Pollard Cracks Rich Vein of Form Ahead of the World Cup
Richard Wigglesworth praised a “world-class” Handre Pollard after Leicester defeated Bristol 46-24 to advance to the Premiership semi-finals.
Ben Youngs and Anthony Watson scored to offset Harry Thacker’s tenth try of the year, giving the Tigers a 15-10 lead at the break. After the break, Gabriel Ibitoye gave Bristol the lead again, but Julian Montoya scored twice, and Pollard delivered a stunning goal to give the Tigers the information again.
In the final play, Charlie Clare crossed the whitewash to seal the victory after Harry Randall scored a late try for the visitors.
Fly half Pollard, of South Africa, finished with 19 points, and Tigers head coach Wigglesworth was quite pleased with his performance. He claimed that the fly half was everything a top-tier player should be.
The coach speaks with such intensity that you pay attention. He has been performing well for weeks. He was outstanding today. That concerns his weekday activities as well as his Saturday activities.
Senior players are taking control of the atmosphere right now. They are smoothing out the weeks by seizing it since they are more competitive.
The performance had some powerful moments, especially in the second half. We had a few minor flaws, but the boys tightened things up, and we came out on top, thanks to all of their injuries.
Despite being unfortunate to have Magnus Bradbury’s try disallowed, Bristol Director of Rugby Pat Lam believed his team was not at their best. He continued that we thought Magnus was a good try scorer, but it was disallowed.
The review procedure will be followed. If you are not down, it is similar to an ankle tap; you can stand and go away. We only have ourselves to blame for our lack of discipline, as we have been so good over the past four weeks, as Gabriel Ibitoye scored for us shortly after that.
We made things a little more challenging for ourselves, but it’s always challenging here. I can’t find anything wrong with the attempt.
For the last few weeks, we have greatly enjoyed increasing pressure by maintaining possession of the ball. Today [Saturday], we were incredibly loose; the rain came just as we started playing, and we kept turning the ball over.
“We gifted Leicester 10 scrum put-ins in the first half, which tells the narrative of our failures,” the scrum coach said.
