Gloucester 14 Leicester Tigers 19: The resurgence continues

I mentioned in last week’s post that the battle of attrition against Ulster would be a good warm-up for the upcoming double header against Clermont Auvergne, but little did I realise that it could also act as a rehearsal for a pulsating and hard-fought 19-14 win at Kingsholm. From the statistics, this was a match that Gloucester really should have won, but a resolute team display and some individual moments of brilliance secured the four points for Leicester.

Source: Getty Images (courtesy of Daily Mail)

The Cherry and Whites won a greater percentage of lineouts and scrums, missed less tackles, made clean breaks, beat more defenders and made more offloads, yet they left with just a losing-bonus-point. Why? Because the Achilles heel of Leicester’s early season games – their defence – did enough to contain Gloucester’s multiple attacking threats; rugby matches are now so often won and lost at the breakdown and this is one area where Leicester triumphed. They did enough, but such was the opposition’s flair that in doing so they still remarkably missed as many tackles as the drubbing against Saracens.

The culprit was also the hero. Toby Flood missed a key tackle on his opposite number Freddie Burns that, but for the pace of Tom Croft, would have made the first-half deficit far worse. And yet, he was the defensive linchpin with twelve tackles and his largely dependable fly-half channel gave confidence to those either side of him.

If bonus points were awarded for doggedness then it would have been a bonus-point win; to concede only six first-half points after Gloucester’s near-total territorial domination was testament to the level of defensive improvement post-World Cup. The set-pieces didn’t go to plan as Gloucester consistently got the hit on at scrum-time and made Leicester feel the absence of Geoff Parling in the line-out (despite George Skivington’s perfect eight from eight as a jumper). Leicester looked like they were kicking a lead ball to touch at times, but in spite of it all, they were still able to restrict their opponents to just two penalties in their own half.

"Alesana Tuilagi... is as unstoppable as Usain Bolt"

In the second-half the West Country winds seemed to lessen but Leicester were able to take control of the scoreboard; Flood’s pop-pass was perfectly timed for Matt Smith’s razor sharp running angle. Later, Alesana Tuilagi showed that when given space to run down the left-wing in his favourite lane on the track he is as unstoppable as Usain Bolt. And with those two moments, the game was won. Kingsholm was silent.

Next week, Leicester face an even bigger test against a Northampton Saints side who have just comprehensively beaten the champions Saracens.

How can they continue their fine run of form?

Use Twelvetrees' assets

In Smith and Billy Twelvetrees, Leicester finally have two fit centres to play at centre. Both players made their tackles against Gloucester and maintained their defensive line excellently, but Richard Cockerill will need to use them more in attack. Twelvetrees, in particular, is being used almost exclusively for crash-ball and the game at Kingsholm was now the fourth out of his seven starts where he hasn’t kicked the ball once.

Kick and chase

Speaking of kicking, Leicester’s kicking from hand is inconsistent and their chase is still inferior to almost all opposition. Ben Foden and Chris Ashton will be ready to punish aimless kicks infield.

Catch and drive

When they get into try-scoring positions they will need to rectify a technical deficiency in their catch-and-drive that has seen them frequently be penalised for placing a man in front of the ball carrier. Cockerill should have faith in the ability of his pack to get a driving maul going without needing to rely on a disruptive man at the front.

Ben Youngs

Finally, and most worryingly, the destructive hesitation and changing of direction that creeped into Ben Youngs’ game last season returned againstGloucester. There’s no easy fix to this so Cockerill will need to closely monitor his England scrum-half.

Leicester and Northampton both started the season poorly but are both now back in form as we approach Christmas, which should make for another pulsating East Midlands derby.