Leicester v Northampton: Five takeaways as Pollock’s ‘comical’ cameo caps ‘miserable day’ for the visitors
Following a 41-17 victory for Leicester Tigers over Northampton Saints in the Gallagher PREM, here are our five takeaways from Mattioli Woods Welford Road.
The top line
Leicester Tigers demolished league leaders Northampton in a fiery East Midlands derby to move within five points of top spot and roar out a warning to their title rivals.
Geoff Parling’s rampant side scored more points against their arch rivals than any Leicester side in league history, claiming six tries as they maintained their 100 per cent home record in this season’s competition.
Tigers finished with 14 men after Izaia Perese was sent off late on. That, plus five earlier sin-binnings, added up to a record six-card haul in a niggly, bad-tempered contest.
Perese, who is leaving the club this summer, may not play again for Tigers. Yet it was Saints who had most to regret as only their second loss of the PREM campaign means third-place Leicester close to within a win of them and Bath can go top with maximum points at Exeter on Sunday.
Leicester rampage to Superclasico glory
Ahead of kick-off, Joaquin Moro, Leicester’s Argentine number eight, was told what to expect from the rivalry. ‘Think Boca Juniors v River Plate’, he was told.
The Buenos Aires clubs boast arguably the world’s fiercest football rivalry, the fixture dubbed Superclasico. When they met in the 2018 Copa Libertadores final, the second leg was moved to Madrid out of concern for safety and security.
Moro quickly got the idea that this was not going to be a match for the fainthearted. So it proved, as all 30 players came together, throwing handbags inside three minutes.
Saints had Calum Chick and Josh Kemeny yellow carded either side of half-time, before Joe Heyes provocatively shoved Craig Wright after Tigers scored their fifth try, Wright retaliated and, amid another mass flare-up and beer thrown at the players from the crowd, the pair were binned.
On it went, with Charlie Clare carded for a clumsy clearout before Perese caught George Furbank head-on-head and saw red. By the end, there were more sinners than Saints.
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Tigers in set-piece heaven
All season long Saints had lost one game in the league, an uncharacteristically sloppy display at Bristol. That apart, they had been imperious. When the bookies took the view that this one was too close to call, nobody argued.
What none of us realised was that Northampton’s scrum would be so clearly second best and it’s lineout even worse. Needing victory to guarantee a play-off spot, Phil Dowson’s team lacked the platform to mount any sort of a challenge.
The visitors won only 56 per cent on their throw and Leicester’s front row of Nicky Smith, Jamie Blamire and Heyes made sure there was no solace to be had at scrum-time.
It was no coincidence that George Martin, their giant England lock, was starting his first game of the season and packing down alongside Red Rose team mate Ollie Chessum for the first time since October 2024. Nor that Tommy Reffell was back in harness for the first time since March.
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Away end blues
Much was made of the designated away end Northampton were given for this match, allowing 400 fans from down the M1 to sit and yell together. It might have meant more had Saints given them anything to shout about.
Instead, the PREM pace-setters were penalised four times in the first seven minutes, leading to a warning that led to Chick’s sin-binning a minute later after Martin had gone over for Leicester’s opener.
Although Tommy Freeman levelled with the first of his two tries on 21 minutes, that was the sum total of Saints’ joy until the game was lost. With barely half an hour on the clock, Tigers led 19-5, Ollie Hassell-Collins and Blamire having added to the try tally.
It went from bad to worse as Nicky Smith claimed priceless jackal turnovers immediately either side of half-time before Adam Radwan secured Leicester’s bonus point with the try of the game.
When Blamire claimed his second, moments after Kemeny had been dispatched to the bin, Northampton trailed 34-5 and, understandably, their supporters’ best efforts were drowned out by the ecstatic Crumbie faithful.
Pollock’s comical cameo
Henry Pollock has been the talk of rugby this season, yet this is a day the England back row will not look back on fondly.
Leaving him out of the starting line-up will not rank as one of Dowson’s better decisions in a season in which most things the Saints boss has touched have turned to gold.
Pollock spent 52 minutes watching his side sink without trace before being sent on just as hooker Wright was heading towards the sin-bin. Without a hooker, Pollock took on the throwing-in duties. It did not go well.
First, he overshot the set-piece, then he tried one to the front, which was adjudged not straight. He then tried to start a fight with 6’6 Hanro Liebenberg and that, predictably, went no better.
All that happened within a minute of him entering the fray. Before the second minute was out, he had been lectured by ref Matthew Carley for pushing and shouting expletives and was placed on a final warning.
Just when things could not get worse, Freddie Steward ruffled his hair and then scored a sixth try for Leicester. It capped a thoroughly miserable day for the visitors.
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