Leicester Tigers player ratings as Wiese & Porter pack punch and Ford is a 'manful magician'

Leicester Tigers moved to an eye-rubbing 90 points for the season with a 27-5 away win at Newcastle Falcons.

Yet they still are not guaranteed the Gallagher Premiership's end-of-season top spot as Saracens kept the pressure on, claiming a bonus-point win at home to Northampton Saints to close the gap on Tigers to three.

Tries from Nemani Nadolo, Guy Porter and Freddie Steward plus 12 points from the boot of George Ford kept a spirited Falcons side at bay as they bid to give Tigers legend Dean Richards a perfect send-off in his final home game as director of rugby.

Slightly off colour start for the England full-back who kicked out on full and a carry into contact at the start of the second half saw resulted in a turnover. More teams are simply opting not to kick his way given his dominance in the air, which does have knock-on benefits for Tigers.

Still made metres (102) coming from deep, most notably after Ford’s second penalty. Then he stayed wide and leapt high to slamdunk a fortuitous bounce from Porter’s crossfield kick for his ninth Tigers try.

Closest he would come to a 96th Premiership try was inside the first minute when he burned up the left wing. Unfortunately, arguably the fastest player in the Premiership Adam Radwan hunted him down with a sublime diving tackle. Remained in the game with strong covering work on a Michael Young kick that nearly teed up George McGuigan.

Up against fellow countryman and ex-Jaguares teammate Matias Orlando, Moroni was busy in defence and did well to haul down George McGuigan. Used his feet to hack on a high ball before being replaced with 30 minutes remaining by Scott.

Where do we start? How about his try, yes Newcastle’s defence was stretched but his footwork was sublime.