Leicester see off Saracens in full-blooded encounter
Handre Pollard scored 14 points as Leicester won a full-blooded encounter over leaders Saracens 24-18 to keep alive their hopes of a Premiership play-off spot.
It brought to an end a run of three consecutive league defeats for Tigers, who had to hang on desperately in the final quarter as Saracens, looking to avoid only a second defeat of the campaign, sought to complete a stunning comeback.
After playing their best rugby of the season, Leicester looked set for a convincing victory when they led 24-3 after 35 minutes but the turnaround was remarkable.
Cameron Henderson, Mike Brown and Pollard scored Leicester’s tries with Pollard converting all three and adding a penalty.
Eroni Mawi and Alex Lewington crossed for Saracens with Alex Goode kicking two penalties and a conversion.
Goode led out Saracens to become the first player to reach 350 appearances for the club in the professional era. Former England full-back Brown made his debut for Leicester with Jimmy Gopperth making his 200th Premiership appearance.
Leicester took a sixth-minute lead with a stunning try. On halfway, Jasper Wiese tore through a huge hole in the visitors’ defence to run 55 metres before being hauled down inches short. However, the ball was quickly recycled for Pollard to crash over.
Eight minutes later, the hosts repeated the dose with another 55-metre surge. This time it was Brown who made the initial break with captain Julian Montoya twice involved before Henderson dived over.
Pollard converted both tries and, although Goode put his side on the scoreboard with a penalty, Saracens trailed 14-3 at the end of a lively first quarter.
The league leaders’ woes continued as they lost flanker Jackson Wray to an arm injury before conceding a third try.
Creative play from fellow veterans Gopperth and Chris Ashton gave Brown the chance to evade the final defender for another impressive score.
Ashton came close to making it four tries for Leicester before half-time but an excellent tackle from Lewington dragged the wing into touch before Pollard kicked a penalty from halfway.
Saracens needed a response before half-time to keep in contention and got one when Mawi forced his way over from close range, with Goode’s conversion leaving his side 24-10 in arrears at the interval.
Six minutes after the restart, Goode kicked a penalty before Lewington capitalised on a Tigers’ handling error by picking up a loose ball and running 70 metres to score.
The tide was now turning in Saracens’ favour so the home side brought on Wales international flanker Tommy Reffell in an attempt to reverse the momentum.
However, it was still one-way traffic as Saracens besieged the home line.
Alex Lozowski made a clean break to take his team to within metres of scoring but despite continual pressure, Leicester remarkably held out with a number of last-ditch tackles to collect a valuable four points.
Comments on RugbyPass
I’d say France was far more hard done by in the 2011 final than the All Blacks in this game. Joubert simply refused to call a penalty against the All Blacks in the last quarter even directing an All Black to drop a ball he picked up in an offside position rather than penalizing him. This article also totally discounts the efforts of PSTD. Ask Jordie how well he played. Or the backup flank who played hooker for the entire game. Siya was also a brilliant tackle by Richie from scoring a blinder. Pollard was also fantastic. Look I don’t like the boks style but the only thing more questionable than the content of this article is the timing of it. Get over it already
133 Go to commentsDad Marty was also a handy rugby player for Linwood back in the day. Great bloke. Sensational softball career.
2 Go to commentsWhat ifs are always dangerous. If you look at the game before Sam cane got sent of SA was dominating. You could make the argument the going down to 14 men rallied the troops and made them have to play to win which is always dangerous.
133 Go to commentsOmg… you are bruised And battered Benny. Stop crying … the scoreboard speaks. What a pathetic lover you are.. 🤣🤣🤣
133 Go to commentsPacific Lions, cry me a river
133 Go to commentsThis is the single worst piece of journalism I have ever seen since your last one. As a neutral, who really states that there should be an asterisk next to a win? You are an utter embarrassment to real AB fans, journalism and that joke of a house which pays you for this nonsense. Get a life, Ben.
133 Go to commentsGuys. Cancel the World Cup champions after this analysis. It changes everything. Ben knows. We’ll have to unengrave the Bokke off the trophy and hand it to the ABs, now that I’ve been enlightened about this illegitimate win. This needs to be done. Now!
133 Go to commentsBen is right here though, Springboks were woefully poor with the advantage they had throughout this game. The France match was heroic because that was an even contest this match had it taken place in Rugby Championship would have been an easy win for NZ. If anything this match should tell the Bok coaches that a lot of this team should be changed. They beat this same NZ team by record margin with the same circumstances but with a different core. They bring back the tried and tested guys and they nearly botch this game.
133 Go to commentsI knew who wrote this article from the first few words in the headline…lol. The red card actually did the ABs a favour. It galvanized them, only then did they step up a gear. Before that there was zero momentum.
133 Go to commentsFirstly the foul on Bongi was a planned move just like the NZ master plan with Bryce Lawrence you kiwis are filthy fux perhaps try to play a cleaner game next time I doubt that’s possible tho but don’t worry world rugby is on yr side they trying to take away all the BOKS strengths to help all you weakling as Jeremy Clarkson would say LA OO ZA ERR..🤣
133 Go to commentsAbsolutely spot on Ben. I certainly wouldn't gloat over a win like that. Frustrating as it is it's done and dusted and history will forever show the result.
133 Go to commentsHo hum.
133 Go to commentsNo question they were the better team. But that is the beauty of sport isn’t it!
133 Go to commentsEveryone is into Hurling in Ireland according to Porter, but only 11 of Ireland's 32 counties enter a team into the national competition. Same old blarney.
1 Go to commentsLet’s be honest. The draw and scheduling in the World Cup was a joke but South Africa found a way after having to go the hard (nearly impossible) way to the Cup Final via France and England. NZ had a hard game against France (lost) and had 5 weeks to prepare for the Quarter, 3 weeks knowing it was Ireland. NZ theerfore had to win one big game against an Irish team who played SA and then Scotland 7 days before. They won and it was de facto a semi final because they were playing a relatively weak Argentina team and it was a walk over. In the final a very rested NZ team was playing a very tired SA team and still lost. They couldn’t score more than 11 points. Put another way SA had to find a way to win while tired and they achieved that. NZ should thank their lucky stars that they fixed the scheduling in 2015 otherwise they would be dealing with a Bok treble.
133 Go to commentsPerhaps if Bongi wasn’t targeted and removed from the game in the first 3 minutes it would have been quite a different game. Maybe if NZ also faced the same competition the Boks faced to their win NZ would have looked quite different. The final score shows who outplayed who.
133 Go to commentsRubbish article! Abuladze played most of Exeters matches when fit. He got injured against Glasgow a while ago and is out for the rest of the season, thats why he hasnt played for Exeter and Georgia recently. Do some proper research next time!
1 Go to commentsGotta love it when kids throw their toys out the pram and can’t hack it with the grown ups debate. Here’s looking at you turlough! 😉🤣
148 Go to commentsThey lost the game period move on
133 Go to commentsSpringboks won! Stop winging. You can change the game however much you and your rugby colonizing IRB want to and the Springboks will win you at that too. Your mind is colonized my friend get a life
133 Go to comments