Handre Pollard downs compatriots as Leicester fight back to beat Stormers
Leicester Tigers head coach Dan McKellar was pleased to see his half-time words have an effect as they fought back to beat the Stormers 35-26 in the Investec Champions Cup.
Springboks fly-half Handre Pollard went a long way to securing the win with 20 points despite a flat first-half performance from the hosts, who went into the break 17-10 behind.
McKellar said: “I don’t do it that often these days and it’s not about yelling and screaming, it’s about understanding we needed to shift in and around attitude and enthusiasm and effort areas.
“Someone’s going to drop a ball every now and then or throw a bad pass, I can live with that, but I can’t live with being out-enthused.
“We got some set-piece dominance, we kicked better, it was tough conditions out there. I know everyone wants to see us throwing the ball around and I thought again there were some good moments of really good passages and skill and good play, but we just executed our game plan.
“We managed to put them under pressure with our kicking game, through our defence and through our set-piece. At this time of the year, that’s what’s going to win games.”
Solomone Kata scored the opening try for Leicester, but Keke Morabe and Courtnall Skosan both touched down to allow the Stormers to go into half-time ahead.
Although the visitors proved very hard to shake off, a second try from Kata along with scores by Pollard and Josh Bassett ensured the Tigers got the job done in the end.
Stormers head coach John Dobson said: “I’m thrilled with the effort and the physicality, all the stuff we wanted. We’re probably disappointed with the way we didn’t get anything in the end.
“It’s a bit curious because there’s so much pride for the performance – there’s a lock [Dylan Sjoblom] who arrived and joined us this week on Tuesday – but there’s disappointment not to get a point out of it.
“I’m not sure our best team would have done much better, but for the competition and for Leicester we’d like to be at full noise, so it is a pity.
“It’s so important for us to be part of this competition in South Africa, it means so much to us.
“It’s great that we fought. I think if we’d got rolled over 44-3, we would have been the side to have damaged the competition. You could see there was some talent in there.”
PA