Handre Pollard credits ‘tough words’ at half-time for Leicester Tigers’ comeback win over DHL Stormers

Handre Pollard revealed some choice words at half-time from Leicester head coach Dan McKellar inspired the recovery that earned The Tigers a comeback victory over DHL Stormers in the Investec Champions Cup.

The Gallagher Premiership Rugby side trailed 17-10 at half-time, but bounced back in style to secure a 35-26 bonus-point win and top Pool 4, which has been dubbed ‘the pool of death’.

World Cup winner Pollard was instrumental at fly-half, scoring 20 points on his own, but credited McKellar for the much-improved second-half showing at Mattioli Woods Welford Road.

“It wasn’t an ideal first 40 for us; credit to the Stormers though, they brought in a physicality and an intensity that was pretty good and their kicking game was unbelievable first half,” Pollard told TNT Sports.

“They put us under pressure, but we had a good chat at half-time, a few tough words, and luckily we turned it round in the second half.

“Not ideal, not perfect, but we’ll definitely take the win.”

He added: “Dan [McKellar] is not an angry guy, he’s a pretty chilled guy, but to see him revved up was brilliant.

“We just said we’ve got a good plan, we knew our plan was the right plan, we just didn’t execute in the first half. But again, credit to the Stormers, they didn’t allow us to do that.

“Way better in the second half, but a tough night.”

Pollard opened the scoring with a penalty in the sixth minute before his opposite number, Jurie Matthee, quickly levelled for the South African side.

A converted Solomone Kata try put Leicester back in front before scores from Keke Morabe and Courntall Skosan earned an understrength Stormers a half-time lead.

But the Tigers emerged from the break with renewed vigour. A Pollard penalty and second converted Kata try put the Tigers ahead with half an hour remaining, before the hosts prevailed after a tense finale.

Pollard touched down and converted his own score, but the Stormers made it a one-score game with 10 minutes to go thanks to a third Matthee penalty.

But the home side wouldn’t be denied, and Josh Bassett secured the bonus point with a try in the 82nd minute to put Leicester in a great position at the top of Pool 4 ahead of their trip to Stade Francais, who will be looking to bounce back from a bruising defeat to Sale Sharks.

“Of course, they [Stormers] left a few big names at home but they’ve got a lot of depth," Pollard added. "There’s a lot of depth in South African rugby and we felt that tonight, unbelievable effort from them.

“It’s definitely more relief but we’ll enjoy it still. We’ll go back Monday and work hard because we know there’s a big challenge coming for us in Paris next week.”

McKellar corroborated Pollard's version of events at half-time and discussed the motivation behind his rousing rally.

“I don’t do it that often these days and it’s not about yelling and screaming, it’s about understanding we needed to shift in and around attitude and enthusiasm and effort areas,” McKellar said.

“Someone’s going to drop a ball every now and then or throw a bad pass, I can live with that, but I can’t live with being out-enthused. We got some set-piece dominance, we kicked better, it was tough conditions out there.

“I know everyone wants to see us throwing the ball around, and I thought again there were some good moments of really good passages and skill and good play, but we just executed our game plan.

“We managed to put them under pressure with our kicking game, through our defence and through our set-piece. At this time of the year, that’s what’s going to win games.”

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