Cheika’s Leicester snatch last-gasp draw with Quins

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Cheika’s Leicester snatch last-gasp draw with Quins

Michael Cheika’s Leicester have snatched a thrilling 34-34 draw with Harlequins at Twickenham in England’s Premiership Rugby.

Veteran England prop Dan Cole, 37, scored in the 79th minute of Saturday’s match when he placed the ball on the line as part of a forward-led assault on the whitewash by Leicester with Springboks star Handre Pollard nailing a tricky conversion.

It is the third time in three meetings that the rivals have drawn in Harlequins’ annual ‘Big Game’ fixture at Twickenham, which has now been running for 16 years.

Cole had come on as a substitute for Leicester, who also have five wins and three losses and sit fifth, six points above Harlequins but 11 behind leaders Bath.

“Dan’s Leicester through and through. He’s still as passionate as ever,” former Wallabies coach Cheika said.

“He’s ripping into the guys at training. He could easily be saying ‘I’ve done my bit, someone else should be taking over here’. But he’s still investing so much into the club and the team.

“It takes a while to get to know him but I’ve started to get to know him better and I’m really appreciating the effort he’s making.”

Leicester played with greater cohesion but a self-destructive streak undermined their evening with first-half mistakes gifting their rivals two tries and providing England five eighth Marcus Smith with two easy shots at goal.

Once Pollard’s conversion had sailed over via the right upright there were still a few seconds remaining for Leicester to stage one final attack in search of the win, but halfback Ben Youngs opted to kick the ball into touch and take the draw.

Cheika backed the decision.

“It’s usually my go to go for the win but to be honest we hadn’t looked like making a break from long range all game,” Cheika said.

“And we didn’t nail our opportunities from short range as well and we created a heap of them.

“It felt like we got through that game on fight.

“We’ve got three points and in the long game of the season, that was a well made decision.’

– with AAP

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