Exeter Chiefs moved up to fifth place in the Aviva Premiership standings on Saturday thanks to a 19-11 win over Leicester at Sandy Park.
Leicester opened up an early 8-0 lead thanks to an Alesana Tuilagi try and a Toby Flood penalty, but Ignacio Mieres responded with two penalties to close the gap at the break.
Although Flood kicked an early second half penalty, a Richard Baxter try and two more three-pointers by the Exeter fly-half sealed an impressive win.
With Flood's England celebrating victory against Italy as this game was about to kick-off, the Leicester fly-half needed a good performance to put himself in contention for Wales in two weeks time.
And his side got off to the perfect start when Tuilagi powered over, however, the stand-off was wayward with his conversion attempt. He atoned for the miss in the 28th minute as the Tigers established a reasonable cushion.
But in typical Exeter fashion, the hosts began to find a way back into the match.
Firstly, Mieres reduced the arrears with a penalty before he added a second three-pointer on the stroke of half-time.
After 53 minutes, Flood extended Leicester's advantage to 11-6, but the Chiefs then lifted the tempo.
Almost straight after the restart, Baxter went over before successive Mieres penalties saw the host open up an eight-point lead.
Leicester tried in vain to get back into the match, but too many mistakes meant they couldn't crack a resilient defence.
The scorers:
For Exeter:
Try: Baxter
Con: Mieres
Pens: Mieres 4
For Leicester:
Try: A. Tuilagi
Pens: Flood 2
Exeter Chiefs: 15 Phil Dollman, 14 Gonzalo Camacho, 13 Nic Sestaret, 12 Jason Shoemark, 11 Matt Jess, 10 Ignacio Mieres, 9 Haydn Thomas, 8 Richard Baxter, 7 James Scaysbrook, 6 Tom Johnson, 5 Aly Muldowney, 4 Tom Hayes (c), 3 Hoani Tui, 2 Neil Clark, 1 Brett Sturgess.
Replacements: 16 Chris Whitehead, 17 Ben Moon, 18 Craig Mitchell, 19 James Phillips, 20 Ben White, 21 Kevin Barrett, 22 Gareth Steenson, 23 Bryan Rennie.
Leicester Tigers: 15 Geordan Murphy (c), 14 Horacio Agulla, 13 Manu Tuilagi, 12 Anthony Allen, 11 Alesana Tuilagi, 10 Toby Flood, 9 Sam Harrison, 8 Thomas Waldrom, 7 Julian Salvi, 6 Steve Mafi, 5 George Skivington, 4 Ed Slater, 3 Julian White, 2 George Chuter, 1 Marcos Ayerza.
Replacements: 16 Rob Hawkins, 17 Ryan Bower, 18 Logoviii Mulipola, 19 Craig Newby, 20 Ben Woods, 21 James Grindal, 22 George Ford, 23 Matt Smith.
Venue: Sandy Park
Referee: Sean Davey
Comments
Rugby_rockstar says...
I think it would send out the wrong signals if england dropped charlie hodgson for toby flood, given that charlie's comitment to the cause has been exemplary and toby's team lost to exeter.
I'd bring manu in though, becasue brad barritt has offered nothing at all in attack and we desparatley need a threat in our back line before we take on Wales.
Posted 15:13 13th February 2012
lardon says...
I doubt Flood will be recalled to the first England XV on his performance with the boot. What this report doesnt say is that he missed 3 penaltys giving him 4 misses with the boot. At least Farrell is kicking well for England..
Manu Tuilagi was on good form and should get recalled after this.
Posted 11:07 12th February 2012
melkdave says...
A good win for Exeter and im sure T.Flood and M.Tulangi will be better at England training with the extra game under their belt now with 2 weeks england training to come for the squad lets hope they can begin to show more attacking flair
Posted 23:45 11th February 2012