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The thing that most pleased Borthwick about Leicester in France
Leicester head coach Steve Borthwick praised the courage of his players as they overcame periods of intense pressure to claim a 16-13 Heineken Champions Cup victory over Bordeaux at the Stade Chaban-Delmas. The Tigers have now won 13 competitive games in succession and this was a significant opening win to their cup campaign but they had to dig deep to overcome the Top 14 leaders, with a late George Ford penalty sealing the win.
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“I’m proud of these players,” said Borthwick. “When Bordeaux kicked the ball into the corner at the end, I thought, ‘Regardless of what the outcome is, I’m proud of the players’. They came here to Bordeaux and had a real go.
“They had the courage to play a little bit different and the courage to have a go. Bordeaux are a brilliant team, with threats all around the park. We wanted to challenge them in a different way so that they would have to think a little bit differently.
“There is a lot of potential to be a good team. They have got an attitude in wanting to get better and, from my point of view, it’s a pleasure to coach them.”
George Ford kicked eleven points for Leicester with Guy Porter scoring their only try, while Jean-Baptiste Dubie touched down for Bordeaux as Maxime Lucu added eight points. Bordeaux second row Kaine Douglas was sent to the sin bin for a swinging arm early on and the Tigers took advantage with Porter touching down after a Bryce Hegarty break.
MATCH REPORT: Leicester all smiles after maintaining their unbeaten start to the 2021/22 season#Leicester #BORvLEI #HeinekenChampionsCup #Bordeaux
https://t.co/AH8vLYDqDX— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) December 11, 2021
After laying siege to the Bordeaux try line, Ford opted for a cross-kick, but Hosea Saumaki ended up taking Nans Ducuing out in the air. Referee Andrew Brace was left with no option but to show Saumaki a yellow card. After a period of sustained pressure, Bordeaux centre Moram Falatea-Moefana carried forward, before executing a perfect offload to put Dubie over for the try. Lucu added the extras meaning the scores were level at 10-10 at half-time.
With four minutes left on the clock, Ford knocked over a penalty from 45 metres out to put the Tigers back in front. Bordeaux turned down a kickable penalty to level the scores at the last play of the game, but they refused to accept the draw and went for the corner. But after a few powerful carries, they were penalised with Leicester coming out on top.
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Despite the impressive run of Leicester form, Borthwick insisted he would not be getting carried away. “From my perspective, I don’t think too much about what’s happened in the past,” he said. “All I’m really concentrating on is what can we do to get better after this game – and we’ll continue with that.
“If you start thinking too much about what happened in the past you can get stuck there and maybe that’s what Leicester Tigers did as a club. We’ll take lessons from this, enjoy this, and then we’ve got a Sunday game coming up against Connacht at Welford Road.”
