Leicester go second with narrow win at Saracens

Leicester Tigers centre Izaia Perese has three caps for Australia

Gallagher Premiership

Saracens (17) 29

Tries: Tompkins, Swiel, Gonzalez, Hadfield Cons: Swiel 3 Pen: Swiel

Leicester (22) 32

Tries: Hassell-Collins, Perese, Montoya, Penalty Cons: Pollard 3 Pens: Pollard 2

Leicester Tigers moved up to second in the Premiership as they secured a narrow success at depleted Saracens.

The Tigers won their fifth game out of six under new head coach Michael Cheika and maintained their 100% record on the road.

Tries from Ollie Hassell-Collins, Izaia Perese, a penalty try and one from captain Julian Montoya picked up the full five points to take them one point behind leaders Bath.

Saracens, who were missing six players selected for England's squad for the autumn internationals, had first-half scores from Nick Tompkins and debutant Tim Swiel.

They trailed by 15 points with 20 minutes to go but tries from Juan Martin Gonzalez and James Hadfield saw their comeback fall just short.

Sarries, already without their England contingent, were forced into two more changes before kick-off with Alex Goode and Marco Riccioni ruled out.

But the patched up hosts began a crazy 10-minute spell in the first half where the sides exchanged four tries.

After a Handre Pollard penalty got the scoreboard moving for the visitors, Tompkins scored his first Premiership try for 24 matches after a fine initial line-break and then offload from Tom Willis.

But Hassell-Collins touched down from virtually the next play after Joseph Woodward's grubber kick had caused confusion in Sarries' defence.

Then Australia centre Perese showed brutal power to score his first try in Tigers colours as he collected a long miss-pass from Pollard and smashed through Tobias Elliott to get over the line.

Huge credit also must go to Anthony Watson, who took a superb high ball on the opposite wing to get the attack going.

However, a great break from Gonzalez set up Swiel to run through for a debut try. The South African only signed for the club in the week and the versatile back came into the side when Goode was ruled out.

Moments later, Swiel's penalty put Saracens in front, but they ended the first half behind as a penalty try was awarded and prop Alec Clarey, a late stand-in for Riccioni, sin-binned for illegally bringing down a Tigers maul.

Up against a man less at the start of the second half, the visitors, without five England players of their own, took full advantage as Argentina hooker Montoya was at the back of a driving maul that powered over from a line-out.

Hassell-Collins thought he had a second try only for it to be disallowed for a knock-on in the build-up, but the Tigers showed good game management as Pollard kicked a penalty to take their advantage beyond two converted tries.

It turned out to be a very smart play because Saracens fought their way back into the game, despite their absentees. Another powerful break from Willis led to Gonzalez scoring Sarries’ third try of the evening.

And they were back within three as replacement hooker Hadfield went over and Swiel converted.

It set up a thrilling last few minutes but Tigers held on for their first win at the StoneX Stadium since 2018.

Saracens collected two bonus points but they slip down to fourth in a tight top end of the table, although both sides showed enough to think they will be in the shake-off for the play-off spots at the end of the season.

'A good way to lose'

Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall said:

"We had a lot of disruption to deal with this week. We lost our starting props in the last 24 hours, we lost Fergus (Burke) on Wednesday and then Alex (Goode) in the warm-up.

“Tim Swiel hadn’t run a play with us and for him to get thrown in at the deep end wasn’t easy.

“The lads were making calls and Tim didn’t know what they were. It’s not a great situation, but he managed his way through the game and I thought he did really well.

“Our rugby wasn’t great, but we did have the resolve and resilience and that gets you a long way. There’s a good way to lose and a bad way to lose and that was one of the better ways.”

Leicester Tigers head coach Michael Cheika told BBC Radio Leicester:

"I'm really happy. It was always going to be a highly physical match.

"We had to get in there and play the long game and stick at it because we know the quality Saracens have in their team.

"It was a good battle and I enjoyed the physicality of it. We won some battles, lost some others and I liked the way even when the momentum swung back against us, we put our flag in the ground and said we're not moving from here."

Saracens: Parton; Elliott, Cinti, Tompkins, Segun; Swiel, van Zyl; Mawi, Piefeleti, Clarey, McFarland, Tizard, Gonzalez, Knight, Willis.

Replacements: Hadfield, Brantingham, Hoskins, Wilson, Michelow, Simpson, Hallett, Jackson.

Sin-bin: Clarey (40)

Leicester: Brown; Watson, Perese, Woodward, Hassell-Collins; Pollard, Whiteley; Smith, Montoya, Heyes, Wells, Manz, Liebenberg, Reffell, Cracknell.

Replacements: Clare, Cronin, Hurd, Joussain, Rogerson, Youngs, Shillcock, Wand.

Referee: Karl Dickson