5 Things Tigers can learn from the Rugby World Cup

So the group stage is over and the Rugby World Cup now goes on for another three weeks of knock out rugby.  I've loved it and its been great.  Well not if you're a hooray Henry in red corduroy trousers and a tweed jacket.  Then you're probably still frothing at the mouth over England and banning Alesana Tuilagi for bending his knee when he runs.

But what can Tigers learn from the last month of rugby? What new ideas, or maybe old ones, can we take for this festival of rugby?

1. The Quick Heel

Look I know better people than me insist that it can't be done but the evidence is before our eyes.  The quick heel, channel one ball, is back.  The Japanese scrum has been a revelation, with Canada also excelling, in getting the ball in and away quickly.  This is an invaluable tool when your scrum is under the cosh or you just fancy your chances out wide.  Against Samoa the Japanese also showed that a quick heel can be combined with a dominant pack, choosing an 8 man shove near the Samoan line and earning a penalty try.

2. New Zealand do not have a monopoly on quality players

Admittedly hardly a revelation for a club that picked up Dave Lougheed from Canada in 1998.  Georgia's props are well known but their centres Sharikadze and Mchedlidze have impressed hugely with lion like defence and clever attacking brains.  Both are 22 and play in Pro D2, the division from which we signed Vereniki Goneva.  Namibia's Johan Deysel and Renaldo Bothma have caught the eye, whilst Romania's Florin Vlaicu's nerveless kick to win against Canada will have caught the eye of scouts.

3. Error free rugby is possible

In Japan's wins against South Africa and Samoa they only dropped the ball 11 times in total, won all 18 of their scrums and 24 out of 26  of their lineouts.  Last year Tigers did win 92% of their own lineouts so we know that can be done but Japan also conceded just 4 penalties in their win against Samoa.  You can play without conceding penalties.  You can play without errors.

4. Experience is crucial but no guarantee

England showed that nothing can prepare you for the white heat of the battle; South Africa and Tonga picked their oldest and most experienced sides ever but were beaten by vibrant sides offering something new.  Radically different to each other as Japan and Georgia are they shocked their opponents with tactics or an intensity their opponents just weren't expecting.  Tigers have experience of winning Premiership titles but little in Europe's later stages.  The only starting players remaining from our last European knock win are Marcos Ayerza and Tom Croft whilst Jordan Crane came off the bench.  That win was in 2009, or 7 seasons ago.  It is time the Youngs bros and Dan Cole tasted European success, do we have the experience necessary or the ability to surprise a team with out tactics or intensity?

5. Match day build up can be improved

One thing that has massively impressed me at the Rugby World Cup games I've been to is the match day presentation team.  Basically its having a TV presenter and pundit pitch-side as usual but they are presenting to the crowd in the stadium.  They show the history of the two nations involved, highlight players to watch and generally preview the game.  At half time they offer a bit of analysis and insight and after the final whistle they interview the captains and the man of the match.

Tigers now have the two big screens and could really use them better.  We have a never ending supply of injured players to provide the punditry, or we could turn to a recently retired legend, and there is always highlights and news to share with the crowd.  Tigers could show great moments from history on the screen, preview that day's opponents, show highlights from previous weeks, youth team & reserve games or other teams games that weekend.

Tigers win but Sale are Kings

Tigers concluded their pre-season with a bonus point win at home to Sale, but the away side still walked away with the crown “Kings of the North” as Tigers failed to beat their points difference.  Whilst Tigers would have preferred to claim the title the coaches will be satisfied with the performance.

Mike Williams and Peter Betham were particularly impressive as Betham, Croft, Bell and Odogwu crossed for tries.

Tigers were hunting a 35 point victory and started impressively.  Running with intent Betham slid between two tacklers and burst through to touch down in front of the Crumbie.  Burns was successful with the conversion and a penalty after Tigers had attacked from their own 22.

Sale were attacking themselves and went close in front of the Met RX stand twice.  On the second occasion Greg Bateman over threw his jumper and opposite number Tommy Taylor was on hand to collect the poor throw and pounce for the try.  Sale levelled after a penalty against Mulipola for being Samoan, when Courtney Lawes is penalised for tackles like these I believe it’s not bias against Islanders.

Anyway Tigers prioritised with win over chasing the points difference too aggressively and Burns nailed two more kicks.  The first though should not have been taken by him as he was off the field for a “Head Injury Assessment” when the penalty was awarded.

A second penalty was earned and the score 16-10 at half time.  Sale were on the attack early pushing for the victory but as a contest the game was over following Peter Betham’s goal-line intercept and break.  The Australian picked off Cipriani’s pass and raced away, unable to finish he smartly passed from the floor to find Adam Thompstone in deep support, Thompstone’s intelligent quick pass to Croft saw the flanker exhibit his pace and finish from the 22m.

Tigers now did chase the tries, bonus point and points difference kicking penalties to the corner but struggled to convert some excellent positions.  Eventually Tommy Bell was given a clear run in from Betham’s pass down the Crumbie touchline.

Sale were fortunate to see Harry Thacker binned when he thought he had pilfered a ball at the back of a ruck and ran clear.  Decisions like this from referee Craig Maxwell-Keys is why England do not produce world class 7s.  The ball was out, and if it was in it was marginal, but rather than settle for a penalty due to a difference in interpretation he must feed his ego by flashing the cards about.  A poor referee that I doubt we will see in the Premiership this season, he has learned nothing from his grilling after the Hughes affair.

The Sale try was hard earned as Tigers defended stoutly, Mark Jennings burgling himself over in a similar position to where Betham scored the Tigers first try.

With the title gone but the win secure Tigers relaxed slightly and played better.  Fonua carried prominently but his ball control requires work.  For the final try he was the decoy as it was spun wide with Odogwu the man on the end scoring.

Williams and Betham were the standout men with Fitzgerald also adding to his reputation.  Burns seems more settled, his first step was usually forward and there were two classic matador breaks from his own 22.  Odogwu and Fonua showed glimpses in their cameos while Tom Croft is looking back to his best.

