– I wonder what the record is for most players with the same first name in a Tigers matchday squad). 

Watching the warmup, we appear to have two Chuters … no, one is a Herring who has used Chuter’s barber.  Maybe it’ll make him more aerodynamic.  Also Jordan Crane, warming up with very un-No. 8 stuff like chipping over Kayser from 10 metres out and  picking it up to touch down.  Nice.  And so to the first “Smoke On The Water” of a new (pre-)season, Tigers attacking the A&L in the first half, the Force kick off and the take is good and solid.  Tigers build forward with some nice handling, lovely offloading from Crane, Flood linking well, a score looks on before long, and when it comes inside four minutes it’s a peach, Mauger running a lovely line onto Flood’s pass to go under the posts.  Flood’s first points at WR with the conversion. 

The pattern of dominance is set early, with Tigers owning the set pieces, and although it takes a frustrating while to make it count again, there’s a lot that’s of interest, some encouraging backs moves even though they come to nothing as the odd pass or offload goes astray, it looks as if Tigers are trying to play with pace, and they seem to be adopting a much flatter, more blitz-like alignment, and the first-up tackles are often double-wraps, snuffing out the Force’s attempts at attack, and plenty of turnover ball, with Herring doing great work and making a thorough nuisance of himself.  Ball is slow to come back, though, probably due to Force disruption and some fairly lenient reffing at the breakdown, although Harry doesn’t look perhaps as sharp as he might.   Ultimately a nice easy penalty is given away for Flood to make it two from two.  Credit to the Force youngsters, who are defending with spirit, but Tigers should have quite a bit more on the board by now.  Flood looks sharp, with a nice eye for a gap, but is he being just a bit greedy in going for the line when a couple of times a well-timed pass would have made sure of the score? 

Not to worry, the much-delayed second score has the Geezer Juniors more excited than anything so far – Tuilagi gets the ball with room to make a charge for the corner, BOSH! Smashes a hapless defender out of the way and powers on towards the line, is stopped agonisingly close but the support is there to recycle, work the play back towards the centre, where Hipkiss puts up the pass for Tuilagi to power over this time.  He deserved that.  Flood makes it three from three, 17-0, comfortable but Tigers should really be out of sight, things going awry like losing control of a 5-metre pushover.  Alex is down for a while and it looks worrying – knee? Hamstring? – but then he’s up and very keen to get back in the fray, batting off the physio who is holding him back by the shirt.

Then the Force show their mettle a bit and apply some pressure, winning a penalty well inside Tigers’ 22, spurning the posts and running it, but good solid Tigers tackling pushes them right back and eventually snuffs out the danger.  That’s pretty much all they get from this half, but Tigers have time for some more with Tom Youngs breaking the line in the Force 22, getting the ball to Hipkiss who gets it way to Varndell, who still has a bit of work to do in beating two tacklers before scoring in the corner.  Flood just drags the touchline conversion wide, 22-0 at the break. 

Second half sees fresh beef in the shape of Deacon and a new front row (warm applause for Dan Cole, who I thought did well), and it’s all fairly much Route 1 stuff for a while, despite the despairing calls from Varndell in the uninhabited spaces of the right wing, but the direct stuff works when Croft picks an opening in a line depleted by two men down for treatment.  Flood does the extras and goes off to allow Vesty a bit of game time, and Dupuy replaces Harry.  Blaze is down for a worryingly long time – blow to the head? – but eventually jogs off looking OK, and Kay comes on.  We seem to be getting faster ball now, although it doesn’t result in the lonely Varndell getting to see any more of it, because the recycling keeps it going centre and left, and tries come from a classic close-range scrum-half dart plus enough power to get past three tacklers from Dupuy, and a satisfying bit of raw power from Kayser.  Sam puts one conversion over, smacks the post with the other, 41-0. 

It would be nice to keep it to nil, but the Force have enough force left for a nice break by the winger (although I’d have to say a missed tackle there too), with James O’Connor, their 15 for the day and a bit of a prospect, running well in support, and with enough strength and balance to get by a desperate ankle-tap and score under the posts before adding his own extras.  There’s time for another Tigers score, Vesty going close to the line himself before threading a lovely grubber through the defence for Matt Smith to run on to, then converting to make it 48-7.  And that’s it despite a last-minute Tigers attack which sees what looks like a sure score go begging as the ball is dropped in the dive to the corner (I didn’t see who it was, so blushes spared unless someone else had a better view…)

Overall, then, another grand day out.  The ELVs seemed to make for a bit less kicking for lineouts, but to my eye the main effect was that not a single maul got a-rollin’ properly all match (boo, hiss).  The Force, with all due respect, weren’t the strongest opponents although they played with commitment, and Tigers look like a work in progress, with a lot still to do, but still a pretty tasty work to my one eye.  The players looked sharp, well conditioned, like they were genuinely playing for places in a way that was too often lacking last season.  New regime having the desired effect?  Let’s hope so.  Bring on the season! 

TG Man of Match – Herring.  TG Moment of Match – Geordan’s party trick with the long clearance by the Force, shepherding towards the dead ball line before dropping down with one foot in touch and grabbing the ball just before it stopped moving to send them back for a scrum back past halfway.  Clever as ever. 

Leicester Tigers: G Murphy, Varndell, Hipkiss, Mauger (c), Tuilagi, Flood, Ellis; Ayerza, Chuter, Cole, Blaze, Wentzel, Herring, Crane. Reps: Kayser, Bonorino, Woods, Kay, Dupuy, Vesty, T Youngs, Stankovich, B Deacon, Smith, Hurrell, J Murphy

Western Force: O’Connor, Haylett-Petty, Tatupu, Pelesasa, Sare, Daruda, O’Young;  Cowan, Holmes, Longbottom, B Murphy, O’Connor, Hodgson, Pocock (c), Manu. Reps: McIsaac, Whalley, Hardy, Murday, Turner, Berryman, Barrett. 

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon

Related Articles:

• Review of 2008/9 Tigers Squad
• What is wrong with Leicester Football Club?

SPORTNETWORK SPECIALS