Premiership: Leicester 62-19 Exeter - Chris Ashton reaches 100 league tries with hat-trick
- Published
Ashton scored his 99th, 100th and 101st Premiership tries and had a fourth try ruled out
Gallagher Premiership |
|---|
Leicester: 62 (22) |
Tries: Kelly, Van Poortvliet, Ashton 3, Penalty, Martin, Scott 2; Pen: Pollard; Cons: Pollard 4, Gopperth 2 |
Exeter: 19 (12) |
Tries: S Simmonds, Hogg, Tuima; Cons: J Simmonds, Skinner |
Leicester wing Chris Ashton became the first player to score 100 Premiership tries as Exeter conceded their record points tally in a top-flight match.
Veteran Ashton, who retires at the end of the season, scored a hat-trick to help Tigers demolish 14-man Chiefs.
The 36-year-old went close to a fourth score - but TV replays prompted referee Karl Dickson to award a penalty try.
Olly Woodburn was shown a second yellow card at the same time, virtually ending Exeter's faint play-off hopes.
With two games left, they are now 10 points adrift of fourth-placed Northampton, while Leicester all but sealed a top-four spot and have an outside chance of a home semi-final in the play-offs.
Despite losing tight-head prop James Cronin to injury early in the game, the Tigers built up a head of steam as they raced into a 14-point lead with two converted tries in the opening 10 minutes.
Dan Kelly pounced on Handre Pollard's grubber for the first and Jack van Poortvliet - who had just come close to scoring - burst off a scrum and found Ashton, who dabbed a kick in behind for his team-mate to dive over.
Exeter responded well, Sam Simmonds exploiting a gap in Tigers' blind-side defence to finish superbly after a weaving run to the line.
Pollard's kicking was variable, with a routine penalty crashing back off the post after Woodburn had received his first booking for a deliberate knock-on.
When the fly-half's careless cross-kick was neatly plucked out of the air by Sean O'Brien, Stuart Hogg took advantage to score a try that reduced the deficit to five points - but the short-handed visitors were unable to build on that momentum.
As Woodburn returned to the field, Rory O'Loughlin replaced him in the sin-bin for an identical offence - and Anthony Watson's grubber kick released Ashton in the corner for his first to make it 22-12 on the stroke of half-time.
Exeter's Olly Woodburn was shown a second yellow card for his part in trying to stop Ashton scoring here
Ashton might have added a second soon after the resumption as he slid in to finish off Jasper Wiese's break, but appeared to have a foot in touch under pressure from Hogg's fine last-ditch tackle.
After lengthy consultation with the TMO though, referee Karl Dickson awarded Leicester a penalty try, deciding Woodburn had dived on to the back of Ashton, earning the Exeter winger a harsh second yellow card, which reduced the visitors to 14.
Five minutes later, Ashton did bring up his century, collecting Pollard's pass to go over on the opposite flank.
With a sixth consecutive league win all but confirmed, the Tigers then ripped their demoralised opponents apart.
George Martin burrowed over for Leicester's sixth try and Matt Scott's double sandwiched a sixth Premiership hat-trick try for Ashton, who finished off a flowing move to take his tally to 101.
The celebratory atmosphere at Welford Road continued as Ben Youngs came off the bench for his 300th Leicester appearance and even a late consolation for the Chiefs, a close-range effort by Rus Tuima, barely registered with the jubilant home crowd.
Post-match reaction
Chris Ashton told BBC Radio Leicester:
"I've had an overwhelming week with the retirement and stuff, but my motivation has always been the same - to score tries for my team and it was no different today.
"I've struggled the past few weeks just to get fit but I felt good out there - I almost thought 'have I retired too early?'
"Maybe that's the best way, you need a goal, a focus as a professional player and I left myself two games, so I had to get it quickly.
"The lads have really been behind me, trying to help and support as much as they can. They know how desperate I was to get it and I'm very grateful to them."
Interim Tigers head coach Richard Wigglesworth told BBC Radio Leicester:
"Chris is never short of backing himself to score tries. I told him it was his last game today, so he'd better knock them off!
"I wasn't particularly happy with the first half - we weren't playing to our maximum ability but second half I thought we were exceptional.
"We played the game we wanted to play and we did it for the full 40. All we want is to get the absolute best we can and try and get better."
Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter told BBC Radio Devon:
"It felt like a game where every individual mistake hit us big. We didn't get away with many little mistakes that didn't become big pressure moments.
"Looking at any of the stats in the first half, you wouldn't have said we were the team under relentless pressure.
"Everything that could go wrong did go wrong at the start of the second half. We ended up on the back foot and never got off it."
Leicester: Steward, Ashton, Scott, Kelly, Watson, Pollard, Van Poortvliet, Cronin, Montoya, Cole, Martin, Henderson, Liebenberg, Reffell, Wiese.
Replacements: Clare, West, Heyes, Snyman, Cracknell, B Youngs, Gopperth, Potter.
Exeter: Hogg, Wyatt, O'Brien, Kata, Woodburn, S Simmonds, Becconsall, Abuladze, Yeandle, Iosefa-Scott, Dunne, J Gray, Davis, Tshiunza, J Simmonds.
Replacements: Innard, Sio, Street, Williams, Tuima, Townsend, Skinner, O'Loughlin.
Referee: Karl Dickson
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