1. Toothless Tigers
It was an inauspicious end to a disappointing season for Leicester fans. The 47-10 defeat was especially galling after they had enjoyed well over 60% of possession, a stat that proves how ineffective their attacking gameplan was. Over and over again they tried to smash over the gainline with one-out runners, more often than not being knocked backwards. They managed just one try, and it came at a time when Bath had two men in the sin bin. It was in complete contrast to the hosts, who simply soaked up all of the Tigers’ pressure, waited for an error to come, and pounced when their opportunity arrived. From eight visits to the Leicester twenty-two, they came away with seven tries – a lesson in how to be clinical. Saracens’ defence will be a lot less accommodating in the final, but if they can keep up that kind of strike rate they will become hugely difficult to beat.
2. An England midfield
As players and coaches where wheeled into the post-match press conference at the Rec, there was a recurring theme – namely, why does the midfield trio of Ford, Eastmond and Joseph not get a shot in the England jerseys? Two of them are first choice as it stands anyway, and Eastmond seems to have been discarded on the basis of being too small. But in the caps he has won to date, he more than held up defensively, and bringing the familiarity with which they play for Bath into England’s midfield makes a lot of sense. Lancaster speaks often of wanting a ball player and a ball carrier in the centre, which is a stumbling block as both Eastmond and Joseph fall into the former category. But Bath employ two big wingers to get them over the gainline, and use all of their back row options as midfield ball carriers (especially the ‘hybrid’ Sam Burgess) – so it is certainly a combination that Lancaster should be considering.
3. The wolf pack get it done
Sarries pulled out one of their most ruthless performances for when it mattered most. Like Bath, they finished comfortably in second place in the possession and territory stats (they enjoyed just 26% of the first half in Northampton’s territory) but through the dead-eye accuracy of Owen Farrell from the tee, allied with some sharp thinking and execution from Dave Strettle and Duncan Taylor, they strangled the life out of Northampton. The visitors made just one clean break, beat four defenders and didn’t offload once in the entirety of the game. They ran the ball 60 times for a cumulative total of 132 metres – sometimes these stats can be misleading, but those numbers taken together do show how one-dimensional a game Saracens played, and yet at the crucial junctures of the match they were more accurate than Northampton and that was what mattered. Bath will not be working too hard this week on working out what will be coming at them in the final – but whether they will have the ability to stop it is a different matter.
4. The fire that Burns within
It has been a strange old season for Freddie Burns. He was once one of the greatest mavericks around, but he seems to have lost that spark that made him often brilliant, but sometimes infuriating. He has spoken of how he has adapted his game since moving to the Tigers in order to align himself better with the style of rugby they play, but one wonders if it has actually made him into a better player, or the reverse. Without that spark of brilliance, the other areas of his game – namely management and kicking – come under greater scrutiny, and he is amongst the finest in the league in neither of those areas. His game against Bath was almost his season in a microcosm – there were plenty of occasions where he received the ball and set off, where in the past he may have tried the outrageous chip and chase or double miss pass, but where instead he caught himself and simply popped it off to the man outside him. Keen Leicester fans will remember Burns once scoring with a chip over their defensive line that he gathered on the full, one-handed, before scampering over for a try. Perhaps a bit of that impishness needs to return, because right now the ex-maverick looks a shadow of his former self.
5. Last round of auditions
Stuart Lancaster will have a ready-made selection game at Twickenham this weekend, as several contenders for World Cup jerseys from Saracens and Bath do battle. The most obvious comes at fly-half, where the devilish brilliance of George Ford faces off against the ruthless pragmatism of Owen Farrell. It is a contrast of styles that could have ramifications for the way England approach the World Cup – Ford is much easier on the eye, but a Premiership final at Twickenham is probably as close to the World Cup as you can get in the club game, in terms of the pressure and scrutiny that will be on. It is the sort of environment in which Farrell, so steely a competitor, thrives, and Ford must make sure that his composure does not go missing in his club’s biggest game for some time. And there are plenty more personal England battles that sum up the general theme of Bath’s adventure against Saracens’ defence: Eastmond/Joseph vs Barrett, Rokodoguni/Watson vs Strettle/Ashton/Goode, Attwood vs Kruis. It will be a fascinating day for Lancaster.
