Tigers v Wasps Match Preview

By ChrisC
April 8 2013

Who Knows? At sixteen I knew pretty much everything there was to know, my parents knew little or nothing about the modern world, didn’t understand the culture and were hopelessly old fashioned and strict.

I was going out with a girl (dating for you youngsters who may have stumbled upon this) who lived in south London while I lived in Essex, so it was a bit of a hike on the occasions I ventured south of the river and I was under strict instructions as to the time by which I was to get home.

Raging teenage male hormones tend to overwhelm any other aspect of life other than the pursuit of the object of one’s affections and so my return train journey from the southern suburbs was, after prolonged and passionate farewells, always a close run thing and more often than not I had to run for my final connection, jumping into a compartment at the last second.

I boarded the train that foggy November night and it clattered off into east London with me slumped, panting, in a corner seat. The first stop was to be Stratford (now of Olympic Stadium fame) but as we approached the station the train didn’t slow and we roared through. Alarm surfaced as, with a sickening lurch to my stomach, I realised I was on the wrong train. There was one other passenger in my compartment so I asked the first stop that the train was due to make. “Southend on Sea” came the chilling reply, which was many miles distant from my home. I was dead meat!

Desperate times call for desperate measures so I resolved to jump from the train as we passed though my home station where it usually slowed down for the points just beyond.

As the train approached the platform I opened the door, praying that the train wouldn’t accelerate. My prayers were answered and as the train entered the station I launched myself.

The fashion footwear of the day was “Hush Puppies” which had rubber soles and I was nothing if not a dedicated follower of fashion so the beige shoes with their white laces (I know. I know) hit the platform. It was then I realised the train was going rather faster than I’d thought as my feet pounded down the platform with the soles of the shoes slapping noisily on the asphalt surface while heating up alarmingly. My momentum was such that I couldn’t stop and I shot down the slope at the end of the platform into the goods yard, my arms windmilling furiously in an attempt to keep me upright, until a pile of coal brought me to a shuddering halt.

I gathered myself and set off for the exit where an astonished ticket collector, who was dozing at his post, exclaimed “that train doesn’t stop here”. “I damn well know that” I replied and limped off into the night.

I knew everything back then but much, much less now.

One thing I do know is that Wasps have undergone a remarkable transformation from a team struggling to avoid relegation, squeezing home by a solitary point, and with insolvency looming, to one that is in the running for a top six finish.

Another thing I don’t know is the state of play in the long running saga of their financial situation. The last I read there was a plan for a consortium led by insurance entrepreneur; Derek Richardson (who back in January lent Wasps one of his reputed forty-four million pounds to tide them over) to become the club’s major shareholder. The move was reported as being be due for finalisation in the coming fortnight, which would have been at the end of last week but I’ve read nothing further about this or the mooted new main sponsor, who I suspect is waiting for the club’s overall financial position to become clear.

There’s also talk of Wasps moving back to London with a possible ground share with Brentford at their new ground one of the options being discussed for a couple of seasons hence to enable Wasps to bid farewell to High Wycombe.

With this ongoing phalanx of uncertainties it speaks volumes for the confidence that Dai Young has engendered within the club with new players joining and existing ones renewing their contracts.

Wasps had a bit of a purple patch and were not just knocking but positively thumping on the door of the league’s top four but things have lately gone awry with five consecutive losses in all competitions and now they have the prospect of a trip to Welford Road to get themselves back on track after being put to the sword by Leinster.

Tigers for their part had an equally unenviable trip down to the south of France for their Heineken Cup quarter final against Toulon, being the only one of the remaining English clubs having to travel away from home.

With Saracens having beaten an Ulster side that were a shadow of the former selves, Saracens returned to type with a display of patience but little creativity and the boot of Owen Farrell, who did little else but kick, thus they readied themselves to face the victors of the Tigers vs Toulon fixture. While at the Stoop Quins were well beaten by Munster although the Irish back row had plenty of help from Mr Garces who permitted them to lay all over the ball at the breakdown.

Tigers made a heroic attempt to overcome one of the richest and most star studded clubs in European rugby in their own backyard and for a while looked as if they might just manage it. However being denied Tom Croft’s presence was pivotal as were the yellow cards that Mr Clancy gave to Flood and Cole in another of the Irish referee’s idiosyncratic displays.

So with just Saracens moving forward to the Heineken Cup semi finals, proving that pragmatic, disciplined, no risk rugby is the way to win matches in the brave new world of our sport, all the other English clubs concentrate on the domestic scene which, in Tigers’ case, means licking their wounds, curbing their disappointment and resolving to salvage some sort of silverware, even if it’s just the trophy for the end of season knockout cup, starting with welcoming Wasps to Welford Road next Sunday.

