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A George Ford kick proves decisive as Leicester grab win in France

By PA
(Photo by Romain Perrocheau/AFP via Getty Images)

A late George Ford penalty helped Leicester get their Heineken Champions Cup campaign off to a winning start as they beat Bordeaux 16-13 at the Stade Chaban-Delmas. Ford kicked eleven points with Guy Porter scoring their only try as Steve Borthwick’s side maintained their unbeaten start to the season. Jean-Baptiste Dubie touched down for Bordeaux, with Maxime Lucu adding eight points.

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Bordeaux wasted no time in taking the lead, with Lucu knocking over a penalty from 40 metres out after a mere three minutes. After a hectic opening quarter of an hour, Ford levelled the scores for Leicester with a simple penalty after Tommy Reffell had put the visitors on the front foot with a strong carry, forcing the hosts to infringe at the breakdown.

Bordeaux were then temporarily reduced to 14 men, with former Australia international Kaine Douglas sent to the sin bin for a swinging arm to the head of Calum Green.

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      Leicester made the most of their numerical advantage as Ford drew in Cameron Woki before offloading to Bryce Hegarty who sliced open the Bordeaux defence. Hegarty charged towards the line before putting Porter over for the try, which the Sale-bound Ford converted.

      Leicester’s pack were now in the ascendancy with their scrum and lineout putting Bordeaux under a severe amount of pressure. After laying siege to the Bordeaux try line, Ford opted for a cross-kick, but Hosea Saumaki ended up taking Nans Ducuing out in the air. Referee Andrew Brace was left with no option but to show Saumaki a yellow card.

      This proved to be a momentum shift as Bordeaux ended the half with the wind in their sails. First, Italian international Federico Mori raced clear into the Leicester 22 to give the hosts a strong attacking position.

      After a period of sustained pressure, Bordeaux centre Moram Falatea-Moefana carried forward before executing a perfect offload to put Dubie over for the try. Lucu added the extras, meaning the scores were level at 10-10 at half-time. Leicester had a try disallowed in the early stages of the second half, with Porter knocking the ball forward before the line, meaning Harry Potter’s grounding was null and void.

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      Ford missed a penalty for the Tigers and kicked straight out on the full which handed the momentum back to the hosts, and Lucu edged Bordeaux in front for the first time with a successful penalty. Bordeaux put Leicester under severe pressure but could not take advantage. Leicester forced their way back into the Bordeaux 22 and their scrum earned them a penalty which allowed Ford to level the scores with ten minutes remaining.

      With four minutes left on the clock, Ford knocked over a penalty from 45 metres out to put the Tigers back in front. Bordeaux turned down a kickable penalty to level the scores with the last play of the game, but they refused to accept the draw and went for the corner. But after a few powerful carries, they were penalised and Leicester came out on top.

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      J
      JW 20 minutes ago
      New Zealanders may not understand, but in France Test rugby is the 'B movie'

      But he was wrong, he had to take back what he said. But maybe this only happened because he came out and was honest with his initial plans?


      He’s simply in a position where he should be far more professional.


      I don’t really follow much media, especially SM, but again, I’ve not seen anyone complaining. Plenty of ridicule and pointing out things like it being disrespectful to the game, but as far as the English language goes, that’s not complaining. Nick Bishop for instance hasn’t been complaining, he’s simply saying Galthie made a bad decision for France’s prospects (which when the common reply is ‘thats how it is’).


      Complaining would be views expressing that the FFR should have put the tour back a week so that all T14 finalists could attend. Complaining would be saying they’ve been robbed of seeing the worlds best stars. Complaining would be saying players can simply take extra weeks off from T14. I’ve only seen advice and suggestions that these are things France need to look-at-for-the-future.


      Basically I tried to communicate with French fans because they don’t understand what’s being communicated. ALL reactions I have seen shared here by French supports have all seemed way over the top compared what I’ve seen expressed about this tour.

      the players are expected to play in too many matches, for too many minutes, and need more rest and recovery time.

      This is the message I have been sharing. So something needs to happen, whether thats France pull out of more Internationals or rest players from more domestic games, who knows, but I also don’t think what they have now is working. It’s obviously much better than 3-4 years ago, but they appear to want to work even harder at it like you say. Personally I’ve only seen LNR be reasonable, I hear much less of their other internationals being denied/influenced not to play, so I imagine that they will give even further (as I can’t really see France pulling out the other international windows as well).

      146 Go to comments
      J
      JW 1 hour ago
      'The Wallabies only have themselves to blame': How the Lions sunk Australia in Melbourne

      Cameron Woki picked at the base of a ruck and jumped/dived over. That would clearly now be penalised.

      But the Sheehan try is different to my eye. It starts from a tap penalty, he drives forward, the two WB defenders go low for a tackle in the assumption Sheehan will go to ground. He does not, but seeing the hole now left dives through it. In this case surely there is zero danger there.

      World Rugby’s terminology/interpretation recently (shared again after this) is that it’s ok to hurdle/dive (that includes over, say a ruck, which we have seen this many times even in this years SR) to score a try, but it’s not (OK) to avoid a tackle. I can’t remember the one you describe (which may have been where their clarification came from) but that would sound OK. Sheehan definitely was playing the rope-a-dope and dived to avoid being tackled (can’t call it tackled really, just blocked/stopped lol), so shouldn’t have been awarded (I wasn’t aware of this last definition so just thought it was a very smart move). Was it premeditated? I’m not sure, but he could definitely have collected someones head if that was the case. And I guess even if he saw the space, I guess it’s not something they can allow as others might try it and get it terribly wrong?


      Well summed up Miz. I have been thinking the whole situation of events that lead to this type of sneaky move is the problem, particularly as it relates to the difficulty and effort defenders now go to stop such situations (like say Slippers try), where players go extremely low to drive from meters out (and in most cases plays just trying to dive under). It’s also ugly business seeing attempt after attempt to go in under the tacklers, especially with them not really being able to perform a ‘tackle’ at all. I would simply give the defenders their goal line. All they need is some part of the body on or behind, and this will stop the play (being the fuel to this fire) from being attempted I reckon.

      38 Go to comments
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