Gallagher Premiership: Leicester hold off Saracens comeback, Bath overpower Sale to go top, Gloucester rout Newcastle

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Leicester Tigers were the victors of their 100th meeting with Saracens, despite the hosts' late fightback. Bath produced another tremendous performance to go top of the Gallagher Premiership. Will Butt and Nye Thomas both saw red in the second-half at The Recreation Ground. Elsewhere, Gloucester handed Newcastle another heavy defeat to keep the Falcons rooted to the foot of the table.

'Back from injury like he's never been away!' - Muir scores on his return for Bath

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Leicester Tigers dug deep to hold off a late Saracens fightback in a thrilling 32-29 win, their first Premiership victory at the StoneX stadium since February 2018.

Barely anything separated the sides until the dying seconds of the first half, with Nick Tompkins and Tim Swiel's tries sandwiching efforts from Ollie Hassell-Collins and Izaia Perese.

Then came the match-defining moment, as the visitors were awarded a penalty try when their line-bound rumbling maul was illegally impeded and Alec Clarey was sent to the bin for his part in the infringement.

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Tigers took full advantage of their temporary numerical superiority at the start of the second 40, once again their driving line-out maul seeing Julian Montoya over the whitewash to make it 29-17.

Handre Pollard subsequently kicked a crucial penalty to take his personal match haul to 10 points and the hosts had a mountain to climb.

And Saracens ultimately came within three points of scaling it, as first Juan Martin Gonzalez finished off a penetrating drive from Tom Willis.

Gonzalez goes over for Saracens after Willis' 'one man demolition job'

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Then, Tigers got a taste of their own medicine with nine minutes to go, with James Hadfield crashing over from a rolling maul.

But the visitors' resolute defence, including a terrific tackle from Olly Cracknell, handed Micheal Cheika's side a hard-earned victory and took them second in the table.

Bath muscle past Sale to table summit as both see red

Bath muscled their way to the top of the Gallagher Premiership table, at least temporarily, as a devastating first-half display was enough to triumph 40-13 over Sale Sharks, with both sides finishing the contest with 14.

Will Butt was shown red for a dangerous second-half clear-out and gave Sharks hope of a late fightback from 28-6 down, but Nye Thomas' high tackle 10 minutes later evened the numbers on the pitch and quashed their resurgence at The Rec.

The hosts had already secured their bonus point five minutes after the interval, with Will Muir, Miles Reid, Thomas du Toit and Ted Hill all using their physicality to cross.

The latter was awarded Player of the Match and hailed his side's defensive resilience, especially in light of their response to Butt's red and their last home performance, a first loss of the season to West Country rivals Bristol.

"It’s just a belief," said Hill. "We have a belief in what we do. When someone drops down, the next person steps up and whatever scenario comes at us, we’ll deal with it. And we dealt with it very well today.

"Look, we knew last time we were here, we were off our game and we performed poorly. We knew that when we’re at home, we want to make this place a fortress, as cliché as it sounds.

'You have to admire it' - Carr-Smith scores after quick passing from Bath

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"We felt our first half defensive set-pieces were really good, and I think we continued that into the second half. To go down to 14 men and not concede that many points, we’re really pleased with that."

Will Addison's acrobatic try swiftly followed Butt's dismissal, and were it not for Thomas' needless head-on-head challenge, Sharks could and maybe would have profited from their numerical advantage.

As it was, Tom Carr-Smith and Francois van Wyk added a fifth and sixth score for Johann van Graan's men to secure the spoils and send them one point ahead of challengers Bristol and Leicester.

GLOUCESTER SNAP THREE-MATCH LOSING STREAK WITH NEWCASTLE WIN

Elsewhere, Gloucester ended their three-match losing streak with a 36-7 win against a struggling Newcastle side, still rooted to the bottom of the standings.

Falcons were hoping to build on their first win of the season over Exeter last Friday, but six different Gloucester try-scorers demonstrated their domination in all areas of the pitch.

Jack Clement, Tomos Williams, Seb Blake, Jack Singleton, Christian Wade and Josh Hathaway all crossed for the hosts, while Jamie Blamire registered a late consolation try for the faltering Falcons.

Wales international Gareth Anscombe kicked three from four conversions, but was sent to the sin bin in the 51st minute for flagrant use of industrial language towards referee Ian Tempest.

The fly-half was expressing his frustration at a Sammy Arnold tackle, but was told by Tempest in no uncertain terms that his reaction was unwarranted.

"I've got a knock-on advantage," Tempest told Lewis Ludlow. "I've called him over and he's screamed and sworn at me. Yellow card - off he goes."

'Vintage Gloucester!' - Williams finishes off fabulous Gloucester try

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Anscombe's international team-mate Max Llewellyn was named Player of the Match, having earned a call-up to Warren Gatland's squad for the first time since August 2023.

The outside centre has already scored five tries this season and will be hoping for a starting spot when Wales take on Fiji on Sunday, November 10, shown live on TNT Sports and discovery+.

Stream the Gallagher Premiership, 2024 Autumn Nations Series and Premiership Women's Rugby on TNT Sports and discovery+

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