Tigers finish with a flourish
Leicester Tigers put their defeat to Ulster behind them to finish off their Heineken Cup campaign with a comfortable morale-boosting victory over Italian outfit Aironi at Welford Road.
The former champions, who lifted the trophy in 2001 and 2002, didn’t have it all their own way against the Italian new boys but they dominated the second half and recorded a bonus point victory.
Geordan Murphy, the Tigers skipper and veteran fullback, was one of the Premiership outfit’s four try scorers and crossed for his 25th try in the Heineken Cup against the Italian side.
Aironi, who caused one of the biggest upsets in the history of the tournament when they beat Biarritz in the pool stages last season, lost all of their Pool Four games in the tournament.
It was the Italians who drew first blood in the Midlands when South African flyhalf Naas Olivier landed a 14th-minute penalty to stun the home crowd into silence to give the visitors a 3-0 lead.
The Tigers dominant scrum was soon rewarded when the Aironi pack were penalised in the shadow of their own posts and flyhalf Billy Twelvetrees converted the three points to draw the home side level.
Olivier and Twelvetrees swapped penalties in a closely contested first half to give the Tigers a narrow 9-6 lead over a stubborn Italian side, who made the home side scrap for every point, at half-time.
After the break, the Tigers scored two early tries at the start of the second half by No.8 Thomas Waldrom and fellow flank Ben Woods crashed over to make it 21-6 to the home side.
Murphy then got in on the act to cross for the Tigers’ third try to extend his record and as the club’s record try-scorer in Europe before flyhalf George Ford crossed for the fourth try for the bonus point.
The scorers:
For Leicester:
Tries: Waldrom, Woods, Murphy, Ford
Cons: Twelvetrees, Ford
Pens: Twelvetrees 3
For Aironi:
Pens: Olivier 2
The teams:
Leicester Tigers: 15 Geordan Murphy (captain), 14 Horacio Agulla, 13 Billy Twelvetrees, 12 Anthony Allen, 11 Alesana Tuilagi, 10 Jeremy Staunton, 9 Micky Young, 8 Thomas Waldrom, 7 Ben Woods, 6 Tom Croft, 5 George Skivington, 4 Ed Slater, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 George Chuter, 1 Marcos Ayerza.
Replacements: 16 Jimmy Stevens, 17 Boris Stankovich, 18 Dan Cole, 19 Graham Kitchener, 20 Steve Mafi, 21 Sam Harrison, 22 George Ford, 23 Scott Hamilton.
Aironi: 15 Alberto Benettin, 14 Giiulio Toniolatti, 13 Roberto Quartaroli, 12 Gabriel Pizarro, 11 Giovanbattista Venditti, 10 Naas Olivier, 9 Tito Tebaldi, 8 Josh Sole, 7 Simone Favaro, 6 Mauro Bergamasco, 5 Marco Bortolami, 4 Quintin Geldenhuys, 3 Fabio Staibano, 2 Roberto Santamaria, 1 Alberto de Marchi.
Replacements: 16 Tommaso D’Apice , 17 Salvatore Perugini, 18 Lorenzo Romano, 19 Carlo del Fava, 20 Filippo Ferrarini, 21 Giorgio Bronzini, 22 Gilberto Pavan, 23 Matteo Pratichetti.
Referee: Jérôme Garces (France)
