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14-man Leicester Tigers romp to first away win at Clermont in 17 years

By PA
Leicester's players celebrate their victory at the end of the European Champions Cup rugby union match between Clermont and Leicester at the Michelin stadium in Clermont-Ferrand, central France (Photo by THIERRY ZOCCOLAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Leicester claimed their first win at the Stade Marcel-Michelin in 17 years as they beat Clermont Auvergne 29-10 in the first leg of last-16 Heineken Champions Cup tie.

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Steve Borthwick’s side will take a commanding 19-point lead into the return leg at Welford Road next weekend, after they physically dominated the French club in the Massif Central.

They scored five tries in total courtesy of Ellis Genge, Julian Montoya, Jack van Poortvliet, Hosea Saumaki and Harry Potter. George Ford also contributed four points from the kicking tee.

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All Clermont could muster was a single try from Cheikh Tiberghien, and five points from Morgan Parra’s boot.

Clermont drew first blood when they collected Ford’s goal-line drop out and spread the ball wide.

Some terrific handling from Camille Lopez, George Moala, and Kotaro Matsushima put Tiberghien over in the far right corner. Parra converted from the touchline to give the hosts a 7-0 lead after 14 minutes.

Leicester hit back when captain Genge powered over from short range after a strong shove from their driving lineout.

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Clermont extended their lead with a further three points from Parra’s boot, but they were having difficulty containing Leicester’s driving maul.

And the Tigers turned pressure into points with Montoya taking advantage of their dominant maul to score

Ford failed to add the extras so the score was level at 10-10 at the end of the first half.

The Tigers went on the attack with a lovely dummy and break from Ford putting them on the front foot before the England international offloaded to Freddie Steward, but his pass could not find Potter on the outside.

However, Leicester won a penalty at the following breakdown which gave them a lineout five metres out from the Clermont try line.

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Clermont had still not found an answer to stop Leicester’s lineout drive and Van Poortvliet scored from short range.

Ford missed the conversion, but Van Poortvliet’s box kick five minutes later was not taken cleanly by Clermont and fell into the hands of Tommy Reffell. The ball was shifted left going through Ford, Dan Kelly and Steward’s hands for Saumaki to coast over for their fourth try.

Ford was successful with this conversion, meaning Leicester held a 22-10 lead with 55 minutes on the clock.

The final quarter of the game was not as comfortable as Leicester would have hoped, with Guy Porter shown a red card for making direct contact with Fitz Lee’s head.

But it did not stop the Tigers who sealed their victory when Steward showed his aerial skills to take a high ball before offloading to Potter who ran in unopposed for their fifth try which Ford converted.

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J
Jon 6 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 9 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

36 Go to comments
A
Adrian 11 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

36 Go to comments
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