Pollard receives a card on Premiership return

PREMIERSHIP SATURDAY WRAP: Leicester made it three wins from four Premiership games under Michael Cheika as they defeated East Midlands rivals Northampton 24-8 at Welford Road.

Freddie Steward, Olly Cracknell and Ollie Chessum were the try-scorers for the Tigers, who were impressive in the second half after riding their luck at times in the first 40 minutes.

Champions Northampton suffered their second defeat of the campaign, but they let a host of chances slip through their fingers before Tommy Freeman finally went in for a late consolation score.

Leicester broke through after only four minutes when a tapped penalty led to Jack van Poortvliet passing to fullback Steward, who steamed through to score down the left.

Handre Pollard, making his first appearance of the season after winning the Rugby Championship with South Africa, converted from out wide.

Northampton thought they had hit back in the 13th minute when Sam Graham stretched for the tryline, but a TMO check judged him to have knocked on in the act of grounding the ball.

From the drop-out, Graham then suffered what looked a serious knee injury from a dangerous tackle by Tigers flank Tommy Reffell, who was sin-binned as a result.

There was more frustration for the Saints when a Freeman try was ruled out for a knock-on by captain George Furbank in the build-up before Pollard extended the Tigers’ lead to 10-0 with a simple penalty.

The visitors were then reduced to 14 men after 33 minutes when hooker Curtis Langdon was shown a yellow card for his shoulder making contact with Harry Wells’ head.

While his side were a man light Fin Smith put Northampton on the board with a penalty three minutes before half-time.

Four minutes into the second half Pollard became the third player in the match to see yellow when he made head-on-head contact with Furbank.

But the Tigers were dominating the scrum and it was from this solid base that they claimed their second try in the 54th minute as No.8 Cracknell burrowed his way over under the posts.

Pollard emerged straight from the sinbin to convert before Northampton saw yet another chance go begging when Tom Pearson was held up in-goal by some good Leicester defence.

A bad couple of minutes for Pearson was complete when he was shown yellow for killing the ball in the shadow of his own posts and the hosts quickly killed the match as a contest when England lock Chessum powered over.

Just to prove this was not the Saints’ day, young loose forward Henry Pollock knocked on close to the line and replacement tighthead Tom West was held up before Freeman finally struck for them off the final play.

*Gabi Ibitoye scored an eight-minute try hat-trick as Bristol staged a thrilling fightback to beat Exeter 40-35 in the English Premiership on Saturday.

Premiership leaders Bristol were in trouble after Mani Feyi-Waboso and Paul Brown-Bampoe scored two tries each to put second-bottom Exeter 32-12 ahead with 18 minutes left.

But Exeter were denied their first win of the season, in part due to hooker Dan Frost earning a yellow card for stopping a tap penalty being taken quickly.

Bristol scored 28 points while he was off the pitch, running in four converted tries, with Ibitoye getting three of them.

Bath prop Beno Obano scored two tries in a 55-31 victory over Gloucester at Kingsholm.

Trailing 17-24 at the interval, Bath turned the game on its head to run out deserved winners by scoring eight tries to four.

Josh Bayliss, Tom De Glanville, Ollie Lawrence, Jaco Coetzee and Finn Russell were also on the try-scoring sheet with Russell adding five conversions and a penalty.

Max Llewellyn, Tomos Williams, Charlie Atkinson and Ollie Thorley scored Gloucester’s tries as Santiago Carreras converted three and kicked a penalty, with George Barton adding a conversion.

See below for Saturday’s scores and scorers!

Leicester Tigers 24-8 Northampton

The scorers:

For Leicester:
Tries: Steward, Cracknell, Chessum
Cons: Pollard 3
Pen: Pollard

For Northampton:
Try: Freeman
Pen: Smith

Yellow cards: Tommy Reffell (Leicester, 12′); Curtis Langdon (Northampton, 32′); Handre Pollard (Leicester, 43′); Tom Pearson (Northampton, 60′)

Teams:

Leicester Tigers: 15 Freddie Steward, 14 Anthony Watson, 13 Dan Kelly, 12 Joseph Woodward, 11 Ollie Hassell-Collins, 10 Handré Pollard, 9 Jack van Poortvliet, 8 Olly Cracknell, 7 Tommy Reffell, 6 Hanro Liebenberg, 5 Ollie Chessum, 4 Harry Wells, 3 Joe Heyes, 2 Julián Montoya, 1 Nicky Smith.
Replacements: 16 Charlie Clare, 17 James Cronin, 18 Dan Cole, 19 Côme Joussain, 20 Emeka Ilione, 21 Ben Youngs, 22 Jamie Shillcock, 23 Will Wand.

