Exeter v Tigers Match Preview
By ChrisC
December 28 2010
Westward Ho! Not only the novel by Charles Kingsley after which the Devon coastal village is named but also the call of the American pioneers as they set forth to seek their fortune in the western territories of what was to become the USA, crossing perilous Indian country during their odyssey.
The Tigers’ faithful may also feel inclined to echo the call as they also head west to the furthest reaches of the Premiership where the Exeter Chiefs wait in their tepees for the arrival of the East Midlanders.
Without doubt Exeter have been the surprise package of this year’s Premiership. While many, including me, your humble correspondent, thought that given the unfair funding by PRL of promoted teams the West Country side would be in a season long relegation battle, how wrong I was.
Not only did Exeter’s own version of Chief Little Rock; Rob Baxter, think otherwise but so did his band of Dog Soldiers who, like their Cheyenne namesakes, have pinned themselves to the ground and are determined to fight to the last breath to stay in the Premiership.
Early in the season, when they were still an unknown quantity, the Premiership newbies visited Welford Road and gave Tigers an almighty fright before they faded and Tigers ran out ten point winners.
Since then they have lost only once at Sandy Park, which was by just three points to London Irish who, at that time, were one of the form teams in the Premiership.
On Boxing Day the Chiefs’ match at the Recreation Ground fell prey to the Winter weather but the following day Tigers’ magnificent ground staff once again overcame the elements and permitted the club to host the tenth placed team in the Premiership; Sale Sharks who had previously amassed just 14 points to show for their season’s endeavours and had also just seen their European ambitions dashed by two losses to Brive and the peremptory and, just forty-eight hours before Christmas, unnecessarily brutal departure of their coach, ex All Black Mike Brewer. Sale money man; Brian Kennedy losing patience, although the season had yet to reach its half way point. Mr Kennedy had then to watch his team lose 54 – 21 while getting the most awful drubbing by Tigers in the process.
Perhaps soccer is more suited to Mr Kennedy.
Exeter’s last match before this Sunday’s encounter was therefore their narrow 26 -24 loss to Newcastle in the Amlin Challenge Cup played up at Galashiels, with the Kingston Park pitch unplayable, the spectacle was witnessed by 527 spectators so the local Constabulary was relieved to be able to save the cost of deploying their mounted officers to control the crowds.
A week earlier, when Falcons had visited Sandy Park they got a bit of a shellacking from the Chiefs who are not to be trifled with on home soil.
The Chiefs put five tries on the visitors that day with the strong Exeter pack putting the Falcons eight to the tomahawk, taking no prisoners as Alan Tait watched, like George Custer at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, as his troops were also wiped out.
In the early days of their tenure in the Premiership it was, perhaps, easy for their detractors to dismiss Exeter as a one trick Indian pony with a heavyweight pack but not much else however now that they have found their feet and the spectre of being a one season Premiership team has dissolved in the Devonshire light they have a spring to their moccasins and when they get full PRL funding for the 2011/12 season they’ll be an even bigger force to be reckoned with.
Rob Baxter has been using his squad well and it will be interesting to see the starting line up on Sunday as I’m sure that the home side will see this as a wonderful opportunity to claim a remarkable scalp from a Tigers’ side that has been misfiring of late but for all that are still second in the league.
On Sunday at Sandy Park I expect to see regular Brett Sturgess in the #1 shirt with Neil Clark hooking and the trio completed by Hoani Tui as Rob Baxter looks to his strongest front row to combat the power of the Tigers.
Sturgess has played with the Barbarians while Kiwi Tui has turned out for New Zealand Maori so these two bring international experience and will present a solid challenge to the Tigers’ front row of current internationals with Cole joining the EPS rested Chuter, who will probably rotate with Rob Hawkins, who had an excellent start against Sale and Ayerza who again struggled with his opposing tighthead binding illegally.
Once again, last Monday, the opposition tight head was permitted to bind on the Argentinian’s bicep with the scrum alternatively collapsing or crabbing across. Once again the match officials ignored the cheating and once again the spectacle of the scrummage was ruined.
Next week J P Doyle is in charge of his 18th Premiership game down at Sandy Park and from what I’ve seen of him he looks bang on IRB message so I’m not holding my breath for an improvement in the prevailing situation.
With two good scrummaging sides such as the Chiefs and Tigers it would be wonderful to see the scrum correctly managed by the match officials but I am starting to believe that there is a concerted effort by the IRB/RFU to discredit the set piece as the incompetence in refereeing and the disregarding of such a simple law to enforce by so many match officials is just too much of a coincidence to be explained any other way.
