MUCH more of this and Leicester will have to replace their nickname of Tigers with Lazarus. Their Heineken Cup campaign was almost derailed in Wales before Christmas and yesterday they looked down and out before an explosion of 17 points in eight minutes took them past Stade Français.
It was a magnificent conclusion to a game between clubs who know each other too well. The first hour would have graced a fencing match, David Skrela’s goal-kicking holding up better than Andy Goode’s, but an interception try by Mirco Bergamasco lit the fire for the finale in which Leicester called upon cussedness and skill to grasp the win that seemed to be slipping away.
Geordan Murphy had a hand in both the tries that swept the rug from beneath Stade’s feet. He collected a cross-kick from Goode before sending Louis Deacon galloping majestically to the line and then delivered the scoring pass for Dan Hipkiss, whose try beat the Ospreys in Swansea last month.
Leicester have yet to qualify for Europe’s knockout phase but need one point from Friday’s final pool game away to Clermont Auvergne, who cannot qualify. In stark contrast, Stade, one of the aristocrats of Europe who have beaten Leicester in their past three meetings, must take all five points from their home game with the Ospreys and rely on their confrères in Clermont-Ferrand to defeat Leicester if they are to go through as pool winners.
The quality of yesterday’s opposition led Pat Howard, Leicester’s coach, to describe it as a “fabulous” victory. “There’s still one more week of this pool to go and Stade are one of the sides who can win the competition so, against that type of opposition, it’s fantastic,” he said.
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Had Leicester scored a try from either of their two long-range breakouts in the first half (they even worked Ollie Smith over but he was recalled for a forward pass), the nature of the game might have changed but it became a kicking contest and a battle at the breakdown.
Such games develop a momentum of their own, Leicester nudging ahead initially before being pegged back, through their own indiscretions and inaccuracy, by a mixture of penalty and dropped goals. Along the way they also lost the influential Shane Jennings, the Irish flanker who passed a late fitness test on his shoulder but did not survive until half-time after a repetition of the injury.
The game also became the stuff of Goode’s worst nightmares as the fly half missed three penalties in rapid success, could not find the touchlines and contributed towards Ignacio Corleto’s 50-metre dropped goal by mis-hitting his clearance. He was not the only offender: Leicester’s lineout struggled in the opening quarter but their scrum compensated by squeezing the Stade front five until they buckled.
They did not receive the reward their efforts merited and gradually the initiative shifted to the French club, though they seldom threatened the Leicester try line. That changed when Leicester attacked behind a scrum on halfway and Goode’s flat pass went straight to Bergamasco, the Italian finding no one in front of him as he sprinted in from 50 metres.
As Leicester gathered for the conversion that opened a ten-point gap, the younger players such as Hipkiss gathered strength from the calm of such individuals as Martin Corry and Ben Kay, who have been in many tight corners before. From the restart, Leicester swept into an attack that continued for the rest of the match.
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Wonderfully though the likes of Rémy Martin defended, Stade could not live with the pace Leicester exerted. Goode stole back three of the points with his fifth penalty and Harry Ellis, now at scrum half after replacing Austin Healey, found a stream of forwards eager to smash holes in the defence.
Goode fired a kick off the outside of his boot to the left, Murphy read it perfectly and, reaching the Stade 22, gave Deacon, the England lock, a high-stepping run to the line. The conversion, from wide out, levelled the scores but, with five minutes remaining, it was not enough. Hipkiss spurned one possible scoring chance by turning away from Sam Vesty in support but the forwards drove to the right before Goode fired a long miss-pass to Murphy and Hipkiss, looping round his wing, found the defence had, finally, been exhausted.
SCORERS: Leicester: Tries: Deacon (74min), Hipkiss (79). Conversions: Goode 2. Penalty goals: Goode 5 (10, 23, 33, 59, 71). Stade Français: Try: Bergamasco (62). Conversion: Skrela. Penalty goals: Skrela 3 (29, 36, 40+5). Dropped goals: Hernandez (31), Corleto (57).
SCORING SEQUENCE (Leicester first): 3-0, 6-0, 6-3, 6-6, 9-6, 9-9, 9-12 (half-time), 9-15, 12-15, 12-22, 15-22, 22-22, 29-22.
LEICESTER: S Vesty; L Lloyd (rep: T Varndell, 36), O Smith, D Hipkiss, G Murphy; A Goode, A Healey (rep: H Ellis, 53); G Rowntree, G Chuter, J White, L Deacon (rep: L Cullen, 75), B Kay, W Johnson, S Jennings (rep: L Abraham, 40+1), M Corry.
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STADE FRANÇAIS: I Corleto; L Borges (rep: M Bergamasco, 17), J-M Hernandez, D Skrela, C Dominici; A Penaud, J Fillol; S Marconnet, D Szarzewski, P de Villiers, D Auradou, M James (rep: A Marchois, 80), S Parisse, R Martin (rep: P Rabadan, 80), S Sowerby.
Referee: A Lewis (Ireland).
Attendance: 16,800.