By Jamie Hosie
Follow Jamie on Twitter: @jhosie43
Photo by: Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images
As you know by now, we are hilarious, and you should be following us on Facebook and Twitter. 
I wouldn’t say Joseph falls under the category of a ball player. You pick him because of what he can do himself, not his distribution or bringing others into the game, he’s just not your “hard yards” player.
I’d love to see the Bath 3 get a game, but unfortunately we don’t have enough tough carriers in the pack, so I think Lancaster would be reluctant to lose his carrier from the centres. However, when you consider that Barritt and Burrell are really the two main options as our “carriers”, and neither of them are on the same level as players like Tuilagi, Roberts or Nonu. There’s an argument for Barritt to shore up the defence, but in terms of a carrying game I don’t think you get much from Barritt or Burrell. I’d like to see Eastmond given a go in the warm-ups to see if the three of them can’t do the job together.
It may be worth playing Tom Youngs over Hartley, Mako over Marler and trying to get Billy Vunipola and Morgan into the same back row to help bolster our carrying options, but then we have to ensure we don’t lose out on our set-piece or breakdown work.
Balance will be the key, but a midfield 3 of Ford, Eastmond and Joseph must at least be in Lancaster’s consideration, even if he decides against it.
Personally I wouldn’t want to see the Bath midfield play together. Whilst none of them are poor defensively, I would expect we would see opposition the midfield regularly break the gain line, even if they are tackled. If Roberts gets over the gainline regularly when we play Wales then I expect us to lose – that is how key that area is.
I’d also like to see if play certain players depending on who we are playing. Against Wales; I’d play Burrell. He has done a good job of containing Roberts in the past two Wales fixtures, and I’d like to see us stretch Wales; Burrell has a much better passing game than Barritt.
Against Australia I pick Barritt all day long. Have him leading that defence and stopping them getting the ball wide. In attached against the Aussies I’m more than happy to see us play 10 man rugby, squeeze them out. I’d possibly even pick Farrell over Ford for that fixture.
England have the benefit of having that mix of players (particularly at 10/12), and we should use that to our advantage; allowing us to change strategy as and when we need to dependent on the opposition and what we need to achieve.
I’d play the Bath midfield in the other group games when points difference may well become relevant if Wales/Aus/Eng all end up beating each other.
I think you are spot on. We need to stop thinking about picking a “best 15″ and using it against all teams and take a lesson from the football world where you tailor the team for the opponent.
Jamie, a question for you. Do you think that because Ford and Farrell are so different that they could in fact be the best option for England as a 10/12 partnership?
Farrell was the playmaker and kicker on the day of the final when Sarries won the Premiership, and was just 19 at the time. He held his composure to put over some pretty tricky kicks that day, and put in some great defence in the closing stages.
His friendship and past partnership with Ford at England age groups could be exactly what Lancaster is looking for. One playmaker with the ability to change the game in the blink of an eye, and another outside him with the ability to do what Barritt does, but also play the ball and kick accurately both from hand and off the tee.
Farrell has also started running the ball himself a little more since returning from injury. Possibly with the view to reclaiming his shirt?
I thinks Burns has gone past the lost confidence fragile state. Now i think Burns been ask to play a certain style, but he really does not look that special as he once did. Playing at Tigers has changed Burns but sometimes would wonder playing in a team that does not suffer Tigers problems would he become special again,
if you were to look at Ben Youngs, he does have some moments for Tiger but compared to what he did during 6 nations, it looks like Ben Youngs has put a limit on himself for Tigers.
I think part of the problem at Leicester is that they had so many people injured early in the season, that Cockers had to revert to his preferred style of rugby. This meant the backs were not trusted with the ball for a lot of the season, as they used their pack to strangle teams to win games, and the backs have lost all confidence in their ball playing ability. Backs don’t like playing one up, stick it up your jumper rugby, but it got them into the top four. Without a decent attack coach Cockers did what he thought was best for the team, and it almost paid off.
