Leicester may not have made quite as sizzling a start to the season as their Premier League football neighbours but they have lost only once in 10 matches and victory over hapless Treviso here next month should take them into the last eight of a tournament they last won 13 years ago.
It was a day for the 13s: Leicester’s Peter Betham and Munster’s Francis Saili provided what gloss there was on an evening of graft and while Munster provided more obdurate opposition than they had the previous week, there is a cussedness about the Tigers, a quality the Irish province knows all about, that lifts them when they are not at their best.
The England head coach, Eddie Jones, was among the spectators as he scours the country in the hope of sighting an elusive species, a genuine openside flanker. He would have noted the impact made by Leicester’s Brendon O’Connor who, after struggling at the breakdown like the rest of his side, came to master it.
The Tigers used the staples of scrum and lineout to take control of a game they could not get any grasp of for a long time. It took them 17 minutes to earn their first penalty, O’Connor forcing CJ Stander to hold on to the ball after a tackle, and, although their progress was delayed when a powerful scrum drive ended in a penalty for Munster, Telusa Veainu’s thrust into midfield provided the position for the Leicester captain, Ed Slater, to lift himself into the air and over the line.
A game was threatening to break out at this stage, with Munster showing the sustained intensity that had been lacking eight days before, but despite the rarity of a dry day, skills did not match ambition. Munster blew two tries through a handling error and a forward pass and, when Leicester sustained pressure for the first time in the second half, Ben Youngs’s fumble 15 metres from the line provided Saili with the chance of a breakout.
The All Black made it as far as the Leicester 22 where, as he was about to be overhauled by Veainu, he found Simon Zebo who looked certain to score but Adam Thompstone summed up Leicester’s spirit by coming across from his wing to make the game’s decisive play. Saili had been denied a try at the start of the second period by his opposite number Betham and it was Betham who jinked inside Saili and Mark Chisholm with 15 minutes to go and popped a pass to Vereniki Goneva for the Tigers’ second and conclusive try.
It was hard on Saili, an outside-centre worthy of the international arena whose Test career stalled after two caps because he was unlucky to be a 13 in New Zealand, who was at the heart of most that was good about Munster. He followed up successfully chasing a high kick by offloading out of the back of his hand as he hit the ground but the Irish province did not have enough quality to complement his.
Leicester led 10-3 at half-time, Freddie Burns kicking a penalty on 35 minutes in his first match of the season after recovering from injury, but he missed a kick from in front of the posts after the break. Ian Keatley was off target twice, costly in a low-scoring game. Munster did not secure a group point from Leicester in the two matches, something that may cost them a place in the last eight. They have the consolation of a sure five points against Treviso but will probably need to defeat the Top 14 champions, Stade Français, home and away to make the last eight.
The departure of Paul O’Connell to Toulon marked the end of Munster’s golden era. Keatley has yet to prove a match-winner in the mould of Ronan O’Gara and the Munster of old would have closed out a match that was there to be won but it is a period of regrowth for them. “They played very well and will be disappointed not to have got more from the game,” said the Leicester director of rugby, Richard Cockerill. “They will grow again organically.”
Cockerill had some advice for his fellow former hooker Jones, who last week was reported to be considering Dylan Hartley as his captain for the Six Nations. There is nothing, even in the season of goodwill, likely to provoke someone as steeped in Leicester as Cockerill as the spotlight falling on the club’s east Midlands rivals Northampton.
“I do not know where all this talk about Hartley is,” Cockerill said. “Tom Youngs was outstanding today and he is the best hooker in England by a country mile. Maybe he should captain England and he should definitely be the first name on the teamsheet. He leads by example in the way he plays and behaves.”
Leicester Veainu; Thompstone, Betham, Smith, Goneva (Bai, 71); Burns (Bell, 66), B Youngs (Harrison, 75); Ayerza (Aguero, 70) T Youngs (Thacker, 72) Cole (Balmain, 57) Fitzgerald (Croft, 51), Kitchener, Slater (capt), O’Connor, McCaffrey.
Tries Slater, Goneva. Cons Burns 2. Pen Burns.
Sin-bin Barrow 40.
Munster Conway; Earls, Saili, Hurley (Amorosino, 74), Zebo; Keatley (R Scannell, 66), Murray (O’Leary, 59); Cronin (Kilcoyne, 65), Sherry (N Scannell, 69), Ryan (Sagario, 74), Foley, Chisholm (Holland, 69), Copeland, O’Callaghan (O’Donoghue, 51), Stander (capt).
Pens Keatley 2.
Referee J Garcès (Fr).
Attendance 21,645.
