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LEICESTER TIGERS v NEWCASTLE FALCONS
Charlie Clare scores in three successive games in a first-ever meeting with Connacht
It was entirely appropriate that a first-ever competitive meeting with Connacht last week - the teams had previously only met in a pre-season game during 2005 - should bring up some historic moments for the players involved. Tigers statistician and historian Stuart Farmer points out that when Charlie Clare drove over from a maul midway through the first half, he became the first forward since Tom Croft in the 2012-13 season to score a try in three successive games. International back-rower Croft scored in a 26-27 defeat at Bath in April 2013 and then in a bonus-point win over London Irish - the tries coming coincidentally in the 14th minute of each game - and also in the Premiership semi-final win over Harlequins in the runup to the club’s most recent Premiership title.
They were also his only scores in 12 club appearances during that season. The last front-rower to achieve this feat was Derek Jelley, playing as tighthead prop in games against Loughborough Students and then London Irish and Exeter in the Cheltenham & Gloucester Cup in 1997. That 71-7 win over the Students is also notable for a hat-trick by Geordan Murphy, just a week after his debut against Rotherham, and the treble by Fijian forward Marika Vunibaka in his only appearance for the club. Clare, of course, can still claim to have gone one better than both Croft and Jelley as he scored four times in the three games, following up Gallagher Premiership tries against Exeter Chiefs and Newcastle with a double in the win over Connacht. Also during the Challenge Cup game last week - in a new Round of 16 stage - Guy Porter, Matias Moroni and Zack Henry
Stat Pack SOME OF THE FACTS AND FIGURES BEHIND THE HEADLINES...
all scored their first tries for the club. For Henry, it was even more memorable as it came on the day he received his players’ tie after his 20th club appearance. This is the first time three players have claimed maiden tries in the same game since an AngloWelsh Cup tie against Saracens in November 2012. On that occasion the honour was shared by academy graduates Joe Cain and Harry Thacker, plus Irish back-rower Michael Noone.
