If you take out the disastrous 25-50 loss at Welford Road earlier this season then the aggregate score between these two teams over five fixtures is Leicester 105 Saracens 109. Over 400 minutes of rugby have only found 4 points to separate the sides, including two Premiership finals, and in none of those games was the winning margin outside of losing-bonus-point range. In short, there is nothing to choose between these two teams…
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| (Source: Daily Telegraph) |
The ill-researched preview for this game would have reflected that Leicester were, for probably the first time in recent memory, the less depleted side due to international call-ups, but, taking into account injuries, the absentee numbers were roughly the same. Saracens had 11 players unavailable who would likely have been in the match day squad, whilst Leicester had 14.
Saracens’ loss was broad, Leicester’s loss was deep; save for the front-row, the home side were down to their second-choice in most positions, whereas the Tigers had a depleted front five, close to first-choice backs and were down to fourth-choice at tight-head and scrum-half.
1. 1. Stankovich 2. 2. T.Youngs 3. 3. Castro / Cole / White 4. Borthwick 4. Deacon 5. Botha 5. Parling 6. Brown 6. Croft 7. Burger 7. 8. Joubert 8. Crane 9. Wigglesworth 9. B.Youngs / Young / Harrison 10. Hodgson 10. 11. Maddock 11. A.Tuilagi 12. Farrell 12. 13. Barritt 13. Tait 14. Strettle 14. 15. 15.
Before the Six Nations started, From The Crumbie Terrace spoke about how Leicester were much better placed to pick up some good results in this international window than they were during the World Cup and it was the performances of those fringe players that made the greatest impact. Though the design of rugby’s fixtures calendar is weighted heavily in favour of international teams, it nonetheless adds intrigue and unpredictability in equal measures to the club game at this time of the year.
And if you were looking for an intriguing and unpredictable sub-plot to this meeting of fierce rivals then it came in the tussle between Logovi’i Mulipola - packing down in his very first Premiership game – and the 111-cap, World Cup-winning, Springbok captain John Smit. On Sunday, at least, the roles of rookie and veteran were traded as Mulipola put in a colossal performance at tight-head, making more carries (16) and more metres (19) than any other Tigers prop has in the league all season and dominating in the scrum. Leicester may have just found their own Soane Tonga’uiha.
On the other side of the scrum Marcos Ayerza made amends for his poor performance last week against Hoani Tui of Exeter by smashing one of the best scrummaging tight-heads in Europe in Carlos Nieto. That combination of Ayerza and Mulipola had Saracens’ scrum going backwards for most of the game and it was testament to the performance of the front-row that both Smit and Nieto were withdrawn on 44 minutes.
In the second-row we saw two young players put in the kind of performances that will have the applicants for the England Head Coach’s role licking their lips. For Saracens, the classy George Kruis continued his rise to prominence with some strong work at the breakdown, capped off by 19 tackles. For Leicester, Ed Slater took his recent good form on to another level again with an all-action display that included a try, a yellow card, 15 carries, 24m made with the ball, a line-break, a seemingly endless work-rate and a commitment to the cause that few of his peers could match.
What Slater brought in commitment, the whole team needed to bring in patience to win this game. It took Leicester fully 20 minutes just to get near Saracens’ 22 with the champions putting up box-kick after box-kick for their backs to chase. To beat them you simply have to accept that you’ll keep getting turned around by these kicks and will keep having to build up your field position each time they eradicate it. A lot of teams lose their nerve, feel the pressure to do something about it and either unwisely run the ball from deep or try to go toe-to-toe with their kicking game, which, of course, is not possible. Leicester did neither and slowly played their way into the game, comfortable that they had a slight edge at the breakdown and could build territory through the phases.
