Toothless Tigers go from bad to worse with embarrassing defeat
Three away games in the Champions Cup and three bonus point defeats, two of them by record margins. Things simply go from bad to worse for the toothless Tigers.
Racing hadn’t picked up a point in their four previous Pool 1 matches, but they ended up with five tries to put a smile back on the faces of their fans. For Aaron Mauger and his players it was another embarrassing night at the office as they crashed out of contention for the quarter-finals as their points tally on the road in Europe rose to 114.
“We’re the Leicester Tigers at home, but away it’s hard to call ourselves that. Munster away, Glasgow away and now today – it’s pretty embarrassing,” admitted Tigers head coach Mauger.
Any forlorn hope Leicester harboured of reaching the quarter-finals was knocked out of them in a disastrous opening quarter. The French champions were two tries to the good within 16 minutes. Some great pick and go work in the Leicester Tigers 22 led to scrum-half Xavier Chauveau crossing for a try.
Dan Carter kicked a 40-metre penalty soon after and former French international wing Marc Andrieu left the Tigers red-faced when he picked up a dropped pass just outside the 22 to score under the posts. Carter converted to make it 15-0.
Freddie Burns hauled back three points with a penalty, but another unforced error then cost the visitors dearly. Carter was just wide from 41 metres with a penalty three minutes before the break, but inexplicably Mathew Tait knocked on behind his line. From the scrum Racing were able to keep the ball tight and work giant lock Gerbrandt Grobler over for a third try. Carter’s conversion stretched the gap to 19 points and left the Tigers with a mountain to climb in the second half.
The Tigers started with another error as Dan Cole bumped into Carter and gave away a penalty that allowed the home outside-half to kick for a five metre penalty. What followed was pretty inevitable as the juggernaut home pack rolled up to the line.
Will Evans got underneath the ball carrier and Whitehouse had no option other than to run to the posts for penalty try. Evans picked up a yellow card for his troubles and Carter added the extras to extend the lead to 26 points.
Racing then lost Antoine Claassen to the sin-bin for a similar offence and it looked as though the Tigers were going to take advantage. Dan Cole got over the line from close range, but between them the referee and TMO couldn’t see the grounding. Tigers still had a penalty, but Burns’s kick went over the corner flag and ended with a drop-out 22 to Racing. It was that sort of night for them.
Andreu then picked up a second try before the death to put the final nail in Leicester’s Champions Cup coffin.