posted May 13, 2007

Surprised about a lot of whinging about the playoffs. May be they give a chance for teams like Leicester a fairer chance when they donate some many players to international duty during the season. Remember the last RWC - Tigers had at least 10 players out and they were next to bottom of the league. This means teams with none or a handful of internationals obtain a false high position in the league.

Gloucester were simply clueless yesterday and were not worthy 'champions' playing like that in any case. They had an easy ride to the final by playing Saracens.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted May 13, 2007

Last year Leicester were drubbed partly because they could not cope with the wet ball. Glaws turn this year.
As a neutral sat in the corner where the first try went in, I immediately thought it was a knock on! But after that Tigers just rumbled ever onwards!
Glaws pack did not turn up until the last quarter and the much-trumpeted backs looked lightweight - and who let Goode sprint (!) in for his try??
Having said that, great entertainment for the non-partisan.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted May 13, 2007

Reflecting on yesterday's game after a long day in London and a good night's sleep, a number of things occur to me -

1. I'm a bit bored with the debate about whether the play-offs are a good thing or a bad thing. When the season kicked off, all 12 teams knew the Play-off Final was on 12th May so should have planned for it accordingly. Tigers have done this brilliantly this season (perhaps unlike the last two campaigns when they caved-in at Twickenham both times).

2. I'm also a bit bored by the criticism of sides with 'lots' of overseas players in them. Over time, all 12 teams will learn that a blend of home-grown talent and carefully chosen foreign players is the way forward (particularly if you know you'll be losing your best english players for several weeks in the year). Overseas players are not, per se, bad for the game.

3. Regarding the match, as Pat Howard said, Leicester are not a 30 point better side than Gloucester. On the day, however, they were. I was expecting Gloucester to nick it in a fairly tight match, so I was amazed by how easily they rolled-over.

4. Tigers are peaking at exactly the right time now. Did Gloucester peak last week, maybe? Either way, at the start of the season, both teams were aware of the play-off framework, so both should have been doing all their planning around a Top-4 finish, and having a fit squad ready for the last 2/3 weeks of the season. Tigers have done this brilliantly.

5. Watched the match again on Sky2 last night. Was Dean Ryan really grumling about wet weather in the post-match interview?! Surely any professional outfit playing a full English season (with its damp, grey winter) would need to develop some skills in the rain?

6. If I was a Gloucester fan, I'd be more than a little worried. OK, they had a bad day, and Tigers had a good one, but the loss of some of their key players (Bortalami, Tindall) seemed to hurt them a lot more than Tigers losing Castro, Harry and Darryl Gibson. A strength in depth issue, maybe?

7. Certainly, they've got a leadership issue. Who was in charge on the pitch yesterday? And with Richards leaving now, they've lost one of their key 'fire in the belly' players.

8. Perhaps more worrying for them, however, is the shameful performance of their backs, who looked very lightweight. I've always felt Balshaw was a bit fragile, but Allen, JSD and (particularly) Lamb were all dropping off tackles. How on earth could somebody as pedestrian as Goode take them all on the outside?! They might be the future of English rugby, but they need toughening-up now.

8. Finally, as a Tigers fan, I'd just like to thank Pat Howard for an awesome season. Just one good game to go, Pat, and then you can leave us knowing the job has finally been completed. We'll miss you.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted May 13, 2007

I was there yesterday sitting in the corner. im a massive gloucester fan and it was disgraceful to see Gloucester play with no pride or sprit, as soon a leicester scored they didnt look like scoring.

Tackling was non exsistant at times. the forwards couldnt deal with the leicester pack and couldnt even supply the Gloucester backs with decent and quick ball. the conditions weren't on Gloucesters side but it shouldnt have been that big a score line.

Fair play to leicester they played good and did what they did best. they deserve the guinness premiership and i think that they will get the treble

add comment | complain about this comment

posted May 13, 2007

I enjoyed the first 5 minutes as a Glaws fan but after that it was all Tigers. They showed they were the best team in the premiership so all argument about playoff is irrelevant, we all know in reality that if Tigers had to beat Brissle in league a few weeks ago to win title they would have done so. Congrats to Tigers, worthy winners, but come on Glaws next season, one better next time (after some serious work on tackling)

add comment | complain about this comment

posted May 14, 2007

Maybe now we can stop hearing about how the Gloucester backs should make up the majority of the England back line. And if you all start changing your tune and saying they are the future of England, then things look even more bleak than they did 12 months ago.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted May 14, 2007

we (Gloucester) won the premiership. we finished first, we are champs. Nothing more to say

add comment | complain about this comment

posted May 15, 2007

Shame you finished top on a technicality.

Hope to see you in the final next year for a re-match!

add comment | complain about this comment

posted May 16, 2007

largehennerZ
maybe you should take a leaf out of surfer81! you did finish top but i would question a couple of things!
1) do you really think tigers would have sent out a 2nd team to bristol if they had needed to win to win the title?
2) how is it fair that you can play for 5 weeks without your internationals? leicester lose 10-15 players each week through the 6 nations, A games, U-21 games! are you telling me that if you lost that many players you would have won the title? i dont think so!
so while they continue to play premiership fixtures on weekends of internationals you cannot say the league is a fair way to judge who is the best and so the playoffs is the only fair way!

add comment | complain about this comment

posted May 18, 2007

Personally speaking I am not a great fan of the play offs especially as I have witnessed Gloucester loose the league twice now after finishing top. How can a whole season be judged by one game? In my mind it is a quick fix to a deeper problem, in that as some people have pointed out some teams in league suffer greatly due to players going on international duty. This in fact makes the league a bit of a joke in my opinion.
International Rugby needs to be set up like it is in football so that International Rugby Competitions are played in the close season and the league stops when internationals are being played and at the same time abolish the Play Offs. Admittedly this will be easier said than done but it could be done.

add comment | complain about this comment