{"id":486511,"date":"2026-03-20T21:33:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T21:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/486511\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T21:33:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T21:33:10","slug":"full-circle-moment-for-tigers-debutant-hamish-watson-after-tommy-reffell-blow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/486511\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Full circle moment’ for Tigers debutant Hamish Watson after Tommy Reffell blow"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hamish Watson will make his Leicester<\/a> Tigers debut against Bristol<\/a> at Mattioli Woods Welford Road on Sunday after coming straight into the side at openside in place of Tommy Reffell.<\/p>\n

Wales<\/a> international Reffell, who led the Tigers to PREM Cup glory last week, will be out for eight weeks with a throat injury after being struck by a stray boot.<\/p>\n

Watson has only just arrived at the play-off contenders, on a two-month deal, and starts in a side littered with internationals.<\/p>\n

Ollie Chessum returns and will return to lead the team from lock, with former Tigers skipper, Hanro Liebenberg<\/a>, alongside him in the second row.<\/p>\n

In the front row, Tigers have named Wales\u2019 Nicky Smith<\/a> and England\u2019s Joe Heyes<\/a> at prop and Jamie Blamire<\/a> at hooker.<\/p>\n

Pumas<\/a> international Joaquin Moro<\/a> and No.8 Olly Cracknell<\/a>, fresh from his involvement in the Six Nations<\/a> with Wales, join Watson in the back row.<\/p>\n

Tom Whiteley and Billy Searle<\/a> get to continue their burgeoning half-back partnership, which means James O\u2019Connor<\/a> has to be content with a place on the bench again.<\/p>\n

Orlando Bailey and Will Wand<\/a> form the midfield, while Wales winger Gabriel Hamer-Webb<\/a> and England<\/a> discard Ollie Hassell-Collins<\/a> line up on the wings and Freddie Steward<\/a> rounds off the backline at full-back.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re gutted to lose Tommy to a very unfortunate injury where a stray boot has hit his throat meaning that he will be out for around eight weeks,\u201d head coach Geoff Parling<\/a> confirmed.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has been a real pest to the opposition, and we\u2019ll use this time to firstly get him fit and healthy and secondly get him ready and firing for the end of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis also presents an opportunity for Hamish to start and show his quality in a Tigers shirt in a full circle moment after leaving our academy 16 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leicester Tigers team v Bristol Bears (appearances):<\/p>\n

15. Freddie Steward (123)
14. Gabriel Hamer-Webb (10)
13. Will Wand (30)
12. Orlando Bailey<\/a> (19)
11. Ollie Hassell-Collins (66)
10. Billy Searle (18)
9. Tom Whiteley<\/a> (58)<\/p>\n

1. Nicky Smith (37)
2. Jamie Blamire (16)
3. Joe Heyes (174)
4. Hanro Liebenberg<\/a> (143)
5. Ollie Chessum<\/a> \u00a9 (77)
6. Joaquin Moro (20)
7. Hamish Watson<\/a> (0)
8. Olly Cracknell<\/a> (77)<\/p>\n

16. Finn Theobald-Thomas<\/a> (31)
17. Archie van der Flier (17)
18. Will Hurd<\/a> (69)
19. Osian Thomas<\/a> (4)
20. Harry Palmer<\/a> (10)
21. Jack van Poortvliet (104)
22. James O\u2019Connor (8)
23. Izaia Perese<\/a> (24)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hamish Watson will make his Leicester Tigers debut against Bristol at Mattioli Woods Welford Road on Sunday after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-486511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}