Five-try Stade Francais beat Leicester to reach European Champions Cup last eight

Fly-half Jules Plisson (with the ball) played a starring role as Stade Francais beat Leicester Tigers in Paris

Stade Francais booked their place in the last eight of the European Champions Cup, as they recovered from a slow start to beat Leicester Tigers 36-21 in Paris.

Needing a bonus-point victory to qualify for the knockout stage of the tournament, the hosts ran in five tries at the Jean Bouin Stadium despite being second best during the early stages in the French capital.

Leicester, who had already secured a quarter-final spot as winners of Pool 4, enjoyed most of the early possession and failed with a long-range Freddie Burns penalty after just three minutes.

And it was the Tigers who deservedly grabbed the lead through Manu Tuilagi, who burst through the home defence in the 19th minute to score under the posts, a try created by Matt Smith.

However, the setback certainly spurred on Stade who responded with a hat-trick of tries in the space of 10 minutes.

First, Jules Plisson nipped over after good work by Jonathan Danty before Waisea Vuidarvuwalu overlapped down the left to finish off a great crossfield move by Stade.

And when prop Rabah Slimani found space to burst under the posts on 33, for the home side's third try, the bonus point was within touching distance for the men in pink.

Locky McCaffrey snatches the ball during the Champions Cup match between Stade Francais and Leicester Tigers

Burns missed another penalty on the stroke of half-time, leaving Stade to reach the break 19-7 ahead.

The fourth and decisive home try arrived 13 minutes into the second half: With Tigers skipper Tom Youngs sin-binned following a clash with Slimani, Raphael Lakafia burst over thanks to some good ball-handling.

The video referee adjudged that Dominic Barrow had just got ball over the line as the visitors secured their second try of the game on 58.

But when Plisson successfully kicked his first penalty of the match - at the second attempt - Stade were 15 points clear with just 11 minutes remaining.

The Tigers reduced the deficit to eight on 76 thanks to a converted try by Harry Tacker.

However, with the final action of the day, Geoffrey Doumayrou took advantage of a misplaced pass before running 60 yards to seal a well-deserved victory for the hosts.

Plisson converted to take his points tally of the afternoon to 16, and send Stade through to the last eight where, ironically, they will again take on Leicester, albeit this time at Welford Road.