Leicester away preview
By Quins4life
October 20 2015
After a very encouraging start to the season with a well-deserved win against a Wasps side that people were tipping for great things this season, our attention now turns to our first away match of the season with a visit to Welford Road against Leicester Tigers. In general our recent record against Leicester has really turned around as I remember when we could scrap any thought of beating them as they were just to good for us and we seemingly never could get the rub of the green against them *cough cough Wayne Barnes cough cough*. However, over the last few years the tables have seemingly turned with Quins winning five out of the last six regular season Premiership fixtures, including two wins at Welford Road. No mean feat at all! So whilst Quins’ form over the last couple of seasons may have been slightly inconsistent to say the least, a constant that has remained has been the ability to perform when playing the Tigers.
I think it is fair to say this Leicester team is not be the formidable unit that consistently made it to at least a domestic and/or European final every season. I do not think people travel to Welford Road with the same fear anymore and most teams travel there knowing they could come away with a decent result. To be fair to Leicester, over the last couple of seasons they have lost a lot of experience and 1st XV players, and (like quins) they also have had a lot of injuries. Just this season they have lost Parling, Salvi, Allen, Thorn and Gibson, all of whom are quality and massively experienced players. It will be very interesting to see how their new signings adapt and settle in to Premiership life, especially as they have brought in a lot of players from the Super 15. Peter Betham appears to be the standout after signing from the Warahtahs. A good, all round footballer that plays normally on the wing, but played at 13 on Sunday against Irish and looked pretty useful. There are also rumours of another big marque signing for them this week, but he won’t be available if the rumours of him being an Australian or a Kiwi international are true.
I am not quite sure what to expect of Leicester this season. They definitely fall into the category of unpredictable teams that could finish anywhere from about 8th upwards. However I think that they’ll miss out on top 4 as there are now better teams out there and the fact that they finished in the top 4 last season may have papered over the cracks that were starting to appear, just like Quins last season. They need time to rebuild and that takes time, and maybe a season out contention is what they need. They have appointed ex-Leicester player and New Zealand international, Aaron Mauger as their new Head Coach in order to freshen things up. They are hoping he will be able to bring some flair to the team as they scored 2nd lowest number of tries in the Premiership with 37 last season.
Last weekend Leicester started the season with a solid, but unspectacular 26-18 victory against London Irish at the Madjeski. I watched bits of the game and whilst Leicester played well enough to win, I felt Irish played well but could not quite get over the line, and in the end the score slightly flattered Leicester, especially as one of their tries was an intercept. It seemed like if you try to stretch Leicester and attack them with pace, you can get some joy. But in a season that will be probably the tightest ever, an away win should not be shunned and Cockerill will be happy.
There will be a lot of interest in the teams that the two Directors of Rugby put out, and both have said that they will use their England players at some point. I believe the England trio of Brown, Easter and Marler, who were on the bench for Quins last Friday, will start, and Care will come back in if he is fit and captain the side. I expect Robshaw to be involved at some point, but most likely as a substitute as both Clifford and Wallace were fantastic last week. With Visser and Roberts available too, it’ll be interesting what happens. I think Roberts will need time off regardless of whether or not he is actually available (although I’d be over the moon to see him play!!!) but Visser, who hasn’t played as much for Scotland, could be an option but I’m more than happy with Walker to stay if he isn’t ready yet.
My Predicted Quins XV- Marler, Ward, Jones, Horwill, Twomey, Clifford, Wallace, Easter; Care (c), Evans, Walker, Sloan, Lowe, Yarde, Brown.
Leicester’s team is a lot harder to predict. I do think that T.Youngs, Cole and Goneva will return to the team, but I think B.Youngs will come off the bench as they rate Sam Harrison highly there and he also has been struggling with an injury. Then also there are players such as Crane, Slater and Kitchener who did not play last week and I cannot find any injury information about them so I presume they could potentially be back in. It’ll be interesting to see who they play at 10 as Bell played well last week by scoring 23 of the team’s points, but young Owen Williams is fit again so there is an interesting dilemma there. Mulipola is expected to be fit even though he limped off injured, which is lucky for them considering Ayerza is still with Argentina.
My Predicted Tigers XV- Mulipola, T.Youngs, Cole, M.Williams, M.Fitzgerald, Croft, McCaffrey, Pearce; Harrison, Bell, Goneva, Bai, Betham, Thompstone, Tait (c).
I think they are two very evenly matched sides and it’ll be a tight encounter that could go either way. Both sides will be desperate to continue their good starts to the season. To the neutrals, home advantage may slightly swing the odds towards Leicester but if Quins show a similar grit and determination in defence like last weekend, the Tigers may find it difficult to break them down. Quins will be hoping for another inspiring performance of Evans, and if he does Quins will be difficult to stop, especially with a returning Danny Care who I am sure will want to show why it was a mistake to make him third choice scrum half for England.
A losing bonus point will probably be considered a successful return for Quins, but I’m feeling quietly confident that Quins can get an important early away win and continue their good start to the season.
Prediction; Leicester 18 Quins 24
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"And while international rugby lost my attention and interest many years ago I couldn’t help but be appalled by the shame brought upon my sport and my country by Stuart Lancaster and his incompetent, spin driven, coaching team which saw the benchmark of English rugby; the scrum, disintegrate under the stewardship of Graham Rowntree who’d pushed erstwhile colleague and icon Martin Johnson “under the bus”, presumably to cravenly curry favour with Lancaster. Andy Farrell has meanwhile destroyed England as Lancaster’s proxy and I still don’t know what Mike Catt’s role was in the whole debacle other than to petulantly threaten Cipriani."
And:
"It was interesting to note the different approaches taken by this week’s coaches to the returning England players with Conor O’Shea deciding Marler, Easter and Mike Brown should all be on the Quins’ bench, there was no place for the badly mistreated Danny Care who had been suffering from a back spasm and who must, like me and many others, feel confused as to why Richard Wigglesworth was preferred to the sparky and spiky Quins’ scrummy. Mind you being confused by Lancaster is hardly unusual. And Lancaster’s human shield; Chris Robshaw was also excused duty."
The criticism is vitriolic in its extreme. God help Lancaster and anyone else who might step into his shoes in the future.
Always enjoy the trip to Welford road, can't make this one as apparently , a trip to Welford road as a surprise for her indoors birthday would not go down well
Quote:Eight academy players on show last week, whilst all may not start, most will be in the squad I'm sure.ianco
It's always interesting to see who has pitched up at Welfod Road to be a Tiger. Richard Cockerill prefers his first team players developed by other clubs.