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A hitch for Healey's road show

Heineken Cup: Jarvis gives national coach selection option as Neath do their level best

Tim Glover
Sunday 13 October 2002 00:00 BST
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He may not be the best stand-off in England or even the Midlands but give Austin Healey a sniff of the try line and he's like a pig with a truffle. Leicester, custodians of the Heineken Cup, were indebted to their playmaker as they opened their campaign on potentially treacherous ground. To begin Pool One with a visit to the Gnoll on what Dean Richards described as a "wild, wet and windy" night was never going to be a comfortable journey and so it proved, a 16-16 draw with Neath being the best and the worst of both worlds.

Trailing at one point 13-3, Leicester looked as if they had the game won when Healey, with a classic try, scored at the posts two minutes from time. Tim Stimpson's conversion made it 16-13 to the Tigers but at the end of normal time Franck Tournaire, who had come on as a replacement, conceded a penalty in front of his posts and Lee Jarvis, with a kick that was more difficult than it looked, levelled the scores.

Leicester had dominated the second half but, not withstanding Healey's late show, rarely looked like breaking a courageous and committed defence. "If you had told me four or five days ago that we would have come away with a draw I'd have been reasonably happy," Richards said. "The conditions were horrible and the night was made for an upset. We played some good phase rugby in the second half and had our opportunities but we didn't finish them off. There's some disappointed players in our changing room."

None more so than Healey who was far less sanguine about the outcome than his coach. "If we keep playing like this we won't win the cup," the Leicester Lip observed. "I thought we'd get off with a winning start. Neath are quite strong at home and to be champions of Europe you have to win on the road." And that is something that has bothered Leicester this season. Their three defeats in the Zurich Premiership have been away from their fortress at Welford Road. "I don't think there's a problem," Richards maintained. "We've had a lot of injuries, but over the next few weeks I think you'll see a different Leicester."

The Tigers, 11-4 favourites to retain the cup, were unhappy at David McHugh's decision to penalise Tournaire. "Our scrum-half was trying to get the ball and was being impeded but it was our prop who was penalised for standing on a player's leg. Neath are a very good side. They played with heart and passion and attacked us in areas in which we thought we were strong. They put us off our game." Praise indeed.

Up front, Leicester wore the full metal jacket but although they monopolised possession they never subdued the Welsh All Blacks. The Tigers had more capital invested on the bench, in players like Josh Cronfeld and Tournaire, than Neath have spent on their entire team.

Lyn Jones, the Neath coach who is never short of a word, was almost speechless. "No, I'm not proud," he said. "We have the ability to do better than that. It was a good performance, but not good enough. I don't know what to say."

Stalemates tend to have that effect but if it is possible for one side to have the better of a draw then that belonged to Neath. The return leg is at Welford Road in January.

Jones admitted that Neath had an eye-opener in their defeat to Munster at the Gnoll in the Celtic League the previous week. "I learnt more in a week than I have in a year," Jones said. "It was a very fast, open game against Munster and at half-time I noticed that my players were knackered. Munster's were even more knackered. Apart from that they didn't have a weakness. Against Leicester we couldn't afford to play in such a style but some of our kicking was disappointing. I wanted a far more honest, passionate performance. The thing about Leicester is they never stop playing rugby and the harder they try the luckier they get."

Healey, described by Jones as a "magical player", was nominated on television by Jonathan Davies as the Man of the Match. At the ground – where the VIPs included Clive Woodward and Steve Hansen, the coaches of England and Wales, and Peter Hain, the Minister for Europe before he had to dash off to do an interview on the war in Iraq for Newsnight – Serge Blanco chose Jarvis as his man of the match.

The announcement was made five minutes before the end which was unfortunate timing. Jarvis proceeded to fail with a penalty attempt, from which Leicester hammered the ball back downfield, pinning their opponents in a corner. Neath failed to control a lineout, incurred a knock-on and from the scrum Healey performed his party piece... a shimmy, a dummy, change of pace and he was in.

If Jarvis has a weakness it is in defence. Dave Tiueti moved from centre to support Jarvis and it was the gap left by Tiueti that Healey exploited. Jarvis had been worthy of a Man of the Match award up to that point, complementing his three penalties with a brilliant chip in the 35th minute that created Tiueti's try. It looked for all the world like a move out of the Austin Healey bag of tricks.

Since moving from Cardiff Jarvis's all-round game has improved considerably and Hansen will have taken note. In the second half he had precious few opportunities to make his mark as the Leicester forward machine moved up a few gears. Whereas McHugh had been kind towards Neath in the first half, he penalised them far more frequently in the second and their search for the ball became increasingly desperate.

Nevertheless Tom Tierney, who joined the club from Ireland in the close season, took several wrong options as, unusually, did Stimpson when he elected to go it alone rather than utilise the unmarked Leon Lloyd. In every other respect Stimpson was impressive, not least with an acute angled penalty that he converted beautifully with the last kick of the first half to keep the Tigers in the hunt.

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