Yahoo Sport 
Leicester start the Michael Cheika era with smash-and-grab win at Exeter
In a tight contest between overachievers and underachievers from last term, Michael Cheika marked his first competitive game in charge of Leicester Tigers with a smash-and-grab win at Sandy Park.
Tommy Reffell was the hero, the Wales openside burrowing over on the final play. True to their roots, Tigers scrummaged and mauled Exeter Chiefs into submission. Adding to the dogged nature of the triumph, Tigers had been reduced to 14 men for the last eight minutes due to Solomone Kata’s red card.
As a statement, it could not have been much stronger. At the end of the 2023-24 campaign, Leicester picked up a reputation for throwing away leads. That hastened the end of Dan McKellar and the introduction of Cheika, just the figure to reinstate snarl.
“We talked about playing the long game, not being too anxious to get things going,” said Cheika afterwards. “You need to be in the pressure cooker of the game and be prepared to defend for long periods. I felt like the way we played the long game, we were always going to be in it right until the end.”
It was revealed that Olly Cracknell, one of Leicester’s back-row battlers, played despite the recent death of his father.
“He called me up and said that his family wanted him to play, that that’s what his dad would have wanted,” Cheika added. “That type of performance, under that strain, is fantastic. He played 80 minutes, went hard at it. It’s more about the collective. I just wanted to mention Crackers because it was a fantastic effort from a fantastic person.”
Exeter will feel sick. Despite trailing 3-0 at half-time through Jamie Shillcock’s stabbed drop-goal, they scored 14 unanswered points thanks largely to flashes of inspiration from Immanuel Feyi-Waboso. However, they would subsequently ship 14 more, because Cheika’s charges would not relent.
Rob Baxter did not sugarcoat the situation, which he likened to a “slap in the face”. Perhaps the absences of Henry Slade, Jacques Vermeulen and Dafydd Jenkins, three stewards of the side, cost dearly.
“I hoped we were further down the line than to look so callow in the last 20 minutes,” Baxter admitted. “It just seemed like a scenario where we were inviting Leicester to get back in the game.”
Leicester have endured difficult afternoons in Devon down the years, none grislier than the first game of the 2018-19 season. They were thrashed 40-6 and promptly sacked their head coach, another Australian in Matt O’Connor, one game into the campaign.
Yet Steve Borthwick also began his tenure at Sandy Park four years ago. Leicester lost 26-13, but showed encouraging signs of togetherness and organisation. Indeed, the last time that Tigers prevailed on this ground, in March 2022, they were on their way to the Premiership title.
A frantic opening featured an early Exeter introduction for Paul Brown-Bampoe, who joined the fray as a replacement for Ben Hammersley. Brown-Bampoe, recruited from Durham University, had such an impressive pre-season that Baxter compared him to Feyi-Waboso.
A double-barrelled double-act of explosive wide men threatened constantly, but Tigers led 3-0 at half-time despite Izaia Perese’s yellow card. The centre, disruptive at the breakdown, whacked Tom Cairns without retreating 10 metres from a penalty.
Two minutes before the break, on the final play of Perese’s sin-bin period, Feyi-Waboso was freed. Inexplicably, though, he threw an interception to the inside. That would lead to a surprise half-time lead for Leicester thanks to Shillcock’s strike.
Feyi-Waboso did release Greg Fisilau brilliantly for Exeter’s first points and Tom Cairns increased the advantage by sniping across the whitewash. Leicester responded at the beginning of the last quarter. A pack replenished by bench men such as Dan Cole, with Harry Wells and skipper Ollie Chessum organising the line-out, drove Hanro Liebenberg over. Even Kata’s red card and another high tackle from Dan Kelly, which Cheika clearly disputed, could not kill off Tigers.
Will Haydon-Wood’s last-gasp yellow card, again for a high tackle, yielded one more opportunity. Leicester mauled a full 20 metres, setting up a series of shunts at the line. Reffell’s was enough to steal it.
Match details
Scoring: 0-3 Shillcock drop-goal, 5-3 Fisilau try, 7-3 Hodge conversion, 12-3 Cairns try, 14-3 Hodge try, 14-8 Liebenberg try, 14-10 Shillcock conversion, 14-15 Reffell try, 14-17 Volavola conversion
Exeter Chiefs: J Hodge; I Feyi-Waboso, B Hammersley (P Brown-Bampoe, 5), J Hawkins (W Haydon-Wood, 72), O Woodburn; H Skinner, N Armstrong (T Cairns, 25); S Sio (W Goodrick-Clarke, 47), D Frost (J Yeandle, 47), E Painter (J Iosefa-Scott, half-time), R Tuima (C Tshiunza, 47), R Capstick, E Roots (C Tshiunza, 13-23, J Dunne 71), R Vintcent, G Fisilau
Leicester Tigers: F Steward; J Bassett, I Perese (D Kelly, 49), S Kata, O Hassell-Collins, J Shillcock (B Volavola, 66); J van Poortvliet (B Youngs, 59); N Smith (J Cronin, 59), C Clare (F Theobold-Thomas, 56), J Heyes (D Cole, 56), H Wells (O Chessum, 80), O Chessum (C Joussain, 71), H Liebenberg, O Cracknell, K Hatherell (T Reffell, 59)
Referee: Mr T Foley
Yellow cards: Perese 27, Haydon-Wood 80
Red card: Kata 72
