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Harlequins 30 Leicester Tigers 23: The Pendulum Swings and Quins Become Kings

Seemingly from nowhere can appear momentum. Be it the flick of a wrist, the bounce of a ball or the slipping of a tackle, that most intangible of qualities, so conspicuous by its absence, can suddenly be a Sandy Park gust of wind, propelling you and your team mates forward. The basics become second-nature and the impossible becomes within reach. From momentum comes confidence and from confidence comes peak performance. But as easily as it appears, so too it slips away. After 106 unbeaten days came 80 resoundingly beaten minutes. The great recovery was over and Harlequins were champions of England.

@TigersUnoffy Q&A with Ed Slater

Leicester Tigers and England Saxons lock Ed Slater recently took part in a question and answer session on Twitter with the excellent @TigersUnoffy.

Many thanks to Ed for taking the time to answer questions and to all the people who sent them in.

Be sure to follow @TigersUnoffy on Twitter for the latest Tigers news, discussion and more questions and answers with players in the future.

What makes Tigers stand out above Quins, Sarries and Saints? Is a place in the Lions squad a realistic goal? And what does Ed really think of the new kit? Keep reading for all of Ed's answers...

(Source: Leicester Tigers)

Leicester Tigers 24 Saracens 15: Forget September! Forget November! Champions win in May!

This time,

there was no international window;

there were no coaches absent;

there were no game-changing refereeing errors;

there was no disparity in injuries;

there was no lack of commitment, and;

there were no excuses.

This time, when an entire season's endeavours were at stake, Leicester were the victors.

Pride, that precious ornament, that can last through generations yet is just as easily damaged in a careless moment, will always show the scars of repair.

But now we can forget September. In the grand scheme of things, it didn't matter.

And we can forget November. The most unlikely of turnarounds, has been turned around.

One last hurrah for our departing heroes! Bring back title number ten!

(Source: Eurosport)

Harlequins 33 Leicester Tigers 43: Why we love the game

Last week, football fans across the globe felt an injustice when Barcelona, possibly the greatest club team the game has ever seen, lost 0-1 to a conservative and pragmatic Chelsea after having 30 shots at goal to their opponent's 5. Fans questioned the very purpose of the game and whether a victory gained in such a way as Chelsea's was of true value. Viewers of the Aviva Premiership will be empathetic to that cause after a weekend of action that saw the champions Saracens secure a desperately uninspiring 9-3 win against Newcastle, whilst the top two teams - Quins and Leicester - scored 76 points between them in one of the league's best ever fixtures...

(Source: Newsday)

Northampton Saints 21 Leicester Tigers 35: The importance of being hated

Chuck Klosterman, the American author, once said that, "Nemeses and archenemies are the catalysts for everything. We measure ourselves against our nemeses and we long to destroy our archenemies." After a weekend in which Leicester moved head of their modern-day nemesis - Saracens - in the league table and went a large way towards destroying the season of their archenemy - Northampton - those words never felt more true...

(Source: Leicester Tigers)

Leicester Tigers 43 Worcester Warriors 13: Saracens have something that is ours and we want it back

Leicester Tigers are out of form. Their last two performances, against opposition in the lower half of the table, have been decidedly patchy. Some of the ball handling has been sloppy and the back line have lacked creativity. The highs of the LV= Cup final performance over Saints have not been matched. The only trouble is, this out of form team has scored 84 points in their last two games, chipping in with 11 tries in the process. They have been nowhere near their peak yet have, at the right moments, shown the cutting edge of champions. Yes, the team who lost 6 out of their first 7 games look every bit like champions...

(Source: Daily Mail)

London Irish 32 Leicester Tigers 41: Two can play at that game

Back in November, when Leicester were marooned at the wrong end of table some 20 points adrift from leaders Harlequins, we spoke on this blog about how 10 more wins - a feasible target based on previous World Cup years in 2003 and 2007 - could get the club into the play-offs. As Leicester's players left the Madejski Stadium pitch on Sunday they could bask, not in the glorious Spring sunshine, but in the realisation that they have achieved 9 more of those wins - 11 in total - and have a home tie against the league's lowest scoring team to come...