With three bonus point wins in pre-season and the defence stiffening markedly since the reverse fixture Tigers will go to London Irish full of confidence for a decent start.

More Questions than Answers as Pumas rampant in Ayerza Testimonial

Tigers started the new season on Saturday with Marcos Ayerza’s testimonial and a visit of the Argentina national side preparing for the World Cup.  Unsurprisingly the Pumas machine was better oiled but Tigers management will be concerned at the ease with which they shredded the home defence for 9 tries in a 55-34 victory.

The first try was from a scrum and a simple loop move saw Catchpole, Loamanu and Camacho all bite and Argentina take advantage by shifting the ball to the wing for the try.  The second came as Marcelo Bosch stepped through Tigers inside defence from a 5m ruck with the third a flowing move that Imhoff finished giving the Pumas a 21-3 lead after only 20 minutes.

Tigers came back into the game and started putting Argentina under some pressure, with Betham bursting down the right hand flank.  Tigers had a spell of pressure from lineouts on the left side of the pitch and Riccardo Brugnara burst through the side of a goal line ruck to secure Tigers first try.

The coaching staff will be disappointed with Catchpole and Loamanu each wasting good positions with grubber kicks to nothing but Tigers were increasing their fluency and making ground at most rucks.

Argentina though were to strike next as Tommy Bell had a moment to forget.  With the field opening out in front of him he chose to throw a wild 20 metre plus pass towards the Crumbie touchline, which was skilfully intercepted by former Bordeaux and Toulon fly half Nicola Sanchez and returned for 7 points.

Both sides made changes at half time, Tigers made 12 with only De Chaves, Pearce and Bell returning whilst Argentina made 14 hooker Julian Montoya the only man left standing.

Argentina went to their maul to create the first try of the half.  Tigers contested the lineout 10 metres from their line but were unable to disrupt the ball.  With the Argentinian pack set they rumbled forwards, Montoya scoring from close range shrugging off the attentions of Adam Thompstone.

The second of the half was similar to the first of the match, a simple handling move finding space on the opposite wing, but from much closer in.  Bell will be disappointed he didn’t make Agulla work harder for the finish.

The second half XV was better structured for large parts of the game and responded well scoring the next three tries and taking the score from 38-13 to 38-34.  Harry Thacker started the come back with a charge down that he regathered for the try before Freddie Burns followed Sanchez’s example by returning an intercepted pass for a try.  This time Argentina were going back towards the blindside touchline following a lineout when Burns pounced.

The final Tigers try will be one that winger Paulo Odogwu will never forget.  On his first major start at Welford Road Odogwu took the ball just before his own 10m line from a long cut out pass by Tommy Bell.  Given the outside by his opposite winger he took it.  All of it.  He gassed the first man, threw in a subtle swerve on the second to have him too before just keeping out of reach of the covering full back for long enough to ground under his tackle.

Unfortunately that was the last time he got the ball and Tigers struggled to contain the Pumas for the final period.  The inside defence went missing more than once and Soccino and Leguizamon ran riot.  By this time Ayerza had re-appeared in Tigers colours earning the biggest cheer of the day. 

Tigers will need to sharpen up their defence considerably after this game; being that stand offish, static and passive will be as cruelly treated in the Premiership as it was on Saturday and no one will be so understanding in a proper game.  The attack though showed some sparks, Mauger’s arrival heralding a flurry of inside passes whether they were particularly on or not, but the attack created only two tries and one of those a pick and go effort from the forwards.

Don’t let the positive spin much of social media has given the match hide the fact that this game raised a lot more questions of our abilities than gave answers.

Price of Rugby

Exclusive research has revealed the wide disparity in what fans around the country, and sometimes fans around the same ground, pay to watch their rugby.  From the eye watering near thousand pound season tickets to the much more modest tenner a game equivalent there is a vast gulf between the have and the have nots.

Let’s run a little Q&A:

Q: So how have you done this “exclusive research”?

A: We’ve painstakingly gone through Premiership rugby clubs’ websites with a fine-tooth comb and put the information is a spreadsheet, what a time to be alive!  Where possible we have used “Early Bird” or renewal prices, there will almost certainly be random other discounts that have been missed and the prices quoted are always the cheapest prices in those areas, for instance Newcastle’s two end terraces are different prices and we have taken the lower but we haven’t taken cheaper prices if only on offer for the front few rows.

Q: Ok so the basics, what does my season ticket buy me? 

A: In Leicester our season tickets buy us the most games at 17. Most clubs offer 16 games whilst London Irish have a novel approach.  You get two pre-season fixtures as standard.  But they’re both against Quins and both at the Stoop.  And you only get 10 Premiership games.  With the London Double header as a home game you only get 9 Premiership games in Reading.

Wasps include an international friendly against Samoa, were it not at the same time as our game against Argentina I fancy a few of us Tigers might have sneaked down the M69 furtively pulling our collars to cover our faces for that one.

Northampton however only offer you 14 games, with one of those in Milton Keynes to boot.  Worcester so far offer 15 games but have a friendly arranged with Saracens at a venue to be confirmed.

Q: Do all clubs employ the same strategy to sell their tickets?

Broadly these fall into three categories:  Flat pricing; a wide variety of prices; charge loads for everything.

Sale lead the way last year with flat pricing.  They offer three prices: standing, sitting, and what is basically a semi-corporate package with a meal and stuff included.  Standing costs £230, normal seats £335.  Nice and simple.  This season London Irish have joined them with two price points: Reserved (£345) and Unreserved (£260), the reserved seats cover the area between the two 22m lines with the rest of the sides unreserved and the ends closed.

Tigers, Worcester, Newcastle, Saracens, Gloucester, Bath and Quins all offer a wide variety of prices.  Quins are generally high charging £649 to sit on halfway but with the very cheap “Jester” package offered at only £199 in the corners.  Tigers similarly offer “Gold” seats at £562 but terrace tickets are only £280.  Saracens have an eye catching whopping £930 top price but have vastly more tickets available at £260.

