Try for Ospreys: Joe Bearman
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A 15-all draw with Leicester at Liberty Stadium on Saturday effectively brought an end to the Ospreys' Heineken Cup campaign.
The result also means that Tigers relinquish top spot in Pool Two to Toulouse, who beat Treviso with a bonus point to set up an almighty showdown at Welford Road next week.
A late Jonathan Spratt try earned the Ospreys a well-deserved draw after they had led for much of the game before two tries in the final quarter put Leicester in front.
Richard Cockerill rotated his starting line-up after last week's controversial Premiership win at Worcester, with an almost completely fresh pack, and several changes in the back line. Ospreys coach Steve Tandy was able to recall Richard Fussell at full-back and Kahn Fotualii at scrum-half, as well as making several changes in the forwards.
Tandy made one late change during the warm-up, with scrum-half Tom Habberfield replacing Ross Jones on the wing, to make his Heineken Cup debut.
The Ospreys were keen to keep up their great home run, with eleven wins on the bounce at the Liberty Stadium. The normally reliant boot of Dan Biggar was off target with three early missed penalties, the Welsh international hitting the woodwork twice.
Fotualii showed his danger, taking the game to Leicester. A great move, keeping the ball alive through the phases, led to Biggar landing his first successful kick of the day on the half-hour mark.
A moment of controversy came moments later, as Justin Tiperic chased his own kick, and was impeded by Matthew Tait as he charged to catch the ball on his way to the line. Referee John Lacey decided there was no infringement, and Leicester were left to breathe a sigh of relief.
But Leicester's defence had no answer to the Ospreys' first try, as Joe Bearman stepped inside three tackles to go down for Biggar to convert.
Toby Flood reduced the arrears with a late penalty to go into half-time at 10-3 to the Ospreys.
Ben Youngs scored Leicester's first try of the game just after the hour, after Flood had broken the gain line, with Martin Castrogiovani putting the scrum-half in a great position to take advantage. Flood converted to equalise at 10-all, and leave the game on a knife-edge as it entered the final period.
With less than ten minutes to play, Niall Morris put down in the corner after powerful play by the Leicester forwards -a decision made by the TMO - as the winger was chased to touch. Flood missed the difficult conversion, but Leicester finally had the second score they wanted.
But Eli Walker created the perfect platform for the Ospreys to equalise, on a diagonal run through the Leicester defence, and Spratt went over in the corner. Biggar missed the conversion attempt, leaving the game tied on the full-time whistle.
The scorers:
For Ospreys:
Tries: Bearman, Spratt
Con: Biggar
Pen: Biggar
For Leicester Tigers:
Tries: Youngs, Morris
Con: Flood
Pen: Flood
Ospreys: 15 Richard Fussell, 14 Tom Habberfield, 13 Tom Isaacs, 12 Andrew Bishop, 11 Eli Walker, 10 Dan Biggar, 9 Kahn Fotuali'i (c), 8 Joe Bearman, 7 Justin Tipuric, 6 Ryan Jones, 5 James King, 4 Ian Gough, 3 Adam Jones, 2 Richard Hibbard, 1 Ryan Bevington.
Replacements: 16 Scott Baldwin, 17 Duncan Jones, 18 Campbell Johnstone, 19 Lloyd Peers, 20 Sam Lewis, 21 Rhys Webb, 22 Matthew Morgan, 23 Jonathan Spratt.
Leicester Tigers: 15 Mathew Tait, 14 Niall Morris, 13 Manusamoa Tuilagi, 12 Anthony Allen, 11 Adam Thompstone, 10 Toby Flood, 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Jordan Crane, 7 Julian Salvi, 6 Steve Mafi, 5 Geoff Parling, 4 Louis Deacon (c), 3 Dan Cole, 2 Tom Youngs, 1 Marcos Ayerza.
Replacements: 16 Rob Hawkins, 17 Logovi'i Mulipola, 18 Martin Castrogiovanni, 19 Ed Slater, 20 Thomas Waldrom, 21 Sam Harrison, 22 George Ford, 23 Matt Smith.