It could be a tight confrontation up front. In the second row I would expect to see, Irish born Tom Hayes join up with James Hanks who are a good combination in open play with strong defensive credentials in a team that is right at the top of the tackles stat although as a consequence they do miss more tackles than any other team, sharing the worst performance in the Premiership with Leeds, they are also one of the less effective sides on their own throw.
The Tigers’ pairing of Deacon and Slater did well against the Sale line out, and both were exceptional in their defensive duties with Slater showing some nice handling skills and whether or not Skivington is brought back I can see, with Mafi in the mix at line out time, that Tigers should at least hold their own here and maybe even gain some advantage at the set piece.
For the Chiefs in the back row I expect to see Samoan international, Chad Slade at blindside who will also give presence at the line out, with the vastly experienced ex Bath back rower; Brummie, James Scaysbrook at open side. Scaysbrook, who was always a bit part player at Bath has really come to the fore down with the Chiefs and is a traditional #7 which may get him into trouble with Mr Doyle if the Irishman is to enforce Leagunion. Young Dave Ewers completed the breakaway trio against Falcons but I wouldn’t be surprised to see the more experienced ex Bristolian James Phillips start as he’s now back from injury.
I thought Steve Mafi had a good game against Sale when he was a thorough nuisance in the line out and defended well. Craig Newby was much more of a presence at the breakdown than against USAP and his defence was back on par also it was good to see Thomas Waldrom popping up all over the park with some lovely offloading work and signature gain line breaking charges.
Provided that the Tigers’ front five get some control then I can see the breakaways doing well against the home side but the Chiefs’ Dog soldiers will be ferocious at the breakdown.
Behind the pack the very experienced Samoan international Junior Poluleuligaga, capped eighteen times for his country, will probably continue and be paired with Gareth Steenson who’s back from injury so given the Irishman’s massive influence earlier in the season I expect to see him start and keep the scoreboard ticking if Tigers’ show lack of discipline.
James Grindal gave a very good account of himself against the experienced Dwayne Peel last time out with a fast accurate pass and with minimal fuss and absence of histrionics he got quick ball out to his half back partner of the day, Jeremy Staunton, who for me had his best performance in a Tigers’ shirt, he stood flatter, showed some nice handling skills leading to try assists. If Flood is still injured then I expect to see Staunton joining the now fully rested Ben Youngs who I hope has spent his Christmas leisure time practising his pass and work rate at the breakdown.
For the hosts I anticipate that seven time capped Fijian international Sereli Naqelevuki will retain the inside centre berth from Bryan Rennie with the 6’4” south seas islander, who weighs in at almost 18 stones, presenting a major defensive challenge for the much smaller Anthony Allen who had an excellent game against Sale with a full assortment of his skills on display, however I wonder, given the potential physical mismatch, whether we may see Billy Twelvetrees get a start in the #12 shirt with Manu Tuilagi outside him.
Frenchman Nic Sestaret could well have the outside centre spot instead of Phil Dollman, who misses a lot of tackles, and if so he’ll have his hands full with Tuilagi junior who provided a bravura performance last Monday with a great mix of subtle skill and bruising presence, think what he’ll be like when he’s full grown!
In the back three ex Cherry and White Mark Foster is another previous bit player who has prospered under the tutelage of Rob Baxter and his coaching team and after his brace of tries last time it’s hard not to think that Midlander Matt Jess won’t keep his place on the other wing with English born, but with Fijian qualified, Josh Matavesi, who’s already been capped on 5 occasions even though he’s just 20 years old preferred at full back, even though Luke Arscott has one of the best records in beating defenders, in metres gained and offloads made, so it’s a tough call.
The Chiefs’ backs are getting more of a look in these days and can be a real threat when play breaks up as will be the hosts’ aim.
The Tigers’ back three had a lovely time against Sale but this has to be taken in the context of the opposition they faced and the space they had provided to them which will not be available against Exeter. Even in this performance, and not wishing to sound too much like Victor Meldrew, I was concerned about the defence. Once again an opposition found the blind side of the scrum undefended leaving it to Grindal alone to make a last ditch attempt to stop a big back row forward bursting through and too often a kick into the right hand corner found Alex Tuilagi absent without leave – where does he go to?
Geordan Murphy relished the space to run at and showed why he’s second in the try assist stat but retains an unhelpful top spot for turning over ball with his possible opposite number, Luke Arscott, just one turnover behind on 18.
