WANDERERS 33
Guinness ‘A’ League Round 3
Welford Road
Monday, November 19th, 2007
The day’s weather had been superb but by the time the teams began their pre-match drills Sunday’s rain had returned with a vengeance. Bearing this in mind the handling of both sides as the game warmed up was superb.
Leicester had the better of the opening 10 minutes, partly due to their own creativity, partly because the Wanderers couldn’t control a consistent supply of ball, and the first sniffs of the try line.
Paul Diggin and Will Harries barrelled the rampaging Vavae Tuilagi into touch a couple of metres out and the defence had to be on fine fettle to hold the Tigers out. This was especially so when the Wanderers failed to secure the lineout ball following Tuilagi’s chance, and though the hosts were twice held up they couldn’t get the ball down.
An 8th-minute Ian Humphreys penalty opened the scoring, but given how the Tigers had started the decision to take the points was understandable. To this point the Wanderers’ lineout had, with the odd exception, failed to function. But the value of clean ball was demonstrated in the 15th minute when a clean catch set up a sweeping move into the home 22. Though the ball was turned over David Smith charged the clearance down and dived on the loose ball for the try.
Barry Everitt added the conversion, but missed a 22nd-minute long-range penalty. Humphreys on the other hand slotted his simpler opportunity two minutes later to bring the margin back to one.
The set-piece that had set up the first try proved to be something of a first-half landmark as it instilled enough confidence for a 29th-minute penalty to be kicked to the corner. This was secured, a maul built and Chris Budgen took the ball over.
Alex Rae also took a ball against the throw on his 22 to de-fuse a Tigers threat and with a minute left of normal time in the half another clean catch and drive resulted in a yellow card for Dan Cole. And although repeated pushes for the line failed to cross it another penalty was conceded and Everitt ended the half with his first three-pointer to give the visitors a 15-6 lead.
The second half began in the best and worst possible fashion for the visitors: best because of the patient and neat build-up play in the opening move; worst because when this ended, with a penalty for crossing, it led directly to a Tigers try.
Humphreys’ bomb was misread by Smith and with Herring and Ayoola Erinle both following up the try was a formality. Herring scored it and with Humphreys’ conversion the lead was now a slender two points, although Everitt increased it to five almost immediately with a long-range penalty.
Conceding a try didn’t affect the Wanderers’ confidence however and on the hour they extended the lead by a further seven points. This time it was the turn of the Tigers’ lineout to malfunction with a loose throw collected by skipper Mark Hopley.
He came within a metre of the line and when the ball was recycled James Downey had the straightforward job of crossing the line. Everitt converted and the Wanderers had a 25-13 lead.
Five minutes later the visitors suffered a major setback with Ben Lewitt’s sinbinning. There had been handbags in the first half and the East Midlands rivalry spilled over into a full-blown set-to between the opposing open-sides. Lewitt was deemed to have started the fracas and was sent to cool his heels on the sideline.
However the Tigers could not capitalise until the 74th minute, and even then it came courtesy of a Wanderers mistake. Again it was from a spilled high ball that Humphreys collected to score between the sticks, although he hit the bar with the conversion attempt.
Fortunately for the visitors Everitt had preceded this with a penalty and the 10-point deficit with five minutes to go looked too much. But the contest was blown wide open when Tigers replacement Greig Tonks slid over in the corner. Humphreys made no mistake from the touchline and all of a sudden the game was back in the balance.
But then Lewitt redeemed himself completely by scoring the clinching try. As the clock ticked into injury time the Wanderers were awarded a kickable penalty. Hopley opted for the corner, a decision vindicated by Rae’s catch and an unstoppable drive. Everitt missed the conversion but it didn’t matter and the Wanderers left Welford Road with all five ‘A’ League points.
Teams:
Leicester Tigers – Smith (Tonks 67mins); Tuilagi, Erinle, Lawson, Cobden (Twelvetrees 59mins); Humphreys, Feijoo (Harrison 56mins); Cole (Brown 74mins), Hickie (Chuter 61mins), Young, Gillanders, Green, Mundy (Brown 40-50mins), Herring (capt), Pienaar.
Wanderers – Harries; Diggin, Starling (Anderson 67mins), Downey, Smith (Brake 67mins); Everitt, Howard (Vass 52mins); Emms, Shields (Gray 57mins), Budgen, Hoy, Rae, Lawes, Lewitt, Hopley (capt).
Scorers:
Leicester Tigers – Tries: Herring, Humphreys, Tonks; Cons: Humphreys (2); Pens: Humphreys (2).
Wanderers – Tries: Smith, Budgen, Downey, Lewitt; Cons: Everitt (2); Pens: Everitt (3).
Yellow cards:
Cole (39mins)
Lewitt (65mins)
Attendance:
4,066
TIMELINE:
8mins TIGERS Pen Humphreys 3-0
15mins WAND Try Smith Con Everitt 3-7
24mins TIGERS Pen Humphreys 6-7
29mins WAND Try Budgen 6-12
39mins TIGERS Yellow card Cole
40+1mins WAND Pen Everitt 6-15
HALF-TIME TIGERS 6 WANDERERS 15
44mins TIGERS Try Herring Con Humphreys 13-15
47mins WAND Pen Everitt 13-18
61mins WAND Try Downey Con Everitt 13-25
65mins WAND Yellow card Lewitt
72mins WAND Pen Everitt 13-28
73mins TIGERS Try Humphreys 18-28
76mins TIGERS Try Tonks Con Humphreys 25-28
81mins WAND Try Lewitt 25-33
FULL-TIME TIGERS 25 WANDERERS 33
