MATT’S SPEAR TACKLE APOLOGY

MATT TOOMUA admitted he was ‘embarrassed’ by the spear tackle that marred his Leicester debut last week. The Australian centre was sent to the sin-bin after 12 minutes for tipping up Glasgow fly-half Finn Russell. Toomua, whose side were beaten 42-13 in the Champions Cup, thought he might have seen red for the illegal hit. ‘I was embarrassed about it,’ he said. ‘I said sorry many times during and after the game. It wasn’t my brightest moment. ‘He was at the mercy of me at the moment I had him in the air and I failed to put him in a good position, which was poor on my part. There’s no place for it in the game.’ The Wallaby makes his first start at Welford Road tomorrow against Racing 92 and the 26-year-old cannot wait to greet his new home fans, saying he was drawn to the history of the club. ‘I enjoy that you come here and see that the club has been going since 1880. I enjoy the history and that club rugby is special. At home we have rugby league and AFL clubs that have come from the grassroots but the nature of rugby union is that it is created teams. I come from the Brumbies, who were established in 1996. ‘The stadiums are different too. Here Welford Road is where Leicester play. At home you’ll have a rugby league game on a Friday, rugby union on a Saturday, football on the Monday, so to have a ground where you can say, “That’s where Leicester play, Twickenham — that’s where England play”, is pretty cool.’