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Red card mayhem as three sent off in Leicester victory over Wasps

By PA
Jasper Wiese of Leicester Tigers looks on, after being awarded a red card by Referee Craig Maxwell-Keys (Photo by Matthew Lewis/Getty Images)

Leicester recorded a convincing 27-8 victory over Wasps at Welford Road in a Gallagher Premiership match that had three red cards.

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The Tigers led 11-3 when their try-scorer Jacob Wiese was dismissed after 26 minutes but the hosts extended their advantage by another three points before Wasps prop Kieran Brookes saw red to even up the numbers.

Julian Montoya and Tommy Reffell crossed for further tries either side of Tom Cruse’s effort for Wasps before Leicester back-rower Hanro Liebenberg was sent off with two minutes left.

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It was a landmark afternoon for three visiting players, with Welsh international Will Rowlands making his 100th Wasps appearance while James Gaskell and Josh Bassett both reached a century of Premiership appearances for the club.

However the game did not start well for Wasps as they fell behind to a third-minute try when Wiese finished off a driving line-out.

Zack Henry missed the touchline conversion and then a straightforward 45-metre penalty but Tigers continued to dominate the opening period as Wasps were penned in their own half.

Henry was presented with another 45-metre opportunity and this time he made no mistake before Jimmy Gopperth responded with a simple penalty to leave the visitors trailing 8-3.

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Henry kicked his second penalty in the 22nd minute before turning down another simple kick at goal in favour of an attacking line-out.

The decision proved to be unwise as Wiese charged into the resulting maul with his shoulder catching the head of Wasps flanker Ben Morris and, after TMO replays, was sent off.

Wasps temporarily lost Morris to a head injury assessment and they suffered a further setback when Henry knocked over a long-range penalty to give Leicester a thoroughly merited 14-3 interval lead.

Soon after the restart, Brookes was sent off for a head-high challenge on Tigers lock Tomas Lavanini, and Tigers were quick to capitalise when Montoya finished off a driving line-out.

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Wasps brought on backs Jacob Umaga and Michael Le Bourgeois in an attempt to reverse their fortunes but their lightweight pack – that was missing Joe Launchbury, Jack Willis and Thomas Young – were no match for their counterparts.

They were battered in the scrums and second best in the loose and should have fallen further behind but Henry missed an angled penalty.

However a superb touch-finder from Umaga secured his side a rare platform, five metres out from the opposition line from where Cruse forced his way over.

Umaga missed the conversion before a Henry penalty and a close-range try from Reffell rewarded Leicester’s limited but effective game-plan, before Liebenberg became the third red card in the 78th minute for taking a man out in the air.

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Flankly 2 hours ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

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