Jaco Taute's Leicester Tigers injury return lasts only nine minutes in Premiership Cup defeat to Newcastle Falcons

Jaco Taute's Leicester Tigers comeback lasted less than ten minutes in the Premiership Cup defeat to Newcastle Falcons.

The South African centre suffered a major knee injury 398 days previously but made his long-awaited return captaining a heavily-changed visiting side to Kingston Park.

Unfortunately, the 30-year-old former Munster back's evening did not last long as his knee appeared to buckle while changing direction chasing the ball in the ninth minute. Medics swiftly removed him from the field, which he left on foot, to be replaced by Jacob Cusick.

Shortly after the setback, Tigers took the lead when Archie Vanes drove over from a rolling maul, taking the number of tries scored by the club's hookers to 18 this season - it would grow to 19 come the final whistle.

Falcons responded emphatically with 19 points in 11 minutes. Nathan Earle profited from a Brett Connon break to score their first try before Zach Kerr added a second after Freddie Lockwood's burst.

Connon was again at the centre of Falcons' third score as he danced his way through the Tigers' defence before putting Max Wright under the posts.

Tigers kept themselves in the contest before the break when Dan Lancaster's looping pass found Hosea Saumaki to put Kini Murimurivalu over in the left corner with Lancaster's conversion shrinking the half-time deficit to five points.

That hard work was undone four minutes after the restart when Kobus van Wyk marked his first outing since November with a yellow card for a clumsy tackle that Newcastle immediate punished with George Wacokecoke landing their fourth try on 46 minutes.

With Tigers restored to 15 men it was the hosts’ turn to see a flash of yellow when Adam Brocklebank paid the price for his team’s