Watch: The jaw-dropping jump by Harry Potter into a French moat
Harry Potter had the most incredible few minutes in France last weekend, scoring the sole Leicester try after 21 minutes in their epic Heineken Champions Cup win at Bordeaux and then disappearing from the field of play less than two minutes later in an extraordinary fashion where he was fortunate not to have been injured.
The soon-to-be 24-year-old winger had lit up the Tigers with the try that put them into the lead in an engrossing match they ultimately won 16-13 thanks a late George Ford penalty. However, what took place just 117 seconds after Potter touched down to score his try grabbed the attention of social media and a pinned video posted on Twitter by BT Sport Rugby has since been viewed more than 160,000.
There was was 20:23 on the clock when Potter grabbed his try, 22:20 when a push in the back by Ben Lam after a whistle from the referee had stopped play resulted in the Leicester back taking evasive action, jumping the perimeter advertising and disappearing down into the concrete moat that rings the pitch at Stade Chaban-Delmas.
Given the considerable seven-foot drop on the other side of the advertising board, Potter could have easily crashed against the wall and suffered a game-ending injury if he hadn't somehow managed to keep his composure and land on his feet, eventually returning to the pitch unscathed after figuring a way to get back up to pitch level.
The shocked facial expressions of some fans in the crowd as Potter disappeared from view with his unexpected jump were priceless as was some of the commentary given how the Leicester player has the same name as the mythical Harry Potter, the famed young wizard from the JK Rowling novels and movies.
Leicester skipper Ellis Genge tweeted that his colleague was "off to find platform 9 and 3/4s". TV pundit Ben Key, the ex-Tigers lock, added during commentary: "Be careful of the crocodiles down there." Meanwhile, BT Sport commentator Ali Eykyn said: "I am not sure he had any idea where he was going to there, Harry Potter. He has just disappeared into the abyss. He'll need a magic wand to get out of that."
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Skelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
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