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Leicester Tigers fly-half George Ford
Leicester Tigers, three points clear at the top of Pool 5 in the European Rugby Challenge Cup, will have high hopes of consolidating that position in Round 4 at Rugby Calvisano on Saturday.
The English club have won their last seven meetings with Calvisano, including last week’s 59-7 victory at Welford Road.
Key facts
- Leicester are one of just three clubs to have won all three of their Challenge Cup ties this season, their debut campaign in the competition.
- Calvisano have won only one match against English Premiership opposition in the Challenge Cup.
- Calvisano are one of just six teams with a 100 per cent success rate on their own scrum put-in.
🗣 “We are a little disappointed that we didn’t keep to our game plan for the full 80 minutes last week, so we know we have to get a good start in the game.”https://t.co/aqcMKbMX9g
— Leicester Tigers (@LeicesterTigers) December 12, 2019
Leicester Tigers were made to sweat for their fourth successive victory in European Challenge Cup Pool 5 as winless Rugby Calvisano secured an unexpected losing bonus point.
Freddie Steward scored a try in the very first minute for the Tigers after capitalising on a defensive error. In doing so, he became, at 18, the club’s third youngest European try scorer after Ollie Smith and George Ford.
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The #TigersOnTour * enjoyed that try from @freddiesteward_
* just some of the many, many Leicester supporters here at Pata Stadium pic.twitter.com/G8WTqtMl3W
— Leicester Tigers (@LeicesterTigers) December 14, 2019
But the visitors couldn’t quite kick on from there in wintry conditions. Paolo Pescetto slotted a penalty for Calvisano before Tom Hardwick did likewise on 36 minutes to make it a slender 8-3 to the visitors at the break.
Prop Greg Bateman made his return from injury off the bench for Tigers but was almost immediately sin-binned. Davide Zanetti then saw red for Calvisano after an incident at the ruck on the hour mark.
Andy Forsyth looked to have settled matters with a try a minute later but the conversion was missed and another Pescetto penalty kept the pot boiling at 13-6.
Nephi Leatigaga barrelled over from close range for his first Tigers try with five minutes left, with Hardwick converting, but Calvisano grabbed a last-minute bonus point through a Anibal Panceyra-Garrido try, despite being down to 13 men at the time due to Tomas Lavanini’s yellow card.
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