WRW MONDAY: THE WHITE WALL THAT JUST WOULDN'T BREAK
Boy it hurt on Saturday, didn’t it?
There was a conversation I had getting into the car on Saturday night, which went along the lines of “Not THEM.” You know, the usual sort of comments about how unspeakably awful it is to lose the derby…
You could take the negative out of it. Leicester are still to win a game against any of the top 5 this season. Eight turnovers in the 22 - plenty in a first half which was one of the more disjointed we’ve seen from Leicester and that comes as a real surprise to write.
Yet, the opportunities kept coming, as post-match interviews made abundantly clear. That potentially bodes well for the future, no matter how sharp the pain of defeat, because the nature of these mistakes were so out of character from this team.
But I’d rather focus on themes than individual points and unusually, for a newsletter with a larger Tiger stripe than most, I’d like to focus on the opposition.
Yes, Harry Wells was unlucky to be given a yellow for the late tackle, which makes me wonder if Karl Dickson been tackled like that in his playing days at Welford Road. Harry Ellis certainly did that to other scrum-halves and to Jonny Wilkinson in his day. Argue that for all you like, but was JJ Tonks equally unlucky for his yellow?
One thing we have learned in sport over the last couple of weeks, is that sport is not a business. Mistakes are made. We are all human. There is uncertainty about the place which is why businessmen and women who make vast fortunes from other industries, can look complete mugs within the sports sector. Those behind the incompetently-considered European Super League are now hugely diminished figures for daring to add certainty where there is normally magnificent chaos.
Sometimes, you come up against a better side and as painful as it is to admit, that was Northampton on Saturday. Their defensive rigour should not come as a surprise though. When you take away the fifteen tries they scored in the two games prior to the derby, they had only scored 29 tries in 14 games. But defensively, they’d conceded 31 in that same period.
Now we need to be careful here. The lesson (as a fine coach told me the other day) is not to pluck stats out of the air to take a view. Base your view on what you see, then use the stats to back it up.
What Northampton have done in the three years since Chris Boyd arrived, is successfully marry an ability to play open rugby, but they can now defend for their lives when they need to.
It’s not just the main man either, it’s having underrated coaching such as Sam Vesty who we all know about and Phil Dowson, who as a coach, we don’t. Compare that performance to their horrible run of last season, where they conceded 53 tries in 16 games.
Much will be made of Dan Biggar not coming off at the end in a similar way to Sam Aspland-Robinson and let’s not beat about the bush, if that was my senior player, I’d have been proud of him. But I was just as impressed with the way the Saints midfield switched so confidently so that Hutchinson and Francis could operate at first receiver when required, with Furbank having played at 10 this season as well.
We should be wary of too many direct comparisons, but Tigers are not there yet, but they are getting there.
Bar one late try conceded last week and one fewer knock-on this week, Leicester would be in the top six. The tightness of the last fortnight suggests they’re close to that and a whole lot more besides.
WIESE AGAINST THE LIONS?
Do not be surprised if this man is playing against the British and Irish Lions this summer.
Reports suggest Wiese is one of three overseas players to be involved in South Africa’s “alignment camps” prior to the Lions series.
I am sure Aled Walters is still on Rassie Erasmus’s contact list…
CONGRATULATIONS ENGLAND
Not the greatest game sadly for the watching public on BBC2, but a decent audience nonetheless and I suspect we will see the women’s tournament stay in a separate scheduling to the men from now on.
The question is, what will the format be in future seasons? Stephen Jones - who isn’t all bad - suggests a Division One with England, France and Ireland and then Division Two with Wales, Scotland, Italy joined by Spain and the Netherlands. Not the worst idea given the cricket scores and who says the women’s format has to ape the men’s?
One question though remains unanswered.
If the women’s format can be more fluid, then why can’t the men? Does a round-robin format just sound old hat now, when more countries can be added to the Six Nations closed shop?
But rather than add one or two, why not borrow a format similar to this season’s Champions Cup and add six teams, to make 12? Four pools of three, QF, SF and Finals Days. No extra fixtures, more countries at the top table.
And if the old guard still want to play each other annually, there are always June and November windows to do that. Is it somewhere in World Rugby’s lawbook, that Wales have to play Australia EVERY November?
SPOILSPORTS AT WORK AGAIN
As you can see, Saracens are now in the box seat to reach the two-legged playoff final.
You can come back to the Premiership now, national scribblers. It’s over.
QUICK HITS
Anybody with a spare set of posts?
Email me at welfordroadweekly@substack.com if you can supply Pontcanna with a replacement set.
Keep your eye on the Government’s Covid-19 figures today and for the rest of this week.
These will be the first which have been affected by the easing of restrictions (eg pubs open in gardens). You would expect to see these figures form the early part of thinking on what to do around May 17th, which is the next scheduled easing and includes fans being allowed into grounds.
Let’s see what happens.
RUNNING FROM DEEP
Do take a look at this thread which explains why the recent European Super League clubs came up with the idea. It’s very long and goes through a lot of figures, but essentially, the moral of the tale is that you can’t just rely on growing revenue from the same sources…
Announced this morning, this looks a very promising idea to study the long-term effects of collisions long beyond the end of playing days:
Kay told Sportsmail: 'I'm hoping this is the start of the process of finding a solution. Knowledge and data are key, and this study which the Alzheimer's Society have fantastically supported, as that sort of thing isn't cheap, will allow us to build a bank of data.
'There's a selfish reason for doing this. The more information you know about yourself the better, but equally it's helping others.
'Hopefully this study will feed into finding a cure for the general population.
'I'd be very surprised, knowing rugby players, if there were many who wouldn't want to be part of this. I feel very fortunate that I have. You have a duty to find some answers.'
The study, PREVENT:RFC, funded by £250,000 from the Alzheimer's Society - will run alongside an informal one involving footballers, among them Alan Shearer.