Cup round-up: An Italian job fairly well done for Tigers

LEICESTER kicked off their Heineken campaign with a well-earned 12-28 victory over Aironi in Monza but failed to secure what could be a crucial bonus point.

With Clermont Auvergne and Ulster making up the remainder of Pool Four, the two-time European champions would have targeted a maximum-points haul in Italy.

But despite dominating the first half they failed to grab the necessary four tries. Tom Croft, pictured, and Alesana Tuilagi crossed for tries in the rampant first half but Leicester took their foot off the gas following the interval and it was not until the 80th minute that Niall Morris crossed for their third try.

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Leicester surged into a 13-0 lead within 15 minutes thanks to a pair of quick-fire penalties from the boot of England stand-off Toby Flood and a try from Croft. Leicester clinched a second try after 25 minutes when Tuilagi took a short ball off Flood.

Flood’s conversion took the score to 20-0 but Aironi quickly hit back with a penalty from Luciano Orquera. A second Orquera penalty on 33 minutes to bring the scores to 20-6 at the break. Flood kicked another penalty within five minutes of the restart to stretch Leicester’s lead to 23-6. Orquera quickly struck back with his third penalty and following a sustained period of pressure he slotted another on 68 minutes to make it 23-12.

Tuilagi dropped a scoring pass on 72 minutes but the third try came when captain Geordan Murphy later threw a pinpoint miss pass to fellow Irishman Morris.

• DAN Biggar delivered an immaculate goal-kicking display as the Ospreys overcame French heavyweights Biarritz 28-21. Former England wing Iain Balshaw scored two tries for Biarritz, but his opposite number Tommy Bowe’s second-half touchdown – and 23 points from Biggar – ensured a winning start in Pool Five for the Welsh regional side.

Biarritz arrived in Wales needing to put dismal domestic form behind them that had seen go bottom of the Top 14 French championship without their World Cup players. And though they were unable to do quite enough for victory, they had the consolation of leaving west Wales with a losing bonus, which could prove crucial in the final Pool Five shake-up.

• SCARLETS got their Pool One campaign off to an impressive start with a hard-fought three-tries-to-two 31-23 victory over Castres at Parc y Scarlets.

Second-half tries from Sean Lamont, Ben Morgan and Jonathan Davies did the trick, as Stephen Jones also added 13 points with the boot.

Castres’ tries came from Marc Andreu and skipper Chris Masoe with Romain Teulet kicking 13 points.

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Rhys Priestland kicked a last-minute drop-goal to deny the Frenchmen a losing bonus point.

• IN A bad day for the French, Ulster edged a 16-11 win over Clermont-Auvergne in a pulsating Pool Four encounter at Ravenhill, stand-off Ian Humphreys scoring all of Ulster’s points.

After trailing 11-6 at half-time, his converted second-half try put his side in front for the first time.

However, he was pipped to the man of the match award by flanker Stephen Ferris, who played an enormous role in weathering the Clermont storm.

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