Four-try Jonah Holmes stars in Leicester triumph

Adam Kyriacou

Jonah Holmes crossed four times as he helped inspire Leicester Tigers to a 41-20 Challenge Cup victory over Pau at Welford Road on Saturday.

Fly-half George Ford, back on club duty following England’s run to the World Cup final in Japan, kicked an early penalty before George Worth went over in the 13th minute and Holmes quickly added a second try.

Pau scrum-half Thibault Daubagna crossed from close range before Holmes made the most of an offload from Ford to break down the right as the home side went into half-time 24-13 ahead.

Holmes completed his hat-trick five minutes into the second-half, but Pau lock Fabric Metz bundled over a converted try on 66 minutes to bring the score to 31-20.

A fourth converted try for Holmes made sure there would be no comeback, Ford finishing with five successful kicks.

Saturday’s other Pool 5 game saw Cardiff Blues run out 38-16 winners at Calvisano to secure a bonus point.

Full-back Matthew Morgan collected his own chip behind the home defence to open the scoring after five minutes. The Italians, though, fought back after a penalty and a converted try from Giacomo De Santis.

Seb Davies’ try saw Cardiff Blues in front 17-10 at the break.

Two penalties from Paolo Pescetto brought the hosts back into contention, but tries from James Botham, Rey Lee-Lo and Harri Millard’s late score wrapped things up.

The Blues, who lifted the trophy in 2018, host Leicester at the Arms Park in their next European fixture.

Elsewhere in Pool 4, Premiership leaders Bristol ran in eight tries to thrash Zebre 59-21, with fly-half Ioan Lloyd chalking up 22 points on his first start.

The Bears fell behind early on to a converted try from Mattia Bellini, but then never looked back, adding five of their own before the break.

Academy duo Charlie Powell and Andy Uren were also among the try scorers late on.

In Pool 1, Dragons also secured a bonus-point win as they saw off Castres 31-17 at Rodney Parade with three tries from number eight Taine Basham which all came in the first-half.

The two late Challenge Cup matches were both closely fought affairs as Bordeaux-Begles and Scarlets came out on top against Wasps and London Irish respectively.

UBB won 40-30 at home thanks to tries from Seta Tamanivalu, Semi Radradra, Scott Higginbotham and Romain Buros, with Jack Willis, Tom Cruse and Dan Robson responding for Wasps in a high-scoring second period in France.

Scarlets meanwhile ran out 20-16 victors over their Premiership opponents thanks to Corey Baldwin and Steffan Hughes tries. Motu Matu’u scored for the Exiles who host Bayonne next weekend.