Newcastle has dirt cheap season tickets; if you are willing to go in the uncovered North or East terrace and brave a Geordie winter you can get away with paying as little as £10 per game (£160 total), and even their top band comes in at under £30 per game.

Bath just about sneak into my definition of a wide variety of prices with a terrace ticket costing £292 but charging an astounding £589 to sit behind the posts, the only club to consider it a premium area.

Northampton and Exeter simply charge loads for everything.  Cheapest ticket in North Londonshire will set you back the equivalent of £21.74 per game, or £305 to stand for 14 games, whilst most seats are available £480 the central block is £600, or £42.86 per game.

Exeter’s tickets cost even more, though you do get 16 games, the cheapest season ticket is a corner block of the terrace costing £335.  The equivalent to the Crumbie costs a staggering £420.  For a terrace.

The highest price comes in the seats; behind the posts in a temporary stand costs £495 whilst the Grandstand costs £610 in the bits they’re even willing to sell to you.

Q.  I am a decrepit pensioner and/or an impoverished student/young person, where’s my discount?

A: Exeter are also the only club in the league that doesn’t offer a concessionary discount to older fans, most clubs are now transitioning to 65 as their concessionary age though Newcastle still start at 60.  At the other end of the age range Tigers & Wasps lets kids under 10 into certain areas for free whilst Newcastle go to 11, Worcester to 12 and Irish all the way to 13.  Sale offered this last year but decided to withdraw the offer because they felt it was being abused by fans claiming a free seat for the extra room with no junior even existing!

Everyone offers a student discount whilst there are an array of other discounts available for those deemed worthy.

Q: Okay so I know Exeter and Northampton charge me more at the bottom but what about specific areas?  How much does a solid blue collar shedhead have to pay compared to those posh boys in Bath?

A: Errrrr £7 more, £299 to £292.  Though in fairness you do get a roof in the Shed.  The Crumbie compares favourably at £280, with only Worcester’s bit of tarmac and Newcastle East terrace cheaper for a side on terrace.  At the ends Newcastle charge £249 for their covered South Stand, £89 more than the uncovered North, which is dearer than Sale’s £230 or Gloucester’s £213 in their West Terrace but pales into insignificance beside Exeter’s £380 for an end terrace.

Q: And how much to sit behind the posts?

A: As mentioned Bath are the only club to consider sitting behind the posts in their top category, whilst Quins charge a very reasonable £319 to sit behind the sticks.   Worth highlighting that this is the only equivalent view where Northampton is cheaper than Leicester; the Saints charge £375 for their two end stands, whilst Tigers consider it a silver category and charge £420.

Wasps’ early optimism sees them offer prices behind the posts of £250 unlike London Irish who in a similarly oversized stadium keep their ends firmly closed. 

Q: What about on the 22?

A: Quins start ramping up the prices the closer you get to the halfway with the blocks roughly on the 22m costing £539, only Exeter is dearer.  Northampton come next at £480, with only 14 games equivalent to £34.30 per match; Bath is £10 cheaper; Gloucester £11 cheaper than Bath and Worcester a further £10 cheaper than Gloucester.  All fairly competitive in the West Country.

Tigers and Saracens have similar prices at £420 and £415 respectively.  Irish and Sale obviously charge their flat rates, with Wasps splitting the difference at £340. Newcastle comes in at a very tidy £269.

Q: Alright then what about on the half way line?  What’s the damage for the best view?

A: Harlequins lead the way here with their central blocks costing £649, which quickly becomes very expensive for a family of four and their butler.  As mentioned a few times Exeter is the next most expensive at £610 but do beat Saints on a “cost per game” analysis; Saints £600 only gets you 14 games.

Bath charge £589 and Gloucester are the other club over the £500 mark by just the £58.  With just one side stand with seats there is at least a genuine premium on the best seats at Kingsholm.  Wasps duck just under my metaphorical limbo pole with a cheeky £499 offer.

All of those are the most expensive normal tickets at their respective grounds.

Worcester, Leicester and Saracens charge similar prices (£450, £420 and £415 respectively) but all offer a higher price ticket in their newer stands.  Platinum at Sixways sets you back £675, more expensive than the much maligned Chiefs, whilst Tigers’ “Gold” goes for £562.  Saracens’ Platinum is a staggering £930, which seems a lot for seats only slightly better than the “Gold” band at £620.

At Newcastle you can sit on halfway for just £360, cheaper than watching from the 22m at all clubs but Wasps, with the slightly better facilities on offer in the West stand costing £115 more.

Q: So any broad brush sweeping generalisations you fancy making?

A: Of course!  You know me, dear reader, I love a quick smear if I possibly can.

Northampton and Exeter regularly make profits and many people consider this A Good Thing.  But that profit is clearly coming direct from their fans’ pockets.

Tigers and Gloucester have to be commended for proving usually profitable yet still offering tickets within reach of the vast majority of fans.  And Harlequins deserve praise for keeping the very low “Jester” package at £199 despite constantly making a loss.  Would it really be better for them to charge £400 for those seats and possibly make a profit?

On the other side Newcastle fans will likely have to swallow large price increases in the coming years.  Not across the board but £360 for a ticket on halfway is too cheap to fund a competitive squad.  It’s difficult to drive prices with less than stellar performances and the likes of Tigers signing their better young players but that is their cross to bear.

Sale and Irish are in the same boat.  There is light at the end of the tunnel for Sale, their stadium is not cavernous and it would only take a small increase in attendances for there to be the pressure on places for the central seats.  Irish have a long old road.  They are simply miles away from seats becoming rare.

