By TigerChick
October 23 2007

Leicester kept their big toe in the upper half of the league table with their fourth win of the season, at home to premiership strugglers Worcester Warriors. The Tigers faithful were eager for the home team to return to winning ways after a disappointing fortnight which saw them falter at home to Gloucester and away to Saracens and the team didn’t let us down. Tigers opened their account with a Paul Burke penalty after just two minutes after Worcester were caught off-side in the ruck.

Worcester were given the chance to even the scores five minutes later but the usually accurate kick from Shane Drahm was wide of the posts. He managed to find target a few minutes later with a straightforward kick inside the Tigers 22.

Boris Stankovich suffered another neck injury and was forced to sit the rest of the game out, shortly before Tigers first try. Twenty minutes into the half, having missed a drop goal and penalty attempt the home side opted for the lineout on the opposition five metre line to allow Ben Herring to crash over the line and score his first try in Tigers stripes. Burke sank the conversion to take Tigers into the lead 10-3.

Worcester replied with a Dale Rasmussen try, who romped through from close-range following Loki Crichton’s break. Drahm’s conversion evened the scores at 10-10 just before the half hour mark.

Burke’s second penalty of the afternoon edged Tigers back into the lead shortly after and was followed by an Ollie Smith try. The outside centre beat Worcester scrum-half Ryan Powell to the loose ball at the re-start and raced 45 metres for a terrific individual try. Burke added the conversion to take Tigers into a comfortable lead, 20-10 which Worcester never looked like penetrating.

Three minutes into the second half Drahm added another successful penalty from directly in front of the posts, edging the visitors score closer, but a penalty from Paul Burke moved Tigers two scores clear once again as Worcester were penalised for offside seven minutes into the half.

The home side increased their lead to fifteen points when prop Benjamin Kayser scored Tigers third try of the afternoon. Opting again for the corner and lineout, rather than an easy three points, Kayser slipped off the back of the lineout before shaking off two tackles to score his first try in Tigers stripes in his sixth appearance. An afternoon of firsts it seems!

Burke’s missed the difficult conversion leaving the Tigers comfortably ahead 28-13 but Worcester fought back to reduce the deficit to eight points just ten minutes later as Drew Hickey dived over the line from two metres, following continued Worcester pressure.

Loki Chrichton kicked a superb conversion from wide to put Worcester just eight points behind the Premiership Champions with the clock still showing eleven minutes to go. The score remained unchanged (28-20) as Tigers fought to retain the lead and the visitors fought to win a losing bonus point, but to no avail. No bonus points would be won by either side after substitute scrum-half kicked the ball out in the dying seconds, preventing either side from further score. Tigers acting Head Coach Richard Cockerill looked positively livid that his team had squandered a bonus-point winning opportunity in the close of the game.

So, looking at the past few weeks, four wins from six with tough some opposition and whilst missing key personnel during the World Cup wouldn’t seem so bad in hindsight, although the loss at home to Gloucester will hurt for some time to come.

TigerChick’s man of the match would have to be Benjamin Kayser for his superb try and accurate line outs.