On three or four occasions Leicester built up enough of these phases to get near the Saracens try line but the hosts’ superb defensive organisation meant they came away empty-handed. Leicester’s running game forced the champions to make just short of 200 tackles, more even than Aironi had to make in the one-sided attack vs. defence dead-rubber back in round 6 of the Heineken Cup, yet the yield was only 20 points
That’s because Saracens defend with the same composure whether they are in their own 22 or the oppositions’ and Leicester kept finding that they didn’t have the guile to break through the black wall; as soon as a ball-carrier was left isolated he would be pounced upon and the momentum would be lost. When the ball was moved wide, only Manu Tuilagi, who looked every bit an international-calibre centre, regularly challenged the defensive line. This was only Manu’s third appearance in the league this season and he got close to making 100m with the ball for the second week in a row.
Which brings us to the contentious issue of the other Leicester player likely to head back to the England camp this week: Toby Flood. Flood has been derided on the message boards and on Twitter for bottling the match-winning drop-goal that his captain, Geordan Murphy, eventually scored. George Ford, so the argument goes, should have been brought on in place of the misfiring Flood.
The two accusations are clear: firstly, that he avoided his responsibility as the team’s kicker and could have cost Leicester the game. Toby Flood is a fantastic attacking fly-half but even he would acknowledge he is not one for drop-goals and does not attempt them. Morgan Parra he is not. Whether this is because he doesn’t feel he possesses the skills to execute them or just always gives his other attacking weapons preference is unclear, but they are not in his arsenal. So, why would he attempt one at this pivotal point in the game? It is hard to believe that a player who has played in a World Cup Final would ‘bottle it’.
Leicester were steadily progressing towards Saracens’ try-line safe in the knowledge that their opponents, with only a 2-point lead, couldn’t take any chances at the breakdown and weren’t committing men to rucks. The ball carriers had been having success all day long so a try was well within reach and any infringement to stop it would have resulted in an easy penalty in front of the posts. When it became clear that there was no other option, delegating to Geordan Murphy was the appropriate thing to do. On a different day that would have been put down as great game management.
The second accusation is that this incident is reflective of his recent poor form and George Ford should have been on the pitch if not from the start of the match then at least by the second half. Whilst Flood has had two patchy performances by his high standards against Exeter and Saracens that does not detract from the scintillating performances he has put in against Worcester, Clermont Auvergne, Northampton and Gloucester in recent months.
His kick success rate of 65% in the Premiership has been distinctly average this season but his running game and flat positioning in the back line help Leicester’s oft-uninspiring backs play come to life. George Ford will almost certainly be a fantastic player for Leicester over the coming years but his displays thus far in the first four rounds of the Premiership, albeit in a losing side, showed that he will need a gradual introduction to the first team. There is such huge expectation on his 18-year-old shoulders and pressure to perform; having already missed a winning drop-goal against Exeter this season, would it have been fair to put him in that position again? That he is now considered back-up fly-half feels about right and should give him the opportunity in less pressurised situations to continue his conversion to first-team rugby.
Toby Flood may not have been the hero this week, but he wasn’t the villain either.
Next up for Leicester is the visit of Newcastle Falcons to Welford Road. The win against Saracens has made a home play-off semi-final attainable again for the chasing pack of Northampton, Leicester, Exeter, Sale and Gloucester. Newcastle, with their new coaching structure and only Euan Murray on international duty, are potentially going to be a tougher prospect than they were a few months ago, but the Tigers have to be targeting a bonus-point win if they are to overtake Saracens.
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| (Source: Daily Telegraph) |
The Falcons’ running game caught Leicester by surprise when these sides met back in round 3 with Greg Goosen and Alex Tait particularly dangerous out wide. Leicester have been coping well with narrow ball carrying this season but continue to have problems expanding their defence when the opposition decide to move the ball wide quickly. Jimmy Gopperth, fresh from a match-winning performance against London Irish, may look to capitalise on this and launch counter-attacks from deep. The power of Leicester’s forwards makes a win very possible on Saturday but, with the Falcons’ defence getting more organised each week, the real test will be with Matt O’Connor and the backs to find that four-try bonus-point.
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