Comparing Saracens and Worcester’s prices are instructive.  Despite being the Champions, proving the most consistent team of the past few years and being based in a leafy suburb of the nation’s richest city Saracens in all but one area charge less than Worcester, a yo-yo club from a very small town in the Midlands.  Johan Rupert is regularly cast as a villain for his impact on the game but his generosity has given Saracens a top team yet fans pay budget prices, we can question its greater good but we can all see why Saracens value their main man so much.

It seems that the choice is between funding a top side through a lot of people paying a small fortune or a handful of people paying a large one.

UltraSubMarines Awards 2015

Later than usual this year we once again dive it my mind and discover its many, varied and often conflicting opinions about Tigers and our year.

Off the bat it’s fair to say this has been our annus horribilis on just about all fronts.  Playing wise it was the worst for a decade, Paul Burke became the first coach sacked by the club since 2007, bookended by the most dispiriting and devastating defeats I can honestly remember.  Off the field we’ve had a star player convicted of assaulting women police officers and a coach found to have made a profit betting on us to lose and banned.

We also said goodbye to Louis Deacon a truly iconic player of the club, after Martin Johnson Deacon is Leicester’s finest home grown lock, and Anthony Allen a stalwart of the club’s success between 2010 and 2014.

But let’s not wallow in it.  Let’s crack on with the awards! Same order as last two years:

Signing of the season

2013: Vereniki Goneva

2014: Owen Williams

Tigers were as busy as ever in the transfer market last summer securing Freddie Burns, Seremaia Bai, Brad Thorn, Christian Loamanu and Italian international trio Michele Rizzo, Leonardo Ghiraldini and Robert Barbieri.

Much was expected of Burns but he struggled for form in the early half of the season.  Once Owen Williams was ruled out with injury and his place secure he did grow into the role and was exceptional against Wasps at the Ricoh.

Brad Thorn arrived gave his all and had a real presence about the field but age had slowed him down to a glacial pace at times.

Loamanu showed glimpses of his potential against Wasps and in the late season but a niggling injury meant we never saw the best of him consistently.  Seremaia Bai was a steadying hand for much of the season and a canny addition.

My signing of the season though has to be the aggressive and rambunctious Italian hooker Leonardo Ghiraldini.  I’ve long admired his performances in the Six Nations and he did not disappoint upon closer inspection.  Accurate in the lineout and daring around the field Ghiraldini is the perfect foil for Tom Youngs.

Try of the season

2013: Adam Thompstone v Treviso (A)

2014: Vereniki Goneva v Newcastle (A)

Slim pickings for this award this season.  Normally I peruse the list of matches and the scorers, come up a quick shortlist and google the tries to refresh my memory and make a decision.  Some years it’s easy, this year not so much.  Not a single winner of the Premiership’s Try of the Week and it seems just one nomination.

In the end though we did score some crackers and my favourite was Vereniki Goneva’s second score away to Northampton in December.

Inside his own half and only recently introduced Miles Benjamin receives the ball after Mat Tait had regathered his own up and under.  Going inside then out Benjamin scorched past 4 men and into the 22, a superb cover tackle stops him short but Ben Youngs is on had to quickly clear the ball.

Tait again is involved shipping the ball onto Ghiraldini who draws the last man and finds Goneva lurking on the wing to apply the finish.

Game of the season

2013: Premiership Final v Northampton

2014: Montpellier away

Despite the season several games still standout as really memorable performances.  Wasps at the Ricoh and Sale at home were glimpses to what we can achieve when we pass the ball whilst the game in December again Toulon was a classic backs against the wall true grit performance.  The performance against Ulster at home in October also hinted that this team could do it on the biggest stage.

But one game stood out for me.

Comebacks are surprisingly rare in Tigers history, certainly not from 15 points down and with only 30 minutes to go.

Sale away, December 27th.  Tigers were in the lead for a grand total of 3 minutes.  The locals were not best pleased as we left the ground.

Sale had torn us apart in the first half, genuinely exciting attacking rugby cut us to ribbons and we did well to keep the score respectable, stopping two tries over the line.  When they crossed for the bonus point try in the 45^th minute it looked grim.

But Ayerza, Tom Youngs, Balmain, Thompstone came off the bench and changed the game.  Miles Bejamin scored in the corner to make the game one score then Julian Salvi was driven over by Seremaia Bai with just those 3 precious minutes remaining.

Crazy.

Academy Player of the Season

2013: Henry Purdy

2014: Owen Hills

A quick re-cap here, to qualify for this award you must have played in the Premiership U-18s league.

Tigers U-18s finished second to Northampton in the northern section and beat Bath to claim third place overall.  Last year’s winner Owen Hills had another strong year with 6 tries in 6 starts including a hat trick against Leeds and a first start for the A side.

Four players featured for the U-18s and made first team appearances.  Charlie Beckett started the first game of the U-18s season against Gloucester and made his First XV debut away to London Irish in the LV Cup making a further start at home to Sale and a bench appearance against the Barbarians.  Charlie Thacker featured from the bench in the games against London Irish and Sale whilst Stone Priestley-Nangle featured in the Sale game too.  George Nairn played 3 games for the U-18s and came off the bench against the Barbarians and Cardiff.

Hills and Beckett also appeared for England Under 20s.

My academy player of the year is Charlie Beckett, strongly built with a terrific work ethic this Liverpudlian has already featured for the First XV and impressed.  With a long line of players in front of him he will have to learn from each of them to overtake them but he certainly has the potential to push ahead.

U23 Player of the Season

2013: Manu Tuilagi & Ben Youngs

2014: Manu Tuilagi

With Manu Tuilagi “graduating” from this age bracket there is no defending champion here; qualifying players include Fraser Balmain, Owen Williams, George Catchpole and Harry Thacker. 

Catchpole over took Matt Smith to become a feature of the match day squad post-Christmas, whilst Harry Thacker was trusted with two starts in November where he excelled.

Really though the award is a toss up between Fraser Balmain and Owen Williams.  Balmain become a fixture in the side last season almost by default but this season he was rightly rewarded with being preferred in the match day squad to Italian test prop Michele Rizzo who was in good form himself.

