TIGERS MATCHFILE

– LAST TIME OUT –

LEICESTER TIGERS 13-35 EXETER CHIEFS

Saturday December 5 2020 / Gallagher Premiership Round 3 Attendance: Closed doors / Referee: Mr Craig Maxwell-Keys

LEICESTER TIGERS

15 Freddie Steward 14 Guy Porter 13 Jaco Taute 12 Matt Scott 11 Harry Simmons 10 Zack Henry C / 2P 9 Richard Wigglesworth

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Nephi Leatigaga Tom Youngs (c) Dan Cole Harry Wells Calum Green Hanro Liebenberg Cyle Brink Jasper Wiese

T 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

Charlie Clare Ryan Bower Joe Heyes Blake Enever Tommy Reffell Jordan Taufua Ben White Joaquin Diaz Bonilla

EXETER:

Cordero, Whitten, Hendrickson, Devoto, O’Flaherty, J Simmonds, Townsend; Moon, Yeandle (c), Williams, Witty, Armand, Ewers, Kirsten, S Simmonds. Reps: Innard, Kenny, Street, Price, Capstick, J Maunder, Walsh, Hodge.

Exeter Chiefs produced a second-half fightback to maintain their 100-per-cent record from the start of the league season.

A penalty awarded in the opening 90 seconds allowed Zack Henry to put Tigers ahead and, despite conceding a try from captain Jack Yeandle from a close-range penalty, they played their way back into the lead before half-time, adding a clinical finish from a set-piece to go with determined work in defence.

After Henry had added another penalty, Tigers capitalised on a crisp lineout play to score through Calum Green and the conversion made it 13-7 at the break.

But two tries in quick succession, from Jannes Kirsten and Ian Whitten, in the third quarter gave Chiefs a platform to chase a third bonus-point win in a row in defence of their league title.

Tigers did create pressure of their own but without converting chances into points on the scoreboard before Sam Simmonds - with his sixth in three games - and Ollie Devoto added further scores for the visitors in the closing stages.

NOTEBOOK…

Birthay appearances for Freddie Steward (20) and Nephi Leatigaga (27)… Calum Green scored his first Tigers try… First appearance of the season for Blake Enever… Tigers academy graduate Tom Price was an unlucky replacement for Chiefs, leaving the field with a head knock just moments after running on.

QUOTE... “At half-time, although he’d been on the back foot for a lot of it, you feel you’re in the battle, but there is a reason they are champions, they found another gear.”

Dan Cole