Leicester Tigers vs Northampton Saints

[Teh Mite]

Welford Road
Sat Jan 8 2011
at 17:00 (local)

The last six clashes between the two great East Midlands adversaries have all been won by the home side on the day, including the 27-19 Saints victory at Franklin's Gardens in round one.

Leicester Tigers hit the top of the Aviva Premiership Rugby table following their victory at Exeter on Sunday, a spot previously held by the Saints since round eight. The Tigers have lost only one of their last seven matches in all competitions.

Northampton Saints slipped up at home to Harlequins on New Year's Day but have not lost successive encounters since April. The Saints are unbeaten in their last five away games in all competitions.

Northampton are going for a first season's league double over the Tigers since 2003/04.

Dave Pearson becomes just the second referee after Chris White to take charge of 150 Premiership matches.

Referee: Dave Pearson (150th Premiership game)​

 

[Duckdee]

This could go any which way. That's my expert analysis.

 

[franklin]

saints no9 dickson and no10 myler need to improve bigtime from the quins game.but the leicester pack was the first pack destroyed by saints this seson so they need to improve there.

saints by 7 there's my expert analysis

 

[Duckdee]

15 Geordan Murphy (c)
14 Matt Smith
13 Manu Tuilagi
12 Anthony Allen
11 Alesana Tuilagi
10 Toby Flood
9 Ben Youngs
1 Marcos Ayerza
2 George Chuter
3 Martin Castrogiovanni
4 Louis Deacon
5 George Skivington
6 Thomas Waldrom
7 Craig Newby
8 Jordan Crane

Replacements
16 Rob Hawkins
17 Dan Cole
18 Julian White
19 Ed Slater
20 Steve Mafi
21 James Grindal
22 Jeremy Staunton
23 Horacio Agulla

Northampton Saints: 15 Ben Foden, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Jon Clarke, 12 James Downey, 11 Paul Diggin, 10 Stephen Myler, 9 Ryan Powell, 1 Soane Tonga'uiha, 2 Dylan Hartley (c), 3 Brian Mujati, 4 Courtney Lawes, 5 Christian Day, 6 Phil Dowson, 7 Tom Wood, 8 Roger Wilson Replacements: 16 Brett Sharman, 17 Regardt Dreyer, 18 Tom Mercey, 19 Mark Sorenson, 20 Calum Clark, 21 Stuart Commins, 22 Shane Geraghty, 23 Joe Ansbro


Hamilton must be on his honeymoon, but Smith is a capable defender to try and help Murphy stop the back three. Skivington over Slater strengthens the lineout, which will need to function better than last week. Castro hasn't been binned for a while, so Tiny will just have to blow in his ear during a scrum to get him off. Waldrom, Youngs, and Flood, as ever, are Tigers' keys to winning this.

Here's to a cracking contest!

 

[TRF_Olyy]

This'll either be one of the best matches of the season, or really boring and end up 9-6 or something
Here's hoping the former!

Twelvetrees still being ignored I see...

 

[Gavin]

Why are Leicester playing Waldrom on the flank? He is not a flanker, I would have said Crane looks like a more capable 6 than Waldrom.

 

[Duckdee]

Twelvetrees still being ignored I see...

I wouldn't pick him over Staunton at 22.

Why are Leicester playing Waldrom on the flank? He is not a flanker, I would have said Crane looks like a more capable 6 than Waldrom.

Crane's got better feet at the scrum, and Waldrom still carries loads, so it works.

 

[Teh Mite]

All singals to Rehanas era drawing to a close it seems. :-(

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Fairly evenly matched so far, though Tigers playing a little better/keeping Saints on the backfoot more

Newby having a great game



Edit:
I'm really starting to dislike Ben Youngs,
Twice I've seen Jordan Crane have to take him to oneside to tell him to stop gobbing off to the ref

 

[Duckdee]

Youngs did look too hyper, hopefully Cockers can stamp that out. Murphy looks like he'll be out for a while, was playing well, too.

Ayerza's try was just a complete blitz, could do with more of those.

 

[Teh Mite]

**** knows what Mallender was thinking playing Ashton and Lawes when they were both clearly unfit.