining rave reviews for his England performances whilst Nick Evans looked back to his best against the Sharks. 



Leicester
15 Mat Tait
14 Blaine Scully
13 Manu Tuilagi
12 Anthony Allen
11 Vereniki Goneva
10 Toby Flood
9 Ben Youngs
1 Marcos Ayerza
2 Neil Briggs
3 Logovi'i Mulipola
4 Ed Slater (c)
5 Graham Kitchener
6 Jamie Gibson
7 Julian Salvi
8 Jordan Crane
Replacements
16 Rob Hawkins
17 Boris Stankovich
18 Fraser Balmain
19 Geoff Parling
20 Pablo Matera
21 David Mele
22 Owen Williams
23 Niall Morris
Harlequins
15 Mike Brown
14 Ollie Lindsay-Hague
13 Tim Molenaar
12 Jordan Turner-Hall
11 Sam Smith
10 Nick Evans
9 Danny Care
1 Joe Marler
2 Dave Ward
3 Kyle Sinckler
4 Charlie Matthews
5 George Robson
6 Luke Wallace
7 Chris Robshaw (C)
8 Nick Easter
Replacements
16 Rob Buchanan
17 Mark Lambert
18 Paul Doran Jones
19 Tom Guest
20 Maurie Fa'asavalu
21 Karl Dickson
22 Ben Botica
23 Ross Chisholm

Referee: Tim Wigglesworth
Touch Judges: Andy Watson & Roy Maybank TMO: Sean Davey

Champion v Champion in Cup Battle

After the intensity and disappointment of last week's match  Tigers take a step down this weekend as they travel to the Stoop to face Harlequins.  Last year Harlequins won the LV Cup with Tigers taking the Premiership, the year before it was vice versa with Harlequins winning a first Premiership and Tigers taking the Cup.

Since league rugby began in 1987 Tigers have taken on Quins 28 times in competitive games at the Stoop, winning 20, losing 8 and drawing 1.  We have a mirror image at home with 20 wins and 9 losses.  The recent form has not been so good as Quins have 4 of the last 5 meetings.  The only Tigers win?  Last season's Premiership semi final.

Tigers make 14 changes from the defeat to Ulster as they seek to rest the wounded, give chances to the fringe players and judiciously blood a small amount of youth.  Frenchman David Mele cements his burgeoning reputation at the club by having the honour of the captaincy. 

Tom Bristow a summer signing from London Welsh makes his first start for the club as he is joined by Rob Hawkins, a first start this season, and Fraser Balmain in the front row.  Harry Thacker, so impressive in the first tranche of games, misses out with an injured ankle.  19 year old Italian Tiziano Pasquali backs up tighthead with experienced duo George Chuter and Boris Stankovich cover the other two.

Steve Mafi returns to the starting line up at the relatively unfamiliar position of lock.  With Joe Cain and Tom Price out with injuries he is joined by Sebastian De Chaves in the First XV and Harry Wells on the bench.  

The back row sees impressive Argentinean flanker Pablo Matera make his second start for the club.  Matera has struggled for fluency since his arrival being unavailable for 7 of the 13 games since his October arrival due to international commitments and registration issues in Europe.  From now on he is available for every game, injuries willing, so hopefully will use the next two weeks to make an unanswerable case for inclusion in the Premiership games next month.

Thomas Waldrom, in his first appearance since announcing his summer departure to Exeter, starts at 8 with Michael Noone on the blindside.  On the bench there is a potential debut for openside flanker Will Owen, an England U-18 international.

Joining captain Mele at half back is Ryan Lamb.  The "mercurial" fly half has fallen down the pecking order in recent times and I am surprised to see him here in place of Owen Williams.  The backs cannot be said to be blooding any youth as Scott Hamilton, Matt Smith, Adam Thompstone, Terrence Hepetema join Blaine Scully.  

Scully was looking in great nick before missing November with the USA and could well force his way back into the First XV after the news that Miles Benjamin is back on the long term missing list.

Young backs Scott Steele, Owen Williams and Henry Purdy cover from the bench.

Harlequins are winless in this season's LV Cup and are out to change that after naming a very strong side.  Big money summer signings Paul Sackey and Nick Kennedy both start along dual code international Maurice Fa'asalavu and international tighthead and filmographer Paul Doran-Jones.  Lions winger Ugo Monye is on the bench should the fire power in the first line run short.

