Preview: GP semifinal - Glouc v Tigers
Sat, 17 May 2008 00:43
Gloucester have been the form team in England's Guinness Premiership this season. However, as they themselves have found out in the past, anything can happen when it comes to the play-offs in this tournament.
The 'Cherry and Whites' have made the play-offs three times in the past six seasons, but they have nothing to show for their efforts - most notably last season's final at Twickenham when they were on the wrong end of a 44-16 scoreline, beaten, no less, by the very side they will be entertaining at Kingsholm this Sunday.
This, however, is a vastly different scenario to last year.
Whilst Gloucester once again top the log - as they did last year - Leicester squeezed into the semifinals this season thanks to a last-gasp win over Harlequins and thanks to Sale Sharks losing at home to London Irish.
One gets the impression, however, that Gloucester are treating this match as their final - head coach Dean Ryan knowing full well that this stage of the season is more about a team's mental application than a swanky new backline move or working on new line-out drills at training.
"You can search for formulas, but they are just not there," admitted Ryan to the media this week. "It's about working hard during the week - it's about getting things right that you want to do and then applying them in the game, it's as simple as that."
And looking specifically to his team's opponents come Sunday, the 'Cherry and Whites' boss revealed: "On the day, when you look at their playing list and their experience at this level, they are very capable of winning a game like this one and going on and winning the whole thing
"I see the threat. We are fully aware of what they are capable of bringing to this game.
"We were well beaten last year, but I would like to think a year on we've matured and we are better for it."
While Gloucester have matured since last season, this is not the same Leicester side of old.
The loss of star openside Shane Jennings might just affected the side more than Ireland's selectors would care to admit, but the change in their coaching staff - in a World Cup year to boot - has seemingly rocked the boat at Welford Road more than the powers that be would have hoped.
Argentinian Marcelo Loffreda has taken time to settle in as Pat Howard's replacement. In fact, he very nearly found himself on the way out before Tom Varndell's miracle score helped beat Harlequins 31-28 last Saturday - handing Tigers a place in Europe, before Sale Sharks' capitulation at home to London Irish also handed the reigning Premiership champions an unlikely shot at defending their title.
Still, Loffreda was not shouting from the rooftops at Welford Road this week, the former Pumas coach - who guided his country to third place at the 2007 RWC - preferring to keep the pressure on himself and his team as they look for yet another miracle, perhaps, just perhaps, from that man Varndell once again.
"We are not favourites, but Leicester always expects to have a winner," Loffreda told the Leicester Mercury this week.
"The common-sense view is that we are underdogs, but many people are not thinking that way.
"We know that people are expecting us to win even if we are not favourites. We know what sort of game we have to play, and it is in our hands again."
Players to watch:
For Gloucester: Lesley 'The Volcano' Vainikolo is worth watching, mainly because he is not as effective as many would believe. In fact, if you want to watch somebody effective, keep an eye out for Vainikolo's wing partner, the vastly underrated James Simpson-Daniel. Fijian super-flank Akapusi Qera is hard to miss; the Guinness Premiership Player of the Year nominee is a scavenger par excellence and a try-scorer of note, too!
For Leicester: Under-pressure Tigers coach Marcelo Loffreda owes Tom Varndell more than one pint after his match-winning efforts from last week - expect the England flyer to thrill once again come Sunday. Alesana Tuilagi's return to the starting line-up is more by default - thanks to Johne Murphy's injury - but his power and aggression played a huge part in Tigers' win over the 'Cherry and Whites' in last year's final. When fit and firing, few can match Varndell and Tuilagi in England.
Head to head: The scrap between Qera and Ben Herring for the loose ball should be a joy to watch, and expect a titanic front row battle in front of the famous Kingsholm 'Shed'. But when all is said and done, the men that put the ball between the posts and keep the scoreboard ticking over could just have the biggest say of them all. Yes, you guessed it, our head to head is between opposition flyhalves Ryan Lamb (Gloucester) and Andy Goode (Leicester), two vastly different players, but two players who hold the key to electric and powerful men on their outside, whilst also possessing some pretty accurate goalkicking boots. Another exciting battle could be that between hardman Mike Tindall and the more elusive Dan Hipkiss - the former back in the England mix and the latter out of international reckoning at present.
Previous results from this season:
October 6, 2007
Leicester 17 Gloucester 30 (Welford Road)
February 9, 2008
Gloucester 13 Leicester 20 (Kingsholm)
rugby365.com prediction: Based purely on form and consistency this season - not to mention home ground advantage - one has to go with Gloucester. However, having leaned heavily on history in our Wasps-Bath prediction, we're going to go with a little gut feel for this one and back Leicester to burgle another victory and another trip to Twickenham to take on Wasps.
The teams:
Gloucester: 15 Iain Balshaw, 14 James Simpson-Daniel, 13 Mike Tindall, 12 Anthony Allen, 11 Lesley Vainikolo, 10 Ryan Lamb, 9 Rory Lawson, 8 Gareth Delve, 7 Akapusi Qera, 6 Alasdair Strokosch, 5 Alex Brown, 4 Marco Bortolami (captain), 3 Carlos Nieto, 2 Andy Titterrell, 1 Nick Wood.
Replacements: 16 Olivier Azam, 17 Jack Forster, 18 Will James, 19 Luke Narraway, 20 Gareth Cooper, 21 Willie Walker, 22 Mark Foster.
Leicester Tigers: 15 Geordan Murphy, 14 Tom Varndell, 13 Danny Hipkiss, 12 Aaron Mauger, 11 Alesana Tuilagi, 10 Andy Goode, 9 Harry Ellis, 8 Jordan Crane, 7 Ben Herring, 6 Martin Corry (captain), 5 Ben Kay, 4 Marco Wentzel, 3 Julian White, 2 Mefin Davies, 1 Boris Stankovich.
Replacements: 16 George Chuter, 17 Marcos Ayerza, 18 Richard Blaze, 19 Tom Croft, 20
Christophe Laussucq, 21 Sam Vesty, 22 Ayoola Erinle.
Date: Sunday, May 17
Venue: Kingsholm, Gloucester
Kick-off: 16.30 (17.30 SA time, 15.30 GMT)
Referee: Dave Pearson
Touch judges: Stuart Terheege, Peter Huckle
TMO: Laurie Bryant, Geoff Warren
