{"id":703153,"date":"2026-01-18T00:15:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T00:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/703153\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T00:15:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T00:15:17","slug":"george-pearson-stars-weak-bench-punished","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/703153\/","title":{"rendered":"George Pearson stars, weak bench punished"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following a 39-26 defeat to the Stormers in the Investec Champions Cup clash at DHL Stadium on Saturday, here are the player ratings for Leicester Tigers.<\/b><\/p>\n

Leicester ratings v Stormers<\/p>\n

15 George Pearson:<\/b> Almost like Freddie Steward with a bit more pace, the Tigers have found a real talent in the shape of the teenager. Pearson took a superb line for his try and was mostly commanding in the air, using his 6ft 3in frame to great effect. 7<\/b><\/p>\n

14 Gabe Hamer-Webb:<\/b> With Adam Radwan out for a lengthy period, the former Bath speedster will need to come to the fore. After an excellent shift against Bayonne, Hamer-Webb put in another good display here and was threatening with ball in hand. 7<\/b><\/p>\n

13 Will Wand:<\/b> The centre has proven to be a shrewd piece of recruitment, having developed superbly since joining from Coventry. Wand has had a stellar season and he was once again impressive on Saturday, scoring a lovely try and impacting matters on both attack and defence. 7<\/b><\/p>\n

12 Joe Woodward:<\/b> A nice foil to Wand, his centre partner is a smart operator and showed those qualities in Cape Town. Woodward distributed nicely and did his core duties well. 6<\/b><\/p>\n

11 Ollie Hassell-Collins:<\/b> Didn\u2019t have too many opportunities to stretch his legs with the Stormers<\/a> marshalling him well. Bumped off a couple of defenders but Hassell-Collins was not quite as effective as usual. 5<\/b><\/p>\n

10 Billy Searle:<\/b> Another magnificent signing for Leicester<\/a> who has arguably been their player of the season. Somehow missed a penalty from in front of the posts, but Searle was otherwise excellent. 7<\/b><\/p>\n

9 Tom Whiteley:<\/b> A mixed performance from the scrum-half. At times, he couldn\u2019t quite put the pressure on with his box-kicking, which was too long on occasions, while the Stormers pressurised him at the breakdown. 5<\/b><\/p>\n

Stormers player ratings: \u2018Serial\u2019 Man of the Match shines as Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu struggles before bench \u2018saves\u2019 the day<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Forwards<\/p>\n

8 Olly Cracknell (c):<\/b> The Welsh back-rower put in a huge shift, which is rather customary. Some big impacts on both sides of the ball as he did his best to quell the powerful Stormers pack. It was a fun battle between him and Evan Roos. 7<\/b><\/p>\n

7 Sam Williams:<\/b> The flanker is a youngster making his mark this season and he didn\u2019t disgrace himself here. Should have listened to the referee when competing at the breakdown, leading to a needless penalty, but Williams was in the thick of the action before being taken off. 6<\/b><\/p>\n

6 Joaquin Moro:<\/b> Very busy in the first half, showing his mobility in the loose to be one of Leicester\u2019s most prominent carriers, but he faded in the second period. 6<\/b><\/p>\n

Bath player ratings v Edinburgh: \u2018Barnstorming\u2019 Barbeary makes statement to Steve Borthwick while England hopeful shines<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

5 Harry Wells:<\/b> Never lets the Tigers down and he was an important cog in the set-piece, despite the odd lineout issues. Wells was busy but the hosts\u2019 physicality told in the second period. 6<\/b><\/p>\n

4 James Thompson:<\/b> Only lasted half-an-hour but, when he was on the field, Thompson was solid but no more than that. 5<\/b><\/p>\n

3 Will Hurd:<\/b> Was yellow-carded for a high shot but managed to convince the referee, for the most part, that he wasn\u2019t infringing at the scrum. 5<\/b><\/p>\n

2 Jamie Blamire:<\/b> Was busy throughout but just made too many errors and was a bit of a turnstile in defence, missing five tackles. Also had some lineout problems. 4<\/b><\/p>\n

1 Tarek Haffar:<\/b> Similar to Blamire, Haffar missed some tackles on defence, but he was a more effective in the loose, particularly with his carrying. The scrum also changed when he and Hurd went off. 5<\/b><\/p>\n

Replacements:<\/b> The match went away from Leicester when the replacement front-row came on as the hosts marched them backwards with regularity. Tom Manz scored a try and Emeka Ilione tried his best to get the Tigers going, but Leicester struggled due to their second-half set-piece issues with Springbok rookie Zach Porthen doing a job at tighthead. 3<\/b><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Sharks player ratings: Bench hit \u2018perfect ten\u2019 while \u2018boogie man\u2019 gives \u2018superb\u2019 showing<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following a 39-26 defeat to the Stormers in the Investec Champions Cup clash at DHL Stadium on Saturday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[2383,126,225,20795,12,4151,79,19911,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-703153","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-champions-cup","9":"tag-features","10":"tag-home-page","11":"tag-leicester-tigers","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-rugby","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-stormers","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115913223389303513","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}