Late rally puts Tigers clear
Sun, 07 Sep 2008 19:12
Head coach Heyneke Meyer got his Guinness Premiership career off to a winning start, as Leicester Tigers scored 14 points inside the final 12 minutes to record a deserved 20-8 win over Gloucester in their opening match of the season at Kingsholm on Sunday.
Despite taking a 6-0 lead inside the first quarter and still leading 6-5 at the half-time break, the Tigers went behind 6-8 in the 44th minute.
They then held off a number of Gloucester raids, before late tries by Geordan Murphy and Toby Flood sealed the win for the Tigers.
Gloucester will look back on the numerous opportunities they had at putting enough space between themselves and the Tigers and realise they had squandered a golden opportunity to score a famous win.
The Cherry and Whites were simply not clinical enough, while Leicester took the opportunities that came their way - as those two late tries proved.
Flood kicked two penalties from an identical position wide on the right of the Gloucester 22 - in the 17th and 20th minutes.
Olly Morgan scored the Gloucester try, in the 26th minute, forcing his way over in the right-hand corner just seconds after colleague Andy Titterrell had been held up over the line by Tigers wing Tom Varndell and denied a try by the television match official.
Ryan Lamb kicked a 44th minute penalty to put Gloucester in the lead for the first time - an advantage they held till the 68th minute.
Geordan Murphy scored the first Tigers try and an intercept try from Flood in the last minute guaranteed an opening-day win.
The coach, Meyer, was forced into a late change, with Aaron Mauger ruled out and Matt Smith coming in at centre alongside Dan Hipkiss. Tom Youngs took Smith’s place on the bench.
Tigers had an amazing escape with just 12 minutes to go as Dupuy was tackled on his own line and, after the defence had kept out a couple of thrusts, Luke Narraway tried to cut inside on the left with the line at his mercy but slipped and Tigers were able to clear.
It was a costly miss as, seconds later, Crane charged upfield and, after his offload had found Dupuy, the recycling was quick and Murphy cut cleanly through to score under the posts. Dupuy's conversion made it 13-8 to the visitors.
The Tigers line survived again minutes later when Carlos Nieto picked up at a ruck but failed to see an overlap and was brought down short of the line.
Flood missed a chance to settle some nerves with a penalty 10 metres from the left touchline with just two minutes to go, but pushed it wide.
The sigh turned to smiles less than a minute later though when Flood intercepted on the Gloucester 22 and raced in unopposed. His conversion with 27 seconds remaining on the clock made it 20-8 to the visitors and ensured a winning start to the season under new coach Meyer.
Tigers return to Welford Road on Saturday for the first home game of the season, against London Irish.
The scorers:
Gloucester Rugby:
Try: Morgan
Pen: Lamb
Leicester Tigers:
Tries: Murphy, Flood
Cons: Dupuy, Flood
Pens: Flood 2
Yellow card: Ben Herring (Leicester Tigers, 24)
The teams:
Gloucester Rugby: 15 Olly Morgan, 14 James Simpson-Daniel, 13 Mike Tindall (captain), 12 Anthony Allen, 11 Lesley Vainikolo, 10 Ryan Lamb, 9 Rory Lawson, 8 Luke Narraway, 7 Alasdair Strokosch, 6 Peter Buxton, 5 Marco Bortolami, 4 Will James, 3 Carlos Nieto, 2 Andy Titterrell, 1 Nick Wood.
Replacements: 16 Olivier Azam, 17 Dave Young, 18 Alex Brown, 19 Andy Hazell, 20 Gareth Cooper, 21 Willie Walker, 22 Matthew Watkins.
Leicester Tigers: 15 Geordan Murphy, 14 Tom Varndell, 13 Dan Hipkiss, 12 Aaron Mauger (captain),
11 Alesana Tuilagi, 10 Toby Flood, 9 Harry Ellis, 8 Jordan Crane, 7 Ben Herring, 6 Tom Croft, 5 Ben Kay, 4 Richard Blaze, 3 Julian White, 2 George Chuter, 1 Marcos Ayerza.
Replacements: 16 Benjamin Kayser, 17 Dan Cole, 18 Marco Wentzel, 19 Ben Woods, 20 Julien Dupuy, 21 Sam Vesty, 22 Matt Smith.
Referee: Dave Pearson
