Tigers v Sale Preview - A Winter Sale

By ChrisC
December 21 2010

Invitation to A Winter Sale Sorry to disappoint you but this is not a personal invitation from Baron Kirkham, Chairman of DFS Furniture, to attend a special exclusive viewing of his firm’s Winter Sale offerings while enjoying a glass of complementary bubbly.

It’s another sort of Winter Sale that has nothing to do with discounts, queues and overheated credit cards, the visit of Sale Sharks to Welford Road on Bank Holiday Monday.

I hadn’t seen much of the team from the northwest frontier of the Premiership until I watched them play at Brive in the Amlin Cup.

In that match they lost 9-18 in front of a paltry crowd of 3200 in deepest France.

Were I not writing this piece I would have turned it off and done something interesting like cutting my toenails so dire was the encounter – those poor travelling Sale supporters, it was bad enough sitting in my warm living room with a glass of Merlot .

Brive were not at full strength as I guess they’re more interested in Top 14 survival than the unlikely prospect of their progressing in any meaningful way in the Amlin thingummy and of course Sale have their own issues with James Haskell and Charlie Hodgson, amongst others, being long term injured.

Aside from one close thing from Mark Cueto, when he got part of his body over the Brive line but sadly not the bit carrying the ball, which he knocked on with inches to go, they didn’t look like scoring a try all evening.

In the first half Sale gave away two tries due to abjectly poor decision making, not only shooting themselves in the foot but reloading for a second pot.

The first arose from Neil McMillan breaking from the breakdown of a scrum (there were lots of those as unpenalised illegal binding was an issue all afternoon) and, with a two man overlap on the blind side at his disposal, he failed to draw the advancing scrum half instead hurrying a flat pass which the Brive #9 gleefully collected and started a sweeping move downfield which the Sale defence, already committed to their attacking pattern, were always odds on to lose.

Then later in the first half inside centre Kyle Tonetti also lost patience forced a pass to Matthew Tait which was intercepted by Palisson who had a simple run in for his second try and that was it really.

In the second half when Brive closed up shop Sale’s Mike Brewer seemed intent on his charges playing full scale Leagunion on the basis of endless phases of possession surely producing a try whereas in the first half they had looked for penetration from first and second phase ball and in fact at times looked threatening with Tait getting through the Brive defence albeit without any support and so the ball was turned over.

So Sale determined to go through the phases but they rarely made any meaningful advance, instead going back and forth across the field without making any forward progress until their frankly awful handling turned the ball over so Brive could have their turn running back and forth. Brive, in truth, should have had another six points from penalties which arose from the under pressure Sale scrum which wobbled alarmingly once Sheridan was replaced and in spite of oodles of possession and, with Brive’s Alix Popham in the sin bin, opposed by only 14 players Sale still didn’t look like scoring and the game fizzled out.

How Sale sorely miss the general-ship of Hodgson without whom they look a band of lost souls who don’t look like a team, the players seem to distrust each other’s abilities instead going it alone and becoming isolated,

It wasn’t good and aside from Sheridan trying to carry the battle to the enemy and holding up the scrum single handed in a really courageous performance I am sorry to say that I’m struggling to find any positive comments to make about Sale’s performance on that cold French evening.

Sale, with Edgeley Park still ice bound, eventually played the return match on Monday up at Galashiels as the ERC refused to let them wait until Wednesday when they could have played at Leigh which being close to Stockport would have permitted a home crowd. In the event barely 100 souls braved the cold borders evening to watch Sale lose 13 -15 to Brive when once again the Sale pack came under pressure with Sheridan not joining the fray and as when they did get an odd flash of stability the ensuing move saw Tait score a well taken try so had Sheridan been involved it may have been a different story.

The day before, at Welford Road, last minute changes saw Billy Twelvetrees replace Toby Flood, who had a torn abductor muscle, and how Tigers suffered as a consequence with Twelvetrees, who is still very much a makeshift fly-half, failing to ignite the backs and missing twelve points from the tee with his boot which he should, by rights, have secured, and coupled with some distinctly average kicking from hand, given that at present his kicking prowess is the raison d’etre for his selection ahead of Staunton, was a disappointment for the young man and his vociferous supporters, the resulting draw could well cost Tigers’ their chance to qualify for the knock out stages of this year’s European Cup unless they can engineer five points down at Parc y Scarlets which, on Sunday’s performance, looks too big a challenge.