(Source: The Guardian)

Leicester Tigers 26 Northampton Saints 14: If we have to enter it, we may as well win it

Winning trophies does matter, after all. All throughout the LV= Cup we've been convinced that in this case it doesn't and that, aside from an opportunity to give younger players game time, there's little other purpose to the competition. At best, it provides your fix of club rugby if you're tired of back-to-back internationals. What we didn't realise, of course, is that all that development stuff in the earlier rounds can lead you to an historic neutral-venue final for the first time against your local rivals and enough talking points to overshadow the Six Nations...

(Source: thisisjersey.com)

Bath Rugby 16 Leicester Tigers 17: Time to trust in youth

"We told you so!" screamed hordes of Tigers fans at Richard Cockerill after an experimental Leicester side pulled off a hugely impressive 17-16 win at Bath to reach the final of the LV= Cup. On another day, if Bath's attacking game had had a touch more accuracy, Cockerill's decision to put his trust in the likes of Calum Green, Ben Pienaar, Andy Forsyth and Alex Lewington would have seen him criticised for blowing the chance at a trophy. Having won, the criticism is that the Director of Rugby has been too slow to recognise how trustworthy some of these Development products are...

(Source: Leicester Tigers)

Update

Apologies for the lack of posts this week, especially after Leicester's thumping of Gloucester, which we would dearly loved to have covered in detail. Things have been a little busy for From The Crumbie Terrace but we shall return next week...

Leicester 42 Newcastle 15: Bad things come in threes for Toby Flood

For Toby Flood, bad things come in threes. After the unwarranted criticism he received at the end of the 20-19 win against Saracens last week, came a performance of huge promise by his young rival for the Leicester no.10 shirt, George Ford against Newcastle on Saturday. Then, with club fans questioning his place in the starting line-up, his rival for the England no.10 shirt, Owen Farrell,  played with a level of self-assurance and class in the 12-19 loss to Wales that has had rugby commentators up and down the country purring in delight...

(Source: Leicester Mercury)

Saracens 19 Leicester Tigers 20: Murphy being the hero doesn't make Flood the villain

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…

(Source: Daily Telegraph)

Exeter Chiefs 18 Leicester Tigers 11: A bad day at the office

There is often an awkward moment in film where an up-and-coming actor has the opportunity to work alongside one of their idols. Robert de Niro, who often finds himself on the receiving end of such moments, was recently told by rising co-star Bradley Cooper that, "[He] inspired me to be an actor... I think I have been in a state of daze around him ever since." Given that Exeter Chiefs have now achieved the double over Leicester this season, it feels patronising to suggest that Rob Baxter’s team are the Bradley Cooper to Leicester's Robert de Niro, especially as they now sit just one point behind the Tigers, but Saturday’s game had the feel of a household name being outshone by the new kid on the block…

(Source: leicestertigers.com)

The strategy both on and off the field at Sandy Park is heavily influenced by the success of Leicester over the years and the two clubs bear some strong comparisons: a philosophy of endeavour above flair; the team above the individual; focus on set-pieces; good infrastructure; modern facilities. This was embodied at Sandy Park on Saturday evening as the two sides mutually agreed game plans to build patterns of play through forwards in the loose before occasionally throwing the ball wide in hope, rather than expectation, of a mismatch. The possession figure was split perfectly down the middle and huge chunks of the game were played in between the 22s. In short, the two were so similar in approach it took a collapse from Leicester to decide the result.

For Leicester it felt as calamitous as the surrendering of a comfortable win against London Irish back in round 8. In that pivotal moment before half-time a combination of poor kicking from Geordan Murphy, extravagance from Anthony Allen in his own 22 and slow reactions from Sam Harrison allowed Exeter to gain the upper hand. In the second-half, Allen again knocked on, Toby Flood was charged down and the game-winning score was Exeter’s. The pressure from the opposition had to be there to take advantage of those mistakes, but you would be hard pushed to argue that they were not unforced.

