Handre Pollard gets the better of Owen Farrell as champions Saracens lose again
Owen Farrell frustrated during Saracens' Premiership defeat to Leicester.
Saracens’ bad couple of days got worse as the champions fell to a fifth Premiership defeat of the season following a 19-10 reversal to Leicester Tigers.
A day after their linchpin Owen Farrell was linked with a move to Top 14 giants Racing 92, the Londoners saw their play-off chances take a dent.
Farrell is reportedly ‘close’ to signing for Racing but he started on Saturday and converted Tom Parton’s try and also added a penalty, but his side were bettered by Leicester.
The England skipper went head-to-head with Handre Pollard for the first time since the 2023 Rugby World Cup semi-final, but once again the Springbok got the better of his opponent.
Pollard converted two of the Tigers’ three tries, with Dan Kelly, Matt Rogerson and Harry Simmons going over to keep them in the play-off hunt.
Dan McKellar’s men are just two points behind Sarries, who remain sixth, with fourth place Sale Sharks only a point further ahead.
Click here for scorers
Farrell is England’s biggest star who has spent 15 years at StoneX Stadium, but a move to Paris would make him ineligible for the national side and land another blow on the credibility of a competition experiencing an exodus of players across the Channel.
If he does head to the French capital, on recent evidence he will be departing a troubled Saracens with their latest loss registering a fifth Premiership defeat of the season – their total for the whole of the 2022/23 campaign.
Errors by the 32-year-old contributed to two of Leicester’s three tries but Tigers also made life difficult for the visitors, their determination stamped all over an impressive display.
Farrell’s early contributions were with the boot when stationed deep inside his own half as Saracens faced an early onslaught from the hosts, but in the 12th minute he made a significant blunder.
Flinging out a pass intended for Elliot Daly, the ball was instead picked off by centre Kelly who cantered over for the opening try.
Saracens hit back with a long-range try inspired by Daly’s athleticism that was finished by Parton and, having landed the conversion, the England fly-half delivered successive pinpoint kicks that forced Leicester to scramble.
Having nudged Saracens five points ahead with a penalty, he then dropped a simple pass and kicked a ball straight into touch, inviting Tigers to attack from the edge of the 22.
With waves of Leicester runners building pressure, the visiting defence cracked with Rogerson crashing over to open a 12-10 lead.
Kelly had a second try in which he outhustled Daly controversially chalked off and the frantic pace continued into the second half with both sides going close to scoring.
Leicester turned down three routine points in favour of going for the corner and they began hammering away at the whitewash, gaining the advantage of Maro Itoje’s departure to the sin-bin for not retreating 10 metres.
🐯 Harry Simmons crosses for Leicester Tigers on the hour! #LEIvSARpic.twitter.com/a08Po35R9M
— Planet Rugby (@PlanetRugby) January 6, 2024
Saracens’ scrum was stood up and, with the white shirts buckling before the repeated attacks, quick hands delivered the key moment with Simmons finishing in the right corner.
Leicester now had the cushion to close out the game and they did this in solid fashion to leave the visitors positioned in sixth place in the table.
The teams
Leicester: 15 Freddie Steward, 14 Harry Simmons, 13 Dan Kelly, 12 Solomone Kata, 11 Mike Brown, 10 Handré Pollard, 9 Tom Whiteley, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Tommy Reffell, 6 Matt Rogerson, 5 Ollie Chessum, 4 George Martin, 3 Joe Heyes, 2 Julián Montoya (c), 1 James Cronin
Replacements: 16 Finn Theobold-Thomas, 17 Francois van Wyk, 18 Will Hurd, 19 Harry Wells, 20 Kyle Hatherell, 21 Olly Cracknell, 22 Ben Youngs, 23 Jamie Shillcock
Saracens: 15 Tom Parton, 14 Rotimi Segun, 13 Elliot Daly, 12 Nick Tompkins, 11 Lucio Cinti, 10 Owen Farrell (c), 9 Gareth Simpson, 8 Ben Earl, 7 Juan Martin Gonzalez, 6 Theo McFarland, 5 Hugh Tizard, 4 Maro Itoje, 3 Christian Judge, 2 Kapeli Pifeleti, 1 Sam Crean
Replacements: 16 Theo Dan, 17 Logovi’i Mulipola, 18 Ollie Hoskins, 19 Nick Isiekwe , 20 Andy Christie, 21 Ivan van Zyl, 22 Manu Vunipola, 23 Alex Lewington
Referee: Luke Pearce
Assistant Referees: Harry Walbaum, Jonathan Healy
TMO: Dean Richards