Tigers’ cause was hardly helped by the Irish match officials who seemed to have decided that both blatant and marginal high tackles from USAP players were fine but the single occurrence from a Tigers’ player warranted a penalty. The catalogue of unpunished offences by USAP, who were repeatedly offside, not rolling away in the tackle et al would use the whole of this piece whereas the home side got very little latitude from the bovine Irishman, one penalty against Mafi for a so called late spear tackle being especially harsh as the Tiger was in position ahead of the pass being made and the USAP player simply ran on to him.

Tigers were better at the breakdown than the previous week despite the infringing by USAP and the scrum was also much improved by the presence of Castrogiovanni and this time, as all the props joined in with the illegal binding now seen at almost every match, it at least levelled the playing field.

Next Monday, with the HEC now looking an outside bet, the Premiership is Tigers’ best chance of honours this term I hope to see a Tigers’ front row of Ayerza, Chuter and Castrogiovanni, although if Richard Cockerill runs true to form I wouldn’t be surprised to see Cole rotate with the talismanic Italian.

I have already mentioned Andrew Sheridan’s contribution to the Sale scrum’s performance against Brive during which, in the main, he bound correctly and I didn’t spot one “tripod” moment for which he had become somewhat notorious and once he was replaced the Sale scrum had all the stability of a custard sandwich so I expect Sheridan to start against Tigers explaining his absence against Brive giving the potential for him to read the Border Telegraph while sitting on the bench all evening up in Galashiels .

I also expect to see Welshman Marc Jones continue at hooker and while he isn’t the greatest of scrummagers he is exceptionally mobile, as one would expect of a player who has also played in the back row. In company with Sheridan these two can make some telling incursions in loose play.

I can’t imagine 19 year old Henry Thomas will start against the Tigers and so expect to see Kiwi Karena Wihongi, who new Head Coach Brewer signed from Bourgoin.

Either way I don’t see the Sale front row matching the power of the Tigers.

In the second row the impressive New Zealand Maori, Kristian Ormsby, is at last free of injury and should join up with ex London Irish lock Nic Rouse who has been ever present this season with Chris Jones now back and in the wings if more presence at lineout time is required.

The Sale lineout languishes at eleventh place in the Premiership stats for line outs won on their own ball however Tigers looked solid against USAP, with the presence of Steve Mafi and Craig Newby allowing George Skivington to resume the roving role he had at Wasps and with the technique and grunt of Louis Deacon the home side’s set piece looks to have settled. It will be a big call to bring Crane back if it is to depose Mafi who had a good game against USAP.

I believe that the Tigers’ lineout will prevail and that there may be some stolen ball for the hosts.

The breakaway forwards for Sale are still missing the excellent David Seymour however against Brive I thought, save for the aberration that led to Brive’s first try, Neil McMillan, the Northern Ireland born ex Quin, gave a good account as he carried the ball up and defended well and with Scouser Carl Fearns and 41 time capped Fijian Sisa Koyamaibole likely to join him in the Sale breakaway unit it should be a good ball carrying trio and Koyamaibole’s bulk can only help at scrum time.

As mentioned after Mafi’s showing against USAP and given that the Sale backrow do not contribute greatly at lineout time I’d be tempted to give him another start with the consistently excellent Thomas Waldrom at #8. I do think that Waldrom needs to be used more sparingly as his gain line breaking runs are now being planned for by the opposition defence and as a consequence can be less effective. Of more concern to me was that the default open side, Craig Newby, had a poor defensive game against USAP exposing the more diminutive Allen but options here are few so I hope that next Monday he gets back to business as usual as the visitors’ back row could be a handful.

Behind the Sale pack Dwayne Peel doesn’t look the player he was when winning his 74 caps while at Scarlets and similarly Ben Youngs seems to have become a different player since he last went to Pennyhill Park with England. His pass has become laboured and imprecise and is produced only after a Jamie Hamiltonesque shuffle ensures his half back partner receives the ball a nanosecond (or less) before the opposing defender which is witnessed by his being at the top of the bad passes stats with Twelvetrees third in the same ranking, which speaks volumes for why Tigers’ back play is currently so uninspired. Youngs for sure has lost his snap at the base of the scrum and dithers alarmingly behind the ruck seeming to be practising to conduct the last night of the Proms instead of getting on with his job.

