A thumping win to reach the semis - but still some dissatisfaction afterwards
ENJOY TRIUMPH
OUT COUPLE OF ISSUES AS THEY
AN element of dissatisfaction was in the Leicester Tigers changing room despite beating Newcastle Falcons by 24 points to book a European Challenge Cup semi-final at the weekend.
That was the view of head coach Steve Borthwick after watching his side score five tries to defeat their Gallagher Premiership rivals 39-15 at Mattioli Woods Welford Road to move into the last four of the second-tier competition.
“I think this club has developed a habit of losing a lot of games, we want to change that habit,” said Borthwick. “So I think we’ve always got to be pleased with a victory against a really well-coached team, a really tough, hard-working team.
“But I think there’s a little bit of dissatisfaction in the changing room as well. The players are a little bit dissatisfied, they want to do something better than that, so that’s a pretty good place to be in, when you’ve got a group of players that have that kind of attitude among them, they always wanted to get better.”
Tigers’ pack bullied Newcastle into submission as referee Romain Poite awarded four yellow cards to Falcons forwards who crumbled at scrum time.
Two of the cautions went to replacement prop Kyle Cooper resulting in a late red card.
“In any game you’ve got to find a way to create an advantage and certainly we were able to at the scrum,” added Borthwick.
“The boys worked exceptionally hard in that area. There was also elements, particularly early in the game there, where you saw us able to find space in the backfield, and find space on the edge of the field as well.
“Now, there’s plenty of things we did well, there’s plenty of things we’ve got to improve upon as well,
so we will have a good close look at the game and ensure that we address this week.”
Tigers progressed to the semis courtesy of Harry Potter’s brace, Matias Moroni’s second try in as many games, two penalty tries and
10 points from the kicking tee evenly split between fly-half Johnny McPhillips and his replacement, George Ford.
George Wacokecoke and Tom Penny’s tries kept Falcons in the fight as Tigers spurned a number of
attacking opportunities as their usually-dependable rolling maul was successfully countered on numerous occasions. “There’s still plenty of areas I’ve identified where we could have done much better,” added Borthwick. “Tom Youngs addressed
the team in the changing room after the game, and talked about how we want to go forward every day.
“One of the things is the fact we got exposed in a couple of areas and we need to make sure we get those addressed.”