Newcastle Red Bulls v Leicester: Five takeaways as ‘disjointed’ Tigers escape lineout horror show while ‘all-action’ ex-Highlander ‘outshines’ All Black
Leicester Tigers wing Adam Radwan scored against his former club.
Following a 24-19 victory for Leicester Tigers over Newcastle Red Bulls at Kingston Park, here are our five takeaways from the PREM Rugby fixture.
The top line
A classic it was not but the closing stages at least put supporters and viewers at home on the edge of their seats as the hosts pushed hard to claim a shock win over last season’s semi-finalists. Alas, they came up just short as Tigers held on for a nervy three-try success on their travels.
Sam Moli, Adam Radwan and Will Hurd scored for a disjointed Leicester as they escaped with a PREM win, with Billy Searle slotting nine points.
Obi Ene, George McGuigan and Cameron Jordan were Newcastle‘s try scorers on a night they will look back on with regret, as this was a great opportunity to launch their journey as a new-look team. Ultimately, Tigers dug in and forced an error at the death, breaking Red Bull hearts.
Litany of errors
In fairness to Newcastle they did improve on last week’s heavy defeat to Northampton, but they’ll rue a lack of clinical edge when in possession.
However, for Leicester it was a similar story to the Saracens loss with more handling errors compounded on by lineout woes (more on that later).
These opening round performances are a far cry from their form in the second half of last season and Geoff Parling will hope it is just early rust.
Even the usually rock solid Freddie Steward, once nicknamed Air Steward, was out of sorts under the high ball as the visitors appeared clunky.
Radwan’s house
It always felt like he would cross the whitewash at his former outfit and it took just 22 minutes for the ex-Newcastle flyer to get his try.
Getting on the end of a perfectly weighted grubber kick through from Steward, wing Radwan was easily first to the bouncing ball and slid over before dotting down and celebrating in ‘this is my house’ style, pointing his fingers down to a pitch he had scored many tries in a black jersey.
It is unclear whether he had received verbals from his former supporters before or during the game or if this was just a bit of banter from the player. Our view was that it’s good fun and he clearly enjoyed the moment. Thankfully for Radwan his charges would go on to secure the victory.
Ex-Highlander stars
Many New Zealand eyes will no doubt be tracking how All Black Hoskins Sotutu is faring in the north-east of England since his move from the Blues. However, it was former Highlander Max Hicks who outshone his fellow New Zealander with an all-action showing that caught the eye.
At one point TNT Sports pundit Brian O’Driscoll commented that Hicks was carrying the ball “like LeBron James” which was an apt description as he held it in one hand looking for offloads.
He finished with 15 carries, one adrift of ex-Crusader Tom Christie, and he was also second in the metres made table, racking up 62, which is a sterling effort from a back-row who is making an impression since arriving from Perpignan in France.
Lineout woes
As touched on already, Tigers’ lineout was their Achilles heel on Saturday night as several skew throws from hooker Moli cost them a platform and subsequent momentum to launch attacks. In fact the visitors’ woes were amplified by the fact they went past the tail many times.
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How much this is down to missing starting hooker Jamie Blamire is to be considered but it will certainly be a key work-on for Tigers next week. It should be made clear it wasn’t just Moli who struggled to find his jumper as replacement hooker Corbin Thunder was also pinged late on.
READ MORE: Newcastle Red Bulls v Leicester Tigers: Result, scorers, match stats, line-ups