10 December 2023 , 19:19
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Handre Pollard spared Leicester’s blushes as Tigers came from behind to beat a Stormers team with its star names left back in South Africa.
The World Cup winner eventually put one over on his fellow countrymen, bagging the crucial late try in a 20-point haul that gave Tigers a winning start to their Champions Cup campaign.
But the two-time champs escaped to victory only after a half-time rollocking from unimpressed boss Dan McKellar.
‘We can live with mistakes but we can’t live with being out-enthused,” said the Aussie. “It’s not about yelling and screaming, it’s about understanding that we needed a shift in and around attitude and enthusiasm and effort areas.”
The Cape Town-based Stormers should have been no match for Leicester in front of a near 20,000 Welford Road crowd.
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With only a six-day turnaround until La Rochelle face them at Newlands, they were without key players left at home to prepare for the champions.
World Cup winner Pollard helped himself to 20 points (PA)Pollard kicking Tigers ahead from the penalty spot and converting an early try by cross-code centre Solomone Kata only reinforced the suspicion.
It was too easy and the lack of buzz in the stands and bite on the pitch bred a complacency, highlighted by Hanro Liebenberg failing to give a simple scoring pass to Josh Bassett.
That would have opened the floodgates but instead of dispiriting a rookie team, 8.000 miles from home in the cold and wet of an English winter, the youngsters grabbed a foothold in the contest.
Two-try Solomone Kata and Pollard celebrate Leicester's Champions Cup win (PA)Stormers No.8 Keke Morabe picked up from the base of a scrum and scored far too easily before Courtnall Skosan punished sloppy defending for their second try.
McKellar let rip at half-time but it took a piece of magic from Kata to spark an improvement, cleverly flicking on the ball to put Ollie Hassell-Collins into space.
The England wing fed it back inside for the Tongan’s second try, after which Pollard took over, kicking Tigers ahead before linking with Harry Wells to bag a try of his own.
With the final play of the game Pollard fizzed out a long pass for Josh Bassett to snatch Leicester the bonus point - and deny Stormers theirs.
It was cruel on the visitors and Pollard said the tournament should rethink its scheduling of South African teams.
“If we’re going to have them in the competition we should really try to accommodate them a bit better,” he said.
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Stormers boss John Dobson added: “If we had a two week trip we can come full-noise, and that might give us a chance. I don’t want to be doing what I did today.”
LEICESTER - Tries: Kata 2, Pollard, Bassett. Cons: Pollard 3. Pens: Pollard 3.
STORMERS - Tries: Morabe, Skosan. Cons: Matthee 2. Pens: Matthee 3. Drop: Matthee.