Tigers required a last second penalty from second half replacement
David Mele to spare their blushes and return from Melrose with an 11-8 victory
over Edinburgh. Tigers were wasteful in possession
but committed in defence; two Goneva tries ruled out by a Scottish referee
providing a gentle reminder of why serious games have neutral referees.
Cockerill named a multicultural starting line up with 9
different nationalities represented, if we count Barbieri as Canadian, and the
globally assembled Tigers started brightly.
The borders were bathed in sunshine as Tigers attacked through the
forwards into the Edinburgh 22.
Interplay between backs and forwards, Croft particularly to the fore,
allowed Niall Morris to scythe towards the posts. The Irishman was tackled short but good
retention by Sio & Croft let Ben Youngs whip the pass out to Seremaia Bai
whose pop pass out of a dump tackle gave Mulipola an easy finish after just 10
minutes.
Freddie Burns was skew-if with his conversion attempt and
generally failed to impress on his Leicester debut. Two promising positions were wasted with his
indulgent chip kicks and a further simple penalty was cuffed right in the
second half. Owen Williams will surely
start against Newcastle unless Burns can find some better form against Cardiff
next week.
Tigers fans will be worried as Geoff Parling was withdrawn
after only 14 minutes with another head knock.
It seemed innocuous at the time but so did last season’s that ruled him
out of the semi-final. Harry Wells
replaced him and impressed, taking full advantage of his second chance at
Tigers. Bedford will be wondering when
they will be getting their man back.
Tigers scrum struggled in the first half as Aniseko Sio
seemed unable to stay low and was popped up more than once. Edinburgh missed a 17th minute
penalty after Tigers struggled with an advancing Scottish scrum.
Burns made it 8-0 after 26 mins with a simple kick 5 metres
out and in front of the posts. Tigers
had turned down an earlier penalty to go for the corner and were rumbling well
towards the line before Edinburgh refused to roll away. Ben Youngs wasted the advantage with a speculative
wide pass to no one in particular.
The forwards were taking a battering from the Scots and
Edinburgh was able to take their first real possession inside the Tigers
22. Stout defending denied them and Goneva
looked to have grabbed a crucial interception, racing 95m for a second Tigers
try, only for the Scottish referee to rule out his length of the field effort
for a phantom offside.
Edinburgh took full advantage of their home based referee’s reprieve;
Roddy Grant crashed over for a try following an impressive Edinburgh maul. A 14 point swing on the stroke of half time
meant the home side trailed by a solitary point, 8-7, rather than 15-0.
As the sides swapped ends at half time the heavens opened
and what had been a glorious day turned grey, wet and sodden. Edinburgh rang the changes, most notably Tom
Heathcote at fly half, whilst Tigers replaced the ineffectual Sio with Riccardo
Brugnara. The Italian shored up the
scrum and made some noticeable carries in his 23 minute cameo, before giving
way to Tom Bristow for the final efforts.
The rain badly affected the game, what had been a tight but
high quality game descended into more handling errors and scrums as both sides
struggled for their first half fluency.
Tigers were again first to make waves with a neat grubber kick from
Burns finding a charging Goneva to dot down.
Again the home side were saved by some lamentable refereeing. Goneva’s score chalked off again for the
phantom offside offence.
It is worth remembering that marginally better execution (or
better refereeing) would have put Tigers 22-0 up rather than scrapping around
at 8-7.
More subs were now made with Briggs, Balmain, Crane and Mele
replacing Ghiraldini, Mulipola, Croft and Youngs. The new front row found more favour with the
refereeing earning 62nd minute penalty bang in front of the posts
and 22m out. As mentioned above Burns
had left his kicking boots at home and shunted the ball right of the
sticks.
Burns and Morris were subbed in the 64th minute
to be replaced by Pohe and Smith, Fijian Bai moving to fly half. Without being harsh on Smith or Pohe both are
more physical players and the back line suffered from the lack of subtlety and from
the lack of kickers to clear the lines in defence.
The rain and reported gusting wind made life difficult for
Edinburgh’s kickers too. The home side
by now had their tail up and were asking Tigers all sorts of searching
questions. Old fashioned fast paced
forwards ruck play was to the fore for the Scots as Tigers defence struggled to
turn ball over or stem the flow.
The home side missed a penalty on 68 minutes when Tigers
were ruled to have gone off their feet then on 72 minutes Edinburgh were
awarded a penalty for a midfield offside (not for Briggs excellent turnover at
the same ruck it should be noted). Using
his earlier effort as a length finder Tom Heathcote showed fellow Bathonian
Burns how to do it nailing his kick through the middle from 35m out for
Edinburgh to take the lead for the first time 10-7.
Tigers kick off did not go 10, though Edinburgh clearly
played the ball first, so they were awarded the half way scrum and when the
scrum collapsed Heathcote was given an opportunity to hammer the final nail
into Tigers’ coffin. This time it was
just too far though and Tigers were reprieved.
Now fully psyched up and raring to go Tigers tore into the
Scottish defence but were found wanting as they could not break through. With the clocking ticking down Goneva was
held up and turned over on the far the touchline on the Edinburgh 10m
line. With that brilliant defence
Edinburgh surely must have felt they had won it. All they had to do was secure the scrum and
see out a phase, maybe two, to secure the win.
But Balmain and co. were not lying down. The Tigers pack, wary of the Scots tricks at
the last scum, powered forward to disrupt the wonderfully named Sam Hidalgo-Clyne
(perhaps a Spanish-Scottish ship building conglomerate?) at the base of the
scrum.
Another scum and another huge effort from the Geordie bruiser
and his mates earned Tigers a shot at redemption and avoiding a second embarrassing
defeat in a week. The clock had gone
past 80 and it was the last play.
Frenchman David Mele stepped up to the task and drilled his kick, high
and handsome it sailed through the posts to the delight of the huge travelling
army of Tigers fans.
Cockerill will be pleased with the determination shown in
defence and in those final scrums from the young props but will be worried by
the form of Burns.
Tigers: Morris (Smith 63); Scully, Tuilagi, Bai, Goneva;
Burns (Pohe 63), Youngs (Mele 56); Sio (Brugnara H/T(Bristow 63)), Ghiraldini
(Briggs 52), Mulipola (Balmian 52); De Chaves, Parling (Wells 14), Croft (Crane
52), Salvi, Barbieri.
Scoring: 5-0 Mulipoa Try 10 mins;8-0 Burns Pen 26 mins; 8-7
Grant Try 40mins, Tonks Con; 8-10 Heatcote Pen 72 mins; 11-10 Mele Pen 80 mins.