Williams was shunted to 12 early in the season to cover the injuries to Anthony Allen and Seremaia Bai but once the injuries slightly abated he re-claimed his starting 10 jersey from England fly half Freddie Burns.  According to goalkickers.co.za Williams was the best kicker in the Premiership last season and without his cool head many of the tight games before Christmas would have gone the other way.

Therefore my Under 23 player of the Season has to be the Welsh wizard Owen Williams.

Player of the Season

2013: Tom Youngs

2014: Vereniki Goneva

2013’s winner makes a strong case for the award again as his industry and attitude were priceless in many of this season’s lower moments.  Also worthy of a mention in dispatches is Graham Kitchener.  The lock forward came of age as a leader this season, his no nonsense side coming to the fore in the trench warfare of winter whilst his pace and fitness is invaluable in the later season.  How Stuart Lancaster can ignore him is beyond me.

But this season’s stand out player has been the stand in captain Ben Youngs.  Quickly promoted to an unnatural leadership role due injury Youngs thrived on the responsibility and Tigers never looked better than when he took more of the play making responsibilities onto his on shoulders.

A quick and accurate pass is a pre-requisite for a scrum half so it is the game management where Youngs excels, his box kick is world class whilst this season we saw the return of his trade mark breaks around the base.

On a personal note he secured the starting jersey for England ahead of Richard Wigglesworth and long-time adversary Danny Care and seems certain, injuries permitting, to play for England in this autumn’s World Cup.

Top 4

Tigers secured a third straight win, their 15th of the Premiership season, to claim an 11th straight ticket to the play off lottery.  The opponents will be Bath, at the Rec, the last visit drew Tigers largest ever reverse.  45-0.  As if you could forget that.  I know I've tried.

To the match.  Northampton had drawn criticism for resting many players, Myler, Manoa, Lawes and more, but this is criticism is beyond stupid.  Northampton had to way up the chance to knock Tigers out against the chance of injury to their players.  Exeter, Saracens or Premiership Rugby have no right to make that decision it is Jim Mallender's alone.

Tigers started brightly earning a penalty converted by Freddie Burns; Tigers maul was strong and progressing at a rate of knots when hauled down.  It was the maul again that earned the first try, Ed Slater rose to claim the lineout and Jordan Crane squeezed down the blindside to score in the corer.

Saints had tied the scores at 3-3 with a James Wilson penalty and two soft penalties allowed them to go into the break ahead.  All Black Brad Thorn sometimes struggles to remember he no longer possesses the black cloak of invisibility and was pinged for the laziest of rolls away whilst Wilson poked Northampton ahead following a scrum penalty that many in the Crumbie felt should have gone the other way.

Tigers were unlucky to go into the break behind as they controversially had a try ruled out, the referee ruled Freddie Burns was "in at the side" at the ruck following Ben Youngs sniping break.  If Youngs had passed better moments before however Tigers would surely have scored.

After half time Burns notched Tigers quickly into the lead with a long range penalty before The Scrums.

Well first a bright spell of Tigers possession; Logo Mulipola peeled round the front of the lineout to get onto the front foot with Ben Yougs keeping the pace high we zig zagged up the pitch to within inches of the line.  After battering the door down for several phases Youngs thought he spied a gap and burrowed at the base of the post.  The TMO was asked if there "was ay reason I cannot award a try" and despite finding no clear pictures of held up or short (or a grounding to be fair) decided he couldn't award the try anyway and we had The Scrums. 

The Scrums.  Anyone who was there will know the story, anyone not will quickly recognise the tale.  Northampton were under the cosh and collapsing on the engage.  There was one scrum where a reasonable shove was put on but that one was re-set and not penalised, therefore the referee had his hands tied and felt unable to award the penalty try.  Instead he sin binned both Northampton tightheads causing uncontested scrums when Corbiseiro refused to play tighthead and meaning Tigers had to be content with just 3 points.

Most have said the referee could not award the penalty try as we were not shoving them backwards, but surely the referee can decide that where Saints not collapsing on engage the pushover was inevitable and still award the score?  After all just because Saints were collapsing before they could go backwards this does not stop that penalty preventing the try.

Either way Northampton played some bright possession rugby to run down the clock but were unable to totally keep a baying Tigers attack out.  Niall Morris eventually burst through to score Tigers second try.

Tommy Bell, on for an injured Freddie Burns, slotted an long range kick for Tigers to stretch the lead to 13 and all but securing the game.

Northampton did make a game of it with a try for Tom Stephenson but Sam Olver, son of John, shanked the conversion wide.

As after most games this season there was has been criticism of the Tigers backs however there were two great opportunities taken only to be ruled out by the officials, if these had stood we would likely be looking at a bonus point win.

For all the gnashing of teeth on the blog throughout the year our win/loss record is as good as it has been in many years.  The lack of tries has held us back but the reality is we have won 15 games and Bath and Northampton have won only 1 more.  

We are contenders now.  We just have to do what we have not done this season and win against a top 4 side.  We have to do what we have only done once in four years and win in Bath.  That was a semi final too.  And our fly half that night was George Ford.  What ever happened to him?

Tigers Power to Local Win

Tigers title ambitions remain alive after a nerve jangling 26-21 win away to newly local rivals Wasps.  Tigers went into the game knowing that only a win would do and responded to the knock out rugby pressure with a fantastic performance bristling with power but married with the patience needed to break down modern defences. 

Tigers raced into a 10 nil lead in the first ten minutes and kept it the whole game with a Freddie Burns penalty followed up by the first try.  Tom Youngs and Graham Kitchener combined down the front of the line out, an old Wasps move we have been tricked by more than once, gaining good ground inside the 22 and skilfully keeping the ball in play.  Jordan Crane recycled possession and set an off side line before Mulipola and Tom Youngs trucked it up again.  Mat Tait and Adam Thompstone squirmed their way through tackles before Ben Youngs spotted Niall Morris one on one against Christian Wade.  Goneva drew the last man and Wade was powerless to prevent the Leicester full back shrugging off his challenge to score in the corner.

