Nakarawa’s offloads put victory beyond Leicester grasp
It has never been in the Leicester mindset to seek solace in losing bonus points. Defeat of any kind is unpalatable for the Tigers. Yet in the context of last season’s travails in Europe, containing a Leone Nakarawa-inspired Racing 92 in Paris must count as significant progress.
Leicester’s previous two European matches, at home to Glasgow Warriors and here to Racing, resulted in a cumulative 77-3 defeat. That ushered in the second Matt O’Connor era at Welford Road, and yesterday Leicester were a far more competitive proposition, exemplified by the perseverance of openside flanker Luke Hamilton.
Yet there was significant frustration too. Both Jonny May and Matt Smith dropped balls in diving for the corner. Four points would have been significantly sweeter than one, although there was no way that they deserved that, purely for the reason that Nakarawa could not have been on the losing side.
The Fijian second row is like no other player. His offloading ability is out of this world. It was a skill he honed growing up playing rugby in the Nasivi River in Vatukoula, when water would often be up to his neck, forcing him to extend his arms high above his head.
At times there were three or four Leicester players hanging off him, but still he found a way to get one of his long arms free and find a team-mate. His total of 10 offloads, which was more than the entire Leicester team combined, created the first and third Racing tries, while he scored the second by stretching one of his telescopic limbs over a mass of bodies.
Asked how they had planned to deal with Nakarawa, head coach O’Connor’s reply was blunt. “Well, we didn’t do a great job of it today,” he said. “He is a special athlete. He is a big man, he offloads the ball and he moves really well. Once he is behind you it is very difficult, and that is probably the lesson for us next time around at Welford Road, to not let him get in behind you.”
He did not have a monopoly on the highlights reel. Replays of Matt Toomua’s looping pass to set up May’s try should be hung in the Louvre. The flashes of brilliance, however, were intermittent on a stifling hot day. The officiating of John Lacey did not help, as he referred every matter, trivial and serious, to the television match official, apart from a late spear tackle by Camille Chat on Greg Bateman which seemed to be worth at least a yellow card.
No matter. Leicester can be satisfied with a point. “If we had come away empty-handed then it would have been a waste of an afternoon,” O’Connor said. “But thankfully we got a game point out of it. You stay alive in the group, we come back to Welford Road next week against Castres and you’ve got to put out another big performance. The disappointment is that we didn’t do enough to get the win.”
Leicester made a bright start. As so often happens, a loose, bobbling pass in midfield from George Ford caused the defence to momentarily pause. That allowed Nick Malouf to dance past three defenders before being hauled down. Ben Youngs recycled possession to Luke Hamilton, who steamed over.
A scrum penalty then allowed Racing to establish a foothold deep within Leicester territory. Johnston ploughed over but there was no conclusive television replay to show he had grounded it. So Racing went again. The ball was spread left. Virimi Vakatawa, Yannick Nyanga and Remi Tales carried hard and Nakarawa defied several laws of physics to ground the ball.
Ford reestablished Leicester’s lead with a penalty, but another kick to the corner yielded Racing’s second try. The maul was motoring along when Nakarawa broke off. With two defenders hanging off him, he still got an arm free to offload to Baptiste Chouzenoux, who in turn found Dimitri Szarzewski. The captain was grounded just short, but Bernard Le Roux had the simple job of plunging over from centimetres.
Five minutes later, Racing had a third in more or less the same fashion, with a kick to the corner, a decent maul, another outrageous Nakarawa offload and this time wing Teddy Thomas found the finishing touch after a basketball-style assist from Tales.
Leicester were rocking, but still in touch at 19-10 down. It was another broken-field situation that let them back into the game. Telusa Veainu profited from Joe Rokocoko’s over-eagerness in coming out of the line and he found Malouf, who was collared by Vakatawa. A yellow card was inevitable. After kicking to the corner, Leicester went wide with Toomua’s glorious pass putting May over. Ford missed the conversion. With their man advantage, Leicester crafted an overlap from which Smith seemed to certain to score before Census Johnston, a 300lb prop, got across to force a knock-on. Smith will not want to view the replay.
The second half was a far quieter affair. Maxime Machenaud, the replacement scrum half, nudged Racing further in front with a penalty. That looked to be wiped out when Leicester again employed the Toomua-May combination, only for Teddy Thomas to knock the ball from the wing’s grasp.
With three minutes left, Chat’s spear tackle allowed Ford to reduce the gap to four. There remained a nervous few moments with Racing searching for a bonus point but a knock-on allowed the Tigers to retreat home with their pride somewhat restored.