Biarritz edge Meyer's Tigers with late try
Fri, 15 Aug 2008 22:21
Leicester Tigers scored five tries in their opening pre-season fixture against Biarritz, but a 78th-minute touchdown from the hosts finally deprived them of victory in the south of France.
In an entertaining and competitive outing, Tigers led 21-14 at half-time - following scores by Sam Vesty, debutant Ben Woods and Aaron Mauger, then saw England Under-18 wing Will Hurrell add two second-half touchdowns before Biarritz snatched a 37-35 win.
Head coach Heyneke Meyer, in charge of the team for the first time, gave debuts to new signings Julien Dupuy and Ben Woods, while Jack Cobden, Calum Green and Dan Hemingway earned their first senior starts and several other development squad men gained a second-half run-out from the replacements' bench.
Tigers had started the game on the defensive, spending the first seven minutes in their own half, before gaining territory and possession for a lengthy spell which led to the opening two scores in as many minutes with a quarter of the match played.
After Cobden had made good progress, Vesty finished off the first score, completing some sharp work by Geordan Murphy and Aaron Mauger. Dupuy made it 7-0 with a well-struck conversion from left of the posts.
Less than 60 seconds later, Tigers doubled the advantage with Mauger linking up with Matt Smith, whose pass gave Woods the chance to run in from 20 metres out. He dotted down beneath the posts for his first score in Tigers colours and Dupuy made it 14-0 with a simple conversion.
Biarritz responded with their first score just a minute later, prop Edward Coetzee forcing his way over from a close-range line-out, and Valentin Courrent added a precision conversion from the left touchline.
After half an hour the scores were level when centre Laurent Tranier supplied a positive finish from 10 metres out and Julien Peyrelongue, on at flyhalf, chipped over the conversion.
Mauger restored the Tigers lead after a quick attack and a long pass by Vesty gave him the opportunity to find a gap and race through it for a score which Dupuy again converted to make it 21-14 to Meyer's men at half-time.
Tigers introduced Santiago Bonorino for his debut among the replacements at the start of the second half, but it was the hosts who gathered the first points of the period with American international winger Takudzwa Ngweye finishing off good work by opposite wing Ilikaena Bolakoro.
And Peyrelongue gave Biarritz the lead for the first time with a penalty after 50 minutes and that advantage was stretched to eight points shortly before the hour mark when Tranier grabbed his second try after a quick break.
But Tigers fought back quickly with Hurrell, on as a second-half replacement, racing 50 metres and through two tackles to grabbing the score. The visitors moved the ball quickly from right to left and Hurrell shrugged off one tackle and spun out of a second to reach out and touch down. Murphy added an excellent touchline conversion to cut the deficit to one point at 29-28.
A minute later Hurrell did the trick again, bursting through from 20 metres out and diving under the posts to give Tigers the lead. Murphy's conversion made it 35-29 to the visitors.
Biarritz responded with a 30-metre penalty by Peyrelongue, but Tigers spent much of the final 10 minutes working hard in defence and showed great resolve with a number of youngsters on the field before finally being beaten from a catch and drive which replacement hooker Denoyelle managed to squirm over the line.
Scorers:
For Biarritz:
Tries: Coetzee, Tranier 2, Ngweye, Deyonelle
Cons: Courrent, Peyrelongue 2
Pens: Peyrelongue 2
For Leicester Tigers:
Tries: Vesty, Woods, Mauger, Hurrell 2
Cons: Dupuy 3, Murphy
2
Teams:
Biarritz: 15 Nicolas Brusque, 14 Takudzwa Ngwenya, 13 Romain Cabannes, 12 Laurent Tranier, 11 Klijena Bolakoro, 10 Valentin Courrent, 9 Fabien Cibray, 8 Samui Vahafolau, 7 Jacques Cronjé, 6 Magnus Lund, 5 Cesar Damiani, 4 Trevor Hall (captain), 3 Benoît Bourrust, 2 Olivier Noirot, 1 Eduard Coetzee.
Replacements: 16 Benoît Denoyelle, 17 Benoît Lecouls, 18 Jean-Baptiste Roidot, 19 Manuel Carizza, 20 Julien Peyrelongue, 21 Henry Fa'afili, 22 Philippe Bidabé.
Leicester Tigers: 15 Geordan Murphy, 14 Ben Smith, 13 Tom Youngs, 12 Aaron Mauger, 11 Jack Cobden, 10 Sam Vesty, 9 Julien Dupuy, 8 Brett Deacon, 7 Ben Woods, 6 Dan Hemingway, 5 Calum Green, 4 Martin Corry, 3 Stankovich, 2 Benjamin Kayser, 1 Julian White
Replacements: Marcos Ayerza, Andrew Forsyth, Will Hurrell , et al.
Referee:
Jérôme Garces
With thanks to tigers.co.uk