Goode got Wasps onto the score board after a soft offside 40m out by Seremaia Bai; Burns nibbled another three points after Wasps full back Andrea Masi was caught by a terrific Tigers kick chase only for Goode to score another 3 points following heavy pressure in the 22, Tigers lasting 14 phases before conceding the penalty to bring the score to 13-6 to Tigers.

Tigers’ second try came after 30 minutes, from a lineout Mulipola, Cole, Crane and Thorn smashed forward into the 22 before Seremaia Bai isolated Andy Goode on the fringe of the ruck and drove him back to within inches of the line.  Once again Ben Youngs was the architect of the score phase, a fast whipped pass cut out 5 Tigers and 4 Wasps to leave Burns and Goneva with a two on one against a hapless Wade.  The Wasps wing could do nothing as Burns drew him in before sending Goneva over for his first try since December.

Goode quickly reduced the arrears with a penalty for something in a ruck, Barnes explanation is cut off and BT never bother to show a replay.  Off feet against Gibson I think?

Tigers were playing with real intent, running the ball from within our own half and the forwards passing to each other just before or just after contact.  Go forward rugby.  Smashing the rucks to clear out the men, not relying on the officials to give us quick ball.

And then it all boiled over.  Just before half time Nathan Hughes was off his feet and killing the ball the penalty was due to us, but Barnes was not signalling and Seremaia Bai decided to ruck him out.  The contact looked jarring at full pace and Barnes produced a yellow card.  Then renowned Tigers fans Sean Davy made him watch again, with unclear camera angles in super slow motion, to wrongly decide Bai had made contact with Hughes’ head.  

On the replay he clearly smashes into Hughes shoulder, but Davy and BT show the angle from in front of Hughes many times where we cannot see the point of impact and only see Hughes head move only once showing the wider angle from above where you can see the impact is on the shoulder and the head only moves because of a glancing blow from Bai's arm.

Bai has a right to ruck Hughes out there and his technique whilst arguably illegal was no different to any other player on either side at any other ruck.  When Hughes kicked George North’s head and injured him out of the season BT commentator Laurence Dallaglio led the media campaign to clear him.  Does our own Austin Healey do the same for a piece of legitimate play that ends with no injury to Hughes?

No he does not.  Instead he bleats for a card prompting the replay on the big screen, it takes the BT Sports feed, which causes the red card.  Thanks Austin!

On half way what should have been a chance for Tigers to stretch their lead ended up with Goode reducing the deficit to only 6 points.

In the second half Tigers did not let the man missing affect their game.  Wasps had more of the territory and won scrum penalties where Tiger chose to pack only 7 men.  On our first entry to the Wasps 22 Mat Tait was pile drived head first into the turf by Alapati Leuia, though Barnes seemingly has no problem with this potential neck breaking tackle or the no arms tackles from Wasps’ hooker Festuccia, he does spot Ashley Johnson off his feet and Burns slots the penalty to stretch the lead back out to 9.

With the extra man and the impetus in their favour Wasps were slowing gaining more chances, Adam Thompstone winning the foot race to a ball kicked in goal, Burns being charged down then Wasps bursting through the left wing.

None came to much but Wasps dug into Tigers lead with two penalties, the first for holding on just outside our 22, the second for a harsh off feet call on Salvi when Haskell clearly enters the ruck from the side.

With the lead trimmed to 3 points Tigers knew they couldn’t just dig and hold on any more.  With Sam Harrison, Ed Slater and Christian Loamanu on Tigers took the game back to Wasps.

A lineout was won scrappily on half way but Tigers kept possession grinding out 18 phases, driving into the Wasps 22.  On the 18^th ruck Burns broke right towards the touchline, smashing Andy Goode in the tackle, on the front foot and with quick ball Loamanu times run to the line perfectly to slip between Johnson and Goode.  Stopped agonisingly inches short the ball again quickly recycled and flung wildly to the wing where Adam Thompstone was on hand to dot down in the corner.

Onto the TMO and whilst Loamanu may or may not have reached the line there was no question of a double movement so the try stood.  Tigers could question though why we were not awarded a penalty try, as there was a clear attempt to kick the ball out of Loamanu’s hands.  After recent events you’d have thought Wasps might know better than that.

With Burns pushing the kick wide Tigers had an 8 point advantage.  Wasps quickly cut the advantage to 5; Alex Lozowski slotting a long kick after a very tight call for an early tackle against Salvi.  On slow motion replay the decision is wrong but was so tight you cannot complain about the real time call.

That made the closing moments tight.  Tigers ran down the clock with a number of scrums and looked to earn the winning penalty at least 3 times, only for Barnes to blow the other way and keep the game alive.

Wasps were game and played the ball wide getting to the edge of Tigers 22 but in a clash of Marcos Ayerza, fuming after the last penalty, and James Haskell it was the Argentine who came off better forcing the ball loose to end the game.

With the shock Exeter victory over Saracens on Sunday we know that a win, any win, over Northampton will confirm Tigers as third in the league and face a trip to Bath whilst a loss will almost certainly see us miss out on the play offs for the first time in over a decade.  Pressure brought out the best in us this week, can we really keep it up for another 3?

England Qualified Players: are they legal or worthwhile?

In an article earlier this week we looked at England Qualified Players (EQPs), what were they and why did they matter to us this season.  In this article we’ll look at some of the effects of the EQP bonus on English rugby, whether the scheme is worthwhile and whether the scheme is even legal under EU law.

Some of the apparent effects of the EQP bonus have been on the surface very positive.  The rates of EQP in the Aviva Premiership are reported in the press at 71% and as high as they have ever been, many hail this as a great development and you can hardly call it a bad one.

