Heineken Champions Cup: Leicester 27-17 Clermont: Tigers cruise into quarter-finals
- Published
Hanro Liebenberg scored his fifth try of the season when barging over for the Tigers' first try
Heineken Champions Cup last 16 |
|---|
Leicester (7) 27 |
Tries: Liebenberg, Scott, penalty try, Steward Pen: Ford Con: Ford |
Clermont Auvergne (3) 17 |
Tries: Raka, Lee Pen: Lopez Cons: Parra 2 |
Leicester win 56-27 on aggregate |
Leicester cruised into the last eight of the Heineken Champions Cup with a comfortable win over Clermont Auvergne despite having Ollie Chessum sent off.
Leading the tie 29-10 from the first leg, the Tigers were never in danger of seeing their lead overturned.
Hanro Liebenberg, Matt Scott and Freddie Steward crossed for the hosts, who were also awarded a penalty try.
Clermont grabbed two tries in the second half, either side of Chessum's dismissal for a dangerous tackle.
It meant that Leicester finished both legs of the tie with 14 men, after Guy Porter was sent off in France a week earlier, but they were mostly untroubled in securing a home quarter-final against Leinster.
Clermont had already been forced into an early change when centre George Moala was injured and replaced by Samuel Ezeala, shortly before flanker Liebenberg barged over by the posts for Leicester's first try.
The only other scores of the first half were a penalty apiece for each side, but Clermont scrum-half Baptiste Jauneau was unlucky not to claim a try after a brilliant piece of work at a charge down in the in-goal area saw the ball just scrape the line out of play.
But Leicester began to stretch away early in the second half, when substitute Scott went over following good set-up play by George Ford and Tommy Reffell.
Alivereti Raka stretched over to grab Clermont's first try, but the three-time runners-up were soon down to 14 when Etienne Fourcade was sent to the sin-bin.
The Tigers quickly took advantage, pressurising Clermont into conceding a penalty try which also resulted in Daniel Biziwu being shown the yellow card.
Chessum received his marching orders just two minutes later following his high tackle on Ezeala, but Steward claimed the try of the match when the England full-back finished off a move that had started on Leicester's own 22.
Fritz Lee grabbed a consolation try for Clermont as Leicester claimed a European Champions Cup quarter-final spot for the first time since 2016.
'The players deserve enormous credit' - what they said
Leicester Tigers head coach Steve Borthwick:
"We had two games and we won two games. If you look back at the start of the season, who would've thought Leicester Tigers would be European Champions Cup quarter-finalists.
"You would've thought there was no chance of that, but that's what we've done. The players deserve enormous credit for what they've done.
"At half-time there were some things we needed to do better in the second half. The players did that very well. The impact of the players coming on to the pitch was also very good."
Leicester: Steward; Ashton, Moroni, Kelly, Potter; Ford, Van Poortvilet; Genge (capt), Dolly, Heyes, Wells, Snyman, Chessum, Reffell, Liebenberg
Replacements: Clare for Dolly (45), Van Wyk for Genge (63), Cole for Heyes (63), Green for Snyman (45), Wiese for Liebenberg (55), Youngs for Van Poortvilet (45), Burns for Ford (63), Scott for Kelly (37)
Clermont Auvergne: Tiberghien; O'Connor, Moala, Fofana, Raka; Lopez, Jauneau; Beria, Beheregaray, T Lanen, Amatosero, C Lanen, Dessaigne, Lee.
Replacements: Ezealea for Moala (6), Parra for Jauneau (48)Fourcade for Beheregaray (59), Bibi Biziwu for Beria (51), Falatea for Ojovan (51), Beheregarayat for Lanen (64), Jedrasiak, Cancoriet, Hanrahan for O'Connor (43) and Raka (67), Beria for Ezeala (64).
Referee: Andrew Brace.
