Blue skies, seven tries and an unbeaten run extended. A Fijian wrecking ball, a South African bulldozer and some rearguard resistance. These were the ingredients of a near perfect day for Leicester who left this east Midlands derby with a crushing victory that underlines their status as the best team in the land.
That is seven wins from seven for Steve Borthwick’s men, who dominated every facet of the contest, battering their hosts at the breakdown and punishing mistakes like a Victorian schoolmaster. This is their biggest win at their rival’s stadium and the scoreline accurately reflects their supremacy.
George Ford slotted an early penalty that nudged him ahead of Jonny Wilkinson on the Premiership scoring charts. His player-of-the-match performance will no doubt be regarded by Eddie Jones the next time England assemble a squad.
“He was absolute class,” Borthwick said, declining to wade into the debate over his international snub. “I’m fortunate to have him.”
From there it became the Jasper Wiese and Nemani Nadolo show. The former perpetually put his team on the front foot, making 70 metres from 13 carries. One charge in the 12th minute opened the field before Dan Kelly floated the ball out left, where Nadolo collected before rounding Courtnall Skosan to go over for the opening try.
Wiese, who joins the Springboks on Sunday for their tour of the UK, was at it again shortly afterwards as the Tigers prowled inside the Saints 22. Prop Francois van Wyk ran a smart line and received Richard Wigglesworth’s pass on the gallop to crash over for his first Premiership try.
Before the half was up, Nadolo would add another off a 30-metre run and Julian Montoya would secure the bonus point from the base of a rolling maul.
Skosan ensured his team would take their break with something on the board after zigzagging past Kelly and Nadolo.
Wigglesworth was shown a yellow five minutes into the second period for a dangerous tackle and that gave the home side a lift. It also created a vacuum around the fringe that Alex Mitchell exploited from fractured play to score Northampton’s second.
Bath’s miserable season continued with a 27-7 defeat by Wasps that left them bottom after their sixth successive defeat, their worst losing run in the competition since 2002, and put more pressure on their director of rugby, Stuart Hooper. To compound their misery their lock Mike Williams was sent off in the second half for a dangerous challenge on Jimmy Gopperth.
Bath were 13-10 down at the Recreation Ground at the time of Williams’s dismissal but they fell away after that. Vaea Fifita, Gabriel Oghre and Tom Willis scored Wasps’ tries. Gopperth kicked two penalties and a conversion while Jacob Umaga added two conversions. Tom De Glanville and Semesa Rokoduguni touched down for Bath with Orlando Bailey kicking a penalty and a conversion and Danny Cipriani adding a conversion.
The Worcester director of rugby, Jonathan Thomas, praised his team’s defence as they snapped their five-match losing run with a 27-14 victory over Sale at Sixways, eight days after they had conceded 66 points at Northampton. Duhan Van Der Merwe and Jamie Shillcock scored tries either side of half-time, with Sale’s tries from Gus Warr and Curtis Langdon not enough to pick up a bonus point in their defeat.
Thomas’s side has faced criticism following recent defeats but responded with a highly impressive performance. He said the team did not focus on tactics during the week, instead focusing on the desire of the players. “The biggest thing over the last week is that we haven’t been executing the basics. We didn’t speak too much tactically or technically this week. We just talked about soul, spirit and bringing some great positive energy to the game and that’s what we did.”
Bristol have made a habit of squandering leads this season so there was pride for Pat Lam at seeing the resolve shown by his team in a 45-33 win against London Irish. The Bears saw a 19-0 lead erased at Brentford Community Stadium, three yellow cards not helping as Irish levelled the scores shortly after half-time. Rather than crumble, Bristol fought back and secured a bonus-point success, their Premiership second win, with Lam delighted. He said: “I’m really proud of the guys. We started really well, but we knew when we were at 12 men, that was a phenomenal effort, we knew it would take its toll, but how much, and sure they came back to 19-19, but real credit to the guys." PA Media
When Wiese was sent to the bin for a dangerous hit, Franklin’s Gardens, which was full to its capacity for the first time since the pandemic, started to bounce.
But Leicester managed the two-man disadvantage superbly. Nadolo joined the pack in the scrum and Ford slotted in at No 9, nailing a drop goal to prove that even a wounded Tiger is a dangerous animal.
Saints were not done, however. Alex Waller dotted down with just over 20 minutes remaining to cap off a move that spanned the width of the field.
Ford extended the gap to two converted tries with a penalty as both teams settled into their respective rhythms, with Saints looking to run from deep and the Tigers happy to counter and kick for territory.
This translated to an over-exuberance from Northampton, whose forwards stayed on the wrong side of Tom Foley’s whistle. Ford kicked two penalties before Jack van Poortvliet put the game to bed with 15 minutes to go,, charging down Rory Hutchinson’s relieving kick and gathering to score unimpeded.
Kini Murimurivalu sparked an exodus from the ground when he shrugged off two challengers to score near the left touchline. Skosan scored from a cross-field kick, scoring his fifth try in two games, but that was swiftly cancelled out by Van Poortvliet, who stole an intercept a few seconds before the final whistle.
“All I’m concentrating on is what we need to do next,” was Borthwick’s emphasised point. That he delivered this line sincerely explains why his side are so emphatically leading the pack.
