Australia beat Leicester in close encounter
Australia did enough to defeat Leicester 15-26 at Welford Road on Tuesday 9 November.
The Australian midweek team were pushed all the way by Leicester who had 10 internationals of their own, despite having a number of players away on international duty.
Tries from Lachie Turner and Scott Higginbotham were enough to seal the win for Australia. Berrick Barnes converted both tries and scored four penalties.
Leicester were kept at bay some fierce Australian defending, but Billy Twelvetrees kept the Aviva Premiership side in touch until Higginbotham’s injury time try.
The Wallabies started the match with a higher tempo than the Tigers and scored the first try of the match.
Captain Barnes knocked over a penalty to open the scoring. Shortly after Luke Burgess pounced on a loose ball and the scrum-half made a break before he fed Turner, who touched down for the Wallabies. Barnes
conversion made the score 0-10 to the visitors.
Leicester rallied and Twelvetrees took advantage of a couple of Barnes’ missed penalties. The Leicester out-half knocked over four penalties, while Barnes scored one for Australia to give the visitors
a 12-13 lead at half-time.
Twelvetrees added another penalty to put Leicester into a 15-13 lead after Australia were penalised for not rolling away in the tackle.
As the second half progressed Leicester looked the more likely to win the match, but they failed to capitalise and increase their lead.
Instead Australia scored some crucial points in the final 10 minutes and Barnes who had a mixed game up until then began to influence proceedings.
The out-half scored a penalty in the 72nd minute and knocked over a crucial drop-goal in the last minute of the match to give Australia a 15-19 lead.
Leicester were forced to attack in the final few moments and a breakaway try by Higginbotham sealed the win for the Wallabies. Barnes knocked over the conversion with the final kick of the game.
After the match Australian coach Robbie Deans said: "We are delighted with the win. This is the nearest our young side can get to a Test match. You can't replicate this on the training ground. Seven of
our guys put on the jersey for the first time."
In contrast Richard Cockerill was disappointed with his teams start to the game and he said, “I'm a little disappointed. It was a fierce contest, we gave them an early lead but we got right back in it.
The momentum was with us. We were 15-13 up and should've closed the game out. In the end, the score was too heavily in their favour."
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