According to Statbunker, the online database, there have been 491 players used this season with 308 of them English, or 62.72%.  Why the disparity?  The EQP stats are based on how often people play whilst the Statbunker ones are just on total players used.  Which suggests that contrary to popular belief English players are actually more likely to be picked than Johnny Foreigner.  It is also because players like Jonathan Mills will be counted as Welsh in Statbunker’s numbers but are EQP.

Ten years ago, before the EQP system was in force the number of English players in the league was 271 out of a total of 443, or 61.17.  To be at today’s figures of 62% there would only have had to be 6 foreign players replaced by English ones, and for today to be at 2004’s numbers we would have 300 English players, or 8 fewer than today.

English Players in Premiership

At a cost to the RFU of approximately £4m p.a. those 8 players are very expensive for little if any benefit to the national side.

The EQP scheme was introduced in 2008 and since its introduction England have won just one 6 Nations and no English club has won the European Cup, with only 3 finalists in 8 years.  Before the scheme was introduced English clubs had reached 6 finals in 8 years with 5 victories, the only defeat coming in an all English final.

There is a school of thought that the EQP scheme has stopped rugby following football’s lead of huge numbers of foreign players destroying the national team with France’s rugby side as further evidence; but this ignores a crucial difference between the sports and the nations. 

England’s Under 20s have won the past two Junior World Cups and reached a further 3 finals since 2008, France have reached no finals since 2006 when they won the Under 21 competition on home soil, in football England have reached just one European Under 21 final in 30 years.

You cannot simply blame clubs and foreign players in French rugby and English football without looking at the raw materials feeding into the bottom of the professional game.  Germany and Spain are home to football leagues just as competitive and almost as rich as England but have better youth set ups that feed greater numbers of domestic players and better national teams, England rugby would be just the same with a higher proportion of domestic players than France no matter the legislation.

So it’s pretty debatable whether the EQP scheme has any effect on the overall level of English players in the league, but what about its effect on individual matches and players?

We saw in 2012 Sale pick a deliberately weakened side in the final round of fixtures to just scrape inside their EQP quota, and just last month Bristol announced in the local press that due to the more stringent EQP demands in the Championship they would also be picking their side based on players’ nationality.

This might seem like a minor effect but fundamentally changes a player's value to their club.  As every club, every year, needs to hit the quota there is an upward pressure on wages for EQPs of the right quality.  

That is players good enough to play in great sides but not so good that England’s national team requires them for 1/3^rd of the season.  If you are a player like Matt Mullan who would be a regular international for many nations but is behind 3 fantastic players for England you are a highly valuable commodity locking down 22 of the 330 EQP slots needed to earn approximately £300k.
   

You might say why is it a problem that English players are given a bit more leverage and a bit more cash in the bank?  The problem comes from the Salary Cap, as every extra pound that is extracted by players due to their EQP status comes from another part of the squad, perhaps explaining the decline in European performance over the last 8 years.

Richard Thorpe is a good quality squad player in the Premiership but he is never going to trouble the international selectors; it has emerged recently that he qualifies for Canada and has thrown his hat into the ring with them, gaining 2 caps this autumn.   

Why, given it was his only shot at international rugby, did he wait this long?  EQP money.  His value as a squad player is greatly diminished if he represents Canada and loses his EQP status, so he missed out on the 2011 RWC and possibly dozens of caps.

We are seeing this more and more; Tiziano Pasquali turned down the chance to represent Emerging Italy as losing his EQP status at just 20 years old would damage his chances of progressing into Tigers First XV.

Every year we hear stories like Callum Sheedy or Rory Bartle turning down caps at lower levels that would tie them to a nation.  We also saw Ben Morgan turn down an England Saxons cap lest it harm his career, then in Wales with Llanelli.

Legally the EQP scheme may be on dodgy ground too. A ruling from April 2014 regarding Spanish basketball could spell the end of the EQP scheme.  To quote the ruling:

"The Spanish Basketball Federation (FEB) and the Spanish Association of Basketball Clubs (ACB) require that teams taking part in their competitions include a minimum number of locally trained players:

EU players who between 13 and 19 years old have been registered with a club member of the FEB for three seasons. Since this condition is more easily met by Spanish players, this is liable to put players from other Member States at a particular disadvantage.
EU law forbids indirect discrimination unless the measures pursue a legitimate objective, are appropriate and do not go beyond what is necessary to attain it."

And further it states:

"only the quotas for teams of 11 players in the Liga Endesa and Femenina (36% of total players) could be comparable in terms of restrictive effects to the Home Grown Player UEFA rule (32% of the posts in each team), for which the Commission has not raised objections so far. The quotas for the other competitions and/or configuration of teams, on the contrary, result in reserving for locally trained players between 40% and 88% of the jobs available in the basketball teams."

As with Spanish basketball the objectives of the scheme, to ensure the training and recruitment of young players and retain competitiveness of the national set up, are legitimate; but when Ireland and Wales both have fewer than 100 nationals playing weekly how can anyone argue that the EQP scheme does not go beyond what is necessary by being based on each club supplying 15 EQP each week or 180 total positions?  Especially when 14 was demeed acceptable just last year?

Professionals are often on contracts with appearance bonuses, whether that is per match or for hitting a certain percentage of matches in a season, or scoring bonuses; missing out on games through nationality means missing out on money.  It also affects the quality of the matches in question as sides artificially weaken themselves simply to fulfil the quota.

The EQP scheme was an idea born from good intentions and it is impossible to absolutely refute that it has stopped the percentage of English players dropping to football levels as we simply cannot know for certain what would have happened without it.  But given the harm we know it is doing to both individual's careers, the wider game and its potentially illegal status I think it is time to drop the "English Qualified Player" quota and instead focus on producing "England Quality Players".

English Qualified Players: What are they and why are we missing out?

Rugby loves on acronym.  RFU, ERC, IRB, though they now like to grandly  be called “World Rugby”, surely to be shortened to WR in no time.  PRL, EPS, EQP.  This article will focus on that last one.

