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Gabriel Hamer-Webb’s five-star try display helps Leicester rout Newcastle
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Gabriel Hamer-Webb raced over for a fabulous five-try haul as Leicester mauled poor Newcastle into submission with a dominant 62-3 victory at Mattioli Woods Welford Road.
The wing and his title-chasing team-mates notched 10 tries and made hay in the east Midlands sun to celebrate the 5000th game of their illustrious 146-year club history in scintillating fashion.
A crushing bonus-point win helped Leicester turn up the pressure in the battle for the play-off spots as PREM Rugby enters the finishing straight. Former Newcastle men Jamie Blamire and Adam Radwan were also on the mark with a brace of tries apiece.
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It was major carnage from start to finish with Newcastle in disarray, going down to 13 men on the field after just seven minutes.
Centre Elliott Obatoyinbo was sin-binned for slapping the ball down with Tigers on the attack just a minute after the start before number eight Ollie Leatherbarrow received a 20-minute red card for a dangerous clear-out.
Tigers took full advantage and built a 31-3 half-time lead, with the bonus point sealed after just 15 minutes.
From the moment Blamire rose to celebrate the first of his tries after the Tigers pack had mauled their way across, the was obvious that there were going to be mental and physical pain for Red Bulls.
Olly Cracknell had a try ruled out for offside, but Freddie Steward’s sublime 50-22 offered his side another scoring chance, and Leicester mauled their way across again with Blamire completing his brace.
Billy Searle’s pass stretched the Red Bulls defence again and the ball was worked by Will Wand to the supporting Hamer-Webb, who applied the accelerator to cross for his first.
He was celebrating a second try two minutes later with Tigers overwhelming their opponents on the short side and allowed Hamer-Webb to cruise over the line.
His hat-trick came on the half hour, the wing completing another outstanding move to dive over.
The tide of points and tries continued to drown the visitors as Izaia Perese and Hamer-Webb exchanged passes following Orlando Bailey’s chip through. Perese strolled clear for the sixth try and Newcastle were chasing shadows.
Try number seven came from a well-worked line-out training ground move. Tom Whiteley slipped the ball for the oncoming Hamer-Webb, who merely waltzed through a large gap for his fourth try.
He was waiting on the shoulder of Bailey to receive the ball a few minutes later and accelerated over for his fifth try.
Radwan decided it was time for him to get in on the try-scoring act – serving up further pain for his old team – with the ninth try after kicking through and gathering the ball to score on the right wing.
He then leapt to catch a high ball and run across the whitewash untouched for his second and Tigers’ 10th try.
Hamer-Webb missed out on a sixth try when his foot was just in touch before he swallow dived over in the left corner. It would have equalled Christian Wade’s Premiership record of six tries for Wasps against Worcester in 2016.
