Leicester go past 50 point mark in rout of Castres
TELUSA Veainu was back to his sparkling best with a hat-trick, while wing Tom May – with a brace of tries – and loose-head Ellis Genge continued to press their England claims for the Autumn internationals as Leicester overwhelmed a disjointed Castres outfit.
The Tigers ripped through Castres in the firsthalf to secure a bonus point with four tries before halftime, giving them a 35-3 lead at the break. However, in a bizarre final 15 minutes the gloss was scratched off a fine display when they went to sleep in defence.
This allowed David Smith, the French side’s arch Samoan try-poacher, to score a hat-trick of his own – and the chunky winger’s classy finishing, along with an earlier try by No.8 Alex Toulou, meant that the French side escaped with a losing try bonus point despite being trounced for the first hour.
Castres have a hopeless away record in this tournament, not having won at a Premiership ground for 16 years – and that lack of resolve explains why the French side have not qualified for the knock-out stage for a decade.
Castres, who drew 17-17 against Munster at the Stade Pierre Fabre on the opening weekend, are a more difficult proposition at home, and Leicester – who face Munster back-toback in December – may yet regret letting Castres escape with a point given the likely dog-fight for quarter-final qualification.
With three George Ford penalties to one by Rory Kockott getting Leicester out of the blocks fastest for a 9-3 lead, they built on it when a rollicking charge by Genge saw Valentino Mapapalangi’s back-hand pass send Sione Kalamafoni racing down the touchline.
The Tigers No.8 responded to May’s call with a neat chip, and May burned off the cover before scooping the ball up and rolling over to score a fine opening try.
Ford’s touchline conversion made it 16-3, but Leicester were soon back in the driving seat with a Genge burst cracking the Castre defensive line and Ben Youngs dummying his way over, Ford adding the extras to make it 23-3.
Strong drives by Tom Youngs and Genge saw Veainu capitalise by slipping past Smith to score, and four minutes later the Tigers full-back repeated the trick – but this time with a touch of wizardry. A quick line-out throw led to Tom Youngs lobbing an overhand throw inside as Veainu arrived at speed, and a jack-knife step saw him cut inside the cover to score under the posts.
With Ford converting to end the first-half procession, the only blip on the Tigers radar was Matt Toomua twisting his knee just before the whistle and being replaced for the second-half by Joe Ford.
Castres gifted Leicester a try straight after the break when Mat Tait swooped on a spilled pass before trusting in May’s speed to round off a soft run-in, and when Veainu scored his third after a sweeping attack for a 47-3 lead in the 47th minute Castres looked shot.
However, with Mapapalangi sin-binned for killing the ball Toulou’s try gave Castres a lift. Although Tigers scored their sixth try, with Nick Malouf the beneficiary after another barnstorming Genge run, that they did themselves no favours by allowing Smith his late flourish. result at Racing last week. We felt that we underperformed and wanted to take our game to the next level against Castres.”
However, O’Connor was not pleased with his side opening the gate to Castres in the last quarter. “There was a softness in defence that is nowhere near (our) standards.”
O’Connor said Jonny May continues to impress. “The lad works incredibly hard on his game. There’s a genuine feeling in the group that if we can provide space he can beat defenders. Everybody’s working as hard as they can to create space for him.”