“EQP”, people who live their lives arguing on the internet will be familiar with this one already, those of you with real lives in the real world need to have a word with yourself and reassess your priorities.  It means “England Qualified Player” and is according to some the only thing holding English rugby back from the Sodom & Gomorrah of English football and French rugby.

So what is an “EQP”?  Well it’s a bit of a Ronseal name, it does what it says on the tin, they are players qualified to play for England.  

That is not English players, just whether the RFU could call them up under current World Rugby rules.  So we have situations like Hendre Fourie, eligible to earn 8 caps for England but facing deportation once he retired, and Cameron Zeiss, born abroad to foreign parents he was raised in London, went to Millfield and represented Leeds and Esher yet before this season started he was released by Plymouth Albion because a season playing for Tarbes meant he was no longer an EQP.

So to be an EQP you need to:

• Have not represented another nation’s test team, 7s team or “nominated next senior representative side” in a game against a test side or another nominated side, the nominated side for England, Ireland and Australia is the A side but Under 20s for Wales, South Africa and France.  And the final bit means U 20s players are only tied when they play against another country that also ties its players.
• Be born in England.
• Or have a parent born in England.
• Or have a grandparent born in England.
• Or have spent at least the last 36 months uninterrupted with your principle residence in England.

The last one meant that Chris Horsman qualified for Wales despite playing for Worcester as he lived in Monmouthshire whilst the grandparent rule was famously exploited by Thomas Waldrom.

So we can all agree it’s a bit of an odd arbitrary measure of Englishness.  It makes fresh off the boat Kiwis like our new signing Brendan O’Connor more English than Cameron Zeiss.

Why are EQPs so important?  As ever the reason is money.  In 2008 the RFU started paying out bonuses to clubs that met a target of 14 EQPs out of 22, 60% of the squad effectively.  This was mainly because of scaremongering that England’s fall from grace post 2003 had nothing to do with the difficult fact Harry Ellis wasn’t as good as Matt Dawson and Shaun Perry was barely fit, let alone fit enough to lace Kieran Bracken’s boots.  No, apparently this was the foreigners fault.

This season the payments are worth a reported £300k and the quota has increased to 15 out of 23, or 65%, and Tigers are currently off the pace averaging 14.47 EQPs across the Premiership so far, the only club to not be meeting our master’s target.

Is this a problem?  Well yes and no.  Its money so we want it, it’s the RFU’s money so we want it even more just so they can’t have it and every one of our rivals is likely to be getting it, but it’s not make or break money and getting into the play offs and winning rugby matches is far more important.

We met it last year and in 2013 when we won the title we averaged 71% or 16.33 EQPs per match day squad.  It’s also important to remember we are talking about 10 players across 19 matches.

Why aren’t we meeting it?  Well firstly it’s gone up by 5% so we are actually picking more EQP than in 2012 but now missing out.  Some people have blamed injuries to players such as Manu Tuilagi and Tom Youngs.  But this doesn’t bare scrutiny as Tom Youngs was replaced by Harry Thacker or Neil Briggs, also EQP, whist Manu’s injury has seen Vereniki Goneva move to the centre it has also opened up a wing spot taken by either Adam Thompstone or Miles Benjamin.

In fact were it not for injury to Logovi’i Mulipola would we have seen so much of Fraser Balmain?

One reason we are missing out is that we have replaced players like Boris Stankovich (EQP despite being born and raised in NZ) with Michele Rizzo, and Rob Hawkins with Leonardo Ghiraldini.  I use those positions because last year we had an EQP loosehead on 5 occasions to 1 this year and at hooker we had no non-EQP players at all last year.

At centre; last year we picked only EQPs in Allen, Flood, Smith and Bowden (again EQP despite being born and raised in NZ), this year we replaced Bowden with the Fijian Bai and with Allen injured we have used a non-EQP 12 on 12 occasions.  Is that down to injury or squad planning?

This also highlights a major problem with the EQP system.  There are English players as good as Rizzo, like Matt Mullan, or Bai but because of the EQP quota they are very valuable commanding above market rate wages and cannot always be fitted in under the salary cap, whilst there is just not an EQP hooker the quality of Ghiraldini available.

Tigers knew the rules though and if we are bothered about meeting our EQP target we cannot just shrug our shoulders and blame the injuries bogey man, our transfer policy has clearly had a bigger effect.

Kings of the North

Tigers have announced the games that will replace the LV Cup fixtures on Season Tickets for next year.  After Bath, Gloucester and Exeter announced a triangular West Country series mouths were watering that Tigers may be able to replicate that with derbies against Northampton and Wasps.  

Instead the club has arranged to play Newcastle and Sale.  Real pedigree fixtures to get the fans excited.  More than that they have titled this triangular tournament "Kings of the North", a nifty on-trend title nicely referencing both Game of Thrones and King Richard III, but unfortunately rather missing the fact that Leicester is not in the "north" of any thing.  Leicestershire perhaps, at a push.  

And that both these Kings were prematurely killed and not only defeated but their whole dynasty was routed.  Perhaps not the best title to contest?

It seems bizarre that given a free hand to arrange fixtures with any club that would have us we have sided with the two poorest clubs in the league, in both supporter numbers and financially, who we share little history and zero rivalry.  Neither club will bring many fans on the long trip down to Welford Road, neither side will entice many floating non-season ticket holding Tigers fans attentions away from the World Cup and surely TV companies will show no interest in broadcasting any of these matches.

I don't even care enough to Photoshop this image properly

For the traveling fan Kingston Park is the most remote trip in the league at 191 miles compared to 186 miles to Exeter's Sandy Park, Sale meanwhile is the fourth longest trip by driving time only beating Bath because of the lack of motorways to darkest North-East Somerset.  If these away games get moved to Friday night or Sunday it would be the icing on the cake.

So a decidedly dodgy name, unattractive fixtures unlikely to pack in the punters or attract a TV audience and extra-long away trips for our most dedicated away travelers.  I cannot think of a worse pair of clubs to arrange a triangular tournament with.