Leicester Tigers v Sale Sharks Premiership Preview
We return to Welford Road on Saturday afternoon for yet another Gallagher Premiership clash, as this time our partners Leicester Tigers take on Sale Sharks. The season is coming towards its end and this new look Tigers side are looking to put some positive results together in order to finish the campaign strongly.
Their last home game was a good result, as they overcame London Irish 13-7. Though it has been an up and down season to say the least, the home form has been fantastic in the year 2020, only losing one game at Welford Road in all competitions. This should be an interesting game then, as Sale have had Leicester's number in the last couple of meetings.
The Sharks are also in pretty good form overall, winning their last two games in a row against Wasps and Bristol respectively. Leicester’s last result was a thrilling contest but unfortunately a defeat, a 46-30 loss at Gloucester. Tries from Potter, Taufua and Henderson as well as various kicks from Ford and Henry were not enough to claim a win.
It has certainly been tough on the players both physically and mentally in this return, with so many games in such a short space of time. The Tigers have to be commended for trying to gel a new Head Coach and much changed set of players as well.
Leicester Tigers v Sale Sharks
5th September 2020
Where: Welford Road
When: Kick Off 3:00pm
Watch: Live on BT Sport
Referee: Ian Tempest (72nd Premiership game)
Assistant Referees: Karl Dickson and Jake Makepeace
TMO: Rowan Kitt
Leicester Tigers Lineup: 15 Freddie Steward, 14 David Williams, 13 Jaco Taute, 12 Matt Scott, 11 Nemani Nadolo, 10 George Ford ©, 9 Ben Youngs, 1 Ellis Genge, 2 Charlie Clare, 3 Dan Cole, 4 Tomás Lavanini, 5 Calum Green, 6 Harry Wells, 7 Luke Wallace, 8 Hanro Liebenberg
Replacements: 16 Jake Kerr, 17 Facundo Gigena, 18 Nephi Leatigaga, 19 Cameron Henderson, 20 Jordan Taufua, 21 Ben White, 22 Zack Henry, 23 Guy Porter
Sale Sharks Lineup: 15 Luke James, 14 Denny Solomona, 13 Manu Tuilagi, 12 Rohan Janse van Rensburg, 11 Marland Yarde, 10 AJ MacGinty, 9 Faf de Klerk; 1 Coenie Oosthuizen, 2 Akker van der Merwe, 3 Jake Cooper-Woolley, 4 Jean-Luc du Preez, 5 Lood De Jager, 6 Jono Ross (c) 7 Tom Curry, 8 Daniel du Preez
Replacements: 16 Euan Ashman, 17 Valerey Morozov, 18 Will-Griff John, 19 Cameron Neild, 20 Matt Postlethwaite, 21 Will Cliff, 22 Sam James, 23 Arron Reed
Word From The Tigers Camp - Tom Youngs
LeoVegas were delighted to speak to Leicester Tigers club captain Tom Youngs ahead of Saturday’s game at home to Sale Sharks. Here is what he had to say:
LV: How good did it feel to get the win against London Irish last week?
TY: It was pretty physical, wasn’t it? We kind of knew that it would be with them. We ended up defending a lot, and putting in a lot of tackles and there were some sore boys the morning after. That’s great, because one of the things we’ve been working hard on has been our defence and I think you saw that come to the fore in that game, and we properly ground out the win.
LV: It’s a pretty gruelling schedule at the minute with short turnarounds between matches. How are you and the team ensuring you maintain full fitness?
TY: Aled Walters has come in from the South African set up and brought their fitness regime to us and it shows! You can see, like anything, you don’t mind doing some very hard sessions as long as it’s towards something, towards being better and towards a game plan. We are definitely showing that, massively, on the field and it’s great to see that one of the things that we have been working very hard on – our fitness – is actually being showcased to you guys and you are picking up on it, which is fantastic.
LV: How much of an impact have the new breakdown interpretations had on Tigers?
TY: We’ve got some good, some key ball-stealing threats and the big message from the refs has been ‘we can’t have all of you flying into the ruck’, so you’ve got to pick the right one, because if we lose two players to one ruck, we’ll be short defensively. Especially in that London Irish game I thought we did that very well, Jordan [Taufua], Tommy Reffell was outstanding, Luke Wallace has been a great addition to the squad and a great bloke, and I thought they picked their moments very well and turned the ball over. That is one thing we have targeted, because if you get your hands on the ball and there’s a little gap there, you’ll get a turnover. On the flip side, we’ve worked extremely hard between making sure there’s no separation between us and the ball carrier to try and take away that jackaling threat.
Head To Head - Leicester Tigers and Sale Sharks
As a traditional powerhouse of the Premiership, Leicester Tigers have a good record against Sale Sharks overall. Although, Sale do have the better recent record. The Sharks did beat the Tigers 36-3 in the clash earlier this season (back in February at the AJ Bell Stadium), as well as a 32-5 win in the previous fixture. The Tigers record at Welford Road in this matchup is particularly great, as Sale Sharks have only won once here in the Premiership since 2008.
Overall, Leicester have won 41 times as opposed to Sale’s 19 in 64 clashes, with four draws.
Stat Attack
Similar to the stats breakdown ahead of the Gloucester game, it seems like in order to come out on top, Leicester’s best chance may be to play a kicking game. The Tigers have outscored Sale across the season for Penalties, kicking 33 as opposed to Sale’s 28. Sale have also conceded 170 Penalties, compared to 150 for the Tigers. On the other hand, Sale have been a lot more free-flowing with the ball in their hands, scoring 53 Tries compared to Leicester’s 27.
Current Rugby Betting Odds
In terms of the Leicester Tigers betting odds for the match, Leicester Tigers go into the match as underdogs to claim the victory on home soil.
Leicester Tigers To Win: 21/10
The Regular Time Market has the “Dead Heat” rule applied, which has online sports betting odds divided by 2 in case of a draw.
The Regular Time 3-Way market has a separate option for the draw, which is at 19/1.
We also offer handicap markets for the match too.
Leicester +7.5 Handicap: 17/20
This market means that Leicester Tigers will theoretically begin the game with a 7.5 point disadvantage, and this bet would pay out as a winner if the Tigers win the game by 8 points or more.
Make sure to keep an eye on the LeoVegas Sports blog throughout the rest of the season, as we bring you all of the Rugby betting tips and previews for each Leicester Tigers match.
LeoVegas, proud partners of Leicester Tigers.
*All odds correct at the time of writing.