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Borthwick: 'He's been terrific' - Forgotten England star on fire for Leicester
Leicester head coach Steve Borthwick praised the impact fly-half Freddie Burns has made in his second spell at the club, as he orchestrated his side’s 35-20 Gallagher Premiership victory over Northampton.
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Burns, who was standing in for England’s George Ford, had an eventful East Midlands derby, as he was forced off for part of the first half due to a Head Injury Assessment (HIA), but while he was on the field, he was very much on-song.
The 31-year-old returned to the Tigers last summer following a spell in Japanese rugby and he finished with a personal haul of 15 points, while being at the forefront of the leaders’ most incisive attacks.
Borthwick said: “He’s been terrific since the day he returned.
“Our supporters played a big part in persuading him to come back to this club and he’s been terrific.
"Getting a win from our nearest and dearest is an absolute pleasure."
"I am just trying to make the most of it."
MOTM Freddie Burns on how much he is enjoying playing for @LeicesterTigers after they bag a derby win against Northampton ?#GallagherPrem pic.twitter.com/XtBUOG63tQ
— Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) February 11, 2022
“Whatever role he’s been asked to do, he’s done it.
“He’s been excellent and there were a lot of really good performances on Friday night.
“We’ve come off two six-day turnarounds against a team that came off a bye, but the players fought really hard and they should be really proud of themselves.”
On the nature of the victory, Borthwick said: “What really pleased me was that we showed such composure after conceding an early try. We played really well.
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“There are clearly areas to work on – we conceded a couple of tries we wouldn’t want to give away and a couple of penalties – but we’re really pleased with the effort of the guys.
“We want to keep growing and keep building.”
Alex Mitchell opened the scoring for Northampton before Leicester stormed into 22-5 lead through Nemani Nadolo’s double and Julian Montoya’s pushover try.
Courtnall Skosan pulled a score back for Saints, but Bryce Hegarty effectively finished the match as a contest, rendering Karl Wilkins’ late effort a consolation.
Northampton director of rugby Chris Boyd said: “I’m really disappointed to lose for the second time in a season to the Tigers – that hasn’t happened for a number of years.
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“We’re disappointed with the outcome and disappointed with quite a few parts of the performance, so disappointment all-round.
“In the last 15 or 20 minutes of the first half, we loosened up and managed to score a try then we were unlucky not to score a second one, a good bit of defence from them.
“But at the end of the day we were under pressure from them physically, we were under pressure from our decision-making.
“I think we tried to overplay and we were under pressure from the referee’s whistle, which all came from various parts of pressure.
“The discipline came from the fact we weren’t getting our way in the physical battles.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to comments