Usually I would say that the young pretender would have the better of the Welsh veteran but from what I’ve seen of late I’m not sure that he will unless the Tigers’ pack is dominant.

Without Hodgson Sale do not have a high quality play maker and the same has to be said when Toby Flood is missing from Tigers. With the sketchy performance of Youngs it takes all Flood’s experience to dig himself out of the hole he finds himself in as a result of the slow service but if the novice Twelvetrees is on parade then the Tigers’ attacking options are as sparse as a BA flight from Heathrow.

Nick Macleod wears the skipper’s armband for Sale in the continuing absence of Haskell and the ex Cardiff Blues player has plenty of pace from his international sevens experience, his position as the Premiership’s fifth highest points scorer and goal kicker this season proving he has a reliable boot and though he’s a prolific passer of the ball Charlie Hodgson he’s not.

Andy Tuilagi was missing from the trip to Brive for some reason but I expect to see him start at Welford Road and meet up with his siblings when partnering Matthew Tait who remains a silky runner capable of crossing the gain line at will, all he needs is support from his team mates and with Tuilagi punching the holes then I think Tait could be a real threat.

Anthony Allen is, in my view, unfairly criticised for his lack of ambition, having often seen him play for Gloucester and in his early days at Tigers I believe that this is more to do with the paucity of good ball he receives from his half back colleagues than any deficiency on his part, get him the ball in a bit of space and he can be outstanding, give him the ball with an opposition flanker attached to it then what can be expected?

Matt Smith is suffering from the general miasma that is enveloping the Tigers’ midfield where the options seem to be Waldrom through the centre or Alex Tuilagi though the centre, the latter often seeming to catch his colleagues by surprise.

There is no point bringing in the new big thing of Manu Tuilagi if he’s not going to get decent ball, first drain the quagmire at half back. If Flood is unfit then the siren calls for Twelvetrees must be resisted and Staunton must start. Maybe he’ll stand further back but he is an accomplished fly half and the ball won’t get turned over and he kicks well from the tee and from hand so to my mind it’s lunacy to start the novice when you have the experience available.

The midfield will be fascinating as neither side are clicking but both have potential game breakers and personally I would seriously consider moving Matt Smith to the wing in place of the out of sorts Alex Tuilagi, who while taking his try well contributed little else, and bringing Twelvetrees into the inside centre berth permitting Allen to move to outside centre where his sinewy running and offloading game would be of greater use. I see no point in having two bruisers at centre looking for contact rather than space as does Allen with Manu Tuilagi/Twelvetrees at 12 to punch the holes in the opposition defence for Allen to go though it could be a good option although it is admittedly thinking outside the Tigers’ instinctively conservative mindset.

In the back three Sale will probably have the experienced combination of Ben Cohen, Mark Cueto and the impressive Samoan international full back Paul Williams.

This is a big and experienced trio with 108 caps between them and with Cohen, maybe not as fast as he once was but with World Cup winning experience, and Cueto right on his game they’ll be a massive threat.

The Tigers’ back three meanwhile looks out of sorts and even Hamilton has been infected as shown by his uncharacteristic error in not defending the blindside at a scrum and allowing USAP’s Mele a simple try.

Geordan Murphy latched onto the high ball in a more characteristic fashion on Sunday but is certainly lacking spark remaining short of form and goodness knows what he said to Fizgibbon that caused the referee to march him back ten metres, for as captain he has an absolute right to speak to the referee especially as together with the assembled multitudes he obviously had no inkling of what the referee was up to. Mele didn’t have such writ and yet he was shouting at the Irishman all afternoon with complete impunity and in the final analysis that ten metres cost Tigers the match.

I hope that even if Murphy starts on Monday Agulla will get a chance, he’s an international full back so why have him languishing in the stands, this is no time for players to be picked on reputation.

I reckon that providing Tigers’ scrum can get the dominance that I expect then this should be a five point win however if they don’t it could be along afternoon.

So no free bubbly at the moment but nevertheless, as the Beano used to say, Happy Christmas to all.

Tigers v Sale Preview - A Winter Sale

Posted by: TheLeicesterTigers.co.uk (IP Logged)

Date: 21/12/2010 19:21

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010:12:28:18:57:26 by Stephen Bath.