Ice-cool Jordan Crane is the Leicester Tigers Heineken Cup hero
A former West Brom Academy goalkeeper remained as cool as ice to boot Leicester Tigers into a fifth Heineken Cup final.
No.8 Jordan Crane slotted over the 16th kick of Europe's first penalty shoot-out to book his side's trip to play Leinster in Edinburgh on May 23.
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Jordan Crane
It was the culmination of an astonishing contest against Cardiff which ended 26-26 after extra-time at the Millennium Stadium.
The game's final act came from a man who is more used to saving penalties than kicking them.
"I was at West Brom's Academy as a goalkeeper in the under-14s," said the 22-year-old.
"I had a season there but did not like it and went to play rugby instead – all of my friends were playing rugby too. In an academy, you got only half a game because there was another keeper there. I did not enjoy it and changed sports and have never looked back.
"I was always taking kicks like that being a footballer. I was pretty confident, but some nerves started to kick in when I got up there and I was pleased it went over."
Crane was the eighth Tigers player to take a kick from the 22-metre line right in front of the posts during a dramatic shoot-out.
Johne Murphy's miss seemed to have sealed Leicester's exit from the competition but Tom James missed what would have been the winner.
When Blues flanker Martyn Williams hooked his penalty horribly wide, Crane stepped up against a chorus of boos from the home fans and drilled his kick right down the middle to the delight of the travelling Tigers army.
Crane said it was the right result for a side that had 13 men at one stage and had to lift themselves for extra-time after the Blues had fought back from 26-12 down with seven minutes left to level the scores.
"It was a massive effort from the boys," said Crane."Up to 73 minutes, we thought we had it in the bag. But they came back strongly.
"It's gutting to be 14 points up and then to be looking at extra-time. For all of that effort, we had put in, a loss was staring us in the face.
"We said to ourselves that, if we kept playing, we were in with a shout. We just had to stick in there because they had us on the ropes.
"We played some good stuff in extra-time and the way we bounced back was awesome."
5 Comments
by Peter, Lutterworth
Wednesday, May 06 2009, 8:07AM
“PLeased other people noticed dodgy decisions. Offside at k.o. and a `forgotten` advantage he was playing from 30 metres in front of the posts. 6 points at least he gave the Blues. And the worst bit is he is supposed to be one of the best, heaven help us. Come on RFU et al sort out the standard of refs.”
by george jackson, Thailand
Monday, May 04 2009, 1:35PM
“brillant game were did they get the ref from for such an important game he was dreadfull. Amazing tigers prerformance. fingers crossed for the final”
by toxic, leicester
Monday, May 04 2009, 10:12AM
“art.. same hear he was awful he gave a penalty for a player in front of the kicker at some kick off in the game which should have been a scrum but it was given as a penalty because someone said oh ref (there wasn't any swearing)a penalty which was scored a very harsh decision even Stewart Barns admited it was a poor harsh”
by art, M Harborough
Monday, May 04 2009, 9:45AM
“Alain Roland performance should be review by ref panel as for a game of that importance he was awful.
2 Tigers binned but the nugget committed far worse all game and stayed on.
Just Deserts he missed then !!
Even Sky team were amazed at refs/touch judges decisions that so nearly cost tigers”
by Rich T, Brum
Monday, May 04 2009, 8:46AM
“What a match. Heartbeat still shot to pieces. A performance which makes you very proud and glad to be a Tigers supporter. Well done lads.
No doubt we'll have grumbles from Cardiff about Dupuy's presence in the kick off, but the officials were there to enforce the rules and if they did nothing about it, then so be it.
Ice baths all round and plenty of R+R all round ahead of Saturday. COME ON THE TIGERS.”