Tuilagi spurs Tigers win

Two tries from Alesana Tuilagi helped Leicester to a 28-15 victory against Saracens.

A try in both halves from Alesana Tuilagi spurred Leicester to a 28-15 Guinness Premiership victory against Saracens at Welford Road.

After going behind to an early Kevin Yates try, scores from Tuilagi, Ben Kay and a penalty try were sufficient for the Tigers to scoop a bonus-point win in the top four clash.

Only Kay, Tuilagi and Geordan Murphy remained from the Leicester side which lost to London Irish, with Yates, Richard Hill, Andy Farrell, Iain Fullarton and Thomas Castaignede all back in the Sarries line-up.

And, despite entering the match on a run of four wins from five matches, the visitors were pegged back early against the Tigers.

Leicester should have gone ahead after seven minutes when fly-half Ian Humphreys was wide of the mark with a penalty attempt.

But - and against the run of play - it was Saracens who took the lead. With Tim Taylor's grubber kick resulting in a line-out 10 metres from the Leicester line, a series of drives then forced Yates over.

Castaignede missed the conversion, with the Tigers levelling on 24 minutes when Tuilagi took a pass from scrum-half Scott Bemand before sprinting 20 metres to score without being challenged.

Humphreys' conversion edged the home side into the lead, but a penalty just past the half hour from Farrell once more gave Saracens the advantage.

However the tide turned once more in first-half injury time when a driving maul put Kay over, with Humphreys converting.

Leicester moved further into the ascendancy seven minutes into the second half when, with Saracens having fumbled the ball, Humphreys booted it forward and Tuilagi applied the finishing touch.

Another Humphreys conversion made the score 21-8 but Saracens sensed the chance of a comeback in the 53rd minute when Census Johnson touched down for a try converted by Farrell.

However, that chance faded when Yates was sin-binned for a number of infringements, with a subsequent number of collapsed scrums allowing Leicester the penalty try.

Bonus point in the bag, Humphreys again converted to seal victory for the Tigers.