Leicester V Leinster EPCR q/f 2022

[Ruckedtobits]

From the first guesstimate of how the round of 16 might be composed, it looked like our reward for success would be a visit to Welford Road. In the history of the Heineken Cup, this is a true crucible of rugby passion where visiting-victory has never been easily acquired. A pitch almost without dead-ball areas. A noisy, single-tier stand stacked and almost over-hanging the pitch. A knowledgeable and suitably biased crowd, who understand just what influence can be exerted on a referee.

Tigers have once again acquired a serious reputation as a hard-to-beat rugby team. Under Coach Steve Borthwich, they have been re-structured in a manner that demonstrates clearly that he had a very clear idea of what sort of team he wanted and where to get the players to make that team. Some are from within and those he has recruited are not yet superstars, but many of them are well on the way to that status.

As leaders in the PRL, they face fixtures against Harlequins & Bristol over the next two weekends whilst Leinster are facing the Stormers & Sharks in South Africa. It is highly unlikely that Tigers will face Quins (currently 3rd in the PRL) with less than a very strong Squad next weekend, although they could rest some front-liners in the game against Bristol, the weekend before they face Leinster in Welford Road.

Undoubtedly, Leinster will face a very strong team in Leicester. Well coached and disciplined, their forward pack mirrors their Head Coach - well drilled, very fit, excellent in basics and skilled in playing on the edge. Because of the latter, the selection of the referee will be crucial to the outcome. In all likelihood, looking at the current EPCR Referee Panel, the choice will be from one of the three or four French whistler's. Whoever is selected will carefully review previous footage of both teams and it will be an education.

The big confrontations will take place in Scrum, Maul and Breakdown. More subtle places of contrast will be in the center of the field where both teams use very different lines of support runners to disguise / navigate their ball-carriers through defensive traffic. A final point of difference will be the manner in which the two teams "shield" their ball catchers from high kicks and facilitate counter-attacks in these circumstances.

Wearing only Blue-shaded glasses, the Tigers attacking maul technique, particularly on middle & back throws, looks totally illegal with the lifters folding in front of the catcher and creating a really strong bridgehead for a hard-driving maul. Equally, the scrum technique of LHP and captain, Genge is highly suspect as he appears to drive across every THP he faces, whenever the referee is on the opposite side. The Leicester THP, Heyes, is a large specimen, who is usually replaced on 55/60 minutes by English veteran Dan Cole, another well versed in the illegal angles.

Leinster players have better passing skills and can play comfortably at higher tempo than Tigers. It was noticeable than Clermont played the second-leg at a much higher tempo than the first and got considerable reward for doing so. Expect Leinster to do likewise.

Leicester will want a more structured game than we do. They have a number of big, archetypal English players in their backline, notably Stewart, Potter and Ashton. But Ford is the brain and conductor and we will underestimate him or Ben Youngs at our peril.

Leinster can win but to do so, we will have to play at our highest level and for 80 minutes. This game will not be won with a brilliant half or a three-try spurt. This will be full metal jacket and even the winners will carry scars.

[wixfjord]

Looked like Dan Kelly did his hammy yesterday, so he's probably a doubt.

If (and it's a big if) we can get parity in the forwards then I think we've far more attacking threats.

Will need Ryan & Molony in second row with Baird back benching I think.

I would be looking at starting Ruddock too to counteract some of their maul and power threat.

[Twist]

Picking a squad for SA is a very difficult balancing act. We might be looking at two very different 23s for the games down there

[the spoofer]

You will all be pleased to know that Austin Healey has predicted a Leicester win!

[alanair]

You will all be pleased to know that Austin Healey has predicted a Leicester win!

Shocker !!! … former Leicester stalwart predicts win for his old team…

[CrookedIn]

You will all be pleased to know that Austin Healey has predicted a Leicester win!

Shocker !!! … former Leicester stalwart predicts win for his old team…

Stalwart, is that what they’re called these days?

[bronxbull]

Always a lottery booking this early but is early Saturday afternoon the likely kickoff time?

Leicester City at home Sunday,hardly have both teams playing in the city at the same time.
La Rochelle v Montpellier all French derby surely on Sunday.
Munster v Toulouse in the Aviva is probably the late Saturday evening kick off.

Friday night is the other option which would not be great.
Hopefully that Friday night fixture is Racing v Sale.

Have no idea when it is, only hoping at this stage.

[cormac]

Always a lottery booking this early but is early Saturday afternoon the likely kickoff time?

Leicester City at home Sunday,hardly have both teams playing in the city at the same time.
La Rochelle v Montpellier all French derby surely on Sunday.
Munster v Toulouse in the Aviva is probably the late Saturday evening kick off.

