Leicester Tigers will field their heavy mob against European giants Toulouse

“I'm as disappointed as the next man but I feel that the last comment was particularly harsh (no offence intended) Losing away to Toulouse is not the same as being smashed by Sale and I think a little perspective is in order to be honest. For one thing, it's the first game of the campaign, there are plenty of opportunities to put things right, not least the return leg at Welford Road. For another, let's not forget that it's Toulouse, possibly the greatest European side in the history of the competition. Their massive salary cap gives them something of an advantage and I'm sure that the Tigers would love the chance to spend countless millions assembling a side of such quality.

Having said that… it's obvious that there is something amiss at Leicester this season. The back line just don't have any flair or invention. Ben Youngs is obviously still struggling for form, Allen only every runs in one direction, Tuilagi seems to think that he can run over 2 or 3 defenders every time he gets the ball and Flood, whilst doing the best he can, is getting hammered week in, week out.
Earlier in the season I bemoaned Hamilton for his one/two step before he sent the ball to Flood and yesterday I saw Ben Youngs doing exactly the same thing. I wouldn't know as I've never been in that situation, but I imagine it's hard to play your usual game at No10 when you're receiving the ball with 2 defenders no more than 4' away from you by the time it reaches your hand.

I think it's time for the players to hold one of "those" closed door meetings and I think it's time for the coaches to stop concentrating so much on the pack and actually figure out some moves that'll make the most of our backs and get them going forward with a little invention and flair. Some folk think we're missing Murphy and that may be true, but the man retires at the end of the season and he needs to be replaced with not one, but two new quality backs who can do more than run through brick walls.

In the meantime, let's give the boys some support? I'm sure they didn't want to lose over there but they did, next stop the Ospreys - the fat bird hasn't even warmed up yet!”

“embarasing, woeful, aweful,pathetic clueless.
None of the above are strong enough to describe what i saw today. they are not capable of scoring tries! to many soloists, to much kicking possession away, what will the excuse be this time?”

“See we lost, can't say I'm surprised. Saw couple of pre season games, despite wins, we looked slow and predicatable, too many school boy errors.”

“Well theres 9 mins to go ....We failed to take the opportunity of the extra man by kicking the ball away not not even attempting wide ball
ive all ways been a critic of cockeral's tactical awareness and i think this game really showed him up
Indiscipline cost us yet again....We can forget getting out of the HC pools yet again...i said at the beginning of the season we would be lucky to win the LVE cup and that for me might be out the window
Bring back Pat Howard and lets start playing Rugby the way we know we can”

“Tigers have certainly not been firing on all cylinders, they have played some brilliant rugby then let themselves down & seem to forget which direction they are heading, start fumbling the ball, missing passes,missing touch (especially not hitting the stand) amongst a multitude of other errors. I put this down to the start of the season shakes ....I don't know how bad the French have been? I would assume they are the same, as virtually every team i have seen seems to have these early season shakes = I certainly hope the same goes for them .otherwise i don't think a bonus point will be in the equation.(unless the tigers suddenly gel tomorrow)”

“ooh! Well that makes sense at least (the odds) I was explaining to my Wife this morning (she feigned interest) that most people have us losing tomorrow, but that a losing bonus point would be very nice indeed and a win, however unlikely, would be an amazing return.

In Leicesterish world, we play the gameplan as described in previous posts, knacker the french fat boys, kick for position, win penalties with our faster forwards and kick the points. As the french get more desperate they leave gaps and we exploit those gaps to seal a superb win.

In reality, I think we have a punchers chance but much depends on our ability to maintain discipline. The French will make inroads, of that there is no doubt, but going off our feet, lying across the ball, not releasing etc. will lose us the game. I think Salvi is still injured, if so, that'll help because he can be a liability sometimes, yes he wins ball, yes he plays on the edge, as a good No7 should, but he gets pinged far too often and is guilty of seriously dumb play sometimes. Trust the defence!”

“I agree with all you say mate
Crane only the other week was played at 8 and captain....got brought down by a 10 stone winger Waldrom comes on as sub in the second half and makes more line breaks in 5 minutes than Crane did in the whole of the first half
Waldrom Flood Young and Manu have all got to step up for us to get any where near losing points for me
LOL as for the bookies...4/11 means that they think the French are more likely to win 3 and threequarter times more than Tigers
And as the old saying goes "thats why they drive rolls royces" theyre not very often wrong”

“Morning, Oadbylad.

Yes, the Argies are all back, not sure we were lied to (I didn't really pay much attention tbh, once it looked like there was to be no deal, I switched off) I wonder if Tigers meant he wouldn't be up to speed in terms of the gameplan etc. by then, don't really know much about it.

I'm not much of a Jordan Crane fan to be honest, for my money he's okay at No8 and largely anonymous as No6, I'd start Waldrom ahead of him in either position, and if Waldrom plays No8, then i'd play Mafi at No6 unless he's being used as a Lock. Crane never seems to look beyond the first contact, he'll take the ball up with no issues, but that's it, there's never an offload, there's never a pass pre-tackle, it's always the same thing, pick up, tackle, ruck, certainly not enough there to move the frenchies around. At least Waldrom looks for gaps, offloads and has a fair turn of speed over a short distance.
It's going to sound like i'm moaning for the sake of it, but I too would prefer to have seen Morris at No15, Hamilton is a bit shakey under the high ball sometimes, certainly not as confident as Murphy, and his best position for me is on the Wing, although he doesn't have the out-and-out gas to be a flyer.

I think (hope) we'll see the forwards holding their own up front with decent recycling and Flood playing flat. Tuilagi needs a big game and Flood needs to hit touch. Kick them back into their half and then use those fast, agile forwards to make inroads and win penalties. Drag the fat frenchies from one side of the pitch to the other and then kick for position, spin it wide once we hit the final 20 minutes and look to capitalise on the hard work with Castro and Ayerza in there to add some (more) Beef and power.

As for the odds, I've never laid a bet in my life and don't understand the odds I'm afraid!”

“Morning leicesterish...
Ayertza??? do you mean Marcos Ayerza which by way of a point of interest means that the Argentinians are back
We where lead to believe that Horace would not be back until the first game in December it was one of the clubs big points for not offering him a contract renewal
I hate being bloody lied to

Skybet have Toulouse to win this game at 4/11 on
Crane back at 8 ?? sorry it dosent work for me and it didnt the week before last
And where's Thomptsone gone ? scored 3 tries one week dosent see the ball the next now gone
And what did Morris do wrong to be put on the wing ? i thought he made a pretty good full back and looks set to take Murph's place...but as all ways there's only one way hes going to get the experience and that's play the games
Once again a bad time to be making team changes unless of course you've got to
If we where lucky enough to come away with losing bonus points Toulouse to win 1-5 pays 5/1 and looks the value bet 6-10 pays 9/2”

“I've not seen the team sheet, but I would hope that Cockers has also included Dan Cole, if so, with Mulipola and Youngs alongside him, what we'll actually see is a front row that can more than hold it's own in the battle upfront, but who can definately outshine the Frenchies in loose play. Mulipola and Youngs have superb hands and run great lines with or without the ball, they support open play brilliantly and get around the pitch all day. Cole has been described as an extra Flanker because of his superb ball winning skills and he too carries the ball up when it's his turn. Chuck a very mobile Ayertza in there, and I think it's fairly obvious that the plan is to move the Toulouse pack from one side of the pitch to the other, tire them out and then expose the fringes with the likes of Mafi and Waldrom.

Tigers to win this one, can't wait for the game, it's got 'epic' written all over it!”