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The Emirates Western Force has been soundly defeated in their final development tour match, falling to the tune of 48-7 to a classy Leicester Tigers outfit in England overnight.
Trailing 22-0 at the main break, the young WA side battled hard throughout the match but could only manage one try, to fullback James O’Connor, against last season’s Guinness Premiership finalists.
The Tigers, who boasted no less than 12 Internationals in their starting XV, posted seven tries in the rout.
Aaron Mauger, Alesana Tuilagi and Tom Varndell helped to give home side a 22-point half-time lead and scores from Tom Croft, Julien Dupuy, Benjamin Kayser and Matt Smith followed in an entertaining match in front of a crowd of 12,132 at a sunny Welford Road.
Toby Flood added a penalty and three conversions in the first hour and Sam Vesty kicked two conversions to complete the Tigers scoring.
O’Connor scored and converted the Force’s only try after 70 minutes.
Mauger led the team out as captain and was first on the scoreboard, darting in after a neat pass from Flood with just three minutes gone. Fly-half Flood added the conversion and took the lead into double figures with a penalty before the match had reached the quarter-hour mark.
Tuilagi’s first attacking run ended just short of the line but within seconds the big Samoan was able to power his way over as he latched on to a pass by Dan Hipkiss.
The visitors’ first concerted attack came after 25 minutes and the Australians went close to a breakthrough following a close-range tap penalty before Tigers’ defence pushed back Number 8 Filipe Manu and then halted the service for the backline by bringing down scrum-half Chris O’Young.
Tom Youngs, on as a replacement for Mauger who had suffered a facial cut, made an immediate impact as he took ball on in the Force 22 and Hipkiss supplied the final pass for Varndell to duck under two challenges and get the ball down in the right-hand corner to take the lead to 22-0 at the close of the opening period.
Leicester extended the lead when Croft made a perfectly-timed burst through the defence to score. Julien Dupuy then marked his first appearance at Welford Road with a 64th-minute try, bouncing off three tacklers on the way to the line and Kayser proved unstoppable in a powerful run for the fifth try of the afternoon which took Leicester 41 points in front.
The WA side made the most of their best attacking opportunity of the half when O’Connor latched on to an incisive break by winger Haig Sare and ran in from 20 metres to score. The 18-year-old recovered his composure quickly enough to add the conversion too.
But there was still time for Vesty to create a final score for Smith with a smart grubber kick behind the visitors defence to close the match at 48-7.
Emirates Western Force Coach John Mitchell said his side was unable to match Leicester physically, but was confident the young squad will learn from the experience.
“The spirit was great, the guys kept going. We showed tremendous character throughout the match and Leicester looked very bright and very hungry,” said Mitchell.
“It was a good experience for our young guys, to come here and come up against a quality opposition and compete hard like they did,” he said.
The result brings an end to the five-match development tour, with the squad due to depart London tomorrow (WST).
Leicester Tigers 48 (Aaron Mauger, Alesana Tuilagi, Tom Varndell, Tom Croft, Julien Dupuy, Benjamin Kayser, Matt Smith tries; Toby Flood 3 conversions, penalty goal; Sam Vesty 2 conversions) defeated Emirates Western Force 7 (James O’Connor try; conversion) at Welford Road, Leicester, England.
Crowd: 12,132
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Originally Posted by chook
