Comeback number 10?

By Leipziger
January 26 2007

Saturday sees our second successive Premiership match against Leicester following that most dramatic of finishes at Kingston Park three weeks ago. Jonny Wilkinson is named amongst nine possible replacements for a potential tenth comeback since the World Cup Final.

The nine previous were Northampton (Home, December 2003), Worcester (away, September 2004), Edinburgh (away, December 2004), Harlequins (away, March 2005), Northampton (away, April 2005), Sale (away, September 2005), Sale (home, October 2005), Sale (home, April 2006), Bristol (home, November 2006), and we all pray the lacerated kidney was the last of his serious problems.

The Tigers are currently joint top of the Premiership with Bristol, who have a game in hand and are inches ahead with that precious extra win (nine to Leicester’s eight), going into the final round of league matches before the Six Nations.

And against the tenth-placed Falcons, our hosts will be after revenge after our 31-29 victory in the North East on January 7th when the Tigers looked to have the victory wrapped up when Leon Lloyd scored their second try to go 13-26 ahead with just over 20 minutes left.

However, two John Rudd tries and Flood’s late pair of penalties gave the Falcons a second win in a row over the Midlanders.

Nicknamed the Cheatahs by opposition fans, Leicester’s home game against the Falcons last year was a lively if not violent affair, with Andy Perry and Julian White sent off for fighting and Andy Long and Andy Goode also sin-binned, whilst Jonny Wilkinson, making his first start of the season, suffered a late tackle on the knee from Harry Ellis in the first half, requiring lengthy treatment and bringing a round of boos from the Welford Road faithful.

The home fans may well have been celebrating after a controversial decision from the touch judges not to allow a late Matthew Burke penalty which seemed to go over the posts, after he converted Robbie Morris’ try to level the scores.

Nevertheless, with a 16-16 draw being the first time any Premiership side had won any sort of points at Leicester for over a year, Mark H and I legged it to the last train in high spirits after the best result we’d managed at Welford Road since our solitary league win there in December 1997.

The Tigers come into the match on the back of a magnificent victory away to Munster in the Heineken Cup last Saturday, becoming the first team ever to win at Thomond Park in the tournament.

Geordan Murphy and Ollie Smith late-on were the try-scorers on a dramatic and emotional evening in Limerick, and an Ian Humphreys penalty to two from Ronan O’Gara sealed a 6-13 win and a home quarter-final against Stade Francais, conquerors of the Falcons at the same stage two years ago.

The Falcons will start with three players looking to cement an England place for the Six Nations, Jamie Noon, Mathew Tait and Toby Flood, as well as Loki Crichton on the wing. Joe McDonnell again captains the league side in Matthew Burke's continued absence.

15 Anthony Elliott
14 Tom May
13 Mathew Tait
12 Jamie Noon
11 Loki Crichton
10 Toby Flood
9 James Grindal
1 Joe McDonnell (captain)
2 Matt Thompson
3 Micky Ward
4 Mark Sorenson
5 Jason Oakes
6 Geoff Parling
7 Ben Woods
8 Russell Winter

Replacements (from):
Jon Golding
Andy Long
Andy Buist
Brent Wilson
Tim Visser
Lee Dickson
Joe Shaw
Jonny Wilkinson
Mark Mayerhofler

Pre-match drinks from 12 onwards at the Victory pub, near the Welford Road clubhouse.