Team to face Sale

In what could be one of the biggest games of the season Tigers have brought back a few big guns to face Sale on Friday night. The return of Seru Rabeni, Geordan Murphy, Marcos Ayerza and Jordan Crane gives the Tigers sterength all around the park. This game is a must win as Sale are only one point behind in 5th place.

This team should be more than capable of picking up a win on friday night and I expect the tigers to take the points.

Tigers Team:

Geordan Murphy, Johne Murphy, Seru Rabeni, Aaron Mauger, Matt Smith, Derick Hougaard, Julien Dupuy, Marcos Ayerza, George Chuter, Julian White, Martin Corry (c),Ben Kay, Brett Deacon, Lewis Moody, Jordan Crane

Replacements: Benjamin Kayser, Dan Cole, Marco Wentzel, Craig Newby, Ben Youngs, Tom Varndell, Scott Hamilton

Flood Watch

After two weeks on the bench Toby Flood is starting at 10 against New Zealand, which will arguably be England’s toughest test of the autumn series. Martin Johnson has made three changes from the team who lost 42-6 against South Africa. Danny Cipriani and Tom Rees have been dropped to the bench, while Tom Palmer is injured. This makes way for Toby Flood, Michael Lipman and Nick Kennedy to show the England manager what they can do.

Toby Flood has been playing well at ten for the Tigers in the Guinness Premiership and will now have to show he can perform on the big stage. For Johnson’s England this is make or break time.

Cipriani has not stepped up in the last two games and I am pleased that Johnno has given Flood the opportunity, Also Danny Hipkiss has been recalled to the England bench after playing so well against Quins last Saturday.

I think Cipriani has been rushed back from injury far too soon and England were looking for the saviour of English rugby. The truth is these things take time and England are in a time of rebuilding. It is good to see three of Tigers players on the England bench. Croft, Ellis and Hipkiss will all be waiting to come on and play their part.

The main word of the weekend’s game will be PRIDE. A lot of pride was lost against South Africa and these young England players need to put in performances that they showed to get them into the England squad in the first place.

England are playing the best team on paper in the world, so for me to say an England win would be very optimistic. All I hope is that England put in a good performance. The battle between Flood and Carter is going to be interesting as they meet at Welford Road on the 6th December when Carter makes his first appearance for his new club Perpignan.

England team: D Armitage, P Sackey, J Noon, R Flutey, U Monye, T Flood, D Care, T Payne, L Mears, P Vickery, S Borthwick (capt), N Kennedy, J Haskell, M Lipman, N Easter

Replacements: D Hartley, M Stevens, T Croft, T Rees, H Ellis, D Cipriani, D Hipkiss

Tigers 27 Quins 14

Leicester Tigers hauled themselves back into the top four after a convincing win over Harlequins. Scott Hamilton showed the Welford Road faithful what he can do with a solid performance at full back.

Derick Hougaard made all of his kicks as well as scoring his first try for Tigers since moving from the Bulls. Tigers scored three tries and it was a shame that we did not go full out to try and get the bonus point and it seemed that we took our foot of the pedal. It was a very good victory for the Tigers and denied Deano the win as Quins director of rugby.



Tigers next game is away at Sale on Friday 28th November.

Hamilton starts against Quins

Scott Hamilton is set to make his Tigers debut against Harlequins on Saturday. The Kiwi will start at full back as Geordan Murphy has been recalled into the Ireland line-up at the weekend. Matt Smith is again preferred to Tom Varndell who features on the bench.

15 Scott Hamilton
14 Johne Murphy
13 Dan Hipkiss
12 Aaron Mauger
11 Matt Smith
10 Derick Hougaard
9 Julien Dupuy
1 Boris Stankovich
2 George Chuter
3 Dan Cole
4 Martin Corry (captain)
5 Ben Kay
6 Craig Newby
7 Lewis Moody
8 Brett Deacon

Replacements
16 Mefin Davies
17 Santiago Bonorino
18 Marco Wentzel
19 Dan Hemingway
20 Ben Youngs
21 Sam Vesty
22 Tom Varndell

Mauger mistake costs Tigers

Bath 25 – Leicester Tigers 21

Tigers were on the verge of one of the greatest comebacks of the season so far. 20 - 3 down at half-time Leicester came out after the break and clawed themselves into the lead 21 - 20 with three minutes to go. But a poor kick from Mauger with only a few seconds left on the clock was collected by Bath, they retained ball possession and in the third minute of injury time Bath's fly half Butch James scored the try which saved the home teams blushes and took them back to the top of the table.

Tigers head coach Heyneke Meyer said: “I thought the guys showed a lot of character coming back. They are a quality side and we really played well in the second half. It’s not great losing. I would rather play ugly and win than play well and lose, but the good thing is the guys showed character. We played really well and there are a lot of positives to take forward.”

Hopefully the Tigers can go back to winning ways against Harlequins at home next Saturday.