Venue: Liberty Stadium
Referee: John Lacey (Ireland)
Comments
blametheref says...
BEWARE THE TWO LL's! Leicester are the joker in the pack of this HC and a great Each Way bet right now with Paddy Power at 18/1 to win it (a third the odds 1st or 2nd) or Boyle Sports a 16/1 (half the odds 1st or 2nd), because they WILL qualify by beating Toulouse in Welford Road...nobody will want to meet Leicester after that...The other possible magician in this HC is Leinster who if they they do pull off a Houdini act and scrape it by with other results going their way, along with a 'must get' 5 points against Exeter, could see Leinster actually go on and win the cup. Leinster are back to full strength now and are for the first time this season beginning to fire on all cylinders...if they do qualify I pity their opposition because the big carrot for Leinster is where the final is, their home patch, Dublin.
If the 2 big L's qualify they have a very decent chance of causing upsets away, mainly because of their experience in this competition...nearly all the the top teams this year are maidens, and I'll predict that one of either Leinster or Leicester will make the final at least!!!
Posted 12:23 14th January 2013
rugby_rockstar says...
I'd have bitten your hand off if you offered me a draw on fridya night. I would concerned that Leicester wouldn't get anything from this match. They away form has been poor this season.
Thoroughly enjoyed the match though. Flood had moments of brilliance but Farrel has beaten him fair and square in round 5. Could be time to try flood at 12 for england. Certainly worked a treat when he combined with Geraughty vs france a few years back.
Manu Tuilagi had a poor game yesterday. So many missed tackles and a poor work rate in attack. when he limped off I wasn;t that bothered. Matt Smith is never spectacular but he's solid and would try harder than Tuilagi was.
Feel a bit for Dan Biggar. if he's got just one of those missed kicks then the match was theirs and Leicester would be out of the competition. Ospreys played the most attractive rugby and were a joy to watch but while all this was going on I was kinda proud to see just how solid the leicester set peice was. Tom Youngs' lineout was rock solid. Which a set peice functioning like that we were always going to be in the mix. That just leaves Eli Walker... what a run. Brilliant. Gutting for leicester fans, But BRILLIANT all the same. (Don't you dare do it against England in March!!!)
And so on to Toulouse. Thanks to SKY for providing Toulouse with their pre-match motivational speach. Apparently the french backs are brittle and clueless and a waste of space. My god Stuart Barnes needs an almighty slap sometimes. What do you think french TV is going to be talking about all week? English Arrogance, writing off one of the biggest club names in world rugby is my guess. Leicester you are in for an almighty fight, and it wouldn't surprise me to see either one of Leicester favourite refs, either Allan Rollands or Nigel Owen renewing hostilies too!Leicester have to up their performance by 20% to pull this off.
Posted 11:38 14th January 2013
jontheref says...
Ospreys had 2 chances to score tries, got 2, leicester had 2, got 2.
ospreys were not accurate enough.
Biggar had a poor day with his kicking, hope it doesn't mean Howlers will pick Patchell instead!
TJ on O's left wing in first half, got two lineouts wrong, how did he get the appointment?
Scrums on the reset, to stop him binding, won the PK, where was the TJ on this one?
The Tipuric trip, Leicester player moved across him, caused the trip, a PK not a pen try, but a PK none the less.
Fotuali'i had a good game, except for his kicking, twice 4 to 3 outside him, kicked, O's end up further back than the kick!
Walker is electric, he needs to be used more.
Credit to Leicester, they must be delighted to get 2 points.
Hardly any Leicester supporters made the trip, odd pockets of 2 or 3.
Posted 11:30 14th January 2013
vaizpatu2011 says...
I only wish Dan Biggar would bring his kicking game to this important game. :( Very sad
Posted 03:37 14th January 2013
nabberuk says...
@damo
A pen try, you must be joking. He kicked it far too long, realised that, then took a Hollywood dive!
Posted 21:58 13th January 2013
Iyhel says...
@12counties: you have all the results, tries and points diff included, on the ERC site...
