My thoughts on how the boys went under the Friday night lights:
Oosthuizen
- imo his best game for us, very,very good in the scrum and carried well. Got through a lot of work and took his try well.
Webber
- what a turn around from last week! The cornerstone of a near-flawless line out. 22 meters run, he really runs some great lines. Certainly seems that he could keep going for another season or two at this level
JCW
- a quieter whilst no less effective game. Scrummaged very well and a very low error count. Aside from being a strong carrier I never really rated him as much as I do now before he came to Sale, but it's clear his all-round game is at a very high level. I hope he can stay injury free whilst he's here. Don't think he got any turnovers but was very strong over the ball and kept the ball slow for tigers.
Evans
- Provided the spark we needed to get going with his charge down, and ran a near-flawless lineout. I hope we can keep him next year though I suspect he will retire. He's like a fine wine!
JLDP
- again, a quieter game from the big man, though he did get through a lot of work at the ruck. 16 meters and two defenders beaten still nothing to be sniffed at when playing at 5.
Ross
- A much better performance than last week. As always he leads from the front and as the commentators were musing, he just loves the contact. Weather conditions really suited him. Only had to make 9 tackles due to our high level of possession.Thought his ref chat was better though could still be improved.
Wilson
- started slow and two knockons really killed our momentum, but finished strongly. Like with Yarde, think he just needs more game time before he'll be back to his best, though clearly his conditioning is not an issue. Agree with the thought that him and Jono are too similar to play together, though it did work last night.
DDP
- another one with a quieter game, though still played well. 26 meters and 9 tackles, though 5 turnovers conceded. What really encouraged me, whilst not necessarily a good thing on his part, is that even though him and JLDP had quieter games, we still managed to dominate. His lineout skills cannot be understated as well.
Cliff
- great game, boxing kicking on point, nice sniping runs and a few line breaks. Impressed as he basically fixed everything that went wrong from last week, though obviously was behind a more dominant pack. 24 meters made too. Very happy.
RDP
- really showed his class as a distributor, some sublime assists. Seemed to have a lot of time on the ball and was talking a lot. I like his physicality too. One of his best games for us since his loan spell. Brought his kicking boots too in difficult conditions, both from hand and the tee. He takes the ball into contact far less than AJ and our backline is better for it.
Yarde
- the boy is back! properly back to the form he was in before his horrible injury. took his trys very well and ran some amazing lines. I know he mentioned his speed in the build up to the game but for me it's his contact skills that are what really sets him apart from other wingers - always beats a few defenders and rarely gets turned over in the tackle. I'm really happy for him and hope he stays with us. If he performs like that week in week out he should surely earn an England recall. 72 meters made.
Luke James
- I actually don't think he's a step down at all from RJVR, although rohan obviously has his qualities. Classy player and in my mind is a proper 12. Solid in the tackle, great distribution and offloading, always makes meters. Is only going to get better as well. Probably not his best game on friday but still very good. Allows others to shine around him. Cettainly makes Redpath's future interesting, though he's been pretty unlucky with injury whilst luke hasn't been injured for any long stretch (as I recall).
Sam James
- a classic SJ performance. Not much more I need to say, everything he's known for, he did it. People might mention that he's not that physical or doesn't look like a gym monkey etc, but the fact his he's stayed practically uninjured for years playing nearly 80 minutes every game and can put in performances like that. The James family sure have strong bones! A special player.
Solomona
- Didn't get the tries as Marland did but had a very good game defensively, and carried well. Still doesn't quite look 100% but needs a run of a few games, so hope he starts next week.
Hammersley.
- Like Sam James, did everything he's known for well. Solid under the high ball, some decisive, if not explosive, runs on the counter, beating 4 defenders. Kicked well from hand. The back three combo worked very well, and I think he allowed Yarde and Denny to shine, knowing that they had a rock behind them. He suits our style at the moment, though as always could be making more meters (21 isn't bad though).
Langdon played very well when he came on and I actually hope we back him next season and don't sign another hooker.
Not much needed to be said about Harrison and WGJ, solid performance and it makes me very happy that we can bring on players of their quality from the bench. Harrison also made 10 tackles, none missed.
Phillips made an impact to the maul when he came on. Don't think Poss had enough time to make much of an impact, though I do rate him.
Warr and Curtis looked impressive. Warr should definately be getting more game time now, has kicked on and taken his opportunities well. Box kicking could still be improved but his passes and tempo are strong. Curtis clearly a prospect, some lovely delayed passes and is getting better, though still raw at this level. I felt him and Warr could have come on a bit earlier in the match.
Reed
- didn't know he was back! Glad to see he's recovered from injury. Don't think he had enough time to do much but certainly didn't look out of place.
Overall
- a very much performance and we clearly learnt our lessons from last week. However, I don't want to be toooooo positive as Leicester were dire. We would not have had that scoreline against Northampton for example. Tigers really offered nothing, though our defence (as always) was very good. they didn't once get into our 22 which is an amazing stat on its own. Defence won us that match for sure. Good decision to take the 3 at put the game out of reach, rather than forcing the BP try. We showed good patience for that, and it came good in the end.
Still a few opportunities missed though, for which a better team would punish us. I agree with Dimes' comments that we beat them in the opening 30, wore them down and didn't let them have anything apart from that first 3 points. Whilst tigers looked so average, we made them look average by offering them nothing.
As mentioned early, I'm encouraged that we didn't rely on star power to win that, it was very much a team performance. Lot's of good players to come back too, so I'm excited. I should end this saying that whilst I'm very happy with the result, and our league position, we should bear in mind that we did play the worst team in the league at home whilst they were missing their best players, so don't want to get too carried away. Still, you can only play what's in front of you and we played them very well! I'm chuffed
Hope we target Gloucester away as a real game we can win. They haven't looked that great recently and we should be aiming to beat them well. However, performance will be important, it will be a nice change if we can back up a great home performance with a good away showing, so LBP with a strong performance would still make me happy, though I still think this is absolutely winnable.
Sad to see on the tigers board that they're complaining about the ref, though I do feel we got the rub of the green. Some tigers fans suggesting that relegation would actually be good for them, which I'm inclined to agree with. It seems like they are in a similar position to what we were in about a decade ago when Mikey Brewer was in charge. Just a mish-mash of players who don't really suit each other hastily put together. Sad really as it's their BOD director's fault, and I don't think change will happen any time soon.