It should be noted that, whilst the performance was, in the words of Richard Cockerill, “Unacceptable,” the losing margin was only 8 points and some Exeter fans are calling this the best performance they’ve seen at Sandy Park in recent years, eclipsing the remarkable victory of Perpignan a few weeks ago. They did nothing fancy because that’s not their game – they made no clean breaks, only offloaded twice all game and the outstanding Ignacio Meires kicked over 50% of his possession away – but they did not relent in pressuring Leicester in all aspects of the game. Be it scrums, lineouts or the breakdown, nothing was won easily. Theirs is a suffocating style that waits patiently for the opposition to make a mistake and then counters.

There are, of course, no Exeter players in the current England EPS and their team ethos means no one individual immediately stands out. But from within that group, a few players still stood slightly above the rest. The occasionally erratic Saxons squad member Tom Johnson made a big impact with 10 carries and his cross-hairs set firmly on Toby Flood all game. The big surprise was Brett Sturgess’ consistent dominance over Julian White. The part-time farmer’s value is almost exclusively in his world-class scrummaging nowadays but Sturgess showed him why he has been receiving rave reviews from Exeter fans all season. In Alex Corbisiero and Joe Marler, England are not exactly blessed in strong scrummagers on the loose-head side and if Sturgess continues this form he and Matt Mullan will surely be on Stuart Lancaster’s radar. On the other side of the scrum for Leicester, Marcos Ayerza kept getting turned inwards by Hoani Tui and with no Boris Stankovich on the bench there was not a realistic alternative for Richard Cockerill. Unfortunately for Leicester, a scrum under pressure exposed one of the few weaknesses in Thomas Waldrom’s game, his control of the ball from the base.

A few weeks ago Toby Flood didn’t realise he needed an England audition but this fixture turned out to be one for him and, alas, he didn’t pass it. In a tight game his kicking accuracy of 33% was worse than it’s been all season in the Aviva Premiership and the charge down for Baxter’s try just epitomised a bad day at the office. Most teams would struggle to win with a percentage that low and the worrying fact for Leicester is that it was the 6^th time this season their kicking has gone below 50% and the 3^rd time personally for Flood. The fly-half has, however, won Leicester far more games than he’s lost recently and is still very much in credit for the season. Having only changed their fly-half twice all season in the Premiership it was to be expected that George Ford was not called on as a replacement.

It was a familiar story in the backs. Despite the return of the enigmatic Manu Tuilagi, Leicester turned stagnant as the game wore on in the face of a spirited defence. The combination of stationary forwards in grey and quick line speed in black was not kind on Leicester. When they did get the ball wide they only served to move the ball laterally and there were no running lines that would have kept Exeter guessing. The fact that Leicester are top points scorers in the Premiership just doesn’t match up with the creativity in their back line. The unpredictability of Manu with the ball in hand became a painfully predictable go-to option.

Though this was potentially Exeter's best performance of the season there is still no reason why Leicester could not have won this game and that they didn't was in part down to their own mistakes.

Next up is another difficult away tie at the home of the champions. Though Saracens are much more affected by international call-ups this season, they were still able to field a formidable front-row last weekend to dominate Wasps of John Smit, Jamie George and Carlos Nieto, with Rhys Gill and Schalk Brits in reserve. If Julian White and Marcos Ayera are not able to raise their game then there will be little chance for Leicester with Alex Goode's precise kicking.

(Source: Daily Mail)

Leicester's best chance of a result will surely be to move the ball away from the hosts' imposing pack, which offers no less with the inclusion of squad players like the impressive Jackson Wray. Saracens' kicking game from hand is restricted with Nils Mordt playing at 10 and this may be an opportunity for George Ford to control the game, should he get the nod.

There was a telling moment in the Exeter game with around 10 minutes remaining. The ball was dead and both packs were waiting whilst a player received treatment. The Exeter pack stood huddled together, sharing instructions and talking the entire time; the Leicester pack stood apart, keeping their thoughts to themselves. Leicester don't have a good recent track record against Saracens and they are going to have to find some self-belief this week at Oval Park to come away from Vicarage Road with a result.

The Future of Rugby: Welcome to the John Lewis Leicester Arena!