Northampton Saints: 15 George Furbank (c), 14 James Ramm, 13 Tom Litchfield, 12 Rory Hutchinson, 11 Tommy Freeman, 10 Fin Smith, 9 Archie McParland, 8 Sam Graham, 7 Angus Scott-Young, 6 Josh Kemeny, 5 Chunya Munga, 4 Temo Mayanavanua, 3 Elliot Millar Mills, 2 Curtis Langdon, 1 Emmanuel Iyogun.
Replacements: 16 Robbie Smith, 17 Tom West, 18 Trevor Davison, 19 Gavin Thornbury, 20 Tom Pearson, 21 Henry Pollock, 22 Jake Garside, 23 Ollie Sleightholme.

Referee: Anthony Woodthorpe
Assistant referees: Jack Makepeace, Greg Macdonald
TMO: Andrew Jackson

Gloucester 31-55 Bath

The scorers:

For Gloucester:
Tries: Llewellyn, Williams, Atkinson, Thorley
Cons: Carreras 3, Barton
Pen: Carreras,

For Bath:
Tries: Obano 2, Russell, Penalty Try, Bayliss, De Glanville, Lawrence, Coetzee
Cons: Russell 5
Pen: Russell

Yellow cards: Charlie Atkinson (Gloucester, 47′); Cameron Redpath (Bath, 73′)

Teams:

Gloucester: 15 Santi Carreras, 14 Josh Hathaway, 13 Max Llewellyn, 12 Seb Atkinson, 11 Ollie Thorley, 10 Gareth Anscombe, 9 Tomos Williams, 8 Zach Mercer, 7 Lewis Ludlow (captain), 6 Jack Clement, 5 Freddie Thomas, 4 Arthur Clark, 3 Afolabi Fasogbon, 2 Jack Singleton, 1 Ciaran Knight.
Replacements: 16 Seb Blake, 17 Val Rapava-Ruskin, 18 Kirill Gotovtsev, 19 Freddie Clarke, 20 Ruan Ackermann, 21 Caolan Englefield, 22 Charlie Atkinson, 23 George Barton.

Bath: 15 Tom de Glanville, 14 Will Butt, 13 Ollie Lawrence, 12 Cameron Redpath, 11 Austin Emens, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Ben Spencer (captain), 8 Alfie Barbeary, 7 Miles Reid, 6 Josh Bayliss, 5 Ross Molony, 4 Ted Hill, 3 Thomas du Toit, 2 Tom Dunn, 1 Beno Obano.
Replacements: 16 Niall Annett, 17 Francois van Wyk, 18 Will Stuart, 19 Charlie Ewels, 20 Sam Underhill, 21 Louis Schreuder, 22 Orlando Bailey, 23 Jaco Coetzee.

Referee: Adam Leal
Assistant referees: Luke Pearce, Jonathan Healy
TMO: Tom Foley

Exeter Chiefs 35-40 Bristol Bears

The scorers:

For Exeter:
Tries: Brown-Bampoe 2, Feyi-Waboso 2
Cons: Hodge 3
Pens: Hodge 3

For Bristol:
Tries: Marmion, Batley, Oghre, Ibitoye 3
Cons: MacGinty 5

Yellow cards: Dan Frost (Exeter, 65′); Josh Caulfield (Bristol, 15′)

Teams:

Exeter Chiefs: 15 Josh Hodge, 14 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, 13 Olly Woodburn, 12 Joe Hawkins, 11 Paul Brown-Bampoe, 10 Harvey Skinner, 9 Sam Maunder, 8 Ross Vintcent, 7 Richard Capstick, 6 Jacques Vermeulen, 5 Franco Molina, 4 Rusi Tuima, 3 Marcus Street, 2 Jack Yeandle (captain), 1 Scott Sio.
Replacements: 16 Dan Frost, 17 Will Goodrick-Clarke, 18 Josh Iosefa-Scott, 19 Jack Dunne, 20 Ethan Roots, 21 Tom Cairns, 22 Ben Hammersley, 23 Greg Fisilau.

Bristol Bears: 15 Rich Lane, 14 Jack Bates, 13 Joe Jenkins, 12 Benhard Janse van Rensburg, 11 Gabriel Ibitoye, 10 AJ MacGinty, 9 Kieran Marmion, 8 Fitz Harding (captain), 7 Santiago Grondona, 6 Steven Luatua, 5 Joe Batley, 4 Josh Caulfield, 3 Max Lahiff, 2 Gabriel Oghre, 1 Jake Woolmore.
Replacements: 16 Will Capon, 17 Ellis Genge, 18 George Kloska, 19 James Dun, 20 Benjamin Grondona, 21 Harry Randall, 22 Sam Worsley, 23 Benjamin Elizalde.

Referee: Matthew Carley
Assistant referees: Craig Maxwell-Keys, Gareth Holsgrove
TMO: David Rose

Additional source: AFP