Falcons falter at Leicester again
TERRIBLE RUN AT WELFORD ROAD GOES ON
DEAN Richards lamented the level of refereeing at Leicester, but he also admitted Newcastle Falcons “did not turn up” as their barren run at Welford Road continued.
Newcastle, who will now struggle to get into the Champions Cup places, scored one penalty through fly-half Joel Hodgson and never looked like ending a barren run at Richards’ former stamping ground.
The Falcons’ last win at Leicester was in 1997, when their director of rugby was in the Tigers team.
Complaining that the referee did not spot two deliberate knock-ons, Richards said: “We looked at the refereeing quartet and we knew they would be influenced by the crowd.
“But if you don’t get your setpiece right at Leicester – and it was woeful – you are not going to get parity.
“We never look at seventh place, we look at our performance and we were poor. Last week we were fine. We are inconsistent, which is most frustrating.
“When we are on song we play some really good rugby. The players are disappointed because we did not turn up on the day.”
New Leicester head coach Matt O’Connor said Tigers’ scrum-half Ben Youngs should “definitely” go on the British Lions’ tour of New Zealand after his superb performance on Saturday.
Youngs, 27, who made two appearances for the Lions on the 2013 tour of Australia, secured the Tigers a bonus point with a brilliant 72nd-minute solo try from a quickly-taken penalty.
He also stopped a certain try for Falcons winger Vereniki Goneva with a fine last-ditch tackle in the 30th minute with the scores level at 3-3.
Prop Ellis Genge (2) and fullback Telusa Veainu scored Leicester’s other tries to ensure O’Connor a winning start to his second spell as Tigers’ head coach.
Asked whether England No 9 Youngs should be on the plane this summer, O’Connor said: “Definitely. He is as good as there is at nine in the world at the moment.”
Australian O’Connor, who succeeded Aaron Mauger, helped Leicester win three Premiership titles between 2008 and 2013 and believes they can win another one.
Leicester struggled to break down a stubborn Newcastle defence and led only 11-3 at halftime thanks to a 40th-minute try – awarded by the TMO – by Genge and two penalties from Freddie Burns, who kicked 10 points.
But after Newcastle prop David Wilson was yellow-carded after the Falcons had conceded five penalties in quick succession at the start of the second half, Leicester took control.
O’Connor said: “It was tough. They were competitive and made it hard for us to get any continuity in the first half. The try on halftime and Ben Youngs’ tackle on Goneva probably set us up for the win.”