Boyd’s men let it slip as Ford opens door to final

By ROGER PANTING

Leicester ……….27pts

Tries: Ford 52, Steward 69

Conversions: Ford 52

Penalties: Ford 22, 33, 64, 79

Drop goals: Ford 77

Northampton ..14pts

Tries: Freeman 48

Penalties: Biggar 7, 40; Grayson 59

GEORGE Ford scored 22 points to steer Leicester to their first Premiership final since 2013.

It was Ford's final appearance in Leicester colours at Mattioli Woods Welford Road as he joins Sale next season but Tigers' fans will be grateful that his magic turned the game as Northampton looked well on course to spring an upset.

Leicester have won all of their 12 league fixtures at home this season but Saints led 14-13 with just over 15 minutes remaining and that advantage should have been greater as they bombed chance after chance to make life more uncomfortable for the hosts.

Three or four tries went begging and those errors were compounded by Dan Biggar missing a conversion and a drop goal attempt with James Grayson also off-target with a penalty.

It was a frustrating end to Chris Boyd's, four-year reign as Director of Rugby at Saints as the amiable New Zealander has brought a breath of fresh air to the Premiership with Saints playing a highly attractive brand of rugby.

Unfortunately it has not resulted in any trophies but promising backs, Tommy Freeman, Alex Mitchell and George Furbank have all received England call-ups by benefiting from Boyd's expert tutelage. Boyd said: “Hopefully I've built some foundations to go forward but we haven't achieved anything yet.

“We are frustrated that we had four good opportunities in the first 55 minutes and, if we had converted two of them, we could have forced Leicester to come away from their game-plan.

“Ultimately the yellowcard was crucial but at that stage we should have been in a different place as we wanted to build a lead but in fairness to Leicester they had relentless accuracy.”

On the up: Tommy Freeman celebrates with his teammates after scoring for Northampton Saints

Most pundits felt that Saints would wilt against the power of Leicester's pack but that wasn't the case as they went toe to toe for the first hour until the home forwards grabbed the ascendancy in the final quarter with Northampton suffering from losing a player to the sin-bin.

Their props held their own in the set-scrum and enough possession was secured to allow Rory Hutchinson and Freeman to illustrate their skills in a much sharper backdivision.

Apart from Ford, Leicester weren't particularly impressive and will need to step up a few gears if they are to triumph over Saracens in next Saturday's final at Twickenham.

Leicester suffered two early setbacks. First their centre, Dan Kelly, was helped off with a leg injury before Biggar put Saints in front with a 45m penalty.

Northampton provided the first attacking spark when Freeman brushed aside a weak tackle from Ford to run 30 metres before kicking ahead but Tigers were able to clear the danger.

Saints maintained their offensive and looked to have taken the lead when Mitchell dummied his way over but TMO replays showed Courtnall Skosan had knocked on in the build-up after a clever kick from Biggar had created the opportunity.

Moments later, the visitors stole a Leicester scrum for another crack at glory but again Skosan knocked on a pass from Biggar to ruin it.

Saints were made to pay for their profligacy when the hosts drew level with a simple penalty from Ford before Biggar was offtarget with a drop-goal attempt.

Surely Northampton had to pick up some points but Skosan was having a nightmare afternoon and his difficulties continued when he failed to take a long pass from Hutchinson, who had split the defence with some electric footwork.

A straightforward penalty from Ford put Tigers in front before Biggar responded with his second after Guy Porter was sin-binned for a headhigh tackle on Hutchinson to leave the scores tied at 6- 6 at the interval.

On the attack: George Ford breaks before scoring Leicester's first try

PICTURES: Getty Images

In Porter's absence, Saints scored the opening try when powerful bursts from Sam Matavesi and Courtney Lawes put the defence on the back foot.

Api Ratuniyarawa was dragged down inches short but the ball was recycled for Hutchinson to send Freeman over.

Porter returned in time to see his side regain the lead when Ford saw a gap to evade Ethan Painter's tackle and scoot in under the posts. Saints then missed another couple of opportunities. First Skosan was hauled into touch just short of the line by an excellent cover tackle from Porter before Grayson sent an angledpenalty narrowly wide.

Grayson and Ford exchanged penalties before Saints' replacement prop, Oisin Heffernan, was sinbinned for a high challenge on Jasper Wiese.

The card proved decisive as Saints' effort ran out of steam. A superbly-timed pass from Ford sent Freddie Steward over before the outside-half sealed victory with a penalty and a drop goal.

Touchdown: Freddie Steward scores for the Tigers