London Irish 16 Leicester 21
For the first time in 20 years, Leicester have opened the season with four straight wins as George Ford discovered his kicking boots in the final quarter against London Irish.
If the Tigers hype train gathers any more momentum, head coach Steve Borthwick will be forced to apply an emergency brake himself. This was a perfunctory rather than pretty victory, a match where the TV directors will earn their corn to stretch the highlights out to three minutes.
All three tries – Nic Dolly and the outstanding Hanro Liebenberg for Leicester and Agustin Creevy for Irish – came from mauls. For long periods, the game was dominated by interminable bouts of kick tennis. With fly-half Paddy Jackson and full- back Tom Parton both immaculate in the back field, Irish often got the better of those exchanges. They led 16-12 entering the final quarter, but for a third successive game they could not find a way to get over the hump. Their winless run now stretches to 12 games.
Bolstered by a bench that included the experience of Julian Montoya, Marco van Staden and Richard Wigglesworth, Leicester turned the screw, ensuring play was confined almost exclusively to around Irish’s 22 for the final 10 minutes. That period brought three penalties converted by Ford, who had missed five points from the boot in the first half. It was far from Ford’s finest game. His passing, usually so exquisite, was off a beat and the Tigers’ backline moves were out of kilter.
His half-back partner Ben Youngs also struggled for fluency and was the direct cause of several attacks breaking down, most glaringly when the tryline appeared within his grasp but he tried an offload to nowhere. But they found a way to win which is what the great Leicester teams of old always did – not that Borthwick appreciated the comparison with Martin Johnson’s double-winning side of 2001-02.
“I don’t look back and I don’t look forward,” Borthwick said. “I want our boys to have the character, you can see they work exceptionally hard. There is lots for us to improve on and the players were very quick to say we could have done things better. There are games where we have to adapt, they have a plan, we’ve got a plan and the players did that against a really tough team. I said to them that game could have gone either way at the end, it could have been a loss but the fact is the players showed immense character and immense fight. If it had been a loss I would have been immensely proud of them for what they did. If we have got that character and fight that is a good foundation for us to grow on.”
How Irish director of rugby Declan Kidney must wish he had Borthwick’s problems. After drawing against Sale and losing late on after dominating against Northampton last week, they again fell just short of that elusive W.
“Every loss hurts that but that one really hurts,” Les Kiss, the Irish head coach, said. “I thought we played a really strong tactical game for the most part and put pressure on them. I do think in that second half there was a five to eight minute period where we didn’t back ourselves. We can’t be afraid to be in the fight and go for it. The effort was fantastic. They certainly played with heart and if we had backed ourselves we could have seen it through. Pressure is part of it. You have to be able to love it and live in that space. We just need to believe what we have is capable of taking a team like Leicester to a place they don’t like. It is a very despondent dressing room.”
There are the components of a good team here. The back three of Parton, Ben Loader and Ollie Hassell-Collins is perfectly balanced, if a little under-utilised. They have a strong set piece with the Creevy to Steve Mafi connection particularly effective at the line-out. Then there’s Jackson who so rarely seems to put a foot wrong on the pitch, he even started the game with a perfectly executed 50-22.
The bounce of the ball continued to favour Irish as Leicester wing Harry Potter kicked ahead but it did not sit up for him. With George Martin prominent in a bright start, Leicester used their now familiar weapon of hooker Dolly to burrow over from a maul. Yet a missed conversion and penalty from Ford, allowed Jackson to nudge Irish 6-5 in front. Another penalty after half-time gave Irish a four-point buffer, but that was wiped out on 48 minutes. Leicester looked to have blown their chance when Youngs suffered a reverse case of white-line fever, passing when he should have kept going, but Jackson was penalised for a knock-on.
Leicester kicked to the corner and while the maul came to a halt inches short of the line, Liebenberg came round the corner. Six minutes later, Irish were back in front. Kicking a penalty to the corner, Creevy connected with Mafi and then broke off the back of the maul to cross. Just like last week against Northampton, the game was Irish’s for the taking but some slight hesitancy, Leicester ruthlessness and three penalties from Ford spelt another heartbreaking finish.
Scores: 0-5 Dolly try, 3-5 Jackson pen, 6-5 Jackson pen, 9-5 Jackson pen, 9-10 Liebenberg try, 9-12 Ford con, 14-12 Creevy try, 16-12 Jackson con, 16-15 Ford pen, 16-18 Ford pen, 16-21 Ford pen.
London Irish: T Parton; B Loader, C Rona, T Hepetema (B van Rensburg 55), O Hassell-Collins; P Jackson, N Phipps (H O’Sullivan 60); W Goodrick-Clarke (A Dell 53), A Creevy (M Cornish 63), M van der Merwe (O Hoskins 60), S Mafi (G Nott, 55), A Coleman (R Simmonds 60), M Rogerson, B Donnell, A Tuisue (S O’Brien 50).
Leicester Tigers: F Steward; H Potter, M Scott (G Porter 53 (F Burns 64)), JP Socino, N Nadolo; G Ford, B Youngs (R Wigglesworth 53); E Genge (N Leatigaga 60), N Dolly (J Montoya 48), D Cole (J Heyes 67), H Wells, C Green (E Snyman 60), G Martin, T Reffell (M van Staden 48), H Liebenberg.
Referee: A Leal.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/2021/10/09/george-ford-preserves-leicester-perfect-start-season-stun-london/
