By Tigerstart
March 29 2003

Much has been made of the rivalry and local derby aspect between Leicester and Northampton. Already this season, the U21s, Extras and main team have all competed at either Welford Road or Franklin's Gardens.

Who can forget that Northampton Saints turned over Leicester Tigers at Welford Road to end their unbeaten home record? With this track record, the Extras went head to head with Saints Wanderers and edged victory in an intriguing game by 12-24 points.

The Northampton crowd were certainly taking this contest deadly seriously, so some humour had to be injected into the night, as both sets of supporters were deeply patriotic. Thankfully, Franck needed a change of shorts early in proceedings, so one fan was heard to be whistling very loudly!

Tigers combined an interesting team line-up, as on the one hand players needed match practice, but on the other hand, injuries couldn’t really be risked as Leicester go into a hectic April and May – next weekend home league game against Sale and then a big European Cup quarter-final game against Munster. Leicester combined main team players with U21s. So, Healey partnered Tom Tierney (TT) at 10 and 9 respectively, Vesty was moved to fullback, Freddie went to centre and Raynor (re-called from the 7’s for cover) was out on the wing.

The Wanderers kicked off in the first half. After initial settling down, Tigers took a lineout through Short, TT passed out wide and Freddie stormed through the mid-field. Possession was recycled and TT kicked over the defensive line for Boothie to chase, but Beal was on hand to counter attack and Johnson made a mess of collecting the kick.

In the 7th minute, TT fed Tigers scrum and Raynor came into the line, where Oz chose to show his skills of by doing a cross-field diagonal kick. In the 13th minute, Vesty took the kick-off and Boothie found possession but was penalised for holding on. The Wanderers gained momentum as Beal chose to kick to the corner and they had a lineout. Glitherow tackled and Freddie stole the ball, which TT cleared but Ripol turned over possession and paced down ½ of the pitch. A subsequent penalty on Tigers 22 for holding on saw Beal miss a sitter in front of the posts.

In the 22nd minute, resulting from the loose ball, Johnson picked up possession, fed through Glitherow and Boothie across the field to where Raynor went over in the right corner, as Northampton’s defence was stretched. Vesty booted the conversion. A few minutes later, Tigers had a penalty and Oz kicked to touch. The lineout was successfully won but possession was dropped just short of the line. The Wanderers countered and shifted ball wide and were 2-on-1 defensively in their favour. Having gone straight through Raynor, Northampton were odds on to score but they knocked on over the line. Johnson picked up and Abraham cleared and the resulting scrum saw TT feed Oz who cleared Tigers pressure.

The Wanderers were awarded a penalty as Franck was judged to have crossed – Mr. Tournaire was on form, constantly talking to himself in French. A good physical contest in the scrum was being battled out. In the 34th minute, Northampton won their lineout and the pack drove towards the line. Tigers came in form the side, so from the kick to the corner, the Saints had a 3-metre lineout. Deacon rose tall and stole possession and TT cleared. Saints had another penalty as Franck took the player in the air but the ball was poor and Johnson disrupted play. Later Saints rolling maul was held up on the line by Tigers but due to their persistent infringement, referee Rowden gave Northampton a penalty try and Beal added the conversion. Just before the half-time whistle, it was a case of knock-ons as Saints were on the charge but Beal knocked on, and after a Tigers scrum, Raynor spilled the ball.

Nebbett came on in the second-half, so Pezza moved to Hooker and Tigers kicked off. In the 6th minute, Tigers took a lineout and drove the maul towards the line, where they wheeled around to give Kronfeld the opportunity to score. However, it was clear from the crowd that Franck was the last man up despite the PA system announcing Josh. Vesty missed the touch-line conversion. In the 9th minute, Tigers were on the back foot under pressure as the Wanderers drove down field and spread the ball wide and did a nifty reverse pass manoeuvre but Tigers held firm. Tigers defence held tight again in the 15th minute.

Nearing full-time, there was some argy-bargy in the Tigers lineout that gave Northampton a penalty and a 5-meter lineout. The Wanderers knocked on possession and Tigers gained a scrum. Saints stole the ball. Tigers were awarded a penalty and the pack drove towards the line where Johnson scored. Myring, now in the full-back position, popped over the conversion. Tigers extended their scoreline, which the Wanderers never looked like reaching, as Raynor went over in the left hand corner. The magical try was set up by a cross-kick by Boothie, with TT on the wing (despite obvious cramp) put Raynor clear of the defence. Northampton had the last laugh, as Tigers defence was stretched and the Saints favourite Sleightholme was over in the corner.

Leicester and Northampton both put out equally big named sides, which drew in a sizeable crowd. Tigers made sure that they scored the opportunities that they had as Northampton knocked on twice on the line. Tigers strong pack worked hard in the rucks, mauls and loose to withstand the Wanderers and Tierney was on hand to provide a fast efficient service. Oz seemed to be back to his best. Despite playing out of position, Boothie assisted Vesty and the backs sought quick ball that was recycled and passed down the line well. Tigers benefited from a good victory and a match run-out for key individuals – only TT and Glitherow look like they picked up cramp injuries.

Scoring sequence:
22 mins Tigers try Raynor and con Vesty 0-7
40 mins Northampton pen try and con Beal 7-7
47 mins Tigers try Kronfeld 7-12
77 mins Tigers try Johnson and con Myring 7-19
78 mins Tigers try Raynor 7-24
83 mins Northampton try Sleightholme 12-24

Date: Friday 28th March 2003
Time: 7.30pm k/o
Weather: After a sunny day, dry and fine evening weather
Crowd: 1,312
Referee: Ashley Rowden (yes folks, it was that man) with touch judges Richard Draper and Darren Gammage
Sin bin: none
MOTM: Peter Short (undisputed winner, as voted for by the judging panel for his work rate and amazing bursts down the blindside added to the many break that he made)
MOTM by Saints: Jon Sleightholme
Viewing rating: 9/10
Funniest sight of the evening: Tigers team huddle and Kronfeld doing his warm-up stretches and TT is standing astride of him!
Match reporting team: TT, Tigeress, TJS10, Zara, Zara’s friend and Malcolm.

Tigers Team:
15 Sam Vesty
14 Gareth Raynor
13 Steve Glitherow
12 Freddie Tuilagi
11 Steve Booth
10 Austin Healey
9 Tom Tierney
1 Perry Freshwater
2 George Chuter
3 Franck Tournaire
4 Louis Deacon
5 Peter Short
6 Josh Kronfeld (CAPTAIN)
7 Luke Abraham
8 Will Johson
Replacements: Jamie Hamilton (62mins on for 9 TT but back on for 13 Glitherow 71mins), Craig McMullen (62mins on for 10 Oz), Luke Myring (62mins on for 15 Vesty), James Buckland (64mins on for 3 Franck), Ricky Nebbett (40mins on for 2 Chuter), Lee Morley (75mins on for 5 Short) and Darren Garforth (64mins on for 1 Pezza).

Saints Team:
15 Nick Beal
14 Jon Sleightholme
13 Peter Jorgensen (CO-CAPTAIN)
12 Mark Tucker
11 Oriol Ripol
10 James Brooks
9 Ian Vass
1 Brett Sturgess
2 Dan Richmond
3 Chris Budgen
4 Matt Lord
5 Jon Phillips (CO-CAPTAIN)
6 Andrew Blowers
7 Darren Fox
8. Mark Connors
Replacements from: Matt Miles, Kelvin Todd, Jon Golding, Rob Hunter, Will Snape, Mark Soden, Grant Seely, Ben Jones, Liam Brown, Rory Lamont, Ryan O’Neil and Andy Llewellyn.