Tigers Vs Glaws - Sunday

[FKAS]

STARTING XV

15 Freddie Steward [92]
14 Josh Bassett [16]
13 Izaia Perese [3]
12 Joseph Woodward [11]
11 Ollie Hassell-Collins [26]
10 Handré Pollard [34]
9 Jack van Poortvliet [77]
1 Nicky Smith [4]
2 Julián Montoya [60]
3 Joe Heyes [144]
4 Harry Wells [203]
5 Ollie Chessum [59]
6 Hanro Liebenberg [111]
7 Tommy Reffell [118]
8 Olly Cracknell [46]

REPLACEMENTS

16 Charlie Clare [98] *
17 James Cronin [37]
18 Dan Cole [326]
19 Tom Manz [6] **
20 Emeka Ilione [23]
21 Ben Youngs [317]
22 Jamie Shillcock [29]
23 Dan Kelly [84]

* Denotes 100th Leicester Tigers appearance
** Denotes Gallagher Premiership debut

Gloucester Rugby squad | Leicester Tigers (A)
15 Santi Carreras
14 Josh Hathaway
13 Max Llewellyn
12 Seb Atkinson
11 Ioan Jones
10 Charlie Atkinson
9 Tomos Williams
1 Ciaran Knight
2 Jack Singleton
3 Kirill Gotovtsev
4 Arthur Clark
5 Freddie Thomas
6 Jack Clement
7 Lewis Ludlow (C)
8 Zach Mercer

16 Seb Blake
17 Val Rapava-Ruskin
18 Afolabi Fasogbon
19 Matias Alemanno
20 Albert Tuiuse
21 Harry Taylor
22 Caolan Englefield
23 Louis Hillman-Cooper

[FKAS]

Notable team news being that Martin has failed his late fitness test and so his academy second row teammate comes onto the bench. Tom Manz is a big unit that's been beset by injury and has been on loan at Notts

Perese is back from his concussion Vs Falcons, interesting that he replaces Kelly and Woodward retains the 12 shirt for the third game in a row. Bassett comes in for Watson who left the field late on Vs Saints and has apparently got some sort of knock.

No Anscombe for Glaws so Charlie Atkinson gets to play against his old teammates. Glaws rotating their props and loading up their bench with a 6-2 split. Perhaps fancy going after Tigers in the second half.

[Puja]

Be good to see Manz getting a go - I've heard he's been tearing up trees while on loan. Great that Woodward's kept his place as well - I am liking Cheika's approach to promoting from the academy so far.

Puja

[FKAS]

Be good to see Manz getting a go - I've heard he's been tearing up trees while on loan. Great that Woodward's kept his place as well - I am liking Cheika's approach to promoting from the academy so far.

Puja

Another performance from Cronin like we had last week and some more promotion for the academy boys could be on the way.

The academy is churning out some good players, whilst that's happening it only makes sense to bring them on. Got to help focus our recruitment and hopefully aid retention.

[Mikey Brown]

The clash of the titans at 12. What an event.

[fivepointer]

The clash of the titans at 12. What an event.

They're not titans - yet. Certainly their head to head is one I shall watch with interest.

[francoisfou]

I’ll be on the terrace for this one and am looking forward to seeing the new Tigers’ centres and prop Nicky Smith, and also hoping for a near capacity crowd and some banter with opposition supporters!

[twitchy]

Why would you not have glos wearing the red shirt?

[Epaminondas Pules]

Both 12s have started very well!

[FKAS]

Jeez Tigers have been shite so far. Defensively aggressive but a couple of poor reads ruthlessly punished. Seem to be playing into the wind which doesn't help but the attacking play is lacking any imagination.

Glaws have set up cleverly, Carreras from fullback is kicking majestically and in defence they've been patient, kept numbers on their feet and just waited for Tigers to make errors.

[FKAS]

Finally a bit of Tigers momentum from Nicky Smith's carry and then a lovely long miss pass from Kelly gives OHC a bit of space. Runs over Hathaway and then drives through the double tackle to score. Looks like it's the halfbacks he carries over the line. Great bit of skill from OHC.

[Epaminondas Pules]

Tigers making some really poor decisions and not really troubling the Glaws defence. Glaws on the other hand full of invention and consistently taking the ball to the line.

Add in some very ordinary one on one tackling and that’s the first half from Tigers.

[Mikey Brown]

Both 12s have started very well!

Clash of the titans, you might even say.

[Epaminondas Pules]

Both 12s have started very well!

Clash of the titans, you might even say.

Just good to see two young English 12s playing well. Woodward looks absolutely at home and Atkinson is at the heart of everything Glaws do. He’s the second highest for touches of the ball for Glaws this season behind Tomos Williams, who is a scrum half to be fair!

[FKAS]

It seems all of Tigers imaginative plays come off of tap penalties close to the line. Second week in a row we've worked a nice little more for a try.

[twitchy]

Settle down brentford.

[twitchy]

Glos need sunglasses this half.

[FKAS]

Wind had a huge factor in each half. Exciting game, which isn't normally what you say with Tigers, both sides bringing some attacking invention in the second half (to be fair Glaws did in the first half as well). Tigers nearly threw it away at the end but thankfully Glaws couldn't grab a final score. Cronin might be worried about his spot in the side after another sub par performance.

[francoisfou]

That was a bit too close for comfort after an inept first half from Tigers. Impressed with Charlie Atkinson, maybe Tigers shouldn’t have let him go.

Whatever, it was an enjoyable game and Glos must be wondering how they let that game slip away.

[FKAS]

That was a bit too close for comfort after an inept first half from Tigers. Impressed with Charlie Atkinson, maybe Tigers shouldn’t have let him go.

Whatever, it was an enjoyable game and Glos must be wondering how they let that game slip away.

I was more impressed by Seb Atkinson and Santo Carreras. Carreras kicked fantastically and Seb Atkinson organised the backline and created space for Charlie to play. The backline had a nice balance, a bit more potency on the wings and it could b special.

Glaws definitely struggled after half time but as I said before the wind was a factor. Carreras pulled off some brilliant kicks in the first half whilst Tigers struggled. A reversal in the second half with the Tigers pack in ascendancy only had one result. Glaws stacked bench certainly helped being it close but they'll be kicking themselves they didn't grab a final score at the end to sneak a other late win against the Tigers.

[fivepointer]

Thought both Atkinson's went well. Pretty clear that Seb is the attacking fulcrum for Glos, a role that he excels in. His defence is reliable and he offers just enough physicality. He must be on the England radar.
Kelly had a good game too and Wand has got something about him. Good day for the young centres.

[Puja]

One thing which I really noticed yesterday was the quality of Steward's play ball-in-hand. The last couple of years, he's been something of a blunt instrument - a strike runner capable of running good lines and running hard through and round people, but not the first player you'd want in a 2-on-1, or taking the ball first receiver. This season it looks like he's spent a lot of time in training working on his ball-in-hand skills trying to find the things that will let him be a Furbank replacement in England's system, and he's looking a lot better. He's still no Furbank (I'd hesitate to put him at 10), but his passing was crisp and accurate and in front of the man, and there were several occasions where he popped up in the 13 channel and made the pass that put someone away, whereas before he was sitting in the wing channel for someone else to pass to him.

Really good work from a (lest we forget) very young player and an example of how important competition is to improvement - he would've coasted on being a good strike runner and excellent in the air if he hadn't lost his place to Furbank.

Puja

[p/d]

Like you say Puja, has the makings of an excellent 12.