Michael Cheika's Leicester swat aside Prem Champs to continue strong start

Leicester made it three wins from four Gallagher Premiership games under Michael Cheika as they defeated East Midlands rivals Northampton 24-8 at Mattioli Woods Welford Road.

Freddie Steward, Olly Cracknell and Ollie Chessum were the try-scorers for the Tigers, who were impressive in the second half after riding their luck at times in the first 40 minutes.

Champions Northampton suffered their second defeat of the campaign, but they let a host of chances slip through their fingers before Tommy Freeman finally went in for a late consolation score.

Leicester broke through after only four minutes when a tapped penalty led to Jack van Poortvliet passing to full-back Steward, who steamed through to score down the left.

Handre Pollard, making his first appearance of the season after winning the Rugby Championship with South Africa, converted from out wide.

Northampton thought they had hit back in the 13th minute when Sam Graham stretched for the try line, but a TMO check judged him to have knocked on in the act of grounding the ball.

From the drop-out, Graham then suffered what looked a serious knee injury from a dangerous tackle by Tigers flanker Tommy Reffell, who was sin-binned as a result.

There was more frustration for the Saints when a Freeman try was ruled out for a knock-on by captain George Furbank in the build-up before Pollard extended the Tigers’ lead to 10-0 with a simple penalty.

The visitors were then reduced to 14 men after 33 minutes when hooker Curtis Langdon was shown a yellow card for his shoulder making contact with Harry Wells’ head.

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While his side were a man light Fin Smith put Northampton on the board with a penalty three minutes before half-time.

Four minutes into the second half Pollard became the third player in the match to see yellow when he made head-on-head contact with Furbank.

But the Tigers were dominating the scrum and it was from this solid base that they claimed their second try in the 54th minute as number eight Cracknell burrowed his way over under the posts.

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Pollard emerged straight from the sin-bin to convert before Northampton saw yet another chance go begging when Tom Pearson was held up in-goal by some good Leicester defence.

A bad couple of minutes for Pearson was complete when he was sin-binned for killing the ball in the shadow of his own posts and the hosts quickly killed the match as a contest when England lock Chessum powered over.

Just to prove this was not the Saints’ day, young back rower Henry Pollock knocked on close to the line and replacement tighthead Tom West was held up before Freeman finally struck for them off the final play.