I think it most likely that Samoan loose-head prop Taulafo will be preferred to the old war horse Tim Payne to oppose Dan Cole who will surely once again start in preference to the waning Martin Castrogiovanni and I can’t really seeing the south seas islander get the better of the England tight-head in any theatre of action save for his bundling 115kg in the Tigers’ “red zone”.

Twenty-four year old Tom Lindsay would be my choice at hooker for the visitors. His scrummaging is not the strongest but he is very dynamic in the loose and makes more yards through the centre of opposition defences than does Welsh international Rhys Thomas who has the greater number of starts in the number 2 shirt this for his club this term and so may be again preferred by Dai Young, with Lindsay brought to the fray once play opens up later, although these days play doesn’t often loosen where Tigers’ defence is concerned.

Tigers are now denied the services of Marcos Ayerza for the rest of what has been a standout season culminating in his demolition of Carl Hayman. It appears from reports that the Argentinian’s injury may have been caused by foul play which makes it even more regrettable but with Mulipola also playing well Tigers’ own Samoan loose-head will have to carry the major burden of the Tigers’ number one shirt for the season’s remaining matches and start by overcoming Wasps’ Phil Swainston who since joining from Leeds (can an England call up be far away with that on his cv?) has come on in leaps and bounds but as far as the scrummaging department is concerned I can only see a benefit to Tigers especially as Mr Doyle brooks no nonsense.

With Marcos Wentzel, Tom Palmer, James Cannon and England wunderkind Joe Launchbury in their locker (see what I did there?) Wasps have enviable strength to call upon and while ex Welford Road (and Leeds) favourite Wentzel is, I expect, nailed on for the number five shirt I wonder who’ll partner him this time. Dai Young has rung the changes of late with all of the above getting a crack at the job but somehow it hasn’t worked and the previously inviolable Wasps’ line out has wobbled, alarmingly so in the Northampton match.

Among the myriad things I don’t know is whether Joe Launchbury is fully fit. He somehow doesn’t seem quite himself. Nothing I can exactly identify but he just doesn’t look quite the all action hero he was in England colours, maybe he’s carrying a residual injury from his battling international forays. For me it’d be James Cannon to start but my guess is that with Palmer struggling with fitness it’ll be the Launchbury partnering that wily old bird Wentzel who’s also looking a bit weary.

It will be an interesting contest between the South African and Tigers’ Geoff Parling who out thought Toulon in the latest of his tour de force performances. Ed Slater continues to impress although he has been showing some silly spates of indiscipline which has cost unnecessary penalties and I suspect that Richard Cockerill may be having a hard look at the more mature Kitchener, although I’d stick with Slater for the time being. Both pairs of locks are accomplished at the line out, well matched in the scrum and impressively mobile, so a close call here.

What could decide the outcome of the line out contest is the availability of Steve Mafi, who’s not played since injuring a hamstring in the Toulouse match at Welford Road back in mid January. Tom Croft has succumbed to a shoulder injury which first surfaced in the match at Franklins’ Gardens the previous week and without him or Mafi the Tigers’ line out is a less potent force. If neither the British Lion or Tongan international are available I’d be tempted to start Kitchener alongside Parling with Slater at blindside. But with Mafi reportedly fit I guess it’ll be his towering presence that will tip the scales in favour of the home side.

Springbok Ashley Johnson has made the Wasps’ number six shirt his own with fifteen Premiership starts this term and he’s certainly a rumbustious defender who loves nothing more than picking the ball out of a ruck and powering through the defensive heart of the opposition. He can be a bit indisciplined at defending mauls and his cause isn’t helped by his extravagant hair style which a match official can hardly miss.

Whether it’s Mafi, Slater or even Tom Croft on the blindside for Tigers there’ll be plenty of pace to go with the skills of Julian Salvi who was yet again superb against Toulon putting the much vaunted Steffon Armitage in the shade until Mr Clancy started to cut the ex London Irish open side a bit of slack later on.

Youthful Sam Jones got the last three starts in the number seven shirt for Wasps and a decent young prospect he looks in a modern flanker sort of way but I wonder if Dai Young will feel it a safer option to start with the excellent Kiwi specialist open side Jonathan Poff who, were I Richard Cockerill, I’d have on my shopping list. He’s twenty-eight now but still has few years ahead of him and would make a great back up to Salvi.

If it’s Poff versus Salvi it’ll be a real battle at the breakdown but if it’s young Jones I’d expect Salvi to gain a distinct edge.

