The University of Leicester recorded a double over their city rivals from De Montfort University in the Varsity rugby at Welford Road on Monday evening.
In fixtures re-arranged from their usual March slot, Leicester scored a 22-10 win in the women’s match and then a convincing 44-0 victory in the men’s in front of a big Varsity Night crowd at the home of Leicester Tigers.
Looking for their 15th successive win in the women’s head-to-head, University of Leicester spent 38 minutes of the first half within 30 metres of their own tryline, defending stoutly against constant DMU pressure, and survived two yellow cards before scoring twice in the final two minutes to snatch a 10-5 lead at the interval on a bright but chilly evening.
Leicester were forced to frantically defend their line, and they held out until De Montfort wing Honor Danns made the breakthrough with a fine finish on 33 minutes, breaking two tackles to score next to the posts.
From the restart, however, Leicester finally enjoyed their first phases of possession in attack and quickly got their reward, with replacement Millie Fairfax scoring on the right and then scrum-half Shona Dixon crashing over to take the lead for the first time.
It was tough on DMU on the balance of play, but Leicester then had to cope with a third yellow and then lost flanker Jade Shakespeare to her second card of the evening.
But when DMU also lost a player to the sin-bin, Leicester capitalised instantly with a try for No8 Gemma Donaldson and the conversion from Chloe Tidmarsh made it 17-5 with an hour played.
A second try from DMU, scored by lock Gabi Sroka, cut the gap to a single converted score but Leicester had the last word when hooker Cara Wells added the final score of the game to extend their winning run.
Leicester then claimed two tries in the opening quarter of the men's fixture, from man-of-the-match Seun Coker and then flanker Tom Richardson, both converted by Max Johnson, as DMU found it difficult to establish a foothold.
Johnson kicked a penalty and then converted a score from wing Declan Nwachukwu after an impressive break from Bradley Udogulunwu in the right-hand corner as they stretched the lead to 24 points before the break.
Tigers players Matt Smith, Harry Wells and Ben White were among the Leicester coaching team stood on the touchline as they increased their lead with another Johnson penalty in the opening minutes of the second period and then added tries through flanker Jack Dickinson, replacement Harry Morris and finally Nwachukwu again to seal a successful evening against their local rivals.
