Back steps forward as Leicester power home
Leicester 50 - Worcester 7
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Your support makes all the difference.Leicester produced a powerful statement of intent as they rolled over Worcester at Welford Road, proving too strong up front and too fast outside as they ran in seven tries.
With the former internationals Martin Johnson and Neil Back showing their class and Geordan Murphy impressing, Worcester were always up against it as the Premiership leaders brought back all their big guns following last weekend's Powergen Cup defeat to Gloucester.
Leicester's pressure soon began to tell, and after 15 minutes Louis Deacon collected line-out ball and the subsequent drive saw Back pounce over the line. The visitors were forced to defend for most of the first-half, and after 10 minutes of constant pressure on their own line, replacement referee Rob Debney awarded Leicester a penalty try, after losing patience with Worcester's infringing.
Andy Goode stepped up to add the extra points and, 60 seconds later, Leicester punished Tony Windo's desperate pass as they counter-attacked to devastating effect. Back burst through before off-loading to the supporting Daryl Gibson for a lightning score which Goode once again improved. In first-half stoppage time the Tigers fly-half dummied through a static Worcester defence as Leicester wrapped up their fourth try and the bonus point.
It did not get any easier for the Premiership newcomers after the break, and although they refused to buckle under the pressure, Leicester reached the 50 points mark five minutes before full-time when Murphy bamboozled the Worcester half-backs and the full-back's pass put Dan Hipkiss in for the Tigers' seventh try.
Leicester: Tries Back, Penalty try, Gibson, Goode, Murphy, Ellis, Hipkiss; Conversions Goode 6; Penalties Goode. Worcester: Try Trueman; Conversions Hayes.
Leicester: Murphy, Rabeni (Hipkiss 13), Smith (Cornwell 52), Gibson, Vesty, Goode, Bemand (Ellis 50), Rowntree (Morris 21), Chuter (Buckland 63), White, M Johnson (Kay 63), L Deacon, W Johnson, Back (B Deacon 76), Corry.
Worcester: Delport, Pieters, Hinshelwood, Trueman, Sampson, Brown (Hayes 41), Cole, Windo (Fortey 41), Van Niekerk (Hall 66), Horsman, Collier (Murphy 61), Gillies, Hickey, Sanderson, MacLeod-Henderson.
Referee: R Debney (Leicestershire).
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