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Pour l'une des deux équipes
Leicester Tigers have been waiting to play the return leg against Scarlets ever since they gift-wrapped two tries for them in the 15-3 defeat at Parc y Scarlets in round two.
It was an horrendous night and an awful defeat for a Tigers team without a number of senior internationals. But as they left Llanelli they knew they would have a chance to rectify matters back at Welford Road in round five.
The Scarlets’ victory was only the fifth by Welsh teams against the Tigers in 25 European matches and no Welsh team has yet managed a victory at the home of the English cup kings. The best result in 12 games at Welford Road by a Welsh team is the 32-32 draw earned by the Ospreys in 2009.
Leicester director of rugby Richard Cockerill has told his players that nothing less than two bonus point victories in their final two games will be good enough to earn them a ticket into the last eight – and even that might not be good enough. Missing out on any points at Parc y Scarlets has left them with a mountain to climb.
“Eighteen points might just be good enough to allow us to creep in as one of the three best runners-up, but 16 or 17 probably won’t be. I’ve told the players that we need to get our attacking mind-set right and go for two bonus point victories,” said Cockerill.
Tigers will have Tom Youngs and Tom Croft back in harness after missing the defeat in Llanelli, but Dan Cole and Manu Tuilagi continue to sit on the sidelines. As for the Scarlets, they are keeping their fingers crossed that skipper Ken Owens might be fit to resume after neck surgery.
Wales scrum half Gareth Davies will be back after overcoming a knee problem, while Wales dual-contract lock Jake Ball should enjoy his battle with All Blacks legend Brad Thorn.
The Scarlets are in the same position as Tigers with eight points from their four games to date. If they can create a bit of history at Welford Road they will then have to deal with the reigning champions Toulon at Parc y Scarlets in round six.
It may be a tall order, but the Scarlets won at Harlequins and Racing Metro ’92 last season in their Pool games. That said, they have lost nine and drawn one of their away games this season and haven’t tasted victory on the road in a competitive game since they beat Benetton Treviso 41-33 on 8 February – 14 games ago!
Match Facts
- Scarlets win over Leicester Tigers earlier in the pool stages ended the Tigers four game winning run over the Welsh region; however Leicester have still won six of the eight meetings between the two sides.
- Leicester Tigers have won three, lost three and drawn three of their last nine against Welsh opposition in this competition.
- Leicester Tigers have won more lineouts than any other team in the tournament this season (65), and also boast the best lineout success rate (96%).
- Only Saracens’ Jamie George has made more tackles than Julian Salvi (53/58) this season.
- Leicester have kicked more often than any other team in the tournament this season, averaging 31 kicks from hand per game.
Placés dans le groupe du champion en titre
Leicester Tigers kept their European Rugby Champions Cup quarter-final hopes alive with a bonus-point 40-23 triumph over Scarlets at Welford Road.
A brace of tries from Tom Youngs added to scores by Miles Benjamin, Jordan Crane, Adam Thompstone and Sam Harrison to lift the English side into second in Pool Three on 13 points.
Harry Robinson scored a late double and young prop Rob Evans crossed, but Leicester’s might up-front was too much for the depleted Welsh side.
Rhys Priestland fired the Scarlets in-front after five minutes. They came at the Tigers from the start and built up a head of steam that was only stemmed by Logovi’i Munipola going off his feet at a ruck. Wales fly-half Priestland stepped up and landed his first penalty.
But Leicester came roaring back, Munipola atoned for his early indiscipline by crashing through the Scarets defence ten metres from the try line. That momentum gave the back-line the front-foot ball they needed to work it out-wide to Benjamin, who wrestled his way over at the corner.
Richard Cockerill’s side had established their front-five dominance early on and they used it to crash over again four minutes later. A five metre line-out was claimed and worked to Crane at the back and all he had to do was fall on the ball over the line.
But the Scarlets gave them a dose of their own medicine after Graham Kitchener was sin-binned for slowing the ball. Priestland, who had converted a second penalty, sent the ball to the corner. They drive the resulting line-out and Evans splintered off the maul to score and cut the Tiger’s lead to three at half-time.
Kitchener returned to the fold and Leicester benefitted eight minutes after half-time. They opted to scrummage a centre-field penalty and worked the ball wide to Thompstone, who brushed Aled Davies off on his way to his side’s third score.
The bonus-point followed soon after from another short-range line-out drive. Replacement hooker Tom Youngs was the man at the back of the maul this time to secure the vital bonus. The Youngs brothers combined moments later to setup Tom Young’s second score before the Scarlets showed their mettle. Robinson was on the end of some slick handling to claw the score back to 33-16.
Replacement scrum-half Harrison darted over before Robinson got his second to make for a 40-21 full-time score.
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