Tenacious Tigers ride out yellow card storm

LEICESTER earned only a second win in seven matches since the restart despite three yellow cards and a period of playing with only 13 men.

Ben Youngs marked his 250th appearance for Tigers with an early try and three Zach Henry penalties made it 16-3. Saints earned a penalty try but Freddie Steward’s 50m penalty and Henry’s fourth kick extended the lead before Paul Hill’s superbly-taken try for Northampton.

But a drop-goal and penalty from Henry, below, confirmed Saints’ fifth straight loss despite Henry Taylor’s try with the last move of the match.

Leicester DoR Geordan Murphy said: “It was a really pleasing start to the game and then we had to ride out a very tough period before half-time.

“To go down to 13 and concede a penalty try was disappointing, and we will have to assess our discipline, but we went back to work really well and showed some steely determination.

“Zach (Henry) has improved in every game. He wasn’t pencilled in to start but George Ford had a lower leg problem so we rested him as a precaution but Zach was excellent.”

This was Saints’ sixth defeat in seven matches and they remain in seventh place, Leicester are 11th.

Dan Biggar’s early penalty put Northampton ahead but fullback George Furbank then dropped the ball on a counter from deep and Youngs scored.

The boot of Henry kept Tigers in front despite the yellow cards.

Tomas Lavanini was sent to the bin first for pulling down a driving maul. From the resulting lineout, Saints were awarded a penalty try by referee Wayne Barnes, and Tigers were down to 13 after Harry Wells was adjudged to have prevented Saints from rumbling over. Northampton could not make their numbers count. Steward’s long-ranger and Henry’s touchline penalty made it 22-10 before Hanno Liebenberg became the third Tiger to see yellow for killing a Saints’ maul. Replacement prop Hill burst through a gap and swerved past Ben Youngs to score his first ever Saints try in a rare highlight for Chris Boyd’s side. Northampton DoR Boyd said: “That was our worst performance in two years. To come here in a derby, I could have stomached losing with a good effort but our performance was massively disappointing. “We’ve been concentrating on playing a game with width and preCovid it was working – but since the restart, we’ve got increasingly worse at trying to play it. “We may need to modify the way we play and consider a different selection, if we carry on like this it will be a pitiful end to the season.”