Saturday's referee will be Gwyn Morris from Cardiff.  Morris was due to referee Tigers last LV Cup game, away to Worcester, but was replaced at the last minute with Neil Hennessy.  Morris's claim to fame is that he was Sam Warburton and Gareth Bale's P.E. teacher whilst they attended school in Cardiff.

Looking at the sides I would expect Tigers to play a wide game, with good tempo.  There is precious little biff in the pack so the mobile game must be to the fore.  It wouldn't surprise me if it comes down to the goal kicking of Lamb and Botica.

Leicester
15 Scott Hamilton
14 Blaine Scully
13 Matt Smith
12 Terrence Hepetema
11 Adam Thompstone
10 Ryan Lamb
9 David Mele (c)
1 Tom Bristow
2 Rob Hawkins
3 Fraser Balmain
4 Steve Mafi
5 Sebastian De Chaves
6 Michael Noone
7 Pablo Matera
8 Thomas Waldrom
Replacements
16 George Chuter
17 Boris Stankovich
18 Tiziano Pasquali
19 Harry Wells
20 Will Owen
21 Scott Steele
22 Owen Williams
23 Henry Purdy
Harlequin
15. Ollie Lindsay-Hague
14. Paul Sackey
13. Harry Sloan
12. Jordan Turner-Hall
11. Tom Williams
10. Ben Botica
9. Karl Dickson (C)
1. Mark Lambert
2. Joe Gray
3. Paul Doran Jones
4. George Merrick
5. Nick Kennedy
6. Joe Trayfoot
7. Maurie Fa'asavalu
8. Tom Guest
Replacements:
16. Nic Mayhew
17. Darryl Marfo
18. Kyle Sinckler
19. Kieran Treadwell
20. James Chisholm
21. Sam Stuart
22. Louis Grimoldby
23. Ugo Monye

Quins Kit

Tigers Kit

Referee: Gwyn Morris (Wales)
Touch Judges: Roy Maybank (England), Nigel Carrick (England)

And it goes on, Tigers Fawkes it up on Bonfire Night

It was bonfire night at Welford Road but there were no fireworks from the home side.  A 23-16 loss was the third straight league defeat to Harlequins at Welford Road; it was also the third straight year this game was played without internationals.  The one game played when both sides were at full strength?  Last year's Premiership Semi Final and a 33-16 victory for the Tigers.

The only side in the history of league rugby to have a better winning run at Welford Road is Saracens with 4, and they could add to it later this year.  All those games have too been played during the internationals.  Maybe PRL should take a look at their fixture lists so that we, the paying spectators, actually get to see the best v the best?

This match really swung on the ten minutes either side of half time when Quins scored 17 unanswered points.  A completely baffling decision to yellow card Julian Salvi, his first ever yellow card in Tigers colours, was the spur.  Personally I don't even think it warranted a penalty.  Salvi is the tackler, he releases gets back to his feet and causes the Quins player to knock on.  He doesn't even touch the ball himself.

But whether it was a penalty or not is immaterial, it was the first penalty inside the 22, practically the first of the whole match from the Tigers, and at no point did Quins rampaging penalty count get dealt with by the same method.  The Cockney's penalty count was an astronomic 16 compared to Tigers' 8.

Yet was they who had a man advantage for for an eighth of the game.  

Don't get me wrong Tigers were terrible.  The half backs again failed to show any nous or play the conditions at all.  The scrum and lineout went well, but it rarely translated to good territory and when it did we were clueless with the ball.  

Tigers don't appear to have any tactics; we just rely on the likes of Manu and Toby Flood to create things, when they are gone we offer nothing in attack at all.  Looking at the stats Hepetema might as well have not been playing.  He got the ball twice, kicked it once, ran for 10 meters the other time beating no defenders before being tackled.  It's not exactly Manu mk2 is it?

But the referee gave Quins a warning, then gave them another warning, then with his dirty deed done just grinned smugly knowing his London bosses would be happy with his "performance".  The game probably would have been a tight penalty fest without the interference, some people will say that made it better for the neutrals but none of us are neutral are we?  

To rub salt in the wounds both Quins tries were not just a bit fishy but reeked like a Friday morning in Grimsby.  

