Leicester Tigers earn back to back Munster wins

Leicester Tigers continued their unbeaten run in the European Rugby Champions Cup by beating Munster 17-6 at Welford Road on Sunday.

Leicester scored the only tries of the match – one in each half – and also managed to keep Munster scoreless in the second half.

The victory for Leicester comes a week after the Tigers beat Munster 19-31 at Thomond Park last week.

Vereniki Goneva’s try 15 minutes from full time settled a fierce contest in favour of the home side and all-but-ends Munster’s chances of qualification for the knock-out stages.

Leicester had led 10-6 at the break thanks to Ed Slater’s first-half try but there was little to choose between the two sides for much of the contest.

The visitors started well and had the Tigers under early pressure, allowing Ian Keatley to knock over a penalty.

Keatley was jeered by a section of the Munster support after their 31-19 defeat at Thomond Park the previous week and the outside-half missed his second attempt at a penalty after 14 minutes.

Tigers began to get a foothold in the game and made the most of their possession with the game’s opening try on 23 minutes. After getting within touching distance of the Munster line it, Slater forced his way over with Freddie Burns adding the conversion.

Burns added a penalty for the home side but the Tigers shot themselves in the foot right on the stroke of half-time when Dom Barrow was shown a yellow card for not retreating 10 yards at a penalty and Keatley clawed back three points.

With Barrow off the pitch Munster had Tigers under pressure and crossed the whitewash through prop James Cronin only for his try to be ruled out for a forward pass.

Keatley then missed a second penalty attempt as Munster failed to make the most of their one-man advantage.

Burns had the chance to punish them with a second penalty heading into the final quarter but he also pushed his effort wide as both 10s started to feel the pressure.

Munster almost scored an incredible try when former All Black Francis Saili broke from his own 22 and ran 80m before being hauled down by a superb tackle from Telusa Veainu, with Tigers then winning the penalty which allowed them to clear.

The decisive try came when a quick penalty put Peter Betham clear for the Tigers and he found Goneva on his shoulder to go under the posts.

Telusa Veainu was named European Rugby Champions Cup man of the match.

Final Score Leicester Tigers 17 (10) Munster 6 (6)

Scorers

Leicester Tigers
Tries – Slater, Goneva
Pen – Burns
Con – Burns (2)
Drop –

Munster
Tries –
Pen – Keatley (2)
Con –
Drop –

Match Officials
Referee: Jerome Garces (France),
Assistant ref: Thomas Charabas (France),
Assistant ref: Salam Attalah (France),
TMO: Jean-Marie Piraveau (France),
Citing Commissioner: Jeff Mark (Wales)

Teams

Leicester Tigers

Telusa Veainu; Adam Thompstone, Peter Betham, Matt Smith, Vereniki Goneva; Freddie Burns, Ben Youngs; Marcos Ayerza, Tom Youngs, Dan Cole, Michael Fitzgerald, Graham Kitchener, Ed Slater (c), Brendon O’Connor, Lachlan McCaffrey

Replacements: Harry Thacker, Matias Aguero, Fraser Balmain, Dom Barrow, Tom Croft, Sam Harrison, Thomas Bell, Seremaia Bai

Munster Rugby

Andrew Conway; Keith Earls, Francis Saili, Denis Hurley, Simon Zebo; Ian Keatley, Conor Murray; James Cronin, Mike Sherry, John Ryan, Mark Chisholm, Donnacha Ryan, Robin Copeland, Dave O’Callaghan, CJ Stander (c)

Replacements: Niall Scannell, Dave Kilcoyne, Mario Sagario, Dave Foley, Jack O’Donoghue, Tomas O’Leary, Rory Scannell, Lucas Amorosino

With thanks to EPCRugby