Tigers roar to final triumph

Triumph: Leicester Tigers

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Leicester ended a run of three defeats in Twickenham finals with a 10-9 victory over London Irish in the Guinness Premiership final.

The Tigers had lost EDF, Heineken Cup and Guinness finals at Headquarters in recent years, as well as winning just one of the last four Premiership showpieces, in 2007 against Gloucester.

But they just about deserved their victory in what was a far from vintage final, scoring the game's only try with a close-range effort from Jordan Crane.

Irish were bidding to become just the sixth club to win the English title since the league was introduced in 1988 but ultimately paid for three missed penalty kicks in a dour first half.

The Exiles were forced into a late change with James Hudson starting in the second row after Nick Kennedy failed a fitness test on the knee ligament injury he suffered in the semi-final win over Harlequins last weekend.

Leicester, who reached the final after winning nine of their last 10 Premiership fixtures, made just one change with England prop Julian White replacing the injured Martin Castrogiovanni.

London Irish made almost the prfect start within 25 seconds of the kick-off, a poor clearance from Sam Vesty giving Peter Hewat the chance to thump over a drop-goal from all of 45 metres.

But that was probably the highlight of an error-strewn first half, with London Irish on top but missing three penalties and spurning a number of kickable chances in front of the Tigers' posts.

Geordan Murphy did get over the Irish tryline after eight minutes but the score was rightly ruled out for crossing without recourse to the video referee.

Delon Armitage missed a chance to double the Exiles' advantage from 48 metres after Leicester were caught with their hands in the ruck and on 16 minutes Julien Dupuy levelled the scores after Delon Armitage's early tackle on George Chuter.

Break

A couple of minutes later there was a terrific break by Dan Hipkiss and Geordan Murphy down the right and Irish deliberately slowed down the ruck, only for Dupuy to miss the penalty.

Paul Hodgson's quick tap penalty and speedy break caught Leicester ofside in front of their own sticks for the next penalty chance, but this time Hewat hit the post in what was the worst miss of the match.

Armitage missed from 49 metres on 32 minutes but Irish spent the last part of the half hammering away at Leicester's line. Three times they ignored almost certain three-point opportunites to take a scrum, but all they had to show for their dominance at half-time was a yellow card for Crane, the latest and final transgressor in Leicester's increasingly desperate defence.

Down to 14 men for the opening 10 minutes after the break, the Tigers were again forced to defend and this time Irish did get points on the board, Armitage landing a kick from 46 metres after Sam Vesty came over the top.

At this point Leicester finally began to look like a team that had lost just once in their last 12 games, particularly in terms of retaining possession.

Reward

They got their reward just past the hour mark, a brilliant Lewis Moody pass opening up the game before Crane reached over from close range to slam the ball down on the tryline, Dupuy knocking over the conversion for a 10-6 lead.

A loose pass from Hamilton gifted Irish possession on the Leicester 22 but again the Tigers defence held firm for seven phases, before Mike Catt knocked on.

With less than nine minutes remaining Leicester's usually dominant scrum was penalised and Armitage kicked a penalty from the half-way line to get the Exiles to within a point.

But there was to be no late twist and not even a scare, as table-toppers Leicester closed out the first leg of what they will hope will be a Premiership-Heineken Cup double.