6th Sense for Nottingham

6 Tigers are in Championship action this weekend as Nottingham take on Leeds at Headingley.  Leeds are 4th and need a win to secure a Play Off berth whilst Nottingham, in the week they announced they £250,000 to stay in business, have secured 2nd place and avoid Newcastle in the Semi Finals.

Alex Lewington and Jonny Harris both start after formerly announcing that they will be playing their rugby for London Irish next season and they are joined in the first XV by Ryan Bower and Harrison Lee-Everton.  Lee-Everton is the 13th Tigers player to feature on loan in the Championship this season.

Tom Price and Andy Forsyth are both named on the replacements bench to round out the 6.  Another 5 players in the match day squad have previously been on the books at Tigers.

London Irish's Alex Gray who will transfer to full time 7s next season is also named in the side. 

Nottingham Rugby:
15 David Jackson 
14 Alex Lewington 
13 Joe Cobden 
12 Joe Munro
11 Rhys Crane 
10 Rory Lynn 
9 Harrison Lee-Everton
1 Jonny Harris 
2 Joe Duffey 
3 Ryan Bower 
4 Dan Montagu
5 Joe Quinn 
6 Rupert Cooper 
7 Tom Calladine 
8 Alex Gray.
Replacements:
16 Shaun Malton 
17 Michael Holford 
18 Tom Price 
19 Phil Eggleshaw
20 Sean Romans 
21 James Arlidge 
22 Andy Forsyth.

4 Tigers to Face Pirates this Sunday

Tom Price makes his return to action this weekend after being named on the bench for promotion chasing Nottingham as they face Cornish Pirates live on Sky tomorrow lunch time.  

Price was making his debut for the Leicester first team when he went down at an innocuous looking ruck.  With the game not being recorded for TV it is still something of a mystery what happened next; but the result of it was Price being unconscious on the pitch for 10 minutes, requiring oxygen and being stretchered straight into the Infirmary.

It is remarkable that it is only 11 weeks later and he is back in action.  Tigers opponents that day were Wasps, the poet in me wishes he was named on our bench not Nottingham's but I'll take my victories where I find them.

Alex Lewington is set to start his 12th game of the season for the Green 'n' Whites and is joined by Jonny Harris making his 4th start at loosehead prop.  The pair have been heavily linked with leaving Tigers in the summer to join up with former Nottingham coach Glenn Delaney at London Irish.  The other edge of the Dual Registration sword. 

The 4th member of this motley crew is Ryan Bower who will join Price on the bench.  Bower is a regular in the Nottingham match day squad and is looking to make his 17th appearance in the Championship this season. 

A further seven of the Nottingham side have played for Tigers at either First XV, Extras or Academy level.

Nottingham
15 Andrew Savage 
14 Alex Lewington  
13 Tim Streather 
12 Joe Munro 
11 Rhys Crane 
10 James Arlidge 
9 Sean Romans
1 Jonny Harris 
2 Joe Duffey 
3 Michael Holford 
4 Dan Montagu 
5 Nic Rouse 
6 Rupert Cooper 
7 Brent Wilson (c) 
8 Alex Shaw.
Replacements
16 Shaun Malton 
17 Ryan Bower 
18 Tom Price 
19 Tom Calladine 
20 Finlay Barnham 
21 Joe Cobden 
22 David Jackson.

Extras! Extras! Read all about it!

The latest rumours are that two of Tigers younger fringe players in Jonny Harris and Alex Lewington are to leave the club in the summer and join London Irish.  Whilst it is disappointing to lose young players especially ones who haven’t really had a chance this post isn’t really about that. 

It’s about the chance to earn those opportunities through good form in the Extras.

The A league has been emasculated and is now a joke.  There are only 5 games and they were finished by October 15^th.  What sort of competition is only 5 games and over barely 7 weeks into a 40 week season?  Last year the competition was shifted to its current format because of the World Cup’s impact on squad depth, the original idea was for it to shift back to the 10 game season it had previously enjoyed but this was blocked by clubs like London Wasps and London Irish who don’t run large enough squads to fulfil these fixtures properly. 

The first question is do we even need an A league?  The answer is surely yes as second team rugby is still the best way to bring through younger players and keep your more senior reserves match fit.  Loan spells in the second division are also crucial for player’s development as they are full on serious rugby with winning the only aim, but second team rugby where players can almost embarrass the coach into giving them a chance with their form is the best way to make that final step from junior player into first team player.

So what form of second team competition should we have?  We can’t just disregard the Wasps and Irish worries of small squads as we can’t force anyone to give us a game.  Also the sort of 80-5 thrashings when Leeds sent their U-19s doesn’t really help anyone.  Instead we can recognise that England is actually a small country, the furthest game would be Newcastle to Exeter which is only 6 hours travel, and get rid of these geographic conferences that means Tigers have to travel to Sale and Newcastle every year but never face Bath or Harlequins.  If we had two divisions based on talent rather than geography the quality would rise as the best sides would face each other more often than once a year in the play offs.  Or even better than that the clubs that don’t wish to participate don’t and the rest of us (perhaps Harlequins, Saracens, Northampton, Gloucester, Bath, Exeter, Newcastle and Leicester) play a single-pool double round-robin i.e. a straight league of 14 games.

Those 14 games would give the fringe players like Harris or Lewington the chance to push their claims for the first team in front of their won fans and with their own team mates all year round.  It would aid club togetherness as young players aren’t being harried from pillar to post to fulfil dual registration commitments.  It would also give clubs more fixtures to play at their grounds and attract fans to.  When the A league was worth its salt we were pulling in crowds of 5 thousand with 12 thousand coming to the final. 

