Leicester edge Wasps in thriller


Leicester battled their way back from 15-7 down at half-time to defeat Wasps 16-15 in a Premiership thriller at Welford Road on Sunday.

This win takes Leicester up to fifth while a losing bonus-point sees Wasps grab third spot from Newcastle, with Saracens staying second.

It was a first-half full of entertainment and incident as Wasps went in 15-7 to the good, coming back from a fourth-minute Tigers crossing.

Sione Kalamafoni was the Tigers player to get it when he went over from five metres out, George Ford kicking the conversion for the lead.

Leicester should have doubled their lead five minutes later but Sam Harrison was unable to get over due to Dan Robson's cover tackle.

That miss would be the start of a disastrous three minutes for Leicester as first Manu Tuilagi went off injured before Jonny May followed his team-mate off the field. Wasps then went blind from an attacking scrum five metres out where Robson found Elliot Daly who made it 7-5.

May's replacement, Nick Malouf, was binned on 21 minutes as the momentum had swung, Jimmy Gopperth kicking the resulting penalty.

And they made it 15-7 two minutes later after a break on halfway saw Juan de Jongh find a hole before the recycled ball got to a free Daly. Danny Cipriani slotted the touchline conversion and at this point the Welford Road faithful had been silenced by Wasps' clinical attack.

They rose however when Mathew Tait saved his side by completing a remarkable cover tackle on Robson that kept Tigers in the contest.

The second-half lacked in scores but not in tension as crucially Ford landed the first points on 46 minutes as Wasps were caught offside.

But Leicester would again be down to fourteen men seven minutes later when Telusa Veainu was deemed to have deliberately knocked the ball down following a Wasps break. Wasps at this point were blowing chances which gave extra confidence to the Welford Road faithful.

There would be no score until the 70th minute and those points came thanks to a strong Tigers bench as their front-row won a penalty that Ford slotted, making it a two-point game. Ellis Genge and Tatafu Polota-Nau were causing the Wasps set-piece all kinds of problems.

And it was another scrum penalty that led to the match-winning points as, from that set-piece offence, Leicester kicked to the 22 before Kearnan Myall entered a maul from the side. That left Ford a pressure job of converting the three points, which he did as Leicester prevailed.

The scorers:

For Leicester:
Try: Kalamafoni
Con: Ford
Pens: Ford 3
Yellow Cards: Malouf, Veainu

For Wasps:
Tries: Daly 2
Con: Cipriani
Pen: Gopperth

Leicester Tigers: 15 Telusa Veainu, 14 Adam Thompstone, 13 Manu Tuilagi, 12 Matt Toomua, 11 Jonny May, 10 George Ford, 9 Sam Harrison, 8 Sione Kalamafoni, 7 Luke Hamilton, 6 Valentino Mapapalangi, 5 Graham Kitchener, 4 Mike Fitzgerald, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Tom Youngs (c), 1 Greg Bateman
Replacements: 16 Tatafu Polota-Nau, 17 Ellis Genge, 18 Logovi’i Mulipola, 19 Harry Wells, 20 Will Evans, 21 Harry Simmons, 22 Mathew Tait, 23 Nick Malouf

Wasps: 15 Willie le Roux, 14 Christian Wade, 13 Juan de Jongh, 12 Jimmy Gopperth, 11 Elliot Daly, 10 Danny Cipriani, 9 Dan Robson, 8 Guy Thompson, 7 Thomas Young, 6 James Haskell, 5 James Gaskell, 4 Joe Launchbury (c), 3 Jake Cooper-Woolley, 2 Tom Cruse, 1 Simon McIntyre
Replacements: 16 TJ Harris, 17 Matt Mullan, 18 Marty Moore, 19 Will Rowlands, 20 Kearnan Myall, 21 Jack Willis, 22 Joe Simpson, 23 Josh Bassett

Referee: Luke Pearce
Assistant referees: Craig Maxwell-Keys, Jack Makepeace
TMO: David Grashoff

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