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George Ford: 'The feeling is more relief than happiness'

George and Mike Ford and Geordan Murphy

Leicester stand-in captain George Ford spoke of his relief after the Tigers survived a frenetic battle at Kingston Park to edge a 27-22 victory against Gallagher Premiership bottom club Newcastle.

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Leading the side in the absence of the suspended Tom Youngs, Ford saw the visitors hang on for a vital win which eased their own relegation fears and added to Newcastle’s.

Ford admitted: “Clearly, the result is the most important thing for us at the moment. The feeling is more relief than happiness.

“I’m really proud of the boys. It’s such a tough game to come up here and I’m really proud they were able to see it through.

“Obviously, at the end, it could have gone either way and we’re not kidding ourselves. The forwards got us out of a tough end in terms of stopping them scoring and getting the result.

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“We raced away into a 13-0 lead and then let them back into it. When we stick to our stuff and execute we are a good team but we really need to do it consistently.

“Nothing changes really because in two week’s time we’ve got to beat Bristol, but winning this one means there is a better vibe in the changing room and it gives us confidence and momentum.

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“There has been a lot of talk about where we are in the league and relegation but it’s a not a word that has come into our vocabulary or in meetings. We’ve always said there is 20 points available from the last five games and we’ve got four of them tonight.

“We’re looking to get better and improve. Once you start looking behind you, you tend to get caught in it even more.

“Newcastle were never going to stop coming at us and I said to the forwards what they did at the end of the game was totally inspiring.

“They kept getting up off the ground and going again and the fight they showed for each other is sometimes what gets you the result and that’s what happened when we got the penalty at the end.”

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Newcastle, who lost out on a losing bonus point in a controversial TMO decision last week, probably feel the same with regard to Leicester’s final try by Guy Thompson which was also decided by the TMO.

They were also on the wrong end of some questionable decisions by referee Wayne Barnes close to the end of the match.

Guy Thompson scored two tries for Leicester with Jonny May getting the other and Ford kicked five goals.

Tane Takulua also got two tries for Newcastle and kicked three goals, with the home side’s other try coming from Chris Harris.

Newcastle director of rugby Dean Richards was pleased with the way his side responded after a slow start.

He said: “The first 20 minutes they were all over us and controlling the territory but from there on in it was us who controlled everything.

“But we could not get over the line as much as we would have liked and the interception try cost us a bit of momentum. Then we clawed it back and we probably should have won it.

“There were a number of decisions at the end and Leicester have some wily characters in Genge and Cole and we probably didn’t get the rub of the green from a scrummaging point of view because we weren’t allowed to scrummage against them.

“Towards the end, we probably should have nicked it but accuracy cost us again and we have to look at that.

“Another try at the end there would have given us three points or possibly four or five, but I’ve said all along it will come down to the last game of the season.

“We dominated the game for the final 60 minutes and it was just a question of us getting across the line. The three tries we scored were lovely tries and were an example of that but we have to learn how to do it every time.

“We are in control of our own destiny and we’re not going to be reliant on anyone else’s results. There is still a long way to go yet in this season.”

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C
CO 1 hour ago
Bok rule-benders are changing the game. They deserve respect

Okay, clearly I'm not suggesting rugby be league or not competitive, quite the reverse. I loathe league.


Some Bok supporters have this conspiracy theory that if any other team did silly restarts to manufacture scrums and lineout leaping in the middle of the field that it wouldn't be criticized but congratulated.


The fact is no other team is doing this silly restart and jumping stuff because it's viewed as…..silly.


A dummy at no time obstructs the opposition or cynically attempts to extract a ruling. It was a perfectly executed blindside try which simply caught the defence asleep. It's not comparable with a deliberate offside at the restart or silly jumps to create yet another boring maul against a team that predictably lacked the firepower to stop it.


As I've said with a player being unnecessarily lifted in the middle of the park then that is creating obstruction as defense isn't allowed to tackle a player in the air.


Apart from Rassie the rest of us in the world of rugby don't want Rassie to create a new source of obstruction outside the maul.as we don't want to transform rugby into blocking like gridiron.


It would be great actually if world rugby said if the Boks want to lift their players outside of lineouts then the opposition can just smash them in the air as it would be a learning lesson for the Boks.


But of course that would be ridiculously unsafe so the whole stupid idea needs to be banned, it's not innovative it's just stuffing around with the game we all enjoy.


Rassie is a great rugby man, of that I've no doubt but he has received lengthy bans for a reason and this nonsense is that side of Rassie that's not great.


At the restart it was a penalty as the player wasnt just offside ahead of the kicker but he then interfered with play. Yes, perhaps a scrum if he hadn't of interfered with the ball offside.


Again, another law change needed due to Rassie. Deliberately not restarting correctly, professional foul, yellow card. I just want to watch a contest not a first five farting around with a cynical play where the opposition has no part to play, we want a contest.


I cannot reinforce how absurd these ‘innovations’ are, they're not tactics that other coaches want to do as they're silly.


You think the Bok scrum is incredible, if you truly believe that then contact Rassie and ask him to cynically organize all scrum restarts this season when his team kicksoff with tier one sides like the Allblacks and Argentina feeding the ball into the scrum, that will be fantastic to watch as Pumas and Allblacks steam into the backline with free ball.


We both know the Boks wouldn't dare to run it against a top tier team so why do it against Italy? Respect….


You're right it's a good era for the game, let's not muck it up with this abject nonsense. We don't want to see a midfield ‘lineout’ to make yet more mauls.


Again, mauls and scrums aren't a position of strength for just the Boks.


Rassie isn't creating a dynasty either, the Allblacks won two world cups in a row which abruptly ended.


The Boks are in the mix to win again in Australia but I can tell you now they're not doing themselves any favors with all the perceived arrogance.


We all saw what happened to the invincible Allblacks in 2007, humiliation in a quarter.

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