[2013/14 Premiership] Round 9

[TRF_Olyy]

Round 9 Fixtures

Kingsholm, Gloucester (Friday, 19:45 GMT)
Live on BT Sport

Madejski Stadium, Reading (Saturday, 15:00 GMT)

Allianz Park, London (Saturday, 15:00 GMT)

Sixways, Worcester (Saturday, 15:00 GMT)

Recreation Ground, Bath (Saturday, 15:15 GMT)
Live on BT Sport

Kingston Park, Newcastle (Sunday, 14:30 GMT)
Live on BT Sport​

 

[ratsapprentice]

Will be interesting to see how early Tiggers bring on Javiah Pohe... I have a feeling they want to see whether he is a real option or not ASAP.
Cant see what utility he brings from the bench!

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Referee is having an absolute mare so far.
Touch judge missed a Burns penalty going dead, as well, and gave Glaws a 5m lineout instead.

Tigers are lucky that Burns can't kick a goal to save his life tonight. His kicking from hand has been appalling as well.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Good try for Glaws at the end of halftime has flattered the scoreline.
Benjamin is terrible.
If he's got the ball in his hands he's decent, but don't expect him to catch it or pass it.
Threw the ball away 5m out, collected by Robson (I think?) who boots it away and May sprints, collects, scores.

Burns dropped from kicking duties.

 

[Tony Manx]

Referee is having an absolute mare so far.
Touch judge missed a Burns penalty going dead, as well, and gave Glaws a 5m lineout instead..

Not sure if you mean he is having a bad game on the basis of the linesman stuffing up or other things but not sure I agree................he seems pretty on the ball really apart from the one decision where he overturned his own call of "advantage over" almost immediately afte rhe let one go when Glaws scored their first try!

Tigers are lucky about the kicking, I would agree, but those tries were also very unfortunate...............

Burns for England, sorry do not and never did think so!

Interesting game though for the neutral...................

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Didn't see it myself, but commentary reckon Burns was really annoyed when Cook stepped up to take the conversion before halftime.

 

[Tony Manx]

Didn't see it myself, but commentary reckon Burns was really annoyed when Cook stepped up to take the conversion before halftime.

........so he should be after that failed and, I have to say, easy chance for Cook!

Thank God November is nearly over and some of these guys can shave again and start to look normal again.............

 

[TRF_Olyy]

These kicks are ridiculous!

It's not even the weather having an effect. Flood started well, but started to slip. Burns started poorly, got the easiest of easy conversions, then was terrible. Cook kicked an easy conversion then been poor since.
Now it's 36's turn!

 

[j'nuh]

Finally. I've been wanting Twelvetrees to take the kicking duties games ago. Hopefully he can become our permanent kicker now.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Flood has done more, ball in hand, this game than Farrell has his entire club, and international, career to date.

 

[Tony Manx]

Whilst perhaps not going that far, I can understand and agree with the tenet of your argument!!!!

 

[Tony Manx]

Referee is having an absolute mare so far..

Can I change my mind and say he is distinctly average?!

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Kvesic's breakdown technique is weird - he doesn't seem to target the ball, he tries to go past it, effectively sealing it off from the opposition 9, but "legally". This just results in him getting cleared out really easily. Compare to Salvi (and Cole) who target, and latch onto, the ball at every available opportunity. Makes it much harder to clear them out as they're holding onto something, and also vastly increases the chances of a turnover and/or penalty.

That was a good win for Tigers - not in the sense that they played particularly well, but more that they played pretty badly outside of the set piece. Though Bowden and Flood played well, but in general the backs were a mess. Understandable, in a way, because it's like their 90th choice backline, but they're all pro players and the amount of individual errors was poor.

 

[j'nuh]

Can this season be over?

19 players still out of contract. There's about 3 or 4 that I want to keep.

Still being screwed over by Brush's inability to assemble a pack at Kingsholm. ND's hands are tied by the front 5 he inherited.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

This is ND's doing. He did the same with Scarlets - sh*te pack, good backs. He left Scarlets and their forwards have improved massively.
This same Gloucester pack looked far better last season, and just in general in the past. I know they lost Brown and Hamilton, who were big blows, but Davies was in a position to sign quality players to replace them....and didn't.

 

[j'nuh]

This is ND's doing. He did the same with Scarlets - sh*te pack, good backs. He left Scarlets and their forwards have improved massively.
This same Gloucester pack looked far better last season, and just in general in the past. I know they lost Brown and Hamilton, who were big blows, but Davies was in a position to sign quality players to replace them....and didn't.

Don't agree with this at all. First of all, about ND at the Scarlets. He inherited an ageing front 5 when he took over at the Scarlets. As you know, Welsh teams barely have the money to bring in the world's finest. ND could only develop and try to bring in astute signings. Samson Lee, Rob Evans, Kirby Myhill, Ken Owens, Rhodri Jones - developed under ND. Ball, Earle, Kelly - brought in by ND. ND made the best of a bad situation and would have only gotten the appreciation had he stayed on.

As for Gloucester... he did try to bring in Parling and Kennedy. Not his fault they didn't want to come and there was no one else left available. So ND is trying. But even if he had managed it, we'd have still had a crap front 5 plus Parling or Kennedy. Doesn't change the fact that most of this front 5 was the legacy of Brush. We've gone for years without an adequate front/second row and we won't have the room under the salary cap to do anything about it, until next year. Rumours have been around about Gloucester going for CJ van der Linde and Bradley Davies, so there's clearly going to be an emphasis on building up the pack, now that Brush's legacy is finally ending.

We're missing John Brain a lot. He got a lot more out of this team in the scrum. And imo, Stanley isn't up to it as forwards coach. But I still rate Davies.

 

[bertiec]

WTF. Away with the fairies.

Just watched Tigers Glos. Who the heck gave that prat in the yellow shirt permision to ruin a rugby game. The only excuse for such a slim grip on reality I have come across in the last 20yrs was put down to someone dropping a tab of acid in my mates pint.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

We'll have to agree to disagree then.
I don't particularly rate Davies as a DoR (though I don't rate Brush as one either, which is why I was glad to see Sale demote him - think ND and Brush are more similar than a lot of Gloucester fans would like to admit).

 

[Tony Manx]

Did not rate Kvesic but where was Morgan...........he was on the team sheet as 8 for Glaws but did not see him during the match.........has he become Mr Anonymous of Gloucester?

 

[ratsapprentice]

Again... it is hard to overstate how **** the Glos tight 5 has been this season.
Any back row will struggle behind them, especially when they've been expending so much energy trying to make up for that fact since round 1.
Morgan has been the least effective of any of them though.

Which is why I thought the praise the BT (Leicester) commentators were laying on the Tigers was pretty ridiculous.
I think the play-offs are looking further from their grasp with each passing round.