Rugby - Tours Tours Everywhere!

[Havak]

Did I see praise for the (sporadic) skills of a Tigers fly half?

I must need my morning coffee - I'm clearly not properly awake yet.

[finbar]

Balanced, of course, by castigation of his one-dimensional back-up.

[Havak]

Of course.

[finbar]

I hope you cringed when you saw that his decision making began and ended with how hard he might kick the ball.

[Havak]

I cringed when I saw him warming up.

[Havak]

Treviso for us tomorrow Finbar - maybe you will catch it on Sky Italia?

[finbar]

Yes, indeed, and I'm watching it. Half time. If Marcato could kick, the scores would more reflect the game. The fundamental difference is that Leicester's professionalism counts when they get into try-scoring positions. For all Leicester's dominance of the scrums, the Treviso forwards are holding their own in the loose. Toby Flood, despite his tries, doesn't look fit. Brendan Williams is finding plenty of holes in the Leicester defence. I imagine more of the same in the second half - Leicester professionalism when it counts overcoming enthusiasm.

[finbar]

I wasn't that far wrong. The Treviso try finally made Leicester pull their collective fingers out. Big game from Jordan Crane against not much of a direct opponent. Nice to see Aaron Mauger remembering what he does best. The Treviso skipper, I think a Bok, is a useful player but also an idiot. He was carded last week too. Pity the final score didn't really reflect Treviso's effort and the game overall. They too often did Leicester for sheer speed - and punctured the midfield defence - which should worry the Afrikaans coach.

[finbar]

Caught the second half of Glasgow and Toulouse the other night. Toulouse played ten minutes of rugby and it was good enough. Sooner or later they're going to have to put a game together.

Today was the first I've seen of Sale this season. They've improved from last season. Not good enough to beat the Champions though.

Not sure why they're calling Glos and Cardiff the match of the tournament thus far. All those tries, I suppose. Largely crap defence, I thought. Cardiff were more convincing on the day, relatively speaking. I wonder if Glos knew they were buying a human turnstile when they bought Ollie. His defence was was absolutely abysmal today. Embarrassing.

[LDiCesare]

Toulouse tends to have quite average games early in the season. I think their coaches are very smart and they usually manage to play better and better as the season moves forward.

I saw Montauban vs. Montferrand. French vs. French H Cup match. It would have been a joy to watch, but the d*** *** hitting his drums was too much for me.

[finbar]

From the look on the Toulouse coach's face on Friday night, starting the tournament slowly didn't seem to be a strategy. Still, there were more than a few glimpses of how good Yannick Jauzion can be. He's one of my favorite players.

The French drumming? I wish you would do something about it. It drives me insane.

[LDiCesare]

Toulouse coach looks happy half a second a year if they win the championship.
I'm not saying it's a strategy, I just think he prepares them for the end season and they manage to reach that stage on quality before that. It's been quite consistent for a few years. Toulouse always become very good in the latest stages of the season. Before, they are only good.

[Andydog]

I caught the Wasps Leinster game. Good performance by Leinster, Wasps absolute rubbish, more so in the 2nd half. They seemed to chuck the towel in after Fitzgerald's try. Are Wasps short of money? That was their full strength side out there on Saturday and it included the useless Jeremy Staunton at full-back, who was hounded mercilessly for all the 63 minutes he played. Wasps don't seem to attract many fans, despite their success in recent years.

BoD's injury is a bit of a worry. Only 4 more weeks until the paddies face the ABs, and I'd hate to miss this year's vicious spear tackle.

[finbar]

He can always pop across the channel and ask one of the Toulon coaching staff to oblige.

[Havak]

It is such a shame to see Wasps struggling.

I only caught the Tigers game on Radio Finbar but it sounded like they did what a Professional side should against semi-pro opposition. That is to say cut loose in the last quarter when the Italian players were blowing like cart horses.

I certainly can't disagree with your reading of the game - I wonder if Mr Meyer will be so carefully analysing a nine try to one victory though?