| Leicester Tigers (24) 24 |
| Tries: Pollard, Henderson, Brown Cons: Pollard 3 Pen: Pollard |
| Saracens (10) 18 |
| Tries: Mawi, Lewington Con: Goode Pens: Goode 2 |
Leicester survived a late onslaught to inflict just a second Premiership defeat on leaders Saracens and boost their hopes of a top-four finish.
Handre Pollard, Cameron Henderson and Mike Brown all crossed for Tigers in the opening half hour but Eroni Mawi pulled one back just before half-time.
An Alex Goode penalty and interception try by Alex Lewington put Sarries six points behind with half an hour left.
But Leicester held firm to end a run of three straight Premiership defeats.
The Tigers remain eighth in the table but are now just three points behind fourth-placed Gloucester after recording just their second win in five league outings since Richard Wigglesworth took charge in December following Steve Borthwick’s appointment as England head coach.
The hosts displayed intent from the off, with inventiveness and flair creating three tries, but required resilience and defensive steel in the closing stages to secure victory – having failed to score a point in the second half at Mattioli Woods Welford Road.
Jasper Wiese set the ball rolling in the fifth minute, breaking through the middle of the Sarries defence on halfway and beating two defenders before being taken down inches from the line, and Tigers quickly spread the ball for South Africa fly-half Pollard to cross to the right of the posts.
A line break by debutant Brown and carry by Julian Montoya provided the platform for the second try six minutes later, with Henderson bustling past two tacklers to finish.
Goode, making a record-extending 350th appearance for Saracens, kicked a penalty to get his side on the scoreboard before the hosts bagged their third try.
Tigers went through the phases and then fine interplay and offloading by Chris Ashton and Jimmy Gopperth allowed former England full-back Brown, who joined on a short-term deal last month, to cut in from the right wing and Pollard added his third conversion.
After Ashton was denied a try in the corner by a fine tackle by Lewington, a long-range Pollard penalty stretched the lead to 21 points at 24-3.
Yet Saracens got back in the game just before the break as their forwards took control and Fijian prop Mawi went over from a pick-and-go.
The visitors continued their momentum after the restart, with Rotimi Segun held up over the line before Goode slotted his second penalty from just outside the 22.
Lewington then pounced on a loose pass to race from midway inside his own half and score, but Goode missed the resulting conversion.
The game then became a case of Saracens attack against Leicester defence, with Theo Dan held up and the Tigers managing to withstand the pressure with a number of last-ditch tackles to deny Sarries another remarkable comeback.
Leicester Tigers interim head coach Richard Wigglesworth told BBC Radio Leicester:
“It was nerve-wracking as we have been there quite a few times this season – especially recently – where we should have won games and then we lost them.
“We hung on through guts and determination. We actually played poorly for 45 minutes but the fight and the character of the lads got them the win.
“We showed what a good team we can be in patches. That has to be the start for us, of how we approach games and how we pressure other teams, but that fell away and we never got a foothold in the game after that.
“We have not reinvented anything. Hopefully you’ll see in the next few weeks what we have been trying to work on. It was nice for that work to be rewarded with a win.”
Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall:
“We should have won that game and, although we were up against heroic last-ditch defence, we had five or six chances to score but didn’t do so.
“Definitely we have to do better than that, but I’m pleased at how the players responded to being 24-3 down and our senior players were superb.
“However, it was an incredibly poor start as we gave away two 50-metre tries in the first 12 minutes, but it will still be a good learning curve for some of our youngsters.”
Leicester: Brown; Ashton, Scott, Gopperth, Potter; Pollard, Youngs; West, Montoya (capt), Heyes, Martin, Henderson, Liebenberg, Cracknell, Wiese.
Replacements: Clare, Van Wyk, Hurd, Snyman, Reffell, Edwards, Atkinson, Simmons.
Saracens: Maitland; Segun, Lozowski, Tompkins, Lewington; Goode (capt), Davies; Mawi, Pifeleti, Riccioni, Ellis, Tizard, Christie, Wray, B Vunipola.
Replacements: Dan, Hislop, Judge, Boon, Knight, Van Zyl, Hartley, Harris.
Referee: Tom Foley.
