Leicester 33-32 London Irish: Exiles fall short after Hepetema head rush

TERRENCE Hepetema will remember his night at Welford Road for all the wrong reasons.

Irish's forceful centre faces a ban for his 59thminute head high challenge which gave referee Wayne Barnes a simple decision to show a red card.

And to add to Hepetema's tough night, he also conceded a penalty for obstruction which caused a try in the second half by scrum-half Nick Phipps to be ruled out.

Irish boss Declan Kidney refused to comment on the red-card challenge which left Leicester wing Kobus van Wyk needing a head injury assessment.

However, Kidney did concede the incident contributed to Irish failing to record a second successive away win.

“We were well in it towards the end and it had an effect,” he said. “You don't want to ever go down to 14 men. You don't want your players getting red cards.”

Overall, Irish's poor discipline saw them concede 20 penalties to Leicester's 12 on a busy night for Barnes.

He also sin-binned three players starting in the fifth minute when Irish captain Matt Rogerson departed after a high tackle on flanker Tommy Reffell.

Leicester also had their troubles, finishing with 13 men due to substitutes Jack van Poortvliet and Joe Heyes attracting yellow cards for a deliberate knock-on and a high tackle respectively.

Those incidents helped Irish finish in a flourish to gain two bonus points for their part in an entertaining night where the visitors outscored the hosts by four tries to three.

However, Irish departed wondering what might have been especially as they also had another try by prop Will Goodrick- Clarke chalked off after replays highlighted Phipps knocking on at the base of a ruck.

While Kidney opted not to comment in detail on Hepetema's red card, BT Sport's Austin Healey did not hold back. “He actually physically tries to hit him with his shoulder,” he claimed.

The centre's departure saw Irish quickly concede a penalty to Johnny McPhillips, who replaced van Wyk, and a crucial try to another substitute in wing Kini Murimurivalu.

McPhillips added the conversion to put Leicester 33-18 ahead which gave them sufficient margin to withstand an Irish fightback featuring a penalty try, after Van Portvliet had tried to stop an attack by sticking his hand out, and one from substitute hooker Matt Cornish.

Irish had started confidently, led by one of their outstanding players in flanker Blair Cowan nicking possession at the kick off to help set up Paddy Jackson's try after only 34 seconds. Jackson kicked the conversion and added two further penalties in a first half where Leicester improved to draw level at half-time through Van Wyk's try, smartly put in space by a pass from flyhalf Zack Henry who also kicked two penalty goals in the first half to level at 13-13.

Leicester established a winning lead straight after half-time through the tenacity of their pack, substitute flanker Ollie Chessum finishing off a powerful drive.

Henry converted and added his third penalty, in the 48th minute, soon after Hepetema's obstruction had ruined Irish's attack down the blindside.

Irish maintained their resurgence and finally got back on the scoresheet when Phipps' long pass found Ollie Hassell-Collins free on the left.

The score left Leicester only 23-18 ahead, but Hepetema's poor challenge helped the home team ease to a 33-18 advantage before Irish struck back to score those two late tries.