The Guinness Premiership Final: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

What a game!  The Guinness Premiership final between reigning champions Leicester and pretenders to the throne Saracens was a pulsating match and the best I have seen in years. 

The lead changed hands five times during the course of the game.  Just when Saracens thought they had snatched the win as Glen Jackson slotted over a penalty with four minutes on the clock, Leicester conjured a try from the resulting restart and substitute Dan Hipkiss stormed over to clinch the cup.

33-27 was the final score.  Breathless rugby.  It's almost impossible to sit here and write "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" for this game, because as finals go it was top drawer entertainment.

But here goes anyway.

The Good

Toby Flood:  One of the key men for Leicester, and he delivered in spades.  Only missing one kick from the tee, Flood controlled the game well.

Dan Hipkiss - The Tigers centre has been sidelined with injury of late, but he made the biggest impact in the match when he came on from the bench and steamrollered his way over for the winning try.

Geordan Murphy - Who stepped aside when it was time to lift the cup and gave the captains honour to departing stars Lewis Moody and Ben Kay.  I thought that was really sweet.

Attacking rugby - Both teams played expansively and threw everything into the game.  It was refreshing to see teams almost forget it was a final and go out and play.  Take note Toulouse and Biarritz.

Ernst Joubert - Two tries for the Sarries skipper, which sadly for his side, was just not enough.

The Bad

No Brendan Venter - Saracens' director of rugby (and everyone's favourite panto villain) was forced to watch the game at home after failing to get his ban overturned.  A real shame.  Venter has been one of the real characters this year, adding colour and spice to the game.  I know he's not everyone's cup of tea, but I think he is brilliant.

Defence - But who cares when it gives you entertainment like that?  Well, the defence coaches might I suppose...

Not respecting the kicker - Sarries' fans booed when Flood lined up a couple of his kicks.  I know it's not the done thing, but in such a massive game and when they thought they had been hard done by, I can't really blame them.

The Ugly

I can't think of anything.  No really, I can't.  This game was everything I wanted a final to be.

Oh there is one thing:  the fact that I will have to wait until September until the league starts again for the new season.

Glee and the Guinness Premiership Final

Leicester Tigers and Saracens are the last teams standing in the Guinness Premiership race to Twickenham, where the two rivals will meet in the final on Saturday.

This is the sixth final in a row for reigning champions Leicester who finished the regular season in top spot.

Saracens, on the other hand, were league leaders until the halfway point, thanks to a controlled and uninspiring kicking game.  But then, fastforward a couple of months, and a team trip to Brighton and a couple of controversies later, Brendan Venter's team is thrilling to watch and racking up the tries.

Saturday's clash should be a corker.

But what do Leicester stars Geordan Murphy, Ben Youngs and Jordan Crane think of their chances? 

Do Sarries' Brad Barritt and Andy Saull think they can get their hands on the silverware?

And more to the point, which one of these is a closet fan of Glee?

All is revealed...

Tigers Eye Top Spot

Leicester Tigers will be the first Guinness Premiership side to roar into the playoffs if they beat Newcastle this weekend.

But Richard Cockerill's men aren't focussing on a trip to Twickhenham just yet.  As the sporting cliche goes, they are only concentrating on their next game.  That is a trip to Kingston Park on Sunday, where they haven't beaten the Falcons since 2004.

Here, Leicester captain Geordan Murphy and number eight Jordan Crane talk about the race for top spot, and scrum-half Ben Youngs tells us about an embarassing incident with a champagne bottle. Bless him.

Have the Tigers Lost their Bite?

So far this season Leicester Tigers have been the shadow of the Premiership winning side and Heineken Cup finalists that they were last season. OK, so they might have convincingly beaten Viadana in the Heineken Cup and roared back from 15-26 at half time to draw 32-32 against the Ospreys, but in stark contrast to their try-packed performances in the European competition, Leicester have struggled to replicate such free flowing rugby in the Guinness Premiership. In fact, after round three Leicester had failed to score a single try. Not one. Admittedly, they hadn't conceded any tries either which is testament to their strong defence, however now with six games gone they have only crossed the line a paltry three times. So what is going on with the Welford Road outfit? Have the Tigers lost their bite?

It's true that the Leicester squad has suffered more than most with trips to the hospital this season, as a whole raft of first team players are currently sidelined:

Harry Ellis (knee); Toby Flood (ruptured Achilles); Sam Vesty (hamstring); Geordan Murphy (dislocated shoulder); Alesana Tuilagi (broken foot); and this week Julian White (hamstring) joined the long injury list. Lewis Moody has returned to full team action and last weekend he put in an excellent performance against London Irish. I think Lewis would have won the Man of the Match award had he been on the winning team. To his credit, Leicester coach Richard Cockrill refuses to blame anything on the number of players that are currently unavailable:

"We've got a good squad and whoever we put out at the weekend will be good players. We've been in this position before when we've had injuries and the guys who've stepped in have always fronted up and done a good job for us."

So he's not making any excuses then.

Despite the lack of tries, Leicester are still fifth in the Premiership table with three wins out of six. With such key players missing, Leicester might not have the bite they had at the end of last season but they still managed to claw out a losing bonus point against early title contenders London Irish due to their rock solid defence. Neither London Irish nor Leicester were allowed to play with the flair associated with both these sides and they both cancelled each other turning this game into a scrappy affair. It went down to the wire and Leicester could quite have easily drawn or won the game.

I'm sure the Leicester Tigers will sharpen their teeth in the Premiership soon, and in a couple of weeks there is the small matter of the Anglo-Welsh Cup where they will face Leeds Carnegie at Headingley. I suppose all I can hope for as a Leeds fan is that the Tigers take a little while longer to scratch their way back to the form everyone expects of them, and that Leeds might snaffle a victory. Best get in now, because a Tiger never truly shakes its stripes.