Pollard helps sink Saints into the abyss

Yesterday at 07:29 PM

WRAP: Leicester Tigers struck a potentially terminal blow to Northampton Saints' Premiership title defence with a dominant 33-0 victory at Franklin's Gardens.

The Tigers scored three tries in the opening 13 minutes to rapidly take the game away from their East Midlands rivals and increase the gap between to two sides in the table to 14 points.

Michael Cheika's side is up to third – for 24 hours at least - as they moved above Gloucester and opened up a six-point advantage over fifth-placed Saracens – with the Saints now needing a miraculous run to remain in the play-off picture.

A Leicester infringement straight from the kick-off meant Northampton were immediately on the attack, with tighthead Trevor Davison knocking on with the try line at his mercy before a minute had been played.

The hosts had missed their first big opportunity but Leicester did not do likewise as Handre Pollard got away down the right before timing his pass to put Adam Radwan in the clear for the opening try in the fourth minute.

The Tigers were soon celebrating again when Jack van Poortvliet chipped over George Hendy before winning a race for the ball with Tom Pearson to gather and score.

The rampant visitors were quickly in once more when Olly Cracknell received the ball following a line-out and broke through some flimsy tackling to barge over.

Pollard then added two penalties on either side of the half-hour to extend Leicester's already considerable lead to 23-0 as they continued to dominate all facets of the match.

The shell-shocked Saints were unable to get themselves on the board before half-time and falling rain did nothing to improve their chances of getting back in the contest.

The hosts desperately needed to score first in the second half but instead it was the visitors who kept their tally ticking over as Pollard slotted another penalty.

Henry Pollock, scorer of two tries on his England debut against Wales last week, almost made an instant impact off the bench with an electric burst down the left that was well stopped by Radwan metres short.

Further evidence that this was not Northampton's night came with Emmanuel Iyogun knocked on in stretching for the line after a quickly taken penalty.

Pollock then looked to have finally got the Saints off the mark after 54 minutes when he ran in off George Hendy's pass but the score was ruled out for the former fumbling a Leicester clearance at the start of the move.

Just to rub salt in the wounds the Tigers sealed the try bonus point with four minutes remaining when Charlie Clare gratefully gathered Pollock's loose pass in the Northampton 22 and ran in unopposed.

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* In the other Friday game Sale Sharks recorded their first Premiership win of 2025 with a 39-15 victory over Newcastle at Kingston Park.

Sharks held a 17-point lead at half-time thanks to tries from Bevan Rodd, Rob du Preez and Tom O'Flaherty and two George Ford penalties.

Tadgh McElroy struck early into the second half to extend the advantage and, despite being reduced to 14, Joe Carpenter crossed for Sale's fifth as they eased to a seventh Premiership win of the season so far.

Another difficult evening for the Falcons saw Cameron Neild and Richard Palframan score their only tries as they slipped to a 10th league defeat to remain rooted to the bottom of the table.

Newcastle Falcons 15-39 Sale Sharks

The scorers

For Newcastle Falcons
Tries: Neild, Palframan
Con: Connon
Pen: Connon

For Sale Sharks
Tries: Rodd, R du Preez, O'Flaherty, McElroy, Carpenter
Cons: Ford 4
Pens: Ford 2

Teams

Newcastle Falcons: 15 Elliott Obatoyinbo, 14 Oli Spencer, 13 Sammy Arnold, 12 Max Clark, 11 Alex Hearle, 10 Brett Connon, 9 Sam Stuart, 8 Callum Chick (captain), 7 Cameron Neild, 6 Freddie Lockwood, 5 Kiran McDonald, 4 Philip van der Walt, 3 Murray McCallum, 2 Jamie Blamire, 1 Adam Brocklebank.
Replacements: 16 Ollie Fletcher, 17 Micky Rewcastle, 18 Richard Palframan, 19 Sebastian de Chaves, 20 Ollie Leatherbarrow, 21 Joe Davis, 22 Kieran Wilkinson, 23 Louis Brown.

Sale Sharks: 15 Joe Carpenter, 14 Tom Roebuck, 13 Rekeiti Ma'asi White, 12 Rob du Preez, 11 Tom O'Flaherty, 10 George Ford 9 Gus Warr, 8 JL du Preez, 7 Ben Curry (captain), 6 Ernst van Rhyn, 5 Jonny Hill, 4 Ben Bamber, 3 Asher Opoku-Fordjour, 2 Tadgh McElroy, 1 Bevan Rodd.
Replacements: 16 Harry Thompson, 17 Si McIntyre, 18 WillGriff John, 19 Hyron Andrews, 20 Sam Dugdale, 21 Nye Thomas, 22 Sam Bedlow, 23 Arron Reed.

Referee: Christophe Ridley
Assistant referees: Hamish Grant & Jamie Leahy
TMO: Andrew Jackson

Northampton Saints 0-33 Leicester Tigers

The scorers

For Northamptons Saints
None

For Leicester Tigers
Tries: Leicester Tigers,Radwan, Van Poortvliet, Cracknell, Clare
Cons: Pollard 2
Pens: Pollard 3

Teams

Northampton Saints: 15 George Hendy, 14 James Ramm, 13 Fraser Dingwall (captain), 12 Rory Hutchinson, 11 Tom Seabrook, 10 Fin Smith, 9 Tom James, 8 Juarno Augustus, 7 Tom Pearson, 6 Josh Kemeny, 5 Tom Lockett, 4 Temo Mayanavanua, 3 Trevor Davison, 2 Curtis Langdon, 1 Emmanuel Iyogun.
Replacements: 16 Henry Walker, 17 Tarek Haffar, 18 Luke Green, 19 Alex Coles, 20 Chunya Munga, 21 Henry Pollock, 22 Jonny Weimann, 23 Burger Odendaal.

Leicester Tigers: 15 Freddie Steward, 14 Adam Radwan, 13 Solomone Kata, 12 Joseph Woodward, 11 Ollie Hassell-Collins, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Jack van Poortvliet, 8 Olly Cracknell, 7 Tommy Reffell, 6 Hanro Liebenberg, 5 Harry Wells, 4 Cameron Henderson, 3 Joe Heyes, 2 Julian Montoya, 1 Nicky Smith.
Replacements: 16 Charlie Clare, 17 James Whitcombe, 18 Dan Cole, 19 Côme Joussain, 20 Emeka Ilione, 21 Ben Youngs, 22 Ben Volavola, 23 Izaia Perese.

Referee: Anthony Woodthorpe
Assistant referees: Hamish Smales & Gareth Holsgrove
TMO: Stuart Terheege