Leicester went down 24-19 to Perpignan on the weekend in an extraordinary Heineken Cup game that showed that the power of the scrum still can have a massive impact on the result. This clip shows the disastrous lead up to the first try, and then the other two as well.
It was a fairly uneventful first half but after a neat Jerome Porical chip over the top forced Scott Hamilton to take the ball over for a five metre scrum, Perpignan were then given the opportunity to asert themselves up front.
They did just that, as penalty after penalty were given and after going up repeatedly, referee Alan Lewis eventually decided to warn, and subsequently yellow card both hookers. It was a fascinating sequence of play that the tradisionalist and front rowers out there will no doubt love dissecting.
It did however eventually come right, and the ball was moved to the backs, resulting in a great crosskick and try for Adrien Plante. Leicester prop Dan Cole was pulled from the park at half time, with Perpignans Perry Freshwater having relished the confrontation.
“That run up to half-time was tough. We were trying to get going, but in France we tend to push up a little bit. We were trying to get on top of them, but he yellow-carded the two hookers. We tried again and luckily we scored from it,” Freshwater said.
“Im a big admirer of Dan Cole. Hes been doing fantastic things. I dont think hes there yet, but I think hes a very good player, and Castro, when he came off the bench.
“All our second rows push extremely hard at Perpignan and we put big emphasis on the back row staying with us for this game. We knew the scrum would be a big battleground. It makes a real big difference when we push as an eight,” he added.
Jerome Porical later crossed for a well worked try, as did Geordan Murphy for the Tigers. Toby Flood and Porical exchanged penalties, but a late long-range miss from Porical meant that Leicester at least left with a losing bonus point.
The two sides meet again at Welford Road this coming weekend.
If you’re a regular on here, you’ll know by now that the premise of Rugbydump is not to show highlights of every single game that takes place, but rather to feature the best clips with the most interesting pieces of action for rugby fans around the world. So if you spotted anything else on the weekend that you think should be featured, please get in touch with details.
Time:
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