Leicester Tigers coach Richard Wigglesworth expects performances from some of his players will give England head coach Steve Borthwick “some headaches”.
England hopefuls Ben Youngs, Joe Heyes and Guy Porter all featured as Wigglesworth’s side claimed an impressive 48-27 win against Bath, with Julian Montoya leading the charge with a brace of tries, whilst Harry Potter, Handre Pollard, Hanro Liebenberg and Harry Wells all scored.
Knocking on the door
Tigers were missing a number of stars who are currently with former coach Borthwick in the England set-up, and Wigglesworth was delighted with how his team performed and expects more players to be knocking on the door for a spot with the Red Rose.
“I’m pleased with all the players, not just the guys on the England fringes, but we’re definitely going to give the old boss some headaches,” Wigglesworth said.
“The end of the game was a lot easier on the heart than the last two. We were really good in parts. We knocked off for 30 minutes which really annoyed me, because to concede four tries at home is not good enough.
“I’ve told the players how happy I am with the first 40 minutes and a lot of stuff we did, then we got back to putting them under pressure at the end but they were very unlucky with injuries at that point.”
Praise for Pollard
The interim coach heaped praise on 21-point Pollard, who was fantastic in the game and credited the Springbok for the manner in which he ran the side.
“He is a world-class fly-half, I’m really happy that he got minutes under his belt,” he said.
“He is now Leicester Tigers’ fly-half and will take us forward. I’m delighted for him and he’s running the team beautifully.”
Bath boss Johann van Graan believes his side is constantly improving despite the loss and felt the scoreline did not reflect accurately on the game.
“We are steadily getting better, we’ve become tough to beat, I think every team acknowledges that now,” van Graan said.
“I felt it wasn’t a 48-27 game, I thought it was a lot closer but the scoreboard doesn’t lie.
“Leicester are certainly one of the teams I respect the most. I feel where the game got away from us was when we were down to 13 men, to lose your hooker and then your lock.
“Then set-piece wise we lost two crucial line-outs when you’ve got your hooker off and when you’ve got a scrum you can’t put somebody else on.”
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