Saints suffer defeat in lacklustre cup clash with Leicester Tigers

Tigers barely had any prolonged spells of pressure in the Saints half, but they managed to come away with a bonus-point win as they capitalised on any openings that came their way.

Saints had moved into a first-half lead when South African lock van der Mescht showed his brute force from close range twice in quick succession.

George Furbank was also impressing as he pulled the strings while skippering Saints from 10, but Tigers found a way to keep adding to their tally.

The hosts were ahead at the break as Joaquin Moro's second try of the game put them 19-15 up, and the second half lacked any real quality as the two teams slugged it out.

Saints just couldn't get anything going after the interval, failing to score until Oliver Scola went over for his first senior try from the final play of the game.

And it meant that after starting their cup campaign with back-to-back bonus-point wins, they have now suffered back-to-back losses without claiming anything from them.

To add to Saints' woes, they lost Chunga Munga and George Hendy to injury on a cold night at Mattioli Woods Welford Road that they will want to forget.

The loss of Munga and Hendy will hurt as Saints are already short in the second row and back three ahead of next Saturday's return to Gallagher PREM action at Bristol Bears.

Saints even lost a player to injury before the game at Leicester started as Archie McParland was ruled out, bringing Jonny Weimann into the action at scrum-half.

And it was to be a far from ideal start to the game for the black, green and gold as a box-kick caused problems for Ollie Sleightholme, who couldn't claim under pressure, meaning the ball bounced up for No.8 Moro to gather and race home.

Billy Searle converted but Saints tried to respond, with Furbank's kicking game coming to the fore as he stretched the pitch to get the ball to Amena Caqusau on a couple of occasions.

On the other wing, Sleightholme's eyes lit up as he raced down the left, looking extremely dangerous before the ball was eventually lost forward.

From the resulting scrum, Saints got a huge shove on, winning them a penalty, but Tigers got the ball back after resisting the lineout drive.

Still Saints came though, and a Furbank run caused chaos in the Tigers defence, forcing them to infringe.

Saints used the penalty to good effect, working the ball for van der Mescht to power over from close range.

Furbank appeared to have slotted the conversion just inside the right post, but the two points were not awarded by the officials, who felt the fly-half had missed.

Furbank did kick a conversion that was awarded on 27 minutes though as van der Mescht again used his immense power to push through a few Tigers players and get the ball down over the line.

Saints had made a really strong start to the match, dominating possession and looking dangerous with ball in hand, while Tigers had looked largely ragged.

But the home side were level on 32 minutes as the ball came out of a splintered Saints scrum, allowing Leicester to work the ball to scrum-half Tom Whiteley for the score.

Searle missed the conversion and Saints were soon back in front as Furbank slotted a drop goal to reward another period of black, green and gold pressure.

Caqusau was having a fine game on the left wing, gaining ground every time he got the ball as he kept Tigers on their toes.

However, it was the hosts who would score again before the break, regaining the lead as Moro made the most of a spell of pressure to grab his second try of the game.

Searle converted to make it 19-15 at the interval, during which Saints opted to take off van der Mescht and Josh Kemeny as Ed Prowse and Callum Chick came on.

Kemeny was soon forced to come back on though as Munga had to go off with a head injury seven minutes into the second half.

The game was lacking any real quality as both sides struggled to put anything together.

After a brief scrap, there was some life in the derby as Searle flew through the middle and kicked ahead for the onrushing Will Wand to score.

Searle converted and Saints were 26-15 down, having had to face no previous pressure during a second half that lacked any real rhythm.

Searle soon added a penalty to the Tigers tally as the home side gave themselves some extra breathing space in a match that was leaving fans wondering where another try would come from such was the inability of both teams to keep hold of the ball.

Saints' painful night got worse when Hendy was forced from the field eight minutes from time, meaning teenage scrum-half Aidan Pugh came on to make his debut.

The black, green and gold really needed the game to end with no further damage as there were few signs of a late recovery in a match that was limping towards its denouement.

But Tigers rubbed some salt in the wounds as replacement scrum-half Ollie Allan sniped his way over.

Saints kept pushing and they finally registered some second-half points as Scola showed good strength to score, with James Pater converting with the last kick of the game.

Leicester Tigers: 15 Orlando Bailey; 14 Ryan Crowley, 13 Will Wand, 12 Joseph Woodward, 11 Sam Mercer (Charlie Titcombe 61); 10 Billy Searle, 9 Tom Whiteley (Ollie Allan 64); 1 Tarek Haffar (Archie van der Flier 57), 2 Charlie Clare (c) (Finn Theobald-Thomas 53), 3 Ale Loman (Tonga Kofe 57); 4 Cameron Henderson (Harry Wells 40), 5 James Thompson (Tom Manz 71); 6 Harry Palmer, 7 Tommy Reffell (Joshua Manz 40), 8 Joaquin Moro.

Saints: 15 George Hendy (Aidan Pugh 74); 14 Ollie Sleightholme (Henry Lumley 73), 13 Tom Litchfield, 12 Toby Thame, 11 Amena Caqusau; 10 George Furbank (c) (James Pater 60), 9 Jonny Weimann; 1 Tom West (Oliver Scola 53), 2 Craig Wright, 3 Luke Green (Cleopas Kundiona 53); 4 Chunya Munga (Josh Kemeny 47 (Robbie Smith 62)), 5 JJ Van Der Mescht (Ed Prowse 40); 6 Josh Kemeny (Callum Chick 40), 7 Fyn Brown, 8 Sam Graham.

Referee: Hamish Smales