Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Michael Cheika's Leicester swat aside Prem Champs to continue strong start

By PA
Press Association

Leicester made it three wins from four Gallagher Premiership games under Michael Cheika as they defeated East Midlands rivals Northampton 24-8 at Mattioli Woods Welford Road.

ADVERTISEMENT

Freddie Steward, Olly Cracknell and Ollie Chessum were the try-scorers for the Tigers, who were impressive in the second half after riding their luck at times in the first 40 minutes.

Champions Northampton suffered their second defeat of the campaign, but they let a host of chances slip through their fingers before Tommy Freeman finally went in for a late consolation score.

Video Spacer

Cheika on Argentina and World Cup

Video Player is loading.
Current Time 0:00
Duration 0:00
Loaded: 0%
Stream Type LIVE
Remaining Time 0:00
 
1x
    • Chapters
    • descriptions off, selected
    • captions off, selected
      Video Spacer

      Cheika on Argentina and World Cup

      Leicester broke through after only four minutes when a tapped penalty led to Jack van Poortvliet passing to full-back Steward, who steamed through to score down the left.

      Handre Pollard, making his first appearance of the season after winning the Rugby Championship with South Africa, converted from out wide.

      Fixture
      Gallagher Premiership
      Leicester
      24 - 8
      Full-time
      Northampton
      All Stats and Data

      Northampton thought they had hit back in the 13th minute when Sam Graham stretched for the try line, but a TMO check judged him to have knocked on in the act of grounding the ball.

      From the drop-out, Graham then suffered what looked a serious knee injury from a dangerous tackle by Tigers flanker Tommy Reffell, who was sin-binned as a result.

      ADVERTISEMENT

      There was more frustration for the Saints when a Freeman try was ruled out for a knock-on by captain George Furbank in the build-up before Pollard extended the Tigers’ lead to 10-0 with a simple penalty.

      The visitors were then reduced to 14 men after 33 minutes when hooker Curtis Langdon was shown a yellow card for his shoulder making contact with Harry Wells’ head.

      Leicester Northampton
      Press Association

      While his side were a man light Fin Smith put Northampton on the board with a penalty three minutes before half-time.

      ADVERTISEMENT

      Four minutes into the second half Pollard became the third player in the match to see yellow when he made head-on-head contact with Furbank.

      But the Tigers were dominating the scrum and it was from this solid base that they claimed their second try in the 54th minute as number eight Cracknell burrowed his way over under the posts.

      Leicester
      Press Assocation

      Pollard emerged straight from the sin-bin to convert before Northampton saw yet another chance go begging when Tom Pearson was held up in-goal by some good Leicester defence.

      A bad couple of minutes for Pearson was complete when he was sin-binned for killing the ball in the shadow of his own posts and the hosts quickly killed the match as a contest when England lock Chessum powered over.

      Just to prove this was not the Saints’ day, young back rower Henry Pollock knocked on close to the line and replacement tighthead Tom West was held up before Freeman finally struck for them off the final play.

      Related

      ADVERTISEMENT

      Boks Office | Episode 39 | The Investec Champions Cup is back

      Argentina v France | HSBC SVNS Hong Kong 2025 | Men's Match Highlights

      New Zealand v Australia | HSBC SVNS Hong Kong 2025 | Women's Match Highlights

      Tokyo Sungoliath vs Shizuoka BlueRevs | Japan Rugby League One 2024/25 | Full Match Replay

      Reds vs Force | Super Rugby W 2025 | Full Match Replay

      The Rise of Kenya | The Report

      New Zealand in Hong Kong | Brady Rush | Sevens Wonders | Episode 4

      The Fixture: How This Rugby Rivalry Has Lasted 59 Years

      Trending on RugbyPass

      Comments

      0 Comments
      Be the first to comment...

      Join free and tell us what you really think!

      Sign up for free
      ADVERTISEMENT

      Latest Features

      Comments on RugbyPass

      J
      JW 1 hour ago
      Razor has an about turn on All Blacks eligibility rules

      Yep, another problem!


      I think he would have, in the instance I mentioned, which wasn’t changing anything other than correctly applying todays eligibility quidelines. Which is an arbitrary construct, as the deal likely would have played out completely differently, but I just ‘allowed’ him to have 1 year sabbatically for his ‘loyalty’, rather than having some arbitrary number like 70 caps required.


      So if Richie had a 3 year deal, and the first year he was allowed to use him still, I don’t think he’d really not transition to Dmac being his main 10, as he’s obviously the only one he can use for the following two years, therefore likely his only real option for the WC (very hard for Richie to overtake him in such a short time). Richie would purely be a security net in a situation like I proposition where there are only small changes to the eligibility.


      The system is not working well enough though, as we don’t have the Rugby Championship or World Cup trophies, do we? Well on that last question, that’s all I’m really saying but I would not believe a word this author says, so it’s entirely a ‘what if’ discussion, but if the author is right and now they are actually going to be more flexible, I think that’s great yeah. Ultimately thought I think those two players were an anomaly signing their contracts and futures up so far ahead, especially of when they were performing. Both jumped at the opportunity of good contracts when their All Black prospects weren’t looking that bright.

      51 Go to comments
      TRENDING
      TRENDING ‘Current form doesn’t matter’: Commentator on potential All Blacks midfield ‘Current form doesn’t matter’ in All Blacks race
      Search