Leicester Tigers display a clinical edge to down reigning champions Exeter Chiefs as Jonny May continues scoring streak

Leicester Tigers 20 Exeter Chiefs 13: Tries from England wing May and Australian Nick Malouf inflict second defeat of the season on reigning champions Exeter

Jonny May scored his fifth try in as many matches for Leicester in their 20-13 win over Exeter (Getty)

Jonny May’s pulverising try in the final quarter steered Leicester Tigers to a much-needed win over the reigning champions on a madcap afternoon when Exeter Chiefs failed to turn a glut of possession into the necessary points, and a series of marginal sin-bin decisions went against them.

Brilliant quick thinking by Leicester’s England scrum-half Ben Youngs made the position for his club and international colleague May to batter past Olly Woodburn and Will Chudley for his fifth try in five matches since joining from Gloucester in the summer.

Youngs cleverly saw the potential in flinging a double miss-pass wide to May on the left, as Leicester played with an advantage for Phil Dollman dropping a high ball forwards.

Two other England players withdrew in the run-up to kick-off as Exeter’s Jack Nowell failed a fitness test on a dead leg sustained in the national team’s training camp in Oxford at the start of the week, and Leicester prop Ellis Genge strained his back in the warm-up here.

Exeter were already depleted in the back-row with Dave Ewers, Sam Simmonds and Thomas Waldrom absent, but they forced Leicester to make almost 50 tackles in the first 15 minutes, as an expectant Welford Road crowd was confined to cheering the occasional turnover.

Still, it is one thing in rugby to have all the ball, and quite another to do something effective with it, and Exeter made no significant visit to the Leicester 22 in that period, having to content themselves with three points thorough Gareth Steenson’s penalty goal.

Leicester concentrated on pilfering after the tackle even if they were much less adept at holding onto the ball once they’d retrieved it.

Exeter’s former Tigers flanker Julian Salvi went to the sin bin with 22 minutes gone, for diving over a ruck and endangering Telusa Veainu, in referee Tom Foley’s opinion. Veainu is one of the best broken-field runners in the Premiership and he showed his hot-stepping feet to dance into the Exeter 22 soon after Salvi went off.

A few phases later, Leicester’s fly-half George Ford was held up over the line, giving his side a five-metre scrum with the big screens displaying a cartoon exhortation of “Heeeeave!”

Nick Malouf crosses for Leicester's opening try (Getty)

Leicester attacked left to right, through Ben Youngs, Ford and Matt Toomua’s long pass for a try by Nick Malouf as the Australian cut in against the grain from the right wing.

Ford’s conversion had Leicester 7-3 up, before Malouf was maybe fortunate to escape a yellow card when he challenged Dollman in mid-air.

Leicester added to their score on 36 minutes when they enjoyed a spell of possession through double figures in phases but their attack grew so narrow in midfield that Ford wisely chose to drop a goal from 30 metres out.

Tigers ended the first half with a great attacking position at a line-out on the Exeter 22-metre line but a handling fumble summed up the bitty fare of much of the opening 40 minutes.

May's try gave Leicester a big enough lead to hold on for victory (Getty)

The second half began with Exeter prop Ben Moon judged to have made a dangerous, no-arms tackle around the ankles of Sione Kalamafoni – who was having his best match in a Leicester jersey since also moving from Gloucester – and Ford’s 40-metre kick sailed over: 13-3.

Chiefs grabbed a foothold with a penalty try in the 56th minute, as they spurned a shot at the posts, and threw instead to a line-out, from which an attack ended in a nailed-on scoring pass from Dollman to Lachie Turner knocked down by Veainu, who went to the sin bin.

When Malouf stuck out a foot towards Olly Woodburn, another card looked possible, but there was no connection and Leicester’s Aussie survived. Exeter again turned down the goal kick but they fumbled the line-out and Leicester roared up the other end for the pivotal score, celebrated exultantly by May.

As another Exeter line-out came to nothing, with Elvis Taione’s throw not straight, the sense this was going to be Leicester’s day became palpable.

Exeter flanker Julian Salvi is sent to the sin-bin by referee Tom Foley (Getty)

Henry Slade’s spill in contact with four minutes remaining was Exeter’s umpteenth, as they reprised their first-night loss at Gloucester, and Leicester joined them on three wins for the season after losing both their openers.

Only at the death did Exeter decide a goal-kick was essential, as they chased a losing bonus point. Steenson’s attempt from wide out hit a post before another effort, closer to the posts, went over.

“Ellis Genge did the lion’s share of the loosehead work with England on Tuesday, as Joe Marler and Mako Vunipola weren’t available,” said Matt O’Connor, the Leicester head coach. “He had a back spasm in the warm-up and it wasn’t worth the risk.

There was a massive shift from our front row without him, and a great team effort

Matt O'Connor

“There was a massive shift from our front row without him, and a great team effort.

“Jonny May is a great pro, dedicated to getting better every day.”

O’Connor’s Exeter counterpart Rob Baxter appeared sanguine, perhaps seeing the result as not too desperate at this stage of the season, even though Newcastle on Friday night and now Northampton Saints have replaced them at the top of the table. “Losing 20-13 at a wet Welford Road – most teams in most years would take that,” said Baxter.

Steenson kicked a penalty to salvage a losing bonus point for Exeter (Getty)

“My initial reaction was there were potentially two yellow cards not given that should have been, but I’d want to hear the reasons why first.

“We have to park today quickly and recharge the batteries physically and mentally to face Newcastle next week.”

Scorers

Leicester Tigers: tries: Malouf, May; conversions: Ford 2; penalty: Ford; drop: Ford.

Exeter Chiefs: try: penalty try; penalty: Steenson 2

Teams

Leicester Tigers: T Veainu; N Malouf, M Smith (rep M Tait 68th min), M Toomua, J May; G Ford, B Youngs (S Harrison 68); G Bateman (K Traynor 80), T Youngs (capt; G McGuigan 63), D Cole, H Wells (B Youngs 71), D Barrow, M Williams (V Mapapalangi 65), L Hamilton (B O’Connor 57), S Kalamafoni.

Exeter Chiefs: P Dollman (M Bodilly 69); O Woodburn, H Slade, I Whitten, L Turner; G Steenson, S Townsend (W Chudley 65); B Moon (A Hepburn 53), J Yeandle (capt; E Taione 65), T Francis (H Williams 53), M Lees, J Hill (S Skinner 68), D Dennis (S Skinner 65), J Salvi (M Kvesic 59), D Armand.

Referee: T Foley (RFU).