Tigers tear apart Treviso

Leicester remain on course to qualify for the knockout stages of the Heineken Cup after thrashing poor Treviso 52-0 at Welford Road.

The Tigers showed no mercy on their timid opponents, running in seven tries to make it a perfect 10 outings against Italian opposition in Europe.

In truth a home win looked on the cards even before a ball was kicked with Treviso having left some of their leading lights, including former Wasps centre Fraser Waters, at home.

With a depleted squad they proved no match for a Leicester side that have now scored a combined total of 112 points in their two meetings this season.

Landslide

Leicester's landslide success puts them in pole position to top Pool Three and they head to the Liberty Stadium next weekend needing just a losing bonus point to finish above Ospreys.

They had wrapped up five points by half time, scoring 40 points in a one-sided first period before a raft of substitutions after the break led to a disjointed second half.

Former All Black Scott Hamilton scored two tries in the opening 13 minutes and only a foot in touch denied him a quick-fire hat-trick.

Aaron Mauger also bagged a brace after the hosts had been awarded a penalty try when their pack forced Treviso to prevent the ball from being released on their own line.

The Leicester captain rounded off a flowing move for his first before diving over out wide to score a second, in between winger Matt Smith getting his name on the score sheet.

The interval gave the beleaguered visitors some brief respite before they soon found themselves again on the back foot, Leicester adding to their tally nine minutes into the second period.

Comfortable afternoon

Rookie scrum-half Ben Youngs set up Johnne Murphy and Toby Flood, who enjoyed a comfortable afternoon behind a dominant set of forwards, knocked over his sixth conversion.

The number 10 made way for Derick Hougaard for the final 30 minutes - during which uncontested scrums were ordered after Treviso ran out of specialist front-row forwards.

Murphy notched his second soon after but the Tigers were unable to add to their half-century in the final 25 minutes.

Youngs thought he had touched down only for his effort to be disallowed for crossing while Treviso's tough afternoon was rounded off by the late sin-binning of replacement Marco Filippucci.