Posted 20:46 13th January 2013
12Counties says...
note to the editor, on your tables section for the the groups, you have a column for bonus points. We can work out bonus points by looking at the win/loss column, it would be much better if you put in trys scored instead, to save us having to trawl through match reports to work it out
Posted 20:18 13th January 2013
damo says...
Ref was terrible as usual Ospreys should have won by 15+ pity the Ref missed the yellow and pen try for Tipuric and also decided when the draw was there to blow for time instead of an O's pen!
Posted 19:33 13th January 2013
Honestpom says...
Slightly off track i know but i would be quite happy seeing Walker ( along with Wade ) start as a couple of bolters ( parden the pun ) for the Lions in Australia. For an out and out winger only Zebo comes close to these.Might lose the odd try to a high ball but they would cause mayhem.
Posted 19:17 13th January 2013
ollieosprey says...
Fair play to both teams, good game. Gutted though
Posted 17:41 13th January 2013
TVaddict says...
Oh, I thought Adam Jones player very well today. If we pretend that the refereeing was accurate, I know that's a big ask but let's try, he definitely outplayed Cole. He was brilliantly savy at scrum time using all his experience to adapt to and manipulate the ref (this is a compliment). I thought Tipuric play brilliantly in the loose and really should be the starting 7 for Wales at the moment. Also Hibbard was very impressive, especially in the loose.
Under normal refereeing conditions Cole would have had a fantastic game. He would have had 2-3 turnovers and would have dominated at scrum time, but adapting to idiotic referees is part of the game and he failed in that regard. I thought Flood didn't play well enough to get into the starting 23 for England with that performance, Farrell starting and Burns on the bench for me. A few good touches and runs, but his tactical kicking wasn't accurate enough. Waldrom was surprisingly good when he came on, but I still didn't see anything that he does better than Vunipola. I hope Tuilagi's injury isn't too bad as he's a real game changer for England, even if it doesn't show in Leicester's painfully predictable attack.
Posted 17:38 13th January 2013
TVaddict says...
Well I said Osprey for first 60 and Leicester to come back in the last 20. I still thought Osprey would get it and if they had a decent kicker they would have.
Ok, positive things first:
- Great game, so tense and loads of running rugby. Fantastic advert for the game.
- Eli Walker was fantastic, definitely deserves a Welsh start in the 6 nations.
- Fotuali'i confirmed his position as best 9 in the world at the moment.
- I thought the Youngs brothers were very good.
Ok, negative things :
- Leicester need to get a new attack coach. Awfully predictable attack, unacceptable when you consider the players they have at their disposal.
- Bigger's kicking was not international class.
- Now the ref bashing, the worst performance from a ref that I've seen this year (granted the year has just started). Two perfect steals from Cole, steals McCaw would be proud of, penalised unjustly. He didn't have a clue at the breakdown and seeming whistled whenever he saw a Leicester player do anything good at the break down, literally blowing immediately often with no warning. Yet Osprey constantly lying on the ball was fine. A Leicester scrum demolishing the Ospreys every time except when Ospreys did illegal things, but the penalties went 50-50, so obvious he didn't have a clue. I would have accused the Osprey of bribing him, but he was just as bad to them. Two Osprey lineouts given to Leicester. A trip in the 22 not penalised, granted the Osprey player made a meal of it worth of a footballer considering he wasn't going to get close to scoring the try. Any 'advantage' the Ospreys had disappeared quicker than I've ever seen. What kind of advantage is it when you're about 20m further back than where the offence took place? What is it about Irish referees? Is there some club they join so they get important games without passing one refereeing course or something? It's a joke.
Posted 17:17 13th January 2013
melkdave says...
WOW that was an exciting game,once again one side played hairem scare em rugby throwing the ball around,and put Leciester under immense pressure 1st half.Back came Leicester and got control in the 2nd half ,and took the lead,and looked like they would leave with 4 points.Then up steps E.Walker with a bit of brilliance and its a draw.
Posted 16:56 13th January 2013