A four try blitz from Leicester Tigers in the last 16 minutes of the first half effectively ended what until then was shaping as a good contest and laid the platform for a humiliating 56-17 win over the Hollywoodbets Sharks in their Investec Champions Cup clash at Welford Road on Saturday.
The Sharks led the game after 22 minutes and were threatening to push Leicester but between then and the halftime hooter the game was turned on its head. Leicester secured their try scoring bonus point by the 34th minute as they raced into a commanding 35-10 halftime lead.
When Sharks coach John Plumtree named a much changed up team, some would even say second string combination, for their first away game in the competition it was always likely that Leicester, who lost to Bordeaux Tigers in the first week, would notch their first win.
Leicester Tigers prove too strong for the Hollywoodbets Sharks in their #InvestecChampionsCup clash 🐯 pic.twitter.com/WOvsNFWsdI
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) December 14, 2024
That Plumtree was able to do take the risk was because his team banked full points against Exeter Chiefs in Durban last week, but by not getting anything from this game it does leave the Durbanites under pressure to beat the competition champions Toulouse when the teams clash at Hollywoodbets Kings Park on 11 January.
FLASHES OF PROMISE INITIALLY
Even given the raft of changes, Plumtree would have felt the Sharks still had enough experience to put up a competitive showing and they did - for the first 24 minutes.
In that time they showed some flashes of promise, with Ethan Hooker in particular giving an indication of why he is rated as a star of the future. There were some good moments on attack in that first quarter, and apart from missing a penalty kick for touch that ultimately proved costly, Siya Masuku delivered a cool performance at flyhalf.
But even in those early stages it was clear it might become a long night for the Sharks as Leicester enjoyed a key advantage in the battle of the breakdown, where England international Tommy Reffell was very influential. And the Sharks, although it was Masuku who kicked the first penalty of the game to give his team a 3-0 lead after four minutes, were also punished for their indiscipline.
Punished in the sense that Leicester’s Bok flyhalf Handre Pollard was so pinpoint accurate in kicking penalty kicks awarded against the Sharks in the middle of the field into the corner. The first try didn’t come directly from a Pollard penalty kick, but a really coolly taken field kick that went out near the corner flag.
INDISCIPLINE WAS PUNISHED BY MAN OF MATCH POLLARD
From there the Sharks conceded a penalty that enabled Pollard, who ended up with the official man of the match award, to set up the lineout drive that powered the Leicester and Argentina hooker Julian Montoya over in the left corner. Pollard was his usual accurate self from the tee, and when he converted from the touchline the Tigers were 7-3 ahead after nine minutes.
It was not though a lead that the Sharks relinquished never to regain. The Sharks gave a good account of themselves in the next 13 minutes and were rewarded when a driving maul saw Emmanuel Tshituka, playing No 8, dot down. Masuku converted from the touchline to put the Sharks ahead 10-7.
But if for the young Sharks team this game was mainly a learning experience, they ended up learning a lot, the primary learning being that conceding penalties in the middle of the field when there is a line kicker as accurate as Pollard in the opposition ranks and a maul as dominating as Leicester’s can be fatal.
Masuku in particular would have learned about the dangers of missing touch, it was straight after the Sharks had taken the lead after the Tshituka try that the Sharks flyhalf failed to find touch with the penalty kick that should have put the Leicester back in their own territory and the Sharks straight back on the attack. Instead the miss led to Leicester getting a penalty from the ensuing play, which Pollard kicked into the corner and from the lineout Montoya powered over for his second try.
If that was an error, there was a more glaring one a few minutes later, with another Leicester penalty being kicked into the corner by Pollard, but Sharks wing Eduan Keyter managed to grab the ball above his head just before it crossed the touchline. Leicester wing Ollie Haskell-Collins was strong on the chase, so when Keyter passed the ball back inside onto open ground it was Haskell-Collins who capitalised on the early Christmas present by going over for a try that Pollard again converted from the touchline.
WORSE WAS TO FOLLOW
Suddenly from the Sharks being 10-7 ahead it was Leicester leading 21-10, and the transformation had come in a matter of minutes. Worse was to follow as Haskell-Collins put in a great run down the left flank as the Leicester attacking game found its range from inside their own half, and the ball was transferred back to the powerful inside centre Solomone Kata who was never going to be stopped once he was offered pace.
Then just to rub it in it was the Sharks’ countryman Pollard who crossed on the stroke of halftime to make the margin a massive 25 points at the halfway mark. There was never going to be any comeback from there for the Sharks, and Leicester’s England scrumhalf Jack van Poorvliet scored a sixth for their team not long after the restart.
"A South African against a South African team." 👀
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) December 14, 2024
Handre Pollard dives in for a try as Leicester Tigers get their fifth in the first half against the Hollywoodbets Sharks.
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After that it was a case of the Sharks chasing the three tries they needed to get a try scoring bonus point, with any point picked up on the road in this competition being seen as the equivalent of gold. The aforementioned Hooker gave them some hope when he crossed on the hour mark but the Tigers, aware of how tight the battle to get out of the pool phase could be, were too alert to Sharks’ intentions and pretty much dominated the final quarter and their reserve hooker Charlie Clare and reserve loose-forward Emeke Ilione were the only other try scorers in the game.
It might of course have been different for the Sharks had the likes of Eben Etzebeth, Siya Kolisi, Ox Nche, Makazole Mapimpi, Aphelele Fassi, Lukhanyo Am, Andre Esterhuizen and other Boks been present, with some of those being rested and others out injured, but there was a clear decision on their coach Plumtree’s part to target next week’s big Vodacom United Rugby Championship derby against the Vodacom Bulls.
Both teams will be going into that game off chastening defeats.
Scores
Leicester Tigers 56 - Tries: Julian Montoya 2, Ollie Haskell-Collins, Solomone Kata, Handre Pollard, Jack van Poorvliet, Charlie Clare and Emeke Ilione; Conversions: Handre Pollard 6 and Jamie Shillcock 2.
Hollywoodbets Sharks 17- Tries: Emmanuel Tshituka, Ethan Hooker; Conversions: Siya Masuku 2; Penalty: Siya Masuku.