Leinster rally to beat Leicester in Champions Cup

by · BBC Sport
Leinster have beaten English Prem clubs Harlequins and Leicester in their first two pool matchesPA Media

Investec Champions Cup Pool Three

Leicester Tigers (15) 15

Tries: Radwan, Hassell-Collins Con: Searle Pen: Searle

Leinster (6) 23

Tries: Gibson-Park, Sheehan Cons: Byrne, Prendergast Pens: Byrne 3

Leinster fought back from nine points behind at half-time to beat a determined Leicester Tigers side 23-15 in the Champions Cup pool stage.

An outstanding defensive effort and two wonderful finishes by wing duo Adam Radwan and Ollie Hassell-Collins put Tigers into a 15-6 lead.

The visitors, forced into a pre-match change because prop Tadhg Furlong was ruled out with illness, also lost flanker Jack Conan and full-back Jimmy O'Brien to injuries in the first 15 minutes.

But a star-studded Leinster team, which contained several Ireland internationals and had New Zealand centre Rieko Ioane making his first start, eventually overcame those setbacks and their first-half deficit.

They scored 17 points without reply in the second half as tries from Lions pair Jamison Gibson-Park and Dan Sheehan meant Leinster have two wins from two outings in the pool stage.

Leicester, meanwhile, have lost their first two matches in Pool Three and face a battle to qualify for the last 16.

Four-time winners Leinster are perennial Champions Cup contenders, reaching at least the semi-final stage in eight of the past nine seasons.

Expected to be challengers again in 2025-26, they were made to work hard for their second victory over English opposition in the space of a week but were deserved winners.

Their two injuries came during an eventful opening 20 minutes at Mattioli Woods Welford Road.

Conan was hurt in a collision with Leicester's Freddie Steward as he attempted to gather a crossfield kick and later failed a head injury assessment, while O'Brien limped off with a knock.

That frenetic passage of play also included a disallowed try for Leinster's Tommy O'Brien, and a sizeable melee emanating from James Lowe taking exception to being tackled in the air by Radwan, whose sensational length-of-the-field try followed soon afterwards.

Leicester captain Tommy Reffell dislodged the ball in a tackle as Leinster attacked and it bounced loose inside the Tigers 22 to Radwan, who kicked ahead on several occasions and outpaced the chasing defenders before gleefully touching down in the corner.

Just before half-time, Lowe was unable to gather cleanly when Hassell-Collins controlled Billy Searle's crossfield kick with his foot and the Leicester man took advantage to score.

Leinster, frustrated in attack in the opening 40 minutes, began to capitalise on their sustained pressure and got the key breakthrough shortly after the interval.

The ball squeezed free from a scrum near Leicester's 22 and Gibson-Park was first to react, evading a couple of tackles before diving over.

Harry Byrne's conversion, plus a subsequent penalty, put Leinster in front and replacement hooker Sheehan rumbled over from a line-out catch-and-drive to deny Leicester a losing bonus point.

Leinster 'find a way' to win but Parling 'proud' - reaction

Leicester full-back Freddie Steward told BBC Radio 5 Live:

"[The emotion is] disappointment. I think we had enough to win today.

"We talked in the week about belief, being aggressive and taking the game to them and I think we did that in the first half. We executed our game plan brilliantly and had the lead at half-time with two moments of magic.

"I don't know what it was, we just ran out of steam and our discipline let us down.

"We said at the end in the huddle that if we don't believe now that we're good enough, then I don't know what we need, because that's one of the best teams in club rugby in the world and we've gone toe-to-toe with them.

"We can be proud of our fight and our effort, but that's not good enough - we want to go beyond that now. We've got the fight and the effort, now we need to go and win games, but it's definitely there, which is good."

Tigers head coach Geoff Parling told Premier Sports:

"I'm proud of the way the group stood up for each other.

"I didn't think things went for us in the game. We've just got to learn that when we feel we're not getting the calls we deserve, what can we do to really tighten up and be more accurate in what we do?

"We had 37% territory in that game, so we played a lot in our half. I thought we defended so well for each other, but you saw at the top level of the game that one little moment where a ball kicks out of a scrum, that's the difference between winning and losing.

"The young lads I've got here continue to surprise me with the way they work for each other and step up. As long as we learn from what we doing, we're certainly not dead in the competition. There are two games to come and we know how this competition works."

Leinster head coach Leo Cullen told Premier Sports:

"I thought we started the game really well with great intent. We had a lot of opportunities but we didn't quite take them.

"You have to give the lads a huge amount of credit, it was an unbelievably composed dressing room at half-time.

"It's difficult to play here. Leicester are incredibly dogged in everything they do.

"I thought we showed good composure to come away with a win, because it wasn't perfect, but the lads managed to find a way to get the scores at important times of the game."

What's next?

Both sides will play their final two pool matches in January. Leicester face Bayonne at home and Stormers away, while Leinster host La Rochelle before visiting Bayonne.

The Tigers' next game is a home Prem fixture against Gloucester on Friday, 19 December - the same day on which Leinster return to URC action at home to Ulster.

Line-ups

Leicester: Steward; Radwan, Wand, Kata, Hassell-Collins; Searle, Whiteley; Smith, Blamire, Heyes, Henderson, Wells, Thompson, Reffell (capt), Moro.

Replacements: Theobald-Thomas, Van der Flier, Hurd, Manz, Williams, Allan, Bailey, Woodward.

Leinster: J O'Brien; T O'Brien, Ioane, Henshaw, Lowe; Byrne, Gibson-Park; McCarthy, Kelleher, Clarkson, McCarthy, Ryan, Conan, Van der Flier, Doris.

Replacements: Sheehan, Boyle, Slimani, Mangan, Deegan, McGrath, Prendergast, Frawley.

Match officials

Referee: Pierre Brousset (France)

Assistant referees: Vincent Blasco Baque (France) and Julien Caulier (France)

TMO: Tual Trainini (France)