Borthwick hails Tigers escape act
12-3 down after 74 minutes
GAME by game, point by point, Leicester Tigers are slowly building Welford Road back into a fortress.
This felt like the old days, when winning was a habit in the East Midlands. It was a contest the hosts never looked like winning but, thick as thieves, they snatched victory in the final play of the match.
When the referee, Christophe Ridley, awarded a penalty try in the 84th minute, the place erupted. The noise was ear-piercing, like a cathartic release of years of pent-up frustrations.
This was Leicester’s first home victory against Saracens since 2016. With six minutes left to play, they had been trailing 12-3, yet they ended the day on top of the table after their act of escapology.
‘When you’re playing Saracens you’ve got to stay in the fight,’ said Tigers coach Steve Borthwick. ‘Saracens are brilliant at building pressure and at building the score.
‘If you stay in touch, you’ve got a chance. Credit to our players for sticking in the battle because we could easily have lost that game.’
In previous eras, Leicester’s young talent has barely been given the chance to prosper. Times have changed. Yesterday, the match was won by the second-half injection from the club’s new guard.
Two 20-year-olds, Jack van Poortvliet and Freddie Steward, came off the bench to swing the fortunes of the aerial battle, which had been dominated by Saracens in the early exchanges.
Owen Farrell kicked his team into the right areas of the pitch and Billy Vunipola tried to make it pay with his heavyweight charges. They trapped Tigers deep in their own territory, yet all they had to show for their dominance was a handful of penalties.
‘We were dominant in the first half and that was never really reflected on the scoreboard,’ said
Mark McCall, the rueful Saracens coach. ‘In the second half, we put ourselves under a lot of pressure with bad choices and bad mistakes. We defended brilliantly but they got us in the end.’
Before the game, Saracens announced their £32million takeover deal. The buying consortium with sky-high ambitions were quickly brought back down to earth. At one point, the Leicester fans on the terraces chanted ‘Cheats! Cheats! Cheats!’ at Vunipola and his salary cap tarnished team-mates. The No8 shushed them with his finger against his lips, but the home crowd would not be silenced, and they grew bolder when George Ford narrowed the deficit to six points in the 74th minute.
Juan Pablo Socino hit hard, forcing Farrell to fumble the ball in the tackle, and Hanro Liebenberg gave his team a late shot at victory after winning a turnover penalty.
The Tigers edged their way back up the pitch, holding on to the ball in the torrential rain for 18 phases.
But they looked to have blown their chance when, in the 80th minute, Guy Porter was bundled into touch. The hosts were saved when Aled Davies was penalised for an illegal shove.
‘The crowd carried us through those last five minutes — they lifted us up and gave us the energy,’ said Liebenberg.
‘That second half was all fight. It could have gone either way.’
With the clock deep into overtime, Harry Wells claimed the lineout and the Tigers launched one last drive. It crabbed infield, towards the posts, before Vunipola was judged to have collapsed the maul illegally.
Nigel Wray, soon to be Saracens’ ex-owner, was shown on the big screen shaking his head. His club’s new era had got off to a false start, with the noise of the takeover drowned out by the old roar of Welford Road.