Chiefs lose Tiger wrestle

ExTeddChief gives his personal look at Chiefs narrow loss to Tigers

Chiefs lose Tiger Wrestle

 It’s the start…of another rollercoaster ride! New players, no top-level European competition, no idea how the hell things are going to turn out for our guys. Redeveloped stadium as well.

As far as season openers are concerned…well…watching us win 52-0 on ITV’s highlights show was a good way to send me to bed with a smile on my face, that just felt unreal. Leicester were always going to be a much tougher proposition though but hey, we came into the weekend top of the league! We knew the Tigers were beatable!

So, print off tickets, head over to grandparents place noonish! My grandfather’s not firing on all cylinders but we grabbed some lunch before getting a lift out to Sandy Park.

First impression of the new Sandy Park? It’ll take some getting used to not having the NWT and SWT around, had enough good times watching Chiefs matches from there but SW Comms tickets are now that much cheaper! Find seats, get program. Showtime!

The Chiefs were pretty much on the attack from the start and one of the orange shirts getting binned for a high tackle did us nicely. An opening Chiefs try looked inevitable and eventually Ewers crashed through for the opener with Steenson converting.

In the meantime our defence was looking rock solid. True, it was being well tested but we had officially played over 100 minutes of rugby before the Tigers fans cheered, Anthony Allen claiming the credit and Freddie Burns converting.

The Chiefs were soon back in business and really should have gotten a try only for one of our wide guys to have a butter fingers moment! Still, the Tigers pack turned out to be unable to unable to handle the Chiefs efforts at the scrum, Steeno went for the corner, it might have been cocky but it proved to be another “sooner or later we’re going to get a try” moment with Thomas eventually grabbing it, Steeno converting.

After that, Burns and Steeno got a pen each and then Leicester got a late pen, we weren’t quite sure why. We know what Burns can do though. Still, the Chiefs held on to the lead.

Half time procedings got a bit farcical. First get pasty. Then get pint of what turned out to be “Chiefs ale”(pretty good stuff – but who’s the gimmick in aid of?). Grandfather says he’d rather have a half so I go back and get a half and by the time I get back I find that they’ve closed the gates. Haul myself the long way round SW Comms and then have to explain to my grandfather whose beer is meant to be whose!

By this point, Leicester had slotted another pen. It wasn’t long before the Chiefs appeared to run out of steam in attack but our guys looked capable enough of holding out. As in was though, they couldn’t hold out forever, they left a hole big enough for Tom Youngs to go through, Tigers had the lead.
That woke the Chiefs up and you’d have hoped we could have gotten ourselves a try but we had to settle for Steeno slotting a pen! Ewers getting binned pretty much doomed us though. Burns ultimately had the last word.

An LBP against Leicester is no bad thing and we are still on course for the playoffs after two games so, so far so good! Still could have won this one though.