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Rugby News

Development XV stick to winning plan

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Brett Deacon praised the Leicester Tigers Development squad for sticking to their gameplan in the Premiership ‘A’ League win at Worcester on Monday evening.

Tigers trailed 12-0 early on but then scored 61 unanswered points in a 40-minute spell up to the hour mark, claiming nine tries, to get the campaign off to a strong start.

“I thought we had quite a poor start,” said coach Deacon. “We probably gifted them field position and two early scores, but we made a really good recovery.

“Even after scoring four tries before half-time, the message from the coaches was to stick to what we are doing, gain territory and make them play from their own half. We wanted to keep to our structured game and thought we could win convincingly from there.

“Fair play to the boys for doing that because the danger is that when you get well ahead you start to throw the ball around and lose all shape. But they stuck at it and built off a decent platform and kept it going.”

The line-up led by Tom Croft included new signings Jonah Holmes, Gareth Owen and Valentino Mapapalangi alongside a number of Development squad players and Deacon was particularly impressed by the management of half-back combination Tom Hardwick and Harry Simmons.

“I thought Tom and Harry at half-back managed the territory really well,” he said. “The key  decision-makers did a really good job around the team.”

Tigers are back in ‘A’ League action on Saturday with a game against Northampton at Franklin’s Gardens. Kick-off is at 7.00pm after the first teams meet in Aviva Premiership action. Follow updates of the action on the Tigers App, website and social media pages.

There is more reaction from an opening win of the season with centre Charlie Thacker in The ROAR this Friday. Scroll to the bottom the home page on the Tigers website to subscribe and receive The ROAR free in your email twice every week during the season.