But getting PRL to agree to anything that might cost any money is an ambitious proposition so the chances of any change coming about are slim to none.  However we can still help ourselves by arranging more Extras fixtures outside the A league.  I’m sure that Saints and Gloucester would like return fixtures, and surely we could get friendlies at this level against Exeter, Quins and Sarries?  Those sides all have biggish squads and academies that have similar needs to ours.  This is before we get to the Welsh regions.  Llanelli is furthest away and only 4 hours on the road, Newport just over 2 hours, these sides all have academies and large squads with their Welsh Premiership feeder clubs; we could arrange games with these sides just as we did in the amateur era.

Players like Michael Noone need to play and if the A league isn’t going to provide the games we have to go out and sort them ourselves rather than rely on PRL to solve our problems for us.

Jersey to start Clarefully

6 Tigers are in Championship action this weekend as they go out on loan in a quest to gain more experience and convince Richard Cockerill to give them a place in Tigers regular 23.

Charlie Clare will make his first start in the Championship for Jersey as they take on London Scottish at the Richmond Athletic Ground this Saturday.  Clare over takes David Felton after 3 appearances from the substitutes bench.

On Sunday at Meadow Lane Harry Wells becomes the 12th Tigers player to go out on a dual registration deal this season and the 8th to go to Nottingham.  He is the third Tigers lock to try his hand for the Green 'n' Whites after Joe Cain and Tom Price both suffered injuries.  Wells is named on the bench alongside Jonny Harris and Andy Forsyth whilst Alex Lewington makes his 6th start of the season for his home town team.  Ryan Bower comes into the starting XV after Iron Mike Holford was ruled out through injury and makes his first start since November.

Jersey
1 Sean McCarthy 
2 Charlie Clare 
3 Jon Brennan 
4 Nathan Hannay
5 Dave Markham 
6 Charlie Walker-Blair 
7 Fred Silcock 
8 Guy Thompson
9 Nicky Griffiths (capt) 
10 Michael Le Bourgeois 
11 Ed Dawson
12 Mark McCrea 
13 Max Stelling 
14 Mark Foster 
15 Barry Davies
Replacements
16 Richard Barrington 
17 Dave Felton 
18 James Gethings 
19 Talite Vaioleti 
20 Kingsley Lang 
21 Dave McCormack 
22 Donovan Sanders

Nottingham
15 Andrew Savage 
14 David Jackson 
13 Joe Cobden 
12 Joe Munro
11 Alex Lewington 
10 James Arldige 
9 Sean Romans
1 Matt Parr 
2 Joe Duffey 
3 Ryan Bower 
4 Joe Quinn
5 Nic Rouse 
6 Rupert Cooper 
7 Brent Wilson 
8 Alex Shaw
Replacements
16 Shaun Malton  
17 Jonny Harris 
18 Harry Wells 
19 Tom Calladine 
20 Finlay Barnham 
21 Rory Lynn 
22 Andy Forsyth.

Price is Right for Nottingham

Tom Price could become the 7th Tigers player to feature for Nottingham this season as he is named on the Green 'n' Whites bench for their trip to Rotherham.  Fellow Tigers Alex Lewington and Jonny Harris are named as starters whilst Ryan Bower and Andy Forsyth are also on the bench.  Elsewhere Jersey name Charlie Clare on the bench for their trip to Moseley and on New Year's Day Andy Symons played the second half for Doncaster as they lost to Newcastle, Kieran Brookes left the field with a suspected broken collarbone on 54 minutes.

Nottingham side to face Rotherham:
15 David Jackson 14 Alex Lewington 13 Tim Streather 12 Joe Munro
11 Rhys Crane 10 James Arlidge 9 Sean Romans 1 Jonny Harris 2 Shaun Malton 3 Michael Holford 4 Dan Montagu
5 Nic Rouse 6 Rupert Cooper 7 Brent Wilson 8 Tom Calladine.
Replacements
16 Scott Wright 17 Ryan Bower 18 Tom Price 19 Alex Shaw
20 Finlay Barnham 21 Joe Cobden 22 Andy Forsyth.

Jersey side to face Moseley:
1 Sean McCarthy 2 Dave Felton 3 Jon Brennan 4 Nathan Hannay (capt)
5 Dave Markham 6 Graham Bell 7 Kingsley Lang 8 Guy Thompson
9 Nicky Griffiths 10 Mike Le Bourgeois 11 Ed Dawson 12 Dai Bishop
13 Max Stelling 14 James Copsey 15 Glenn Bryce
Replacements
16 Richard Barrington 17 Charlie Clare 18 James Gethings 19 Rob Anderson
20 Brendan O’Brien 21 Ross Broadfoot 22 Tom Cooper

Loan Rangers

Kieran Brookes, Jonny Harris and Alex Lewington are all in Championship action this weekend after being loaned out for game time following the end of the A league campaign.

Keiran Brookes moves from National League 1 Loughborough Students to second bottom Championship side Doncaster Knights, he'll make his debut at tighthead tonight against Moseley at Castle Park.  If he features for Tigers against Wasps when we miss 4 props to international duty he will have played in the top 3 tiers of English Rugby, all before Christmas!

Alex Lewington returns to his home city of Nottingham where he enjoyed a successful loan spell last season contributing 4 tries in 20 appearances.  He is joined by prop Jonny Harris who features on the bench as Notts head to Brickfields to face surprise package Plymouth Albion.  Jonny has played 21 games over the past 3 years for Notts on Dual Registration from Tigers.