Leicester v Montpellier

OldRio

Leicester
Steward; Porter, Moroni, Kelly, Nadolo; Ford, Wigglesworth; Genge, T Youngs (capt), Cole, Wells, Green, Liebenberg, Brink, Wiese.

Replacements: Clare, De Bruin, Heyes, Henderson, Reffell, B Youngs, Henry, Murimurivalu.

Montpellier
Bouthier; Vincent, Goosen, Serfontein, Rattez; Lozowski, Paillaugue; Forletta, Guirado (capt), Haouas, Verhaeghe, Willemse, Ouedraogo, Camara, Becognee.

Replacements: B du Plessis, Rodgers, Lamositele, Duguid, J du Plessis, Reinach, Pollard, N'gandebe.

I'm not sure if any ones watching but Kelly has represented Ireland at under 20s level.

irelandrover

Good start to this

Buer

OldRio wrote: »

I'm not sure if any ones watching but Kelly has represented Ireland at under 20s level.

And is likely to do so again this summer as he's still 19.

We won't do it as he plays in England but capping him this summer against Japan wouldn't be a terrible idea purely to prevent England from doing the same.

Leicester have started very well. Montpellier are a baffling team. They've an incredible squad but don't come close to delivering or being the sum of their parts.

The Montpellier pack should eat Leicester for breakfast in reality but it's the other way around in the opening 10 minutes.

OldRio

Game on....

Buer

Great finish. Whatever about the packs, the Montpellier back line is exceptional on paper. They're looking very lively and looking to put width on it whenever they get a moment of space.

This is before they look at their RWC winning outhalf and Springbok scrum half on the bench.

razorblunt

Rattez did unbelievably well there, the Leicester winger needed to fall on it.


I was so confused there for a few minutes thinking Kolisi had signed for Montpellier and I’d missed it entirely

Buer

That's an incredibly daft penalty from Wigglesworth. A bit of a collector's item, that penalty. Rarely see that happen.

OldRio

Kick, rinse, repeat.

razorblunt

That the Leicester winger gone, took 3 lads to lift him back to his feet

OldRio

Quality is sadly missing. Montpellier have no defensive maul. Both teams kick and kick.
To be honest it's not great fare.

Buer

Poor game after a bright opening. Benches are going to have a big say and, in that regard, Montpellier probably have the edge with Pollard, Reinach, BdP and Lamositele to come on.

razorblunt

The BT comms are unparalleled when it comes to whinging and moaning for things going against English teams.
Latest one is saving Vincent should be kept off and doesn’t need a HIA as he was out cold, they were suggesting Porter earlier needed a HIA even though he couldn’t walk off.

razorblunt

As blatant a tackle off the ball as you see, Frank can’t be bothered calling it.

razorblunt

Brilliant Montpellier try, from their own 22.

aloooof

That must be the highest number of consecutive phases I've seen where the ref had to call use it for each, at the end.

Buer

Neither team deserved to win, to be honest. With that said, Montpellier at least scored two lovely tries. Leicester brought nothing but kicking and a maul. I await the match stats with interest as I've never seen a team kick the ball more than Leicester did. Even in the final 10 minutes when they were behind, they never tried anything but kicking unless in the opposition 22.

Dave_The_Sheep

Leicester fans online not happy with Brace after that one.

Buer

aloooof wrote: »

That must be the highest number of consecutive phases I've seen where the ref had to call use it for each, at the end.

There were a couple of phases there where he could have easily given a penalty too. The latched on player was falling over the carrier to prevent a defender getting near the ball.

Buer

Dave_The_Sheep wrote: »

Leicester fans online not happy with Brace after that one.

I'm not a fan of Brace but I don't think either set of fans can complain too much. Nadolo clearly took out Paillaugue off the ball, for example. I thought one or two penalties he gave Leicester were soft and he totally missed an obvious knock on in open play before Frank Murphy advised him (from 40m away). He gave Montpellier two yellow cards also.

Leicester lost because they didn't have any plan B at all and when the Montpellier bench came on and stopped the Leicester maul, there was absolutely no inroads made by them.

Buer

Buer wrote: »

Neither team deserved to win, to be honest. With that said, Montpellier at least scored two lovely tries. Leicester brought nothing but kicking and a maul. I await the match stats with interest as I've never seen a team kick the ball more than Leicester did. Even in the final 10 minutes when they were behind, they never tried anything but kicking unless in the opposition 22.

106 kicks last night. I don't think I've ever seen over 100 in a game. For context, there were 43 in the Ireland vs England match this season.

molloyjh

Buer wrote: »

106 kicks last night. I don't think I've ever seen over 100 in a game. For context, there were 43 in the Ireland vs England match this season.

Well I'm glad I didn't watch that so.....106! Thats over 1.3 kicks per minute, which doesn't even account for ball out of play time. Fairly evenly split too at 54 and 52.

Buer

molloyjh wrote: »

Well I'm glad I didn't watch that so.....106! Fairly evenly split too at 54 and 52.

There was a passage of play around 70 minutes with one point in it and both sides kicked back and forth about 4 times each, killing a minute from the clock. It was bizarre and awful in equal measure. Leicester needed to keep the ball and score but never fired a shot.

Then Montpellier were allowed pick and go for the last 2 minutes without issue. They didn't make more than a couple of yards in 8 or 9 phases.

It was a terrible advertisement for the game overall punctuated by two excellent tries by Montpellier.