Hamilton had a field day of course against Sale and made the absolute most of his chances in slotting a brace which takes him to the top of the Premiership try scorers this season, an achievement he shares with Tom Varndell and Topsy Ojo but it will be a very different matter for him against the obdurate Chiefs’ defence.
I continue, maybe in vain, to see Amorosino or Agulla even on the bench – they aren’t a figment of my imagination are they?
Tigers will need to revert to a much tighter and conservative game plan against the dangerous Chiefs who are top of the ball carrying stats although the carries are not as productive as maybe Rob Baxter would like and too few clean breaks have thus far been made.
I see this has being a tight and probably low scoring match and that Tigers may have to be content with a losing bonus point down on the Exeter reservation – now where’s my Coonskin hat?
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:01:04:18:46:57 by Stephen Bath.
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* where the word invested could be translated as pi$$ed up the wall.
The purchase of Stockport County I believe was to ensure a stadium to play in.
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imho Kennedy got it badly wrong by employing St Andre.
All he needed to do was look down the road to Kingsholm where Tom Walkinshaw employed the Frenchman and there too he imported a whole coterie of his compatriots and got short term "success" but in the process divided the dressing room as he and his French imports would speak only French and the (then) largely local players were excluded from the decision making process.
The issues arose and off St Andre went back to France before popping up again at Sale and, it looks to me, to have done exactly the same thing. In both cases the departure of the French contingent decimated the playing side and others were left to pick up the pieces. Maybe the same thing will happen at Toulon.
Just seems to me that sacking Brewer as he did was both brutal (did he really need to sack him a day or so before Christmas? What did it actually achieve) and before Brewer had even had half a season.
It was all a bit like the old days at Sarries where another real rugby man is/was in charge of the money but continuity of coaching and recruitment had been an issue before the current SAracens set up.
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I wasn't "around" when the whole Loffreda/Meyer thing was going on so don't really know what went on there.
At the time, I too felt he was hard done by but nothing I have seen since leads me to believe it was the wrong decision.
"However, the feeble manner of successive Amlin Cup defeats to Brive over the past 10 days convinced Kennedy he had to act swiftly.
Once a number of players had complained to the millionaire businessman about Brewer’s style and approach, Kennedy then canvassed opinion from the rest of Sale’s senior management team.
And, having found no-one willing to defend the Kiwi, he wielded the axe yesterday morning before then addressing Sale’s first team squad.
“We would like to thank Mike for his dedication and commitment,” Kennedy added.
“I am personally very disappointed that this has not worked out and wish him all the best for the future.”
The current period of sustained stability is very much to be desired and I hope it long continues - even through a dip in results should such occur.
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NB I'm not saying he should or will go under such circumstances ... just after peoples thoughts
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Now if there's no silverware in 2010/11 and none again in 2011/12 it could be a different matter.
To say the man who won them their only title was a bad appointment is a complete nonsense. The probablem was Kennedy stopped funding/was stopped from funding by the salary cap the rather impressive pack which had won them the league. The entire back row of that team now play in France, as does Schofield, Bruno, Faure and White from the squad.
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If short term success was the objective then it was a good appointment if long term success was the objective then it was a bad appointment. History proves the point.
The Tribe have been in their teepees for several days now and if you arrive early enough and manage to find the secret sacred site you could be fortunate enough to witness the war dance but the real Battle of the Shoehorn will take place on the park and I hope we all enjoy it. Don't expect us to roll over like Sale because Big Chief Baxter will have other ideas.
Safe trip down en enjoy our hospitality
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Tigers are Tigers, and the only way is Tigers way, any change would be long and difficult, by it's very nature.
Hence we always end up being insular, which one day could be our downfall. We need the incumbents to organise a painless transition to the next phase, one step at a time.
Evolution, not revolution, IMO.
Meyer always bothered me. His game was too kicking based and even were we to see success under his tutelage it would have grim to watch - ultimately a downward course - and if he'd built his Loftus Welford Road, when he eventually went what would we have?
Far from 'insularity'* being a Tigers weakness, it is this bond which drives us on through these spartan times and sets us apart from the rest ... if it is to see us fall ultimately, that will be down to the suits cutting too close to the quick
* I'm sure it is actually 'insularity', more an ethos which welcomes those from outside who want to be part of us but rejects dictators
'Lions led by donkeys' .. Lest we forget
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As Rich says we dont know what would have been if Meyer had stayed - everyone else moved from a kicking game to a running game for the 2nd half of the season and Meyer's distractors seem convinced that we would have been the only ones not to change.
'Lions led by donkeys' .. Lest we forget