Lamb boots Exiles to victory

Ryan Lamb kicked six penalties to secure London Irish a measure of revenge over Leicester as they beat the Guinness Premiership champions 18-12 at the Madejski Stadium.

The victory went some way to helping the Exiles erase the memory of last season's Premiership final defeat to the Tigers at Twickenham.

A scrappy, physical contest never really threatened to scale the heights, but it remained absorbing for most part with Lamb's clinical kicking edging his side home.

Leicester responded with four penalties of their own, three from Jeremy Staunton and one from Tom Youngs, but were unable to find enough penetration to breach the home try-line.

A frenetic start to the contest saw Irish come close to scoring within the opening 30 seconds.

Leicester's forwards were unable to take in Lamb's kick-off and Steffen Armitage charged through to collect the loose ball and burst to within a few feet of the line and only some desperate defending kept the hosts at bay.

The Tigers were then dealt a blow on three minutes as Julian White limped off with an ankle injury. His replacement Martin Castrogiovanni struggled to adapt to the pace of the match and was partly at fault as a Leicester scrum was turned on 11 minutes allowing Lamb his first sight of the posts.

The fly-half's kick proved to be a dreadful one as he screwed well wide from 40 metres and it allowed Leicester the chance to move ahead shortly afterwards as Staunton made no mistake from close range.

But Lamb quickly set the record straight on 19 minutes as Castrogiovanni was again at fault at a scrum and a far crisper strike drew the scores level.

Dynamic

With the game being contested up front for large parts it was the hosts who began to get on top with Armitage very much to the fore and another infringement on the dynamic flanker allowed Lamb to edge Irish ahead on the half hour.

It became 9-3 when a quickly-taken tap penalty from Exiles scrum-half Paul Hodgson eventually led to Jordan Crane being penalised with Lamb effortlessly bisecting the posts.

That was the way of it at the interval, but Leicester flew out of the traps on the restart with Staunton kicking his second penalty just moments into the second period to reduce the gap to three.

But indiscipline from the Tigers regularly undermined their efforts and after failing to release on 46 minutes Lamb once again obliged with the boot.

Staunton and Lamb then traded further penalties to ensure the scoreline was 15-9 heading into the final ten minutes.

Leicester substitute Ben Youngs added urgency and drive for the visitors and the 20-year-old stepped up to slot a penalty from 30 metres to again bring his side within three.

But the unflappable Lamb responded in kind with five minutes left to give his side breathing space and it was a gap the Tigers could not close.

Indeed, some more fine forward-play from Armitage earned the fly-half the chance to deny Leicester a losing bonus-point, but his penalty just faded past the posts and Irish had to settle for what they had.