Phillips get's England call-up

Amy Phillips of Aylestone St. James has been selected in the final 34 girl squad for England’s Under 20 Women’s Rugby Union team. The 18 year old from Stoneygate has been playing rugby since she was eight when she used to play for Oadby Wyggstonians. Unfortunately Amy had to give up playing rugby when she was aged 12 as she was not allowed to play with the lads due to mixed sex rules. Still keen to follow in the sport she took a tag coaching badge and helped with her local under 7s team.

A girl from school told Amy about Aylestone St. James’s girls team called ‘Jimmies Angels’ when she was 13. They welcomed her with open arms and she has never looked back. Alison Foster from Aylestone St. James said: “Everyone from the club is so proud of her, she has done so well and it is a great achievement for her. We always knew she could one day achieve such a high level”.

Amy is still coaching youngsters at tag level in Tugby and wants to peruse a career in teaching. When speaking to Amy she said:”I’d like to thank everyone at Jimmies for helping me get to this level, my teachers at Beauchamp College and most of all my family, as they drive me all over the country so I can play the sport I love. It’s been a great week as my birthday was last week and this is the best birthday present I could have asked for”.

She now has a busy year ahead of her for club and maybe one day country. Alylestone St. James are in the newly formed NLD league and are both currently undefeated this year at under 15s and the under 18s level. Jimmies Angles are always looking for new girls to take up the sport and maybe one day emulate the same success of Amy.

"I have made so many great friends from playing rugby all over the country and I would advise any girl just to come along and have a go”.

If you are interested in playing girls rugby and are in-between the ages 12 to 18 call Alison Foster 0116 212 1932.

Johnno Plots To Take Down Australia

Tom Croft starts again for England this Saturday against the mighty Wallabies. Martin Johnson will hope that England can build on their 39 – 13 win over the Pacific Islands last Saturday.

I think that even though England are not looking anywhere near the finished article there is a sense that we may be looking at the beginning stages of a team that can win the Grand Slam in next years 6 Nations. The mix of old and youth on the pitch is key and I think England have a very strong bench to turn to if things go wrong during Saturdays game.

I am not expecting England to beat Australia, but I am expecting them to push them very close. If Cipriani kicks well and the England scrum goes to plan I could see England just sneaking it with a score line of 25 – 23.

The back row of Palmer, Croft and Rees England has an agile and pacey look about it, which needs to play a major part if England have any chance in beating their old arch rivals.

England: D Armitage , P Sackey , J Noon, R Flutey , U Monye, D Cipriani, D Care, A Sheridan, L Mears, P Vickery, S Borthwick (capt), T Palmer, T Croft, T Rees, N Easter

Replacements: D Hartley, M Stevens, S Shaw, J Haskell, M Lipman, H Ellis, T Flood

Croft Starts for England

Martin Johnson has picked Tom Croft to start at 6 for England against the Pacific Islands on Saturday, while Harry Ellis and Toby Flood are on the bench. Johnson has given four debuts to Riki Flutey, Delon Armitage, Ugo Monye and Nick Kennedy.

England Team

15 Delon Armitage

14 Paul Sackey

13 Jamie Noon

12 Riki Flutey

11 Ugo Monye

10 Danny Cipriani

9 Danny Care

1 Andrew Sheridan

2 Lee Mears

3 Matt Stevens

4 Steve Borthwick

5 Nick Kennedy

6 Tom Croft

7 Tom Rees

8 Nick Easter

Replacements

16 Dylan Hartley

17 Phil Vickery

18 Tom Palmer

19 James Haskell

20 Michael Lipman

21 Harry Ellis

22 Toby Flood

It would be nice to see the Leicester half backs on the field at some point so they can once again prove what they have to offer on the international stage. Also on the bech is Dylan Hartley who will be a star of the future and one to watch if he comes off the bench to make his first appearance for his country.

Tigers 30 Sale 20

After last week’s poor performance at Cardiff, Tigers had little to no chance of qualifying top of Pool B in the EDF. The only way to qualify was to score four tries, Bath to beat Cardiff by more than seven points and not score four tries. As Cardiff beat Bath at the end of the night the match had no real relevance. Sale put out a team that resembled their A team. Tigers new signing Craig Newby made his debut and Lewis Moody made his first start of the season after an eight month absence due to hip and Achilles injuries. Tigers did not look like a team with any intent of scoring four tries, which was disappointing for all the spectators at Welford Road.

Tigers again did not play very well but still ground out the win. They gave sale two sloppy tries from poor ball retention and will have to up their game if they want to bring anything away against Bath at the Rec in two weeks time when they will be without all the players away on international duty.

Welcome to Tigers Talk !!!!

This is a new blog focusing on all the news surrounding the rugby union team Leicester Tigers.

It is an exciting year for the Tigers as they have many new players and a new coach so there will be lots of posts to read.