Leicester picked up maximum points against Treviso on Sunday as they won 33-25 at Welford Road to remain just three points off leaders Toulouse.
Richard Cockerill's men headed into the match on the back of some indifferent form, though they'd drawn great confidence from their win over Bath.
Treviso had been buoyed by their victory against Dragons, and the visitors played their part in what was an entertaining contest in the East Midlands.
The first points of the game weren't scored until the sixteenth minute, when Tigers were awarded a penalty try after driving the scrum over the line.
George Ford's conversion made it 7-0 and less than ten minutes later the Tigers were over for their second, after Geoff Parling's opportunistic ball steal created the opportunity for Manu Tuilagi.
This time the conversion was missed, but Ford was on target to convert Leicester's third try on the half-hour, scored by Julian Salvi from the ruck.
Dean Budd pulled a try back for Treviso less than five minutes later, which Alberto Di Bernardo converted, but Salvi's second in ten minutes, again converted by Ford, just shy of half-time gave the Tigers a healthy cushion.
Treviso struck first following the restart through Lorenzo Cittadini's try, converted by Di Bernardo, but that was as close as the Italians got to scoring an upset.
Matt Smith's try on 55 minutes, converted by Ford, and scored after Treviso's Simone Favaro had been dispatched to the sin-bin, put nineteen points between the two teams, and, though Treviso narrowed the arrears with an unconverted try from Christian Loamanu and a further penalty from Di Bernardo, the Tigers emerged as worthy winners.
The scorers:
For Leicester:
Tries: Penalty, Tuilagi, Salvi 2
Con: Ford 4
For Treviso:
Tries: Budd, Cittadini, Loamanu
Con: Di Bernardo 2
Pen: Di Bernardo 2
Leicester: 15 Mathew Tait, 14 Scott Hamilton, 13 Manusamoa Tuilagi, 12 Dan Bowden, 11 Vereniki Goneva, 10 George Ford, 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Thomas Waldrom, 7 Julian Salvi, 6 Ed Slater, 5 Geoff Parling (c), 4 Graham Kitchener, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 Tom Youngs, 1 Marcos Ayerza.
Replacements: 16 Rob Hawkins, 17 Logovi'i Mulipola, 18 Dan Cole, 19 Jordan Crane, 20 Richard Thorpe, 21 Micky Young, 22 Geordan Murphy, 23 Matt Smith.
Treviso: 15 Luke McLean, 14 Christian Loamanu, 13 Tommaso Benvenuti, 12 Luca Morisi, 11 Ludovico Nitoglia, 10 James Ambrosini, 9 Edoardo Gori, 8 Manoa Vosawai, 7 Dean Budd, 6 Simone Favaro, 5 Valerio Bernabò, 4 Antonio Pavanello (c), 3 Ignacio Fernandez Rouyet 2 Franco Sbaraglini, 1 Alberto De Marchi.
Replacements: 16 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 17 Michele Rizzo, 18 Lorenzo Cittadini, 19 Cornelius Van Zyl, 20 Francesco Minto, 21 Paul Derbyshire, 22 Fabio Semenzato, 23 Alberto Di Bernardo.
Referee: Pascal Gauzere (France)
Assistant referees: Laurent Cardona (France), Stephan Pomarède (France)
Television match official: Gilles Cogne (France)
Timekeeper: David Hudson (England)
Comments
carpelone says...
Not that Gauzere is any better than Clancy.
Posted 13:10 10th December 2012
lawynd says...
As a Leicester fan I was frustrated with the second-half performance, but as a rugby fan it was a very entertaining game; gone are the days of Treviso being complete pushovers. I expect an even tighter game next weekend, where Leicester really do have to go for another bonus point win. Spot on about the officiating carpelone, I'm still curious to know what was said to Clancy by the TMO that he couldn't use for the first Salvi try.
Posted 11:54 10th December 2012
carpelone says...
The referee was the clueless Clancy.
Leicester were gifted of a couple of tries (both tries from Salvi were quite suspicious) and the try from Tuilagi was lucky at best. Treviso too (Budd's foot was on the touchline, while there were no evidence that Loamanu touched the tryline). In the process, a good try from Gori was not allowed.
Overall the contest was good, and I noticed some animosity against Castro from Cittadini and Favaro. That's going to be interesting.
Pity that the game was on ice for Leicester a bit too early, the last quarter was quite enjoyable.
Posted 17:59 09th December 2012
Lucasrg says...
Good game as I expected. Sadly no much action from young Amorosini. Di Bernardo impact was very good. Overall a good performance from Treviso, too bad not even 1 point bonus :(
Leiceter defence in the first half was really good, ging Treviso no chance to advance.
Next week is going to be intense!
Posted 17:03 09th December 2012