It's a Flood of Tigers in Swansea
Sat, 23 Aug 2008 19:22
First-half tries from Will Hurrell and Matt Smith, combined with a late penalty try and 15 points from the boot of Toby Flood, gave Leicester Tigers a 30-17 victory over the Ospreys at the Liberty Stadium, Swansea, in their second pre-season fixture on Saturday.
Tigers took an early lead and held a 17-10 advantage at half-time in front of a 7,000 crowd in a fixture arranged as part of a testimonial year for Ospreys and Wales wing Shane Williams.
After a scrappy opening five minutes, Flood kicked the opening points with a 30-metre penalty.
Flyhalf Dan Biggar missed an opportunity to level the scores when he put a penalty wide from the left-hand touchline, but Tigers grabbed the first try. Jordan Crane started the move on halfway, Hurrell made good territory on the touchline and the young wing stayed involved as he took an inside pass from Flood to cut through the defence and score under the posts. Flood's conversion made the score 10-0 to the visitors.
Two minutes later, scrumhalf Rhys Webb got the hosts off the mark, throwing a dummy and darting across the Tigers line at the left-hand post. Biggar's conversion narrowed the gap to three points.
Tigers had a narrow escape moments later when Ospreys wings Nikki Walker and Kristian Phillips broke clear, only to spill the ball. And the visitors made the most of it when Smith broke two tackles in a 40-metre run down the left which ended with a dive into the left corner for his team's second try. Flood made light work of a tricky conversion to make it 17-7 to Tigers.
Biggar then landed a well-struck penalty from the right touchline to make it 10-17 in the visitors' favour at the break.
Ospreys fielded an entirely new line-up in the second half, with Williams among those entering the fray. Tigers' changes saw Santiago Bonorino, George Chuter and Ben Herring introduced to the action.
Tigers enjoyed a good spell of pressure in the Ospreys 22 in the opening stages and were rewarded with a Flood penalty which stretched the lead to 10 points in the 49th minute.
After Harry Ellis had stopped a good run by flank Steve Tandy, Tigers were put under pressure when Jordan Crane received a yellow card for use of hands on the floor and the visiting defence had to make a number of try-line tackles before the Ospreys finally scored through lock Andy Lloyd. James Hook's conversion narrowed the gap to three points at 17-20.
Crane returned for the final quarter of an hour, which Tigers began stuck in their own 22, until Flood took play to the opposite end with a 70-metre run from his own line.
When play was finally halted by the referee's whistle, Flood landed the penalty from 35 metres to make the advantage six points entering the final five minutes.
That lead was taken into double figures soon afterwards when Tigers were awarded a penalty try after twice dominating the Ospreys at a close-range scrum. Flood added his third conversion to make it 30-17 to Heyneke Meyer's men.
Scorers:
For Ospreys:
Tries: Webb, Lloyd
Cons: Biggar, Hook
Pen: Biggar
for Leicester:
Tries: Hurrell, Smith, penalty try
Cons: Flood 3
Pen: Flood 3
Yellow card: Jordan Crane (Leicester Tigers, 50 - hands on the floor)
Ospreys:
First half: 15 Lee Byrne, 14 Kristian Phillips, 13 David Bishop, 12 Andrew Bishop, 11 Nikki Walker, 10 Dan Biggar, 9 Rhys Webb, 8 Ryan Jones (captain), 7 Marty Holah, 6 Jonathan Thomas, 5 Ian Evans, 4 Ian Gough, 3 Cai Griffiths, 2 Ed Shervington, 1 Paul James.
Second half: 15 Gareth Owen, 14 Shane Williams, 13 Tommy Bowe, 12 Ashley Beck/Sonny Parker, 11 Leigh Bevan, 10 James Hook, 9 Rhodri Wells, 8 Filo Tiatia, 7 Steve Tandy, 6 Tom Smith (captain), 5 Andrew Lloyd, 4 Alun Wyn Jones, 3 Craig Mitchell, 2 Marc Breeze, 1 Duncan Jones/Ryan Bevington.
Leicester Tigers: 15 Matt Smith, 14 Tom Varndell, 13 Dan Hipkiss, 12 Aaron Mauger, 11 Will Hurrell, 10 Toby Flood, 9 Harry Ellis; 8 Jordan Crane. 7 Ben Woods, 6 Tom Croft, 5 Ben Kay, 4 Richard Blaze, 3 Julian White, 2 Mefin Davies, 1 Marcos Ayerza.
Replacements - from: George Chuter, Dan Cole, Santiago Bonorino, Dan Hemingway, Brett Deacon, Ben Herring, Ben Youngs, Tom Youngs, Jack Cobden
Referee: Nigel Owens
With thanks to tigers.co.uk
