Gritty Tigers cling on to beat Worcester at Welford Road
LEICESTER finished a stop-start affair far stronger to edge a second successive Premiership match at Welford Road following the win over Wasps.
Helped by a more powerful gang of substitute forwards, Leicester settled matters in the closing stages thanks to a third penalty goal from Johnny McPhillips.
The versatile back, signed from Ulster in the summer, was given a chance in his favoured position of fly-half when Noel Reid injured his thigh ten minutes into the match.
McPhillips kicked one penalty in the first half and then added two more in the second period after the teams turned round at 8-8.
Overall, the conditions did not help two below-par squads in a match where the main talking points were Leicester having two potential tries disallowed and head injuries for Worcester locks Anton Bresler and Graham Kitchener.
Both players failed head injury assessments and Worcester’s director of rugby Alan Solomons claimed their absence was a “game changer”.
Bresler went off after 21 minutes to be followed by Kitchener at half-time. The reshuffle forced flanker Ted Hill to play second row after the break despite a hip problem.
Solomons said: “That was really frustrating because in the first half I thought we were going to win that game.”
The veteran coach argued that his weakened pack allowed Leicester to get a grip in the scrum and to use the maul far more than in the first half.
For Worcester the defeat ended a run of five wins over Leicester in all competitions. It also continued a poor run in the Premiership which has yielded only four successive losing bonus points.
The first half burst into life after just two minutes when man-of-the-match Telusa Veaniu raced from near halfway after intercepting Ollie Lawrence’s pass. However, referee Adam Leal disallowed the score after a long look at video replays persuaded him that Leicester centre George Worth had knocked on in the build up.
It was a marginal call and a further close decision was made 76 minutes later when Jordan Olowofela had a try ruled out at the corner flag in a desperate dive for the line.
Olowofela had shown his opportunism in the 32nd minute when his try put Leicester in front at 8-5, McPhillips having kicked his first penalty.
The Leicester try came unexpectedly because Worcester left a ruck unguarded allowing scrumhalf Ben White to pounce on the loose ball before setting up Olowofela for a race to the line by kicking ahead.
Worcester’s sleepy moment wrecked a good start in which they had shown greater control in engineering a well-worked team try for wing Perry Humphreys in the 12th minute.
Duncan Weir missed the easy conversion, but he made up by kicking a penalty in the final minute of the half to level the match at 8-8.
Leicester had the better of the second half but still needed two penalty goals from McPhillips to edge them ahead.
Speedster Olowofela finished a good match by twisting and turning at the corner to seemingly touch down.
Referee Leal again needed a long look at the video screen to make up his mind. It was a close call.