Following a 38-10 victory for Leicester Tigers against Ulster in the Investec Champions Cup, here are our five takeaways from Saturday’s clash at Welford Road.
The top line
Freddie Steward stole the headlines as Leicester booked their place in the knockout stages of the Investec Champions Cup after coming from behind to beat Ulster on a bitterly cold night at Mattioli Woods Welford Road.
Michael Cheika’s side shook off the sloppiest of starts to overturn a 10-point deficit and eventually run out convincing winners, thanks to a hat-trick of tries by Josh Bassett, two from fellow wing Ollie Hassell-Collins and one for Izaia Perese.
Solomone Kata was the key man for Tigers in turning the game their way, so forceful and direct in his running, but once that was achieved Steward ran riot and was named man of the match.
Ulster, whose preparations had been disrupted by a cancelled flight on Friday which left them scrambling to get their squad over in time on five different planes, added injury to insult with Ethan McIlroy suffering what looked like serious knee damage.
What it means for both sides
Victory was non-negotiable for Leicester given they conclude their Pool 1 campaign with a visit to holders Toulouse next Sunday. Cheika made no secret of the importance of getting a result at half-time, punching the air in fury in the home changing room as he demanded better from his players.
Tigers have already made one visit to France in this tournament and it did not turn out well, losing 42-28 at Bordeaux. With Toulouse impressively dispatching the Sharks in sweltering Durban today, few will give Tigers much chance when they go in search of a home tie in the Round of 16.
As for Ulster, the 1999 champions, defeat leaves them down and out with zero points from three games and head coach Richie Murphy with his work cut out to revive the season from the lower reaches of the United Rugby Championship.
International watch
With George Furbank, England’s first-choice full-back, out with a broken arm, all eyes were on Steward to see if he could use his 100th Leicester appearance to nail down the spot.
Steward, 24, has had an excellent tournament, making 100s of metres more than any other player with ball in hand, but he was as error-prone as anyone in the first half as Leicester badly misfired.
The 6’5″ star lost his footing to open the door for Nick Timoney’s early try, fumbled a grubber in defence soon after and then put a kick out on the full when better attacking options were available.
Happily for the big man, he found his groove after half-time, powering into the line twice in the space of three minutes to give scoring passes to Hassell-Collins.
Steward’s body of work this season must get him the nod from Steve Borthwick when the head coach names his Six Nations squad on Tuesday, but he will need to be better across the 80 minutes on opening weekend in Dublin.
Jack van Poortvliet is unlikely to start that game, despite wearing the number nine jersey in England’s last two Tests, because Alex Mitchell is fit and available again.
The Leicester scrum-half was eclipsed here by opposite number Nathan Doak, and Borthwick will have seen nothing to dissuade him from recalling Mitchell for England’s February 1 trip to the Aviva.
Key battlegrounds
Both sides came into the game clear in their mind that the set-piece was the battleground that would deny the contest. As the mercury dipped to minus four, neither was able to find the necessary cohesion to build a dominant platform.
Errors were the order of the evening, leading to a stop-start contest which offered a big crowd little to distract them from the frostbite setting in. Leicester, crucially, got their lineout maul drill right for Bassett’s second try on the stroke of half-time – and that, ultimately, was the moment the tide turned their way.
Up until that point Leicester huffed and puffed and succeeded only in infuriating Cheika. Hassell-Collins’ 50-22 put them in position to strike early, only for Bassett to slip and blow the try chance.
Doak kicked Ulster ahead from the penalty spot and before Tigers could respond, Hassell-Collins and Handre Pollard got into each others’ way under a high kick, the ball bounced and Timoney exploited the indecision to score.
Ulster then stole a lineout and when Finn Carnduff, England’s U20 World Cup-winning captain, threw a potential scoring pass into touch it seemed it might not be Leicester’s night.
Tigers did respond with a wonderful team try, dotted down after multiple phases by Bassett, but it was only with the winger’s second that Tigers secured the belief to go and put the Irish province away.
Hassell-Collins’ quick-fire double ended Ulster’s resistance and after Joe Woodward came off the bench to put Bassett in for his third, the winger turned provider to hand Perese the final score.
Sobering day for Premiership
Tigers’ triumph brought much-needed relief on an otherwise dismal day for the Gallagher Premiership, headed by Sale Sharks’ 40-point shutout in a sweltering Cape Town.
Sale at least remain in contention to qualify, unlike Exeter, whose wretched season continued with a 69-17 shellacking at home by Bordeaux, shipping 11 tries at Sandy Park, three to France wing Damian Penaud.
Northampton Saints, who lost England fly-half Fin Smith to illness before kick-off, at least booked their place in the last 16, but they will be pig sick to have lost 45-35 at Stade Francais after opening up a 21-0 lead in 17 minutes.
And with Saracens falling narrowly short at Munster, losing 17-12 after a late Liam Williams spill ended their victory chance, it meant only Leicester savoured that winning feeling.
