Wild Card Final Winners 2004 - Leicester Tigers


00WCF04

By Ian Birks
May 30 2004

Saturday 29 May 2004: Twickenham. We could now say with utmost confidence that we were about to witness the last day of club rugby in the 2004 season. With the Wild Card Final between Sale Sharks and Leicester Tigers the entrée before he main course between Bath and Wasps


Leon Lloyd made his first big tackle of the day within the first minute when he pounced on Jason Robinson who was making one of his much lauded 'jinking runs'.

The first points of the day came from a brace of penalties from the boot of Andy Goode: the first after just 2 minutes came from a line out just inside the Sharks 22, Jones was pinged for pulling Deacon down in the line. The second only five minutes later took Leicester into a 6-0 lead with seven minutes played.

Deacon pulled down
Leicester kept the pressure on the Sharks forwards. Healey crossed the Sale line, only to be held up by the strong opposition defence. Healey backed himself to score even though Gibson and Smith were outside. The pressure from the Tigers was relentless and the 5 meter scrum was re-set. This time, the ball came out on the Sale side, off the boot of one of the Tigers pack, but the ball was only cleared as far as Murphy whose attempted drop goal was always going to be wide.
More pressure from Leicester saw a break from captain Martin Johnson who passed the ball onto Lewis Deacon, but the move ended in a knock-on and a scrum to Sale.

Jonno off load
Sale cleared their lines and regained possession of the ball after Tigers were pulled up for delaying the throw in. From the quickly taken free kick, Robinson made a break to the left, passed to Hanley who skinned Healey on the outside. The return pass to Robinson made the resulting try under the posts a mere formality for Billy Whizz, and the simplest of conversions was taken by Hodgson. With twenty minutes on the clock the score board read 6 -7 to Sale.

The next seven or eight minutes treated the fans to some end to end rugby: a break through the middle by Johnson ended with a poor pass from Gibson that left Healey with no chance to gather, Sale replied with strong runs from that man Jason Roninson and Steve Hanley down both flanks.

This period of play was brought to an end when Ollie Smith and Murphy linked in the mid-field, the delayed pass to Healey bough him enough time to skirt around the Sale defence to score under the posts. The conversion from Goode saw he score move on to 13 - 7 to Leicester.

The next few minutes saw a penalty against Leicester turned over after Stewart hi the ruck after the whistle. With more froward dominated play, Leicester earned a kickable penalty when Sale were pulled up for not binding at the scrum. Goode duly obliged and Tigers went ahead 16 - 7.
After the restart and with the clock ticking towards half time, Goode cut back into mid-field, passed to Neil Back, the ball was slipped to Gibson who drove over the line in the corner. The conversion was missed and the score remained at 21 - 7 in Leicester's favour. Goode run

The final points of the half came from Hodgson. Leicester had been penalised soon after the restart and were pinged again for not retiring the full 10m. Tigers 21 Sharks 10.
Lloyd try xfield
The second half started with the Tigers capitalising on mistakes from the Sharks backs. Hodgson was penalised for holding onto the ball. Healy, ever aware of the possibilities, kicked across field to Lloyd who went over the line unopposed.
Again, Goode converted and the score read 28 - 10 to Leicester.
Robinson, who had stated that he was physically tired before the game, sliced through the Leicester defenders with a 40m run that took Sale to within 30m of the Tigers line. The resulting penalty given against Leicester for not rolling away allowed Hodgson to land a 40m kick from in front of the posts.
Leicester replied straight away with a try from Neil Back after a number of mauls. Goode missed the conversion from the touchline: Tigers 33 Sharks 13. Backy try

Hanley scored a try in the 22 minute of the second half: a Sale restart from the 22 was taken by Tuilagi who shrugged off a tackle to set up he ruck. Johnson, making sure that the ball was kept in front of the back foot was waiting for support from the scrum half, Ellis, when Steve Hanley nipped in, picked up the ball and ran in unopposed to the consternation of the Leicester team and their supporters. The conversion took the score on to 33 - 20.

Hanley try
A further penalty from Goode was followed by a second 'forwards try' from Neil Back.

Sale had a scrum after Murphy had passed the ball to himself {!}. Back urged the forwards to win the scrum and asked for '..power..', so saying, the Sale pack was pushed backwards over the line and it was try time for the Leicester flanker. 41 - 20.
Sale have a reputation for never giving up, and today was to be no exception. A missed touch from Goode was run back at Leicester, but the ball was poorly chipped-on straight to Steve Booth. A second clearance from Goode was returned with interest by Robinson, and the move ended with a pass to Benton to run in for the try.

Conversion - Hodgson: score 41 - 27
Benton try Hodgeson contact

Just when you think its all over, Leicester won a scrum from the restart.

A drive from Balding lead to Back linking with Holtby out wide. The pass inside to Ellis saw the ball moved on to Lloyd who ran in under the posts for his second try of the day.		 Lloyd try 2

Final score Leicester Tigers 48 - Sale Sharks 27.

Leicester, now the Wild Card Final specialists, qualify for the 2005 Heineken Cup competition, taking the last European place in this lifeline fixture.

This is not how Leicester would chose to qualify, and the result merely confirms the league placings, but the players walked off the field to the familiar Welford Road 'winners song' secure in the knowledge that they will be playing in Europe's prestige rugby competition for yet another year.
WCF score

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