I think they will be a very different team next season when Aaron Mauger gets there. Youngs and Burns will be itching to get running with the ball and getting the backs moving again.
Point 2 – I’ve been banging on about getting the Bath 10-12-13 into the England team en-masse for over a year now. The way Bath have been playing recently, I’d extend that to say take the whole back line, as unfashionable, even heretical as it may be to say this, but yes, including Banahahanan.
Rokodoguni did nothing wrong in his one cap for England, plus he kept Savea quiet all afternoon.
Banahanahan gets you over the gain line and is bloody difficult to bring down. Hat-trick the other day shows how he’s getting in the right places to finish things off and speak of his understanding with the other Bath backs.
Joseph – first name on the England team sheet for me. His ability to get past the first man (or men) and put a team-mate into space is absolutely invaluable.
Watson – reliable player on the wing, an excellent full-back. If Browny needs more time out for concussion, wouldn’t hesitate to play Watson there. If Brown plays, I’d keep Watson in for the wing, with Banahanahan dropping out.
Eastmond – is bloody brilliant. I’m bored with people claiming – assuming – that he’s poor in defence. Just because he’s small. I have hardly ever seen him found wanting in defence. In spite of his small stature, he seems to be able to put serious grunt into his tackles. In attack, so what if he doesn’t smash through defenders! He doesn’t need to, he goes around them, which is much better. Pace frightens defences. I speak as someone who usually plays centre, (albeit not particularly well): give me a choice between defending some big unit who trucks it up the middle and some elusive little bar steward who dances around you leaving you grasping at thin air, I’d take the big bugger every time.
With the caveat that we’ll have to wait and see what happens in the final, I think the case for playing Bath 10-12-13 at least is abundantly clear in the evidence of the last 10-12 months. Bringing this level of understanding and familiarity into the international team will be hugely beneficial.
Banahan clearly isn’t that difficult to bring down. In the clip below, you can watch him bought down in the course of what should have been a certain try by a player a foot shorter and 5 stone (!) lighter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWdn8Adt7P8
Embarrassing.
His size and reasonable speed make him an excellent club level player. I donlt think he has the nous or pace to play effectively at international level
Agree with you about Eastmond’s defence but he seems to me to blow a bit hot or cold.Would personally love to see Slade play 12. He has the defense, the distribution skills, the kicking game and the running game – what’s not to like?
Agree re Slade, but I think the Banahan assessment is a bit harsh (assuming that the clip above is him getting held up by ickle Shane). He has developed a lot in the last 4 years, helped I think by playing at centre for a period. Is he limited. Yes, but then so are Ashton, Strettle and Yarde. In fact Strettle, for all his chances can only dream of the try scoring record of Banahan!
A one-off exception to prove the rule, four years ago, had to check his run to collect the loopy pass when he was indicating for a kick-through, etc etc, Ickle Shane’s freakish ability, bizarrely it was actually a high tackle, would have been a penalty if not for the david-v-goliath nature of the scene, plus plenty of other mitigating factors.
I’ll admit I was getting a bit carried away in calling for Banahan, but actually why not!
Slade seems to be a popular choice with the fans, so too Daly. I haven’t seen as much of them to judge, but I think Eastmond’s familiarity with Ford and Joseph must raise him up the pecking order…
The ever entertaining Blood & Mud made this observation:
“Brad Barritt – Made three metres and missed nearly a third of the tackles he attempted. The first part of that sentence sums up his attacking threat, the second debunks the neverending parade of nonsense spoken about his putative imperious defence.”
That’s the problem with a one trick pony, if the one trick doesn’t work, he really is more of a donkey. Slade, Eastmond, even Farrell or Burgess at least offer more than one attribute, in Slade’s case I’d say he the most complete package, and hope he gets a chance to show it (or not) in time for the world cup. I hope Eastmond makes the squad. Him or Daly from the bench, really could make a point of difference.
I agree re Banahan, would have liked to see him in the 50 as he offers a different option – big carrying wingers would allow a ball player at 12 i.e. Eastmond
I don’t know if it would work but surprised the SL hasn’t given the Bath midfield a chance together by now