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Saracens 19 Leicester 20: Revenge sees Leicester end Saracens’ home run
Leicester rugby director Richard Cockerill admitted he does not envy England head coach Stuart Lancaster’s task of selecting his team to face Wales on Saturday.
Internationals Manu Tuilagi and Toby Flood played big roles as Leicester avenged their Premiership play-off final defeat at Twickenham last May and ended a Saracens unbeaten home record which dated back to October 2010.
Cockerill said: “Manu had a long lay-off with injury but he’s now played two 80 minutes and was still charging for the line at the end, while Floody had a torrid time in last week’s disappointing defeat at Exeter and showed his quality with those penalties.
“England have done well with the guys they have, so how they may or may not fit in those two is, happily, not my problem.
“Manu is a very good lad, very professional. But he’s also 20. You make wrong calls when you are growing up and you learn from them. Manu is a lad growing up who is also a very exciting player.”
Cockerill admitted he was down to his final unchewed nail as Tigers went through 26 phases to pinch victory with captain Geordan Murphy’s drop-goal.
He added: “I was desperate for the lads to go for the drop – probably about 14 times before Geordan finally delivered. And I think it was apt that he should score the winner.
“It was Geordan who sat the players down in midweek and told them what is expected of Leicester players after last week’s performance. He then made the call to take the drop-goal and did what all great Leicester players do, he led from the front.”
Alex Goode missed his first two shots at goal, but went on to kick 14 points, including the last-minute penalty that looked like preserving Saracens home record.
Throw in a cracking de Kock try, sparked by the impressive Brits, which Goode converted, and Saracens did their bit in a compelling contest. But with Toby Flood kicking four penalties and Ed Slater making up for his first-minute sin-binning after a lineout offence by scoring the Tigers try, it was left to Ireland full-back Murphy to keep his nerve and deliver the killer drop-goal with the final kick of the match.
Saracens rugby director Mark McCall took defeat on the chin and refused to use the fact that they were without 10 senior players through England duty and injury as an excuse.
He said: “It was a tight, very close game as we tend to have against Leicester. I remember when we won a similar game at Welford Road because Billy Twelvetrees missed a last-gasp penalty.
“There were shades there also of last May at Twickenham, only this time they got the crucial score with the last kick. We were 30 seconds from beating a very fine Leicester side.”
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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