The first was from a ruck which piled up.  Now in my rule book when a ruck is deemed immediately unplayable it is the side in possession which gets the scrum.  But oh no, it was the ref's London friends who gained the put in.  After this stroke of bad luck Tigers seemed to decide fringe defence was optional as Nick "35 grand down the toilet" Easter brushed off Scott Hamilton to score by the posts.  Maybe he gets a try bonus?

The second was a cracking finish by Matt Hopper but rugby has these things on a pitch called lines.  They are painted on the ground and you can use them to see if a line out was straight or a pass was forward.  When Luke Wallace's pass starts on one side of the 22 and finishes on the other side it has gone forward.  Looking at my law book again, I know old hat, it says that a ball is not allowed to be thrown towards the opposition goal line.  We even had a TMO decision!  At Bath last year we lost a game on this, and again we lost a game on this.

Why bother with a TMO if they can't watch the TV in front of them?

The saving grace was the scrum which not only gained us the last minute penalty try but also one of the penalties. Why can we not be so resilient in open play?  It's all well and good blaming a keystone cops refereeing performance but why couldn't we over come that?  You get duff refs, watching the A-League I'm even confident in saying these clowns are the best available, why aren't we good enough to play despite them?

Our multi-phase approach is extremely reliant on referee's given us the penalties we deserve to stop the opposition slowing our ball.  As we find in Europe some refs just won't play the rules and we get stymied.  So why don't we work on a plan B for the fairly often occurrences of this happening?

We now break for the LV Cup which will be a blessed relief for Cockerill and his coaching team.  After a bright start we have faded badly winning only one of our last 5, and that was the decidedly average Treviso at home game.

And the wind cancelled the real fireworks too.  I blame the ref.

You don't win any trophies in November but you can lose them.

Tigers name team for Quins

On bonfire night a 23,000 plus crowd will be sure to see fireworks as the last two year’s Champions face off.  With England supremo Stuart Lancaster having as much say in selection as coaches Conor O’Shea and Richard Cockerill it is not either sides first choice selection but that’s life in English Rugby at the moment.

The Dear Leader at Twickenham has denied us the services of Tom Youngs and Dan Cole in his first XV, plus Ben Youngs and Toby Flood who ride the pine.  From the Quins side he has taken captain Chris Robshaw, Mike Brown and Joe Marler but released Danny Care.  After releasing Christian Wade last week his selections are certainly not favouring his nation’s Champion club.

But enough of who is not here, we could be all day listing both sides double digit injury list, what who is playing?

Scott Hamilton is returned to the back three with USA winger Blaine Scully the one to miss out.  Matt Smith is however over looked so another kiwi Terrence Hepetema retains his jersey despite a shaky start to his Tigers career.  

Dan Bowden will make his 20^th appearance for the club alongside Hepetema, whilst Morris, Thompstone, Williams and Mele retain their places.

In the pack Graham Kitchener is fit again to start in the engine room with Ed Slater switching back to 6.  Jordan Crane is preferred to Thomas Waldrom at 8.  Waldrom's scrum control has come under question this week but Crane's poor control lost the chance of winning against Saints so he is not perfect in this department.

New signing Pablo Matera misses out on the match day squad as Waldrom and the returning Steve Mafi are named on the bench.  It is thought that Matera never played a senior club match in Argentina, making last week his First XV debut for any club.

It will be interesting to see how that team goes, especially the back line.  I can't pretend that I am thrilled by Hamilton coming back into the side and Hepetema retaining his place instead of Scully and Smith but we shall see.

It is fantastic though to have Steve Mafi back, providing he is really fit this time.  Mafi can provide that X-Factor so sadly missing last week, and should allow Ed Slater to move back to his most effective position of lock.

Harlequins cover the absence of Mike Brown by moving star fly half Nick Evans to last man.  In his place Ben Botica, son of Frano, plays as the pivot at Fly half.  

Quins also give a debut to new signing Tim Molenaar in the centres.  The ex-Nottingham man moved from Gloucester this week due to the Quins’ injury crisis which has taken Jordan Turner-Hall, George Lowe and Tom Casson.

A local interest in the Londoner's side is winger Charlie Walker.  The Oadby Wyggs youth product was part of Tigers academy until an education related fall out prompted his move to the Capital.  

Harlequins will come to Welford Road with no fear.  Though they lost the Premiership Semi-Final in May they have won the last two regular season matches at Welford Road; Quins also boast the best league record of any visiting side to Welford Road with 7 wins in Leicester from 22 visits.  The key to beating Quins is scoring tries, 4 of those defeats came where the Londoners shut out the Tigers attack compared to only one of Tigers 15 victories.

