Campese stars in Baa-baa defeat of Leicester

Press, 30 December 1988, Page 20

Campese stars in Baa-baa defeat of Leicester

NZPA-AAP London David Campese set up a try and then scored himself for the Barbarians in the fading moments of their 36-19 win over Leicester Rugby Club yesterday to give the crowd what they came to see. Campese, Australia’s most capped back and the world’s leading test try scorer, flew from his Italian club, Milan, as guest left wing for the Barbarians. He had a quiet match generally with some subtle, telling interventions until he de-

cided to pull the Barbarians clear after Leicester had fought back to trail 24-19. Campese made it look so simple as he gathered in midfield, chipped into space, collected the ball on the bounce before feeding Mark Douglas, who put the Frenchman, Franck Mesnel, in for his second try. With the match lost the Leicester loyalists were given the exhibition they had really come for — a try by Campese with the final move of the match.

He was isolated when he collected a pass 40 metres out and he strolled regally over. Campese had been in, volved in three earlier tries, but had seldom had the ball in his hands in an effective position. For Leicester, its backs were closed down by ruthless Barbarian tackling. The Barbarians had lost five of their last seven fixtures — including Australia’s 40-22 win in which Campese scored twice — and were in no mood to be beaten again.

Campese’s tackling efforts yesterday gave the Leicester right wing, Barry Evans, a nightmare afternoon. Evans had the ball in his hands a dozen times, but his progress could be counted in centimetres rather than metres until he scored the late try that gave Leicester a glimmer of hope. Barbarbians 36 (Mesnel 2. Thresher, Hall, Lafond, Calder, Campese tries; Lafond 4 con.) beat Leicester 19 (Kardooni, Evans tries; Hare 1 con., 3 pen.). Crowd: 17,000. fit