Izaia Perese gets Leicester purring in statement triumph against Saracens

Michael Cheika’s tenure at Leicester is six matches old but a statement victory such as this suggests their faithful can dream again. They went toe-to-toe with Saracens, who have set the pace in the Premiership this season, and displayed the trademark stubbornness of any Cheika side by the bucketload.

They scored four tries – so did Saracens – and if the hosts were missing seven players who were away with England, the Tigers were without five for the same reason. It made for an enthralling encounter, shorn of star English names, but high on thrills and spills.

For Leicester, the Australian outside centre Izaia Perese was outstanding while Anthony Watson showed his class on the right wing and the collective effort from the forwards will have had Cheika purring. For the hosts, Tom Willis has somehow upped his efforts after his England snub. He did not deserve to end up on the losing side but you sense these two teams may meet again at the business end of the season.

The Tigers are second in the table and have won five of their opening six matches of the season with the Premiership now on hold for a month with the autumn internationals taking centre stage. If that one defeat, against Bath at home, was disappointing, then the Tigers can revel in their 5-1 record – matched only by Bath.

It was a scrappy start – unsurprising from Saracens’ point of view after they lost Alex Goode, who had been due to start at fly-half, and Marco Riccioni to injury in the warm-up. With Fergus Burke also missing, Saracens were down to the bare bones, meaning a start for Tim Swiel, who joined the club this week as short-term cover.

Leicester opened the scoring with a straightforward penalty from Handrè Pollard but it was Saracens who registered the first try, finished by Nick Tompkins but owing everything to Willis’s bulldozing ball-carrying. The offload to Tompkins left the Wales centre with the simplest of finishes between the posts.

The response was immediate. A clever grubber from their fledgling centre Joe Woodward was measured perfectly for Ollie Hassell-Collins to gather and dot down before Perese was over for Leicester’s second try on the left after excellent work by Watson, who claimed a high ball and made significant ground on the right.

Back came Saracens to within a point when Swiel popped up on the shoulder of Juan Martín González, who had made the crucial break – the South African fly-half’s celebration, well before he had splashed down, demonstrating how much he was enjoying himself. All the more so when his penalty nosed Saracens back ahead.

Leicester took the lead into the interval, however, with a penalty try on the stroke of half-time – the Saracens tighthead prop, Alec Clarey, shown a yellow card for his troubles after the referee, Matthew Carley, had consulted the TMO.

It got better for the Tigers soon after the break when their captain, Julián Montoya, notched their fourth from a driving maul – Perese doing the initial damage with a fine burst up the middle.

Both sides had disallowed tries – Hassell-Collins thought he had a second only to be brought back for a knock-on while Hugh Tizard could not cleanly ground the ball for Saracens after a slick lineout move. Another Pollard penalty left Saracens needing three scores with a quarter of the match to go, which became two when González dotted down from close range.

Again Willis was the provider – a thundering run up the guts of Leicester’s defence just as Saracens were running out of ideas.

It was one with nine minutes to go when the replacement hooker, James Hadfield, squeezed the ball down after a driving maul had been held short and while Leicester were awarded a penalty within Pollard’s range, they kicked for the corner only for Theo McFarland to steal the ball and keep Saracens in the hunt.

Try as they might, the Leicester defence is a resolute beast these days and there was no way through, ensuring Saracens head to the international break with their first home defeat of the season.