Friday night is the other option which would not be great.
Hopefully that Friday night fixture is Racing v Sale.

Have no idea when it is, only hoping at this stage.

Friday night quarter-finals are incredibly rare these days in the Champions Cup. The last one was in 2018 when Scarlets beat La Rochelle on Good Friday. Before that you'd have to go back to 2010 when we beat Clermont at the RDS. An English team hasn't played in a Friday night champions cup qf since 2005.

I've booked my flights based on it being a Saturday qf.

[suisse]

Cracking fixture this. Would be great if it were home and away. I like the home and away European ties, mainly because the rugby calendar is packed full of utterly useless games that, in URC anyway, involve ridiculous traveling to play in front of a few thousand. This is a proper rugby fixture. More games like this and less of Zebre or Dragons

[MylesNaGapoleen]

from leicester rugby: Any remaining unsold tickets will be released to general sales to all other supporters from 9.00am on Thursday (April 21).

https://www.leicestertigers.com/news/hi ... -hcc6-2122

[IanD]

Cracking fixture this. Would be great if it were home and away. I like the home and away European ties, mainly because the rugby calendar is packed full of utterly useless games that, in URC anyway, involve ridiculous traveling to play in front of a few thousand. This is a proper rugby fixture. More games like this and less of Zebre or Dragons

Careful now. You are beginning to sound like a Welsh Fan.

[Hippo]

They're sounding pretty confident over on the Tigers forum. We'll see.

[Theleinsterlad]

They're sounding pretty confident over on the Tigers forum. We'll see.

Yes tigerburnie who has been posting on this site has been reporting back that we are very nervous, I don’t know where he got that but the general response on both sites is that this is a super fixture and one both sets of fans can really look forward to. Should be a belter and a true European champions cup event. Can’t wait

[bronxbull]

I would imagine that Leicester will see our scrum as a weakness going back to the game at Twickenham.
How the officials judge the scrum may well have a huge effect on the outcome of this game.
Porter and Kelleher were missing from our first choice front row in March and hopefully both will be available for Welford Road.
No disrespect to Healy or Sheehan but one is near the end of his career and the other is a novice at this level of scrummaging.
Kelleher would be rated a powerful scrummager and he may have been able to counteract some of the tactics used in Twickenham.

[tigerburnie]

They're sounding pretty confident over on the Tigers forum. We'll see.

Yes tigerburnie who has been posting on this site has been reporting back that we are very nervous, I don’t know where he got that but the general response on both sites is that this is a super fixture and one both sets of fans can really look forward to. Should be a belter and a true European champions cup event. Can’t wait

Boosting the doubters confidence, though someone on here did say they were apprehensive about going to Welford Road lol. This is, as I said somewhere, the kind of fixture the players and fans will be gagging for. Tigers unbeaten at home, Leinster in fine form, who knows who takes the field the most confident. I will make a prediction when I see the team sheet, but given no more injuries I feel we are good enough to win at home against anyone.

[Theleinsterlad]

They're sounding pretty confident over on the Tigers forum. We'll see.

Yes tigerburnie who has been posting on this site has been reporting back that we are very nervous, I don’t know where he got that but the general response on both sites is that this is a super fixture and one both sets of fans can really look forward to. Should be a belter and a true European champions cup event. Can’t wait

Boosting the doubters confidence, though someone on here did say they were apprehensive about going to Welford Road lol. This is, as I said somewhere, the kind of fixture the players and fans will be gagging for. Tigers unbeaten at home, Leinster in fine form, who knows who takes the field the most confident. I will make a prediction when I see the team sheet, but given no more injuries I feel we are good enough to win at home against anyone.

In fairness anyone not going to Welford road with some butterflies with how a game like this could turn out is fooling themselves, but after missing out on going to Exeter in what was a similar billing, this fixture makes up for it and then some! Let’s hope the game lives up to the early hype

[Laighin Break]

Shocking effort from this Leicester fan:
https://twitter.com/jimhamilton4/status ... 0215599109

[fourthirtythree]

Not representative of the Tigers fans I have met over the years. Lets the side down there.

[wixfjord]

A group of older Tigers fans bought myself and a mate (in college at the time) a bottle of champagne in an Embra bar after the 09 final because we beat them in a pint chugging comp.

Great group of fans.

(Also hard to believe that's 13 years ago!)

[blockhead]

A group of older Tigers fans bought myself and a mate (in college at the time) a bottle of champagne in an Embra bar after the 09 final because we beat them in a pint chugging comp.

Great group of fans.

(Also hard to believe that's 13 years ago!)

You sir are an Ambassador for your people.