Leicester Tigers v Saracens: Five takeaways as young England locks outmuscle Sarries despite Maro Itoje’s best efforts

Following a 19-10 victory for Leicester Tigers over Saracens at Mattioli Woods Welford Road on Saturday, here’s our five takeaways from the Premiership clash.

The top line

A thunderingly confrontational match at Mattioli Woods Welford Road saw three-try Leicester Tigers beat their deadliest rivals in an absolute classic of a winter arm wrestle.

Tigers’ tries came courtesy of Dan Kelly (10′), Matt Rogerson (33′) and Harry Simmons (60′), who touched down for his first Premiership five-pointer, but it was a match that was decided on scrum superiority over any one other thing and Tigers stayed true to the roots of their DNA, delivering a match-winning performance in the set-piece.

With Mike Brown contributing brilliantly in a masterful defensive performance on the wing and Solomone Kata showing just how much he’s added to the Tigers midfield in terms of straight line carry, the story of the match was a one per cent edge in physicality towards the hosts in every aspect, in a performance that takes them to seventh in the table, three points away from the qualification quartet above them.

The little things

Saracens are developing a terminal issue in terms of their discipline.

In a game of such fine margins in play, to see a penalty count of 16 v 5 in Tigers’ favour was always going to turn the match towards the home side. Rather bizarrely, Leicester also made 15 handling errors, but as Nick Easter commented in his preview of the game, the Saracens scrum, shorn of nine players through unavailability, conceded five of their 16 penalties at the set-piece battle, often giving them momentum in attack.

The Saracen illegality took away any momentum they tried to create, and with Leicester Tigers’ front five absolutely dominating the set-piece and the close quarter exchanges, the hosts fed on the litany of coach killing errors that their visitors made, with James Cronin excelling in every aspect of his play and Ollie Chessum putting in a lock’s classical mid-January performance to win player of the match.

One of those penalties saw Maro Itoje yellow carded for not retiring before making a tackle on Jasper Wiese, who looked for all money to have taken more than the allowed five metres before Itoje intervened. It was a harsh call and an even harsher card, one perhaps based upon things that had gone before, but it was undoubtedly the turning point of the match as Tigers scored seven points during the England lock’s absence.

Head-to-heads

Wherever you looked on this pitch there was Test standard head-to-heads everywhere and ironically, Saracens shaded a number of them.

At 13 Elliot Daly and Dan Kelly both had their moments, with Daly sprinting through the middle of the park to set up a brilliant try in the first half to send the impressive Tom Parton over. For Kelly’s part, he nailed one score and was unlucky to see another chalked off for a fluffed grounding as both English centres excelled.

When Itoje was on the pitch, Saracens competed in the forward battle, with the Lions lock absolutely crucial in terms of maul defence all afternoon. But as noted, with him off the pitch George Martin and Chessum took their physicality to new levels, which begs the question to Steve Borthwick of how he manages to fit all of these three brilliant players into one pack, although with Martin playing regularly in the back-row and the other two players capable of filling in there, the only question that appears to remain is who plays six and who plays four.

At fly-half, two men that have faced off in consecutive World Cups once again met in direct competition and neither man gave an inch in terms of their performance. But whilst Owen Farrell was frenetic, trying to wring the most out of his crumbling set-piece, Handre Pollard was as cool as a cucumber, managing the Tigers’ exit strategy far more convincingly than his opponent and just edging the one-on-one battle on the night.

🐯 Harry Simmons crosses for Leicester Tigers on the hour! #LEIvSARpic.twitter.com/a08Po35R9M

— Planet Rugby (@PlanetRugby) January 6, 2024

Earl returns

Nothing will please Borthwick more than knowing his player of the 2023 World Cup, Ben Earl, is back fit and firing.

Earl’s battle with Springbok Wiese was an absolute feature of the tussle at Welford Road and it’s to the Saracens man’s credit that, despite his team’s loss, he probably did just enough to shade the head-to-head, carrying brilliantly at pace either straight down the pitch at pace or offering himself up as the extra man in the wide channel in attack. His vital turnover in his own 22 with Tigers threatening demonstrated his power at the breakdown and the Sarries eight was unlucky not to be rewarded for a couple of other turnover attempts towards the end of the first half.

For some strange reason there’s been ongoing speculation amongst fans and pundits over the England number eight position, despite Earl’s brilliance there in recent times. It appears that Earl’s shape is simply not appropriate for the positional OCD of English fans on social media which leads one to conclude there’s far too many completely overlooking what Earl brings in terms of pace and footballing to the position. He might not be the traditional shape of an English eight but the points of differentiation he brings to the position far outweigh any perceived issues about his size.

A fit Earl should be one of the first names on the England teamsheet but, as demonstrated yet again on Saturday, it needs to be in the centre of the back-row, the position he prefers and the one that gives him as many chances as possible to do what he does best – carry at pace.

Learnings

Dan McKellar’s recruitment is slowly returning Leicester to the DNA of many of the sides we’ve seen for the last four or five decades down at Welford Road. Abrasion, teamship and sheer brutality are the features of their game plan and McKellar is building a deeply resourced squad focused on these qualities.

It’s not about what the stars like Tommy Reffell, Wiese and the England locks do but far more about the quality of the unsung heroes of the team. At loosehead Cronin put in an almighty shift and his work around the breakdown and steal is a feature of his game. Ditto Matt Rogerson, a man unlucky not to have seen a cap or two, whose industry and dark arts work slows opposition ball and creates so much defensive belief for his team-mates.

Mark McCall’s men may have lost today but, considering their injury list and the makeshift nature of the front five they fielded on Saturday, they should quietly congratulate themselves on coming up to the Tigers den and staying in the match for 80 minutes. Lesser sides might have fallen away a lot sooner and it’s credit to the north Londoners just how well they competed despite their selection issues.

Saracens have three simple and obvious work-ons. Firstly, sort out a coherent and effective exit strategy that allows a deep retreat of the opposition. Exiting is always a two fold business – tactical urgency and strategic position and, whilst Sarries managed the tactical stuff well, they were never able to get the distance on their exits to fully remove both pressure and danger.

The second fix is about fitness and that’s something that’s rather more down to nature’s healing than any coaching issue. But to see them shorn of power and size was unusual for such a dominant and physical team, and that was part of the reason that their third issue – that of discipline – was so hard to sort out during the match, and you can be sure that problem of illegality will be a key focus for the coaches moving forward.

READ MORE: Handre Pollard gets the better of Owen Farrell as champions Saracens lose again