Leicester Tigers 31 – 0 Newcastle Falcons: Tigers remain unbeaten

Ben Redwood

3 years ago

Tags: England, Leicester, Leicester Tigers, London Irish, Mike Brown, Newcastle, Newcastle Falcons, Premiership, Sale, Saracens, Scotland

Leicester Tigers maintained their unstoppable start to the season with a bonus-point win over Newcastle Falcons.

Ford kicked Tigers into an early lead before the hosts broke Newcastle with two tries in quick succession.

The first for Kelly came from a driving line-out before Ford chipped ahead, Joel Hodgson fumbled and Scotland centre Scott collected the loose ball to score.

Newcastle then remained pinned in their own half before Martin crashed over from close range.

And, with the last play of the game, a superb cross-field kick from replacement Burns was collected by Potter. He stepped inside full-back Brown to score the bonus-point try and stretch the Tigers' winning streak in all competitions to 16.

LEICESTER, ENGLAND – JANUARY 02: Matt Scott of Leicester Tigers celebrates after scores a try during the Gallagher Premiership Rugby match between Leicester Tigers and Newcastle Falcons at Mattioli Woods Welford Road Stadium on January 02, 2022 in Leicester, England. (Photo by Nathan Stirk/Getty Images)

Sale-bound Ford landed three conversions and a penalty on his 100th start for the club as Tigers made it to the halfway stage of the season nine points clear of second-placed Saracens – and with their 100% record still intact.

Newcastle became the first side to fail to score in a top flight game since Sale beat London Irish 39-0 in March 2020.

Newcastle's ex-England international Mike Brown made his 250th Premiership appearance. In doing so, he became only the sixth player in the top flight's 25-year history to reach that milestone, after Richard Wigglesworth (309), Leicester boss Steve Borthwick (265), George Chuter (262), Phil Dowson (262) and Charlie Hodgson (254).

It was a happy end to a difficult week for Leicester Tigers in which they have been accused of Premiership salary-cap breaches, which are now under investigation.

Leicester: Steward; Potter, Scott, Kelly, Porter; Ford, Youngs; Genge (capt), Montoya, Cole, Snyman, Wells, Reffell, Martin.

Replacements: Clare, Leatigaga, Heyes, Murimurivalu, Dolly, Van Poortvliet, Burns, Moroni.

Newcastle: Brown; Carreras, Orlando, Burrell, Radwan; Hodgson, Schreuder; Cooper, Maddison, Davison, Peterson, Robinson, Van der Walt, Welch (capt), Fearns.

Replacements: Smith, Mulipola, Tampin, Chick, Graham, Stuart, Connon, Penny.