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Leicester stick with Bok-style bench as Pollard starts versus Farrell

Leicester's Handre Pollard (Photo by Malcolm Couzens/Getty Images)

Leicester have decided to stick with their new Springboks-like tactic of a six/two forwards/backs bench split when they play host to Saracens on Saturday in the Gallagher Premiership.

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Having gone with a five/three division in his replacements for the opening 11 league and Champions Cup matches this season, Dan McKellar changed tack with his plan B after the pre-Christmas defeat at Exeter.

Tigers were comfortably beaten 29-10 at Sandy Park that December day, leaving them off the pace in the lower half of the Premiership.

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Jacques Nienaber on evolution and why he left international rugby

Former Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber has given his first Leinster press conference and at it spoke about how big a role family played in his decision to leave Test rugby. He also spoke about evolution and how it will take a while to get things right at Leinster.

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Jacques Nienaber on evolution and why he left international rugby

Former Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber has given his first Leinster press conference and at it spoke about how big a role family played in his decision to leave Test rugby. He also spoke about evolution and how it will take a while to get things right at Leinster.

It resulted in their Australian head coach opting for a six/two split for last weekend’s momentum-regaining 35-22 win over Bath, bringing back row duo Olly Cracknell and Kyle Hatherell off the bench on 52 and 61 minutes respectively for Tommy Reffell and Jasper Wiese.

With defending champions Saracens next up at Mattioli Woods Welford Road, McKeller has decided to go with this same tactic of having a second back row option amongst the replacements to bolster his first unchanged starting line-up of the season.

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The only change to the match day 23 is the return of fit-again Ben Youngs as the sub scrum-half following Thursday’s immediate effect departure of short-term signing Joe Powell.

McKeller said: “The group that started against Bath came out with the required physical intent and were excellent for 45 minutes, so we have rewarded that. But we know we must be good for the 80 this week.”

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Saracens have made eight changes to their starting XV, including the recall of skipper Owen Farrell at No10 in direct opposition to Handre Pollard, following their 37-19 success against Newcastle.

Sam Crean, Kapeli Pifeleti, Maro Itoje and Ben Earl are their four forward changes, with Gareth Simpson, Nick Tompkins and Tom Parton added to their backs.

LEICESTER: 15. Freddie Steward; 14. Harry Simmons, 13. Dan Kelly, 12. Solomone Kata, 11. Mike Brown; 10. Handre Pollard, 9. Tom Whiteley; 1. James Cronin, 2. Julian Montoya (capt), 3. Joe Heyes, 4. George Martin, 5. Ollie Chessum, 6. Matt Rogerson, 7. Tommy Reffell, 8. Jasper Wiese. Reps: 16. Finn Theobold-Thomas, 17. Francois van Wyk, 18. Will Hurd, 19. Harry Wells, 20. Kyle Hatherell, 21. Olly Cracknell, 22. Ben Youngs, 23. Jamie Shillcock.

SARACENS: 15. Tom Parton; 14. Rotimi Segun, 13. Elliot Daly, 12. Nick Tompkins, 11. Lucio Cinti; 10 Owen Farrell (capt), 9. Gareth Simpson; 1. Sam Crean, 2. Kapeli Pifeleti, 3. Christian Judge, 4. Maro Itoje, 5. Hugh Tizard, 6. Theo McFarland, 7. Juan Martin Gonzalez, 8. Ben Earl. Reps: 16. Theo Dan, 17. Logovi’i Mulipola, 18. Ollie Hoskins, 19. Nick Isiekwe, 20. Andy Christie, 21. Ivan van Zyl, 22. Manu Vunipola, 23. Alex Lewington.

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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