Leicester cruise past Newcastle despite Nic Dolly’s serious knee injury

Dean Richards’s final home game as Newcastle’s director of rugby was overshadowed by a horrific knee injury to the Leicester hooker, Nic Dolly, who was carried off on a stretcher during the first half.

Richards, who achieved legendary status as a Tigers player and coach during a 23-year association, is approaching the end of his 10th season at Kingston Park but could stay on in a consultancy role.

Leicester moved closer towards sealing top spot in the Premiership with a 27-5 victory, although the 29th-minute loss of Dolly gave huge cause for concern.

The Sydney-born 22-year-old, who was this week named in a 36-man England squad for a three-day training camp which begins on Sunday, was left badly hurt following a “crocodile roll” by Adam Brocklebank at the breakdown.

The Falcons prop was sent to the sin-bin for the challenge and Dolly, who has enjoyed an outstanding campaign for Steve Borthwick’s side, was replaced by Charlie Clare. Despite Dolly’s worrying loss, the Leicester bandwagon keeps rolling on.

This was a decidedly low-key farewell from Richards, who even took a back seat in overseeing this game, allowing Dave Walder, who will succeed him as director of rugby at the end of the season, to manage the team and fulfil the post-match media duties.

A bumper crowd of 8,015, Newcastle’s biggest home gate since April 2019, turned out in the sunshine, including a large travelling contingent from the club where Richards enjoyed such glorious times.

After a period of incessant Leicester pressure inside Newcastle’s 22-metre line, Nemani Nadolo showed brute force to collect a short pass and display brute force to barrel through the Newcastle defence and over the line.

Leicester had their hosts right where they wanted them and