The game’s referee will be Tim Wigglesworth from Hull.  The former Council Worker will take the whistle for his 17^th Tigers game and his 11^th at Welford Road.  For Cockerill’s first home game back from his latest ban a faintly ironic twist is that Wigglesworth was the man in the middle for the Newport LV Cup match back in 2009 that garnered Cockerill his previous ban.  I’m fairly sure the RFU do these things deliberately as they happen far too regularly to happen by chance.

Kits:

Leicester

Harlequins

Leicester
15 Niall Morris
14 Scott Hamilton
13 Terrence Hepetema
12 Dan Bowden
11 Adam Thompstone
10 Owen Williams
9 David Mélé
1 Marcos Ayerza
2 Neil Briggs
3 Logovi'i Mulipola
4 Louis Deacon (c)
5 Graham Kitchener
6 Ed Slater
7 Julian Salvi
8 Jordan Crane
Replacements
16 George Chuter
17 Boris Stankovich
18 Fraser Balmain
19 Steve Mafi
20 Thomas Waldrom
21 Sam Harrison
22 Matt Smith
23 Blaine Scully

Harlequins:
15 Nick Evans
14 Charlie Walker
13 Matt Hopper
12 Tim Molenaar
11 Ugo Monye
10 Ben Botica
9 Danny Care
1 Mark Lambert
2 Dave Ward
3 Will Collier
4 Nick Easter (capt)
5 George Robson
6 Joe Trayfoot
7 Luke Wallace
8 Tom Guest Replacements:
16 Harry Allen
17 Darryl Marfo
18 Nic Mayhew
19 Charlie Matthews
20 Jack Clifford
21 Karl Dickson
22 Tom Casson
23 Sam Smith


Referee: Tim Wigglesworth
Touch Judges: Greg Garner & Kevin Stewart
TV: BT Sport 1HD, KO: 5:30PM, Saturday November 2nd

Season's Preview: Harlequins

Harlequins

Founded: 1866

Years in Top Tier: 25

Last Year: 3^rd in Prem (69 points), Anglo-Welsh Champions, Heineken Cup Quarter Finals

Europe: Heineken Cup

Director of Rugby: Conor O’Shea

Transfers:

In: Paul Doran-Jones (Northampton), Nick Kennedy (Toulon), Paul Sackey (Stade Francais)

Out: James Johnstone (Saracens), Rory Clegg (Newcastle), Miles Mantella (London Scottish), Pete Browne (London Welsh), Henry Taylor (Unknown), Chris Brooker (Worcester), Ollie Kohn (Retiring), Will Skinner (Retiring)

Ins: 3

Outs: 8

Big money Quins have opened the cheque book this summer with a trio of expensive new players as they aim to wrestle back the title they lost at Welford Road last May. 

From European Champions Toulon they have prised Nick Kennedy, the former London Irish lock was a crucial part of the Toulon team last season; from title rivals Northamtpon they have enticed specialist film makers favourite Paul Doran-Jones; from flash French capital equivalent’s Stade Francais they have picked up Paul Sackey.  Sackey moves on to his 4^th English club after Bedford, London Irish and Wasps. 

Those big money moves have been designed to offset the loss of more than 40 stones from the right hand side of their scrum as behemoth James Johnstone departs to Saracens and gargantuan Ollie Kohn retires to a life of sausage fiddling. 

Those big guys will be a tough act to follow even for such illustrious signings.  One of Quins main strengths in recent years has been that once they won the hit at the scrum you simply couldn’t overturn the momentum generate by the right side of Johnstone and Kohn.  Doran-Jones is unfortunately a better film star than scrummager and Kennedy was always the lineout “genius” to Bob Casey’s girth at London Irish.

Their bulk was also hard to stop in the loose, generating a huge amount of front foot ball.

Quins back row is amongst the best in the business and their half backs are in the top three as a pair if not the best duo.  But without that grunt up front I think we might see them slide back into the pack a bit as they will have to travel to Bath and Northampton in January, Gloucester in February, and welcome Exeter and Worcester to the Stoop in the depths of winter.

They face Clermont, Racing and Llanelli in the Heineken Cup which is also sure to test their strength in depth during those difficult November-December-January-February months.

Prediction: 5^th