Tigers have a Forceful feast
Sat, 30 Aug 2008 22:50
Leicester Tigers ended their pre-season programme with seven tries in a 48-7 victory over Australian visitors the Western Force at Welford Road on Saturday.
Tries by Aaron Mauger, Alesana Tuilagi and Tom Varndell helped to give Tigers a 22-point half-time lead, and scores from Tom Croft, Julien Dupuy, Benjamin Kayser and Matt Smith followed in an entertaining match.
Toby Flood added a penalty and three conversions in the first hour and Sam Vesty kicked two conversions to complete the Tigers scoring.
Fullback James O'Connor scored and converted the Force's only try after 70 minutes.
Mauger led the team out as captain and was first on the scoreboard, darting in after a neat pass from Flood with just three minutes gone. Flyhalf Flood added the conversion and took the lead into double figures with a penalty before the match had reached the quarter-hour mark.
Tuilagi's first attacking run ended just short of the line but within seconds the big Samoan was able to power his way over as he latched on to a pass by Dan Hipkiss.
Western Force's first concerted attack came after 25 minutes and the Australians went close to a breakthrough following a close-range tap penalty before Tigers' defence pushed back No.8 Filipe Manu and then halted the service for the backline by bringing down scrumhalf Chris O'Young.
Tom Youngs, on as a replacement for Mauger who had suffered a facial cut, made an immediate impact as he took ball on in the Force 22 and Hipkiss supplied the final pass for Varndell to duck under two challenges and get the ball down in the right-hand corner to take the lead to 22-0 at the close of the opening period.
Kayser, Brett Deacon, Boris Stankovich and Santiago Bonorino were introduced to the action for the final half-hour and Tigers extended the lead when Croft made a perfectly-timed burst through the defence to score at the Clubhouse End.
Johne Murphy then made his first appearance of the pre-season programme as a 50th-minute replacement, and Julien Dupuy, Ben Kay, Vesty, Smith and Will Hurrell all gained game-time during the final 25 minutes.
Dupuy marked his first appearance at Welford Road with a 64th-minute try, bouncing off three tacklers on the way to the line and Kayser proved unstoppable in a powerful run for the fifth try of the afternoon which took Tigers 41 points in front.
Western Force side, though, made the most of their best attacking opportunity of the half when fullback O'Connor latched on to an incisive break by wing Haig Sare and ran in from 20 metres to score. The 18-year-old recovered his composure quickly enough to add the conversion too.
But there was still time for Vesty to create a final score for Smith with a smart grubber kick behind the Force defence.
Scorers:
For Leicester Tigers:
Tries: Mauger, Tuilagi, Varndell, Croft, Dupuy, Kayser,
Smith
Cons: Flood 3, Vesty 2
Pen: Flood
For the Western Force:
Try: O'Connor
Con: O'Connor
Teams:
Leicester Tigers: 15 Geordan Murphy, 14 Alesana Tuilagi, 13 Dan Hipkiss, 12 Aaron Mauger, 11 Tom Varndell, 10 Toby Flood, 9 Harry Ellis, 8 Jordan Crane, 7 Ben Herring, 6 Tom Croft, 5 Marco Wentzel, 4 Richard Blaze, 3 Julian White, 2 George Chuter, 1 Marcos Ayerza.
Replacements - from: Benjamin Kayser, Dan Cole, Boris Stankovich, Martin Corry, Ben Kay, Ben Woods, Julien Dupuy, Sam Vesty, Tom Youngs, Matt Smith, Will Hurrell, Johne Murphy.
Western Force: 15 James O'Connor, 14 Dane Haylett-Petty, 13 Josh Tatupu, 12 Junior Pelesasa, 11 Haig Sare, 10 Scott Daruda, 9 Chris O'Young, 8 Filipe Manu, 7 David Pocock (captain), 6 Matt Hodgson, 5 Pat O'Connor, 4 Tamaiti Horua, 3 Kieran Longbottom, 2 Luke Holmes,
1 Pek Cowan.
Replacements: 16 Tai McIsaac, 17 AJ Whalley, 18 Gareth Hardy, 19 Brent Murphy, 20 Justin Turner, 21 Dion Berryman, 22 Andrew Barrett.
Referee: Peter Allan (Scotland)
Touch judges: R Campbell/ S Makinson
With thanks to Leicester Tigers
