Van Poortvliet stars as Leicester dominate Saints

Gallagher Premiership

Northampton Saints (0) 0

Tigers of Leicester (23) 33

Following a clever move after four minutes, Adam Radwan steamed over in the corner for the opener.

England scrum-half Van Poortvliet raced more than half the field for the second try before collecting his own crafty kick to cross for a stunning solo effort.

Saints had a chance, but they were inconsistently poor in defense and sloppy with the ball in hand despite having three tries disallowed. They never appeared to be planning a comeback, which might have prevented Tigers from advancing to third place in the Premiership.

The visitors took a 23-0 half-time lead thanks to Handre Pollard’s effort and Ollie Cracknell’s close range score.

A Pollard penalty gave the Tigers a relatively uninteresting second period before a routine score from the home side earned Charlie Clare a routine score under the posts to give Leicester a bonus point.

The English top flight made a weekend of derby matches after the league’s final Premiership game eight weeks after its final one as it took a break from the Six Nations.

With a delightful backs move that saw Radwan pass for a fine try in the corner, the Tigers made their rivals pay right away.

After Van Poortvliet’s stunning second try, a brilliant chip over the top and gather following a darting run from deep, Cracknell scored the winning try, which Saints were the first to lose at home in the first half since December 2023 against Sale Sharks.

After the turnaround, Saints’ level of entertainment dropped, but they remained uninspired.

With an electric burst, Henry Pollock’s replacement, who had just made his two-try debut against Wales, almost put Saints on the board.

Clare’s try gave the hosts a forgettable night, earning what might have been a valuable bonus point for the Tigers’ whitewash victory.

Phil Dowson, the rugby director for the Northampton Saints, stated to BBC Radio Northampton:

class=”ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3″>”We didn’t anticipate that, class=”ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3″>” the statement read. We thought this week’s training was good and we had good energy, but the first half we were completely lost.

We had a great beginning. We hit the incorrect line on our first play, which was incorrect. That would have settled us and reintroduced routine, but as a result, our group became very disorganized and headed in the opposite direction.

We made a lot of mistakes, turned a lot of turnovers, and had no field position. We appeared to be working almost too hard. A little scattergun, I guess.

We’ll have to think about, reflect, and figure out why we initially appeared a little shell-shocked.

Michael Cheika, the head coach of the Tigers of Leicester, told BBC Radio Leicester:

“I feel good, obviously,” In the first half, we did some good footie. In the second half, we probably struggled with the ball, but we did well to defend.

“I made sure that the players were prepared in mindset, body, and technical terms when they returned from the Six Nations.”

I was really pleased with the fact that we haven’t been very defensively but have given away some scores that didn’t appeal to me.

Walker, Haffar, Green, Coles, Munga, Pollock, Weimann, and Odendaal as replacements.

Leicester: Steward, Radwan, Kata, Woodward, Pollard, van Poortvliet, N Smith, Montoya (capt), Heyes, Henderson, Wells, Liebenberg, Reffell, Cracknell, and Henderson.

Clarke, Whitcombe, Cole, Joussain, Ilione, Youngs, Volavola, Perese, and Clarke are the replacements.