Leicester Tigers 30 Sale Sharks 23

Solid defence
By Whaley Shark
December 29 2013

So here I am at Welford Road, at what, over the last few years, has felt like an annual Christians v wild animals encounter in the Coliseum, with me very much playing the part of a rare Christian supporter in a crowd of hostile Romans…..    

Anyhow, enough of the historical parallels- it certainly looked horribly like business as usual as the game got under way. After a minute or two of midfield skirmishing, Tigers’ 10 chipped over our defence to send them into our 22. They recycled the ball a few times, and then Ed Slater battered his way over with only three minutes gone. It was all Tigers for the next 20 minutes too- a turnover set them up with an easily kickable penalty, a couple of knock-ons cost them good attacking positions and then, just when we had a chance of relieving the pressure, Sam was binned for taking a swipe at Owen Williams, Tigers’ 10. It was all pretty mechanical for Tigers from that point- kick the penalty to touch, roll a maul deep into our 22, then run the ball left to put Adam Thompstone over in the corner.

Finally, with 25 minutes gone, we got on the scoreboard. We won a penalty at the restart, Nick put it in the corner, we won the lineout, then another penalty and, this time, “took the three”. That provoked another ten minutes of Leicester pressure in which a couple of good line breaks by Tigers led nowhere, only through a mix of Tigers errors and some pretty last ditch defence. Finally, with five minutes to go, we gave them a kickable penalty opportunity, which they took.

It was only as the clock ran down to half time that we started to play a bit, pitching camp on Tigers’ 22 and mixing things up as we won a couple of penalties- one to touch, one a quick tap-and-go.  But it was all to no purpose as Tigers turned over possession and cleared to half way. While we won the lineout, we were recycling he ball in midfield with little go forward as time ran out and, when Tigers finally conceded another penalty, Nick Macleod had no choice but to kick at goal, to send us in 20-6 behind.

Leicester hit back right after half time, with a terrifying run from Dan Cole, who scattered our defence and took Tigers into our 22, setting up another penalty chance and allowing them to extend their lead. We sparked into life at last- from a midfield scrum, we moved the ball quickly left, then right, to create a two-on-one, and Mark Cueto crossed for the try. With the conversion, it was 23-13 and suddenly I heard a bit less about 4-try bonus points from the Tigers’ supporters around me. That didn’t stop their team from giving us another good battering, though we nicked the ball and ran it out from our own in goal area, before clearing to touch. A Tigers knock-on gave us a scrum on our ten metre line, James Gaskell broke away and made 30 metres before being stopped, but we moved the ball quickly out to Charlie Ingall on the right, who finished well. At 23-20, just going into the last quarter, the Tigers’ supporters were getting quite fractious- the Christians were meant to be devoured passively, not fight back.

After a scrappy passage of play, it was all Leicester- I have half a page of notes describing a succession of reset 5 metre scrums and scrum penalties, and there was always only going to be one outcome. Sure enough, with the backs and spectators contracting hypothermia, the referee finally lost patience and blew for a penalty try. Tigers put up a bomb from the restart and we knocked it on but won a penalty at the resulting scrum. Joe Ford, on for Nick Macleod, slotted it from out on the left. With just a couple of minutes left, Tigers set out to chase the try bonus but we kept them at arm’s length and, with time run out, they knocked on.

So, I think we did all right in the end. We were under the cosh for much of the game, but we made and took a couple of decent chances, and thoroughly deserved our losing bonus point. I admit I feared the worst, expecting Tigers to react strongly to the seeing-to they had away at Sarries last weekend but, although we pushed our luck at times, it didn’t happen. It’s a difficult one, but I think I’d go for James Gaskell as my Man of the Match, partly as a representative of a gritty, hard-working forward pack, and partly for his try-creating breakaway. Oh, and Happy New Year to you all……..