Leicester 22-10 Newcastle: Tigers recover from a 10-point deficit to overcome Falcons at Welford Road - Ruck

Leicester 22-10 Newcastle: Tigers recover from a 10-point deficit to overcome Falcons at Welford Road

  • The sides were level at 10-10 at half-time after Nili Latu bundled over for Newcastle and Telusa Veainu brought Leicester back on terms.
  • Peter Betham wriggled through after a missed tackle to give Tigers the lead.
  • Leicester denied Newcastle a losing bonus point when Laurence Pearce crossed after Betham’s fine offload.
Leicester Tigers recovered from a 10-point deficit at Welford Road to beat Newcastle Falcons, who dropped to the bottom of the Premiership table following London Irish’s unexpected win against Saints.

An action packed half saw two disallowed tries for Leicester. They eventually scored one from star back Telusa Veaniu, with Freddie Burns kicking five points.

Newcastle also scored a solitary try through Nili Latu, with Craig Willis mirroring Burns’ five points.

Leicester sealed the win in the second half with two tries from Peter Betham and Laurence Pearce; with Burns kicking two points.

he loss, coupled with a dramatic win for London Irish, sees Newcastle fall to the bottom of the Aviva Premiership table. On the other end of the scale, a tenth straight win for Leicester Tigers domestically and in Europe sees them continue to climb the table and challenge for a top four spot.

On the other end of the scale, a tenth straight win for Leicester Tigers domestically and in Europe sees them continue to climb the table and challenge for a top four spot.


Leicester: 15 Mathew Tait, 14 Telusa Veainu , 13 Peter Betham , 12 Matt Smith, 11 Vereniki Goneva, 10 Freddie Burns, 9 Jono Kitto, 8 Laurence Pearce, 7 Lachlan McCaffrey, 6 Tom Croft, 5 Ed Slater (c), 4 Dom Barrow, 3 Fraser Balmain, 2 Harry Thacker, 1 Logovi’i Mulipola
Replacements: 16 Tom Youngs, 17 Matias Aguero, 18 Dan Cole, 19 Sebastian De Chaves, 20 Opeti Fonua, 21 Ben Youngs, 22 Tommy Bell, 23 Seremaia Bai

Newcastle: 15 Simon Hammersley, 14 Alex Tait, 13 Belisario Agulla, 12 Chris Harris, 11 Marcus Watson, 10 Craig Willis, 9 Michael Young, 8 Nili Latu, 7 Will Welch (c), 6 Ally Hogg, 5 Sean Robinson, 4 Mark Wilson, 3 Jon Welsh, 2 George McGuigan, 1 Rob Vickers
Replacements: 16 Scott Lawson, 17 Alex Rogers, 18 Taione Vea, 19 Mouritz Botha, 20 Todd Clever, 21 Sonatane Takulua, 22 Tom Catterick, 23 Juan Pablo Socino


Date: Saturday, December 26
Venue: Welford Road
Kick-off: 15:00 GMT
Referee: Tim Wigglesworth
Assistant Referees: Darren Gamage, Kelvin Stewart
TMO: Rowan Kitt