Rosbif says...

Hint to Noves. Pick Beauxis at 10. Burgess will stop taking 3 little steps before passing since his 10 will have an idea of what he wants to do, and will be standing (or better still running) in the right place.

Don't be shy to keep it tight for 60 minutes if needs be. Convert pens when you can. Gloucester have a backline of youth and exuberance, but their pack is suspect. Dont' give them the ball. Don't kick aimlessly (a la McAlister). No more double miss-passes in your 22, or Picamoles taking the ball up isolated, or people passing off the floor to keep the ball alive when they're the last man in defence. These things are not cool.

On the other hand, scrums are fine. Scrum penalties even better. Creme de la creme would be repeated scrum penalties resulting in yellow cards. Line-out ball to 2 or 4 followed by rolling mauls are fine. Re-starts followed by box-kicks with good chase and a nice defensive line are fine. High tempo offloading and a backline with depth are the coup de grace if/when you get turnover ball, if'/when you are already 8-10 points ahead, if/when the opposition pack has been dismantled.

In essence, the script for an away win. Noves is no dummy. Ask the players for a limited game-plan. Let them exceed your expectations :-)

Posted 16:55 16th January 2012