The International Rugby Board could not have fully anticipated the ramifications of the decision they made on 26th August 1995 to make the game of rugby union 'open'. In making the game professional they set in motion a series of changes that are now starting to increase in velocity. With professionalism comes investment, with investment comes the need for a return and with the need for a return comes a yielding of the unmitigated commitment to the playing side of the game. Rugby is now about winning and making a profit; the two compete for supremacy and swing between being bedfellows and being totally incompatible. Welsh regional rugby has showcased this swinging pendulum with the Ospreys’ Galacticos period gradually replaced by a restrictive salary cap for the 2012/13 season for all Welsh regions. The emergence of the aggressive financial behaviour has, in the case of both the Aviva Premiership and football’s Barclays Premier League, taken around a decade. Now, clubs from both sports are making commercially-driven decisions that are harmonising and polarising the opinions of fans in equal measure: take Newcastle United’s renaming of their 120-year-old St. James Park stadium as the Sports Direct Arena or Saracens’ aborted relocation of their crucial Heineken Cup game against Biarritz, that fans had paid for in their season ticket packages, to Cape Town, South Africa as examples...

(Source: The Ball is Round)

Leicester Tigers 24 Newcastle Falcons 13: The dress rehearsal goes well, now for the real performance

As the Leicester players left the pitch at Welford Road on Saturday those not involved would have had mixed emotions. Several of the club’s younger players – Andy Forsyth, Alex Lewington and Dante Mama in particular - were impressive in the defeat of Harlequins last week, but Forsyth was the only Development team player to play any part in the 24-13 victory over Newcastle that secured Leicester’s passage into the semi-finals of what all in rugby are now labelling a ‘development competition’: the LV= Cup. The emotions would have been mixed, however, because that victory was in bitterly cold conditions that would have the most hardened Geordie shivering...

(Source: Leicester Mercury)

Harlequins 9 Leicester Tigers 19: How to turn a bad week good again

With the capitulation against Ulster neatly abutting the departure of several of the club’s key players, it has been difficult for Tigers fans to see the positives over the last couple of weeks. The Heineken Cup campaign has gone up in smoke and the club’s convention of remaining tight-lipped on incoming players means that the pain of the departures of Billy Twelvetrees, George Skivington, Alesana Tuilagi and Horacio Agulla has been felt before the pleasure of the new arrivals.

(Courtesy of Sky Sports)

He's not the Messiah... he's a very naughty boy

Billy Twelvetrees is 23-years-old, the age where youthful potential starts to develop into established ability. At 6’3” and weighing just under 16st, he is the embodiment of the modern-day back, with the power to play crash-ball in the midfield but also the guile to create a line break. His pass puts most scrum-halves to shame and is as accurate as a sniper rifle. Though naturally a centre, he can also credibly call himself a fly-half with a better percentage success rate from the tee this season than the England fly-half and a huge boot from hand.

On the field he is a quiet, unassuming character; off it, interviewers reinforce that as they speak of an articulate, humble young man. He also has natural advantages: a rascal’s forename that sits next to an enigmatic surname; rugged good looks, and; wavy blond hair…

Source: Matthew Lewis / Getty Images (courtesy of Zimbio) 

Leicester Tigers 33 Aironi 6: Nothing to report

As Leicester Tigers  Heineken Cup campaign ended with a whimper, the question on all rugby correspondents  lips was, how can English clubs possibly compete in a European competition full of such inequality?  The three most common arguments are: (a) the French spend so much more than everyone else; (b) the Irish don 't need to worry about qualifying for the Heineken Cup from the RaboDirect Pro12 and so can save themselves for these big occasions, or; (c) English clubs can only compete in a slug-fest and lack essential creative skills. Leicester, in a pool containing both a French team and an Irish team and with their fewest number of tries since 2007/08, could reasonably apply all three, but really shouldn't...

Source: Getty Images (courtesy of Daily Mail)

Ulster 41 Leicester Tigers 7: Castro sums it up perfectly

On a night when rational thoughts must have been hard to come by, Martin Castrogiovanni summed up the mood of Leicester fans perfectly in his own unique way: "I fucking hate lose." The disastrous World Cup period may now be from a different calendar year, but the 41-7 loss to Ulster has brought back all those painful memories...

(Source: Daily Mail)