Seventh heaven: over rivals keeps

NADOLO LEADS THE WAY AS UNBEATEN RECORD EXTENDED

LEICESTER Tigers head coach Steve Borthwick is still focusing on how his side can improve despite them running in seven tries during their 55-26 dismantling of East Midlands rivals Northampton Saints.

The Tigers opened up an 11-point lead at the top of the Gallagher Premiership following their seventh win in a row this season, in which they racked up their highest-ever score against Northampton.

Although Borthwick was delighted with Leicester’s overall performance, there was a period where Saints threatened to stage a comeback that nagged at the former England captain.

The Tigers ran in seven tries, and while Saints crossed over four times themselves, they were always playing catch-up after the visitors surged into a 27-0 lead in the first half.

Leicester had the game’s first points, though a simple George Ford penalty, in the third minute, after David Ribbans was pinged for holding on in front of his own posts.

The Tigers then had their first try after 12 minutes, as a move started by Jasper Wiese’s break led to Nadolo easily brushing off Fraser Dingwall’s tackle to score in the corner off Dan Kelly’s long pass.

Most of the play was taking place in the hosts’ half and Leicester soon struck again when Wiese got them within striking distance before Richard Wigglesworth recycled for Francois Van Wyk to plunge over against his old club.

The visitors quickly forged even further ahead when Alex Mitchell missed Ford’s high kick and Nadolo pounced on the loose ball to go clear for his second, despite him slipping metres from the line.

That took the score to 20-0 after 22 minutes and the Leicester onslaught was not finished, as Julian Montoya sealed their try bonus point by stretching over, after breaking off a driving maul.

Northampton finally found a response off the final play of the first half, as Courtnall Skosan did well to squeeze over in the righthand corner for an unconverted try.

Leading 27-5 at the break, Leicester lost Wigglesworth to the sin bin four minutes after the restart after his shoulder made contact with Dingwall’s head.

Not only did Northampton quickly pull back a second try through Mitchell’s dart, the Tigers were down to 13 men, as Wiese’s no-arms tackle earned him a yellow card as well.

Despite being two men light, Leicester still extended their lead through a superb drop goal from 40 metres by Ford.

Alex Waller scampered down the left to score Northampton’s third try just short of the hour mark, but Ford quashed any hopes of a fightback with two penalties in quick succession.

Leicester then added salt to their rivals’ wounds, as Jack Van Poortvliet scored after charging down Rory Hutchinson’s kick before Kini Murimurivalu went through some flimsy tackling to get in on the act.

There was still time for Skosan to earn Saints a try bonus point off James Grayson’s cross-field kick, before Van Poortvliet was gifted a second by Grayson’s loose pass off the final play.

Borthwick said: “I’ll praise the players immensely – I thought their attitude was outstanding.

“I thought their work-rate was outstanding, their effort brilliant, but what I also do is say ‘how do we get better?.’

“There’s plenty to get better at from out there – the last five minutes of the first half, we gave them a try and that then made the start of the second half difficult.

“We then made it even more difficult for ourselves by going down to 13 men, but again, I’ll praise the players for the guts and the spirit they showed when we were down to 13 men.

“But we can’t be in that situation, so I’ve got to look at how I’m coaching and make sure I do that better, so that we don’t end up in that situation.

“I thought both teams played in a very physical manner, carried hard and played the game really hard.”