The Wasps’ back row is likely to be completed by Saracens bound Billy Vunipola who’s another player who doesn’t seem to have his mind fully engaged somehow, maybe his it’s already with his brother at Allianz Park and his swollen bank balance. Richard Cockerill persists with Jordan Crane as his starting #8 and must have his reasons but I really can’t imagine what they are and I’d certainly prefer to see Thomas Waldrom taking the ball into the visitors’ defence at pace rather than the more trundling Crane.

Tigers will presumably be starting with the England half backs of Ben Youngs and Toby Flood, the latter unlucky to have been given a yellow card when his attempt at an interception went upward and could easily have dropped for him to canter off into the French sunshine but Mr Clancy was having none of that and went along with the baying home crowd. Youngs produced a mixed bag with is boot but had a decent outing against Toulon and will now have to deal with the perpetual motion of Joe Simpson. Youngs though should be behind a scrum that is on top while Simpson will have to produce another virtuoso display from adversity to prosper and Flood will have do better with his kicking from hand.

Dai Young does seem to have weakness for aging fly halves with Nicky Robinson and Stephen Jones sharing the shirt and the portly Andy Goode en route at season’s end. My guess is that Jones will get the start this week as Young may want the surer presence and boot of the thirty-four year old Welsh international with over one hundred caps, to the sometimes flaky but more inventive thirty year old thirteen time capped Welshman; Nick Robinson who’s hit and miss with his boot.

Tony Allen, like Julian Salvi and Geoff Parling, doesn’t seem to have “bad days at the office” and his display at Toulon was no exception with only a cruel bounce of the ball denying him a match winning try. It looks likely that Allen will be facing ex Sale, Leeds and Quins player Chris Bell, who made his debut for the latter in a Heineken Cup match way back on 29th September 2001 and yet is still just 29. Bell is very experienced and strong going forward but there is a weakness in Wasps’ defence, as evidenced by the forty tries they’ve conceded in this year’s Premiership, and which I think Allen and his pal Manu Tuilagi may be able to exploit. Tuilagi will need to be put through rather than try to tough it out with, for me, one of the standout players of this year’s Six Nations (OK. I know that’s damning with faint praise); the seventy-three time capped Andrea Masi who is quite splendid.

With Wade and Varndell between them having scored 54% of Wasps’ forty-one tries in this year’s Premiership their importance is to be clearly seen and they are an extravagantly talented pairing in attack but defensively things are less sure footed. Wade doesn’t lack any courage but he can tend to follow the ball and leave space on his outside and the big Tiger pairing of Adam Thompstone and Niall Morris will be looking to exploit this tendency. On the other wing I don’t think Varndell lacks either courage or knowledge of defensive patterns what he lacks is technique. He’s never had it and still doesn’t have it. I think it’s quite simply that he doesn’t “get it”.

The issue for Wasps is that their wingers are their only real weapon of consequence and sometimes, in the anxiety to get the ball to them, “Hail Mary” passes are attempted. If they work then the wingers are off into the wide blue yonder if they don’t then it’s often turnover ball.

Coaches, understandably, often follow a desire to get the best players on the pitch regardless of how good a fit they are and I rather feel this when I see the talented Elliott Daly deployed at full back. For me he needs to be at outside centre or even on the wing and were I a Wasps’ supporter I’d prefer the calm reassuring presence that over half a century of caps the experienced Hugo Southwell brings to the last line of defence.

Daly does of course have quite extraordinary kicking capability from the tee which mitigates in his favour but with Adam Thompstone and Tuilagi likely to bearing down on him maybe Southwell or Masi, who plays his international rugby at full back, would be the safer option with Daly at outside centre.

Matt Tait had a good outing against Toulon to surpass that against Saints the previous week. It’s good to see him prospering in the new defensive environment that has been constructed for him and I hope that he’ll get opportunities to run at the Wasps’ midfield/centre channel and tempt the Wasps’ defenders toward him.

If they are to win Tigers must keep the ball in hand and Flood, Tait et al must resist aimlessly kicking the ball to the Wasps’ back three, they just must not do it for if they do it will come back with Wade or Varndell attached to it and seven points attached to them.

Tigers will be angry at the events of last Sunday and it will be a fierce and uncompromising approach taken by the home side which I think will see them home.

And with Wasps’ eye firmly on the forthcoming matches against Sale and Exeter where they’re likely to get a better result in pursuit of Heineken Cup rugby next term than at Welford Road where they last won in September 2008, they may rest some of their key players.

But then again; “The older I get the less I know”!

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

Date: 08/04/2013 18:40

